Dear Diary,
It was a fun night as always at the Green Dragon last night. It's kind of like having everything that the Shire is condensed into one place, the good and the bad.
The good is everyone is welcome, rich and poor, locals and outsiders, even people like me who ran away to Bree then come back. Everyone has fun, forgets their woes, has a sing and a dance and a drink and a smoke and generally lets us all know we have a place in this world if we want it.
The not so good is how everyone is so inward thinking. I mean that Ponso comes home from travels to who knows where and all anyone's interested in is what flavour pie he wants to eat first now he's back. I'd like to hear where he's been, compare notes. Maybe (Ifo forgive me) see if the lad might be amenable to company next time he goes off adventuring.
The other thing is the songs, Miss Lina sung one that had a verse was basically about how if there's hobbits out there tell you bad times are coming, tell them to forget all their worries and just have a biscuit. People are more concerned about if yellow or orange is the colour this spring than anything else (they are both wrong by the way, I'm thinking of wearing pink come March).
I suppose it's because I've seen for myself what's out of bounds. The Shire is not the only beautiful place left in the world and it'd be a tragedy if it were to become so. There's rumours of war in the mountains, the forests and the plains, both to East and to South. More than that I've seen orcs and bad men with my own eyes, and closer to the Shire than I am comfortable with. Any visitor to Bree can see the kind of people been coming up the Greenway, and those are the ones on our side mind you. Those they are running from is worse.
It's said that the Bullroarer fought off a goblin invasion and even rumoured by some that we sent archers to aid the King one time. Maybe we should be thinking about doing the same again. I won't say a word against the bounders but maybe it's time we had more of them, a lot more. Maybe we should be getting blades and bows back out of the Mathom house too and not just clubs. I'd put the feather in my cap myself but I don't want to be constrained by the bounds of the Shire, I will do what I can when I can but as to the where, I'll do it where I choose thank you.
Meantime, I just kept my mouth shut. I shouldn't have but I did. It's a comforting vision that view of the world you get in the Green Dragon, and I am too much of a coward to be the one that bursts it.
Not yet anyway
