The almanac

Each season · each season's first morning

First Bowl Morning: every Beast on the avenue eats a bowl from the Forever Pot as if it were their first, and says the name of whoever served their real one.

Weekly · every Saturday

Barrow Morning: the Grove's barrows set down on Barrow Lane and the cooks choose. Nobody counts, on either side.

Weekly · every Sunday

Sunday Roast: roast at the Long Table, as since the Grey Year. The board is chalked by the door, the roast starts when Hilde carves, and business waits for pudding.

Each season · one Sunday a season, picked by the cooks and announced at pudding

Wrong Way Round: the hosts cook and the cooks host. The cooks seat Beasts by what they ordered. The hosts make toast.

Yearly · midsummer

The Long Lunch: one lunch, noon to dark. Every Beasthood's cooks bring a dish.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

The Stew Turn: the summer carts fold, the stew pots come down, and every kitchen's first winter stew goes to the Grove's Harvest Supper as a guest.

Yearly · the last night of the year

The Last Ladle: every Beasthood's cooks pour a ladle of their own stock into the Forever Pot, so the new year's first bowl has some of everyone.

Each season · each season's first morning

First Shake: every desk's first handshake of the season is made on the Kerb, with a Beast from another Beasthood. Uptown does it with collars buttoned, and does it.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

The White Board: Marisol paints the six deal boards white. The day's first Word goes at the top. This year the Glass Lobby's vote falls on the same day.

every day of December

Tiny Promises: Bullhattan makes tiny Words ("I'll hold the lift Thursday"), so every Beast has an easy one to keep.

Yearly · the last night of the year

Open Hands: Augustin reads out every Word shaken that year and still open. Both shakers stand and say how they'll keep it.

Weekly · every Thursday

Pitch Night: pitches pinned on the Mezzanine rail at dusk; tower desks walk the rail; matched pairs go down to the bell.

Weekly · every Saturday

Saturday Lots: Casimir Pell auctions on the Kerb, and the lot goes to the Word the seller likes best.

Yearly · midsummer

Lift Day: every lift in Bullhattan carries any Beast of any Beasthood to any floor open that day.

Each season · each season's first morning

The Season Count: One count for the whole street, and every Beast shouts their own small call on "one", all at once. No single call can be heard, which is the point. Then doubles for everyone.

every Friday night, the week's end

Miss Night: A caller stands up at the Landing and tells their miss. The best-told gets its sign turned face-out in Neon Yard, which outranks coming off. Rafa Quintero has won four times and is suspected of missing on purpose.

Each season · the last night of each season

The Sign Swap: Any Beast may hang one of their signs on a friend's hook for the night, so the Yard reads as who backs whom. Face-in moves face-in. An empty hook is left alone; it is waiting for its own.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

The Frost Cheer: The Way's settling morning. A challenge for the mic waits for it and is decided by cheer. With nothing to settle, the Way cheers anyway, to see its breath. This year it carries the cheer for the mic, and how that goes belongs to the day.

Yearly · the first Sunday of winter

Sugar Sunday: Sugar Row spins the winter's first cones, free to any Beast who called that week, came off or wiped.

Yearly · midsummer

Topping Out: The Hoist finishes the year's rooms, and the Way climbs the Dare Stack to watch the sun come up, then agrees it was a very long countdown.

Yearly · the last night of the year

The Blink: The Glow Board goes dark for one count. The Way looks at the stars, says they're very slow, and cheers when the board comes back.

Each season · each season's first morning

Patch Morning: Every Beast fixes one thing that belongs to someone else, asking first, and hands it back saying "patched". An unasked fix goes back unfixed.

Moon · the first new moon of autumn

Break-In Night: Each crew sets a box on the Stack Row steps, and every other crew tries to get in before dawn. Nothing is taken; each box holds only its builder's handle. A finder names the hole to the builder first, then to the Hole Board: the Loose Hinge, the Polite Latch, Wednesday.

Weekly · every Thursday

The Drop: At noon by the Node clock the hatch opens, one part to a Beast. WAGMI Way comes over to dare its own, and mostly loses to an Alley Beast who wasn't trying.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

The Cold Check: The Alley climbs the Node mast in turns and reads the roofs. Frost lies white on everything but the warm stacks, which show as dark squares: the one morning the street draws its own map. Any stack that disagrees with the crews' map gets a visit.

Yearly · the first Sunday of spring

Open Box: The Tumblers open to every Beasthood. Alley Beasts stand at the back with tea and offer no help at all, which is the hospitality.

Yearly · midsummer

The Avenue Run: Bots race from the Copper Post to the Beastro's door. Most stop at the first kerb. A bot that arrives gets a bowl of soup, which its builder eats for it, with ceremony.

Yearly · the last night of the year

Nothing Night: The Watch crews sit up in the Loft, and anyone may join, watching every screen for a thing that moves and takes nothing. At dawn the captain writes "nothing moved", and Stack Row cheers.

Weekly · every Wednesday

Wrong Wednesday: Any Labs Beast may stand on a Cafeteria chair and confess the week's best mistake. The winner takes the Mug, a beaker with its handle glued on upside down, for a week.

Each season · each season's first morning

First Reading: The Labs reads the board aloud from the steps at dawn, oldest Proof first, one voice to a line, so every Beast who walked in that season hears what holds. The newest Beast present reads the newest line.

Yearly · the first Monday of spring

Return Day: Every lent instrument comes home for checking. Champions Court returns its stopwatch and borrows it back that afternoon, for the Moved Lap.

the first Saturday of every month

Small Saturday: Small Questions hold a fair in the Cafeteria, a finding to a table, none of it needed. The best wins a thimble, kept beside the Mug.

Yearly · the night before midsummer

The Big Overnight: Every bench is lit till dawn, and every crew builds one thing for another Beasthood. At breakfast it goes down the avenue with its card. About half work; the neighbours keep the rest anyway.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

The Frost Reading: Thermometers go out along the Glass Walk to the Plumb Post overnight. At dawn the Labs writes the frost's first minute on a card, copied to the Meadows for the knots, to Fort Flex for the Boot, and to the estates, who did not ask.

Yearly · the last night of the year

Clean Slate: At midnight every whiteboard is wiped, except boards where an argument is still running, which get the date in the corner and stay. Most stay.

Each season · each season's first morning

The First Take: Every Beast walks the Carpet once, in whatever they woke up in, in one take, lit from the left. They run uncut on the Wall all day.

Weekly · every Monday

The Feud Breakfast: The two rivals the First Reel cut out of the year argue it at the same Noodle Row table. The Studio listens. No cameras, by both rivals' wish.

Yearly · the first Sunday of spring

Chair Sunday: Mirror Row opens every chair to every Beasthood, Big Hair and Natural on alternate chairs, and the tips board is wiped so the day's thanks can fill it.

Yearly · midsummer

Clip Night: The Clip Wall's makers show the year's best on the big screen. Each editor from the Bay must say "hold that" to one clip they would have cut.

Moon · the first full moon of autumn

Lamp Check: All twelve rigs light the Carpet at once, to prove every lamp before winter. This autumn the Rig Yard ran it with one, and the street applauded the one.

the seven nights before the first frost

Trailer Week: Trailer crews sell premiere night along the avenue, a new teaser nightly, never a frame of the Reel.

Yearly · the night of the first frost (19 November)

Premiere Night: The Reel premieres on the Carpet. Everyone comes, resenting it, with the Up-Towns on their roof and the editors in the back row. The roar settles the dress code. This year the Studio's Quiet Week vote falls on the same night.

Each season · each season's first morning

The Read-Through: the Odeon sits in the Grand Stage in coats while the Garret reads the season's new play aloud, every part. Nobody acts. Improv heckles the stage directions.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

The Bill at Dawn: the Thin Bill is read from the stage, each part and then the real name of the player it nearly took, and the house says each name back. Then everyone goes back to bed; the Odeon does one dawn a season.

the last Thursday of every month

Heckle Night: the audience takes the Trapdoor's stage and the comics heckle from the stools. The audience is worse than it thought, and better than the comics.

the first warm Friday of spring

First Pictures: the Starlight Roof opens with the winter's pictures, and the roof shouts the lines the actors mouthed. Studio 66 sends a rig to film the audience. The Roof sends back a deckchair.

Yearly · midsummer

Turnabout Night: Script makes a show up, Improv plays one from the book, the Blacks act and the actors move the scenery. The funniest night of the year, and the worst-built.

the last night of every run

The Strike: the Blacks take the set down while the cast applauds every flat from the seats. The crew bows once, to the empty stage.

Yearly · the last night of the year

The Long Bow: every Beast who played anything that year, a lead or a tree, bows once in their own clothes while the house calls their real name.

Each season · each season's first morning

The Tuning: Godric Velde strikes the street's tuning fork on the Frequency's steps at dawn and every instrument tunes to it. Every Beast hears a sound their own way, so it takes all morning, until someone says "near enough".

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

Frost Roofs: cold air carries sound, so the street plays the dawn from its roofs. Walkers on the old road hear it three Beasthoods away, and every street voting that day gets a tune to argue to.

Weekly · every Wednesday

Step Night: Calla Albery calls the Open Step's acts from memory, one song each.

Weekly · every Saturday

Echo Night: the Hollow's sing-it-back. A singer on the bottom step sings a line of any song the street knows, and eleven steps sing it back. The worse the singer, the louder the steps.

Moon · every new moon

The Pour: MoBA's Long Pour casts at night, and Beat Street brings a drum to play the bronze in.

Yearly · midsummer

The Long Set: the Spindle's selectors play dusk to dawn, one set each. The set the room calls "from the top" is played again at sunrise, and then let go, which is the rule.

Yearly · the last night of the year

All Rooms: every studio door propped open, every band playing at once, and the street walking slowly through the noise, cocoa in hand.

Each season · each season's first morning

Critique Hall's Turn: every lamp in MoBA goes off for one minute, as it has since the Goths hung the first show in the Candle Room by a single candle. Then the Hall gives the Main Gallery for the season.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

The Frost Firing: all eight chambers of the Climbing Kiln are lit, and every Beast in MoBA puts one pot in. For three days anyone cold may sit against the Kiln Yard's wall. The Hall's two nights in the Main Gallery fall the week after.

Moon · every new moon

The Pour: the Long Pour casts at night, and Beat Street brings a drum to play the bronze in.

Each season · the last day of each season

Skin Day: seven new pieces go up on the Rotating Skin, chosen by seven passers from other Beasthoods (section 15).

Yearly · the first Monday of autumn

Ground Day: the Ground takes its pupils, mostly newcomers. Each primes one canvas and signs the back before anything is on the front.

Moon · the first full moon of spring

Doors Night: every studio door stands open from dusk to dawn. It is rude to ask what a piece means and polite to say what you saw.

Yearly · midsummer

Evens Day: the Even Shelf is carried onto the avenue, and the Beastside trades a thing it made for a thing MoBA made. Fort Flex comes to watch, and mutters.

Weekly · every Monday

The Board Turn: At dawn Cass Ilori reads last week's Next Board aloud. Posts that came true get a chalk ring and a line in the Called-It Book. Scouts who missed bake the pot cake.

Weekly · every Wednesday night

The Move: Honor wheels the Rotation to its next spot. Thursday's sleeves carry the first clue, and every hunter reads theirs at the Pour-Over Counter at the same moment.

Each season · each season's first morning

The Season Look: The Line runs twice its length, every Beast in the season's first new find. The scout with the most rings walks last.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

Frost Sleeves: Cortado goes hot for winter. Every regular's order is written in white on their own cup until spring, and Old Guard and New Wave clap the first hot cup in together. This year the Marble Counter's answer to the ridge comes the same morning.

Yearly · the first Sunday of spring

Chair Day: New chairs arrive from every Beasthood. Each maker sits in their own chair first while Osric burns the name.

Moon · the first full moon of spring

Crate Night: Beat Street's diggers bring a crate each to the Dig and play every record through, one side at a time, and walk every one home at dawn. Quill chalks the order they went in.

Yearly · midsummer

The Long Line: Dawn to noon, every Beast in something from the Rotation. Studio 66 sends someone to take notes.

Yearly · the last night of the year

The Last Sleeve: Ferris prints the year's every clue on one long sleeve and wraps it round the Marble Counter. The Rotation stays open all night, and any Beast who never found it is walked there by one who did.

every evening at sunset

The Turn-In: Every chair turns to face the middle, and the ridge watches the last light climb the Darkroom wall. When it leaves the top, the nearest host says "lit", and the first window goes on. The sun sets behind the Lookout, where the ridge likes it.

Weekly · every Friday night

Open Terraces: A lamp in the fan, the round window over a door, means that terrace is open. Come up without knocking; a guest from below may climb if they can name the window. Bring a record, a pale cake, or a coat that needs an opinion.

Each season · each season's first morning

The Long Downhill: The whole ridge walks down at dawn in the season's first new fits and joins Cortado's queue for the Season Look, which is why it runs twice its length.

the first clear noon of spring

The Frame: Every Beast stands on their terrace facing the middle while Yuki tries for one photograph of the whole ridge. Somebody always blinks, and is cheered.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

Collar Up: The ridge goes into winter coats, and no Beast turns up their own collar: the friend who made the coat does it. A Beast with no friend on the ridge yet has theirs turned by the doorkeeper. This year the ridge votes at midnight that night, and Cortado's answer comes that morning.

Yearly · midsummer

The Shortest Night: The Long Terrace dances from the Turn-In to dawn, the two hosts taking turns, and the ridge walks the dawn down to Cortado.

Yearly · the last night of the year

Every Window: Every fan lit. At midnight both hosts play the same record at once, out loud, and spend the next week arguing whose it was.

Each season · each season's first morning

The Turnover: Every Flex Beast brings one thing kept since the last Turnover to the roofs, tells it first, and swaps it. Newcomers tell someone else's thing and are corrected, warmly, by its owner.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

The Frost Chalk: The Morning Swap's one vote of the year. Every Flex Beast chalks one mark on the panel beside the Tally Wall, and the chalker counts aloud. This year the question is the Boot.

the first dry morning of spring

The Spring Wash: The Tally Wall is washed down to the brick while the Swap watches, and every open line is chalked again within the hour.

Yearly · midsummer

The Long Nap: The one afternoon the Flex sleeps properly, garages down, roofs empty. Bullhattan sends a runner to check the Flex is still there.

the last Saturday of every month

The Odd Lift: The Hoist lifts the month's oddest swapped thing while the Swap watches. A bathtub, a bell, once a bandstand roof.

Yearly · the last night of the year

The Long Chair: Clippers Row keeps its chairs on the kerb all night, a cut for anyone who sits. The year's best story told in a chair wins first chair in spring.

Each season · each season's first morning

Clean Wall: every pitch on the Pitch Wall is read out once more with its verdict, and the wall is scrubbed bare. The first new pin goes to whoever reached the Intake last.

every Friday at dusk

Hearsay Hour: the week's rumours read out, with how far each got.

Yearly · the first Sunday of spring

The Pitch Fair: every Beasthood brings its best too-good offer to be taken apart in public. Any pitch that survives the last pin gets a shirt: HELD UP.

Yearly · midsummer

Bridge Day: every Beast crosses the whole Jungle without touching the ground. The free-runners race the long way round; the bridge-wrights follow, retying.

Yearly · once a year; this year the eve of first frost (18 November)

Correction Day: each station reads out, on air, everything it got wrong. Back Channel's list takes the afternoon, held up card by card by Sabine on the van roof, in a paper crown. Crosstalk reads at a run, changing roofs every ten items.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

Frost Check: every bridge is walked at first light and cleared of ice. Each one is chalked on the boundary post as it's done, all three stations read the list, and Hiss is served hot on the stair.

Yearly · the last night of the year

Open Cupboards: every box that stayed shut all year is opened in the street by its owner, before the raiders can.

Each season · each season's first morning

Fresh Coat: The one morning the Alley stays up for the sun. Every poster on the Wall gets a fresh yes on a fresh back, and newcomers' first posters go up beside the old hands'.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

Cold Paste: Paste goes on stiff in the cold, so nothing is pasted. Each crew walks the Wall and reads the newest layer aloud, every held name once, before bed. This year the Pit also counts the rerun at its door; that's the frost's business, not the Wall's.

Moon · the first full moon of autumn

Jacket Night: Newcomers join a crew. Each climbs the Pit's front crate and sings the crew's chant once, alone, as badly as they like. The crew sings it back right, and someone sews on their first patch.

Yearly · midsummer

Open Roof: Voltage Roof is open to any band that has never played. A dozen first shows, each cheered like a headliner.

Yearly · the last night of the year

Smash Night: Break what you've outgrown. Every Beast brings one object, says "I've outgrown this" out loud, and takes the yard mallet to it in the right bin: a chipped mug, a three-legged chair, an amp that hums wrong. Never anything a Beast wears or carries; it's chalked on every bin.

Yearly · the first Monday of spring

Loose Lace Monday: The Alley practises the First Sorry. Everyone unties one shoe and says sorry first, in the street, for one argument from the winter.

Weekly · every Thursday

The Loud Minute: The Tin Room's open mic. One minute each of honest anger, said out loud at the back wall, never at a Beast, ending with what you want instead. The room says "heard".

the last Thursday of every month

Champions' Night: Every sport's winners of the month are painted up together at the Scoreboard in one long line: the fastest heat, the belt bout, the Yard's best five, the heaviest lift, the longest swim, the Field's match. Cups and belts are handed on, and everyone who lost a final is cheered first.

Weekly · every Wednesday night

Next Night: The Yard plays under the lamps until the low wall is empty: winners stay on, "next" is called for every game, and the five that holds the court longest takes the first hoop at Thursday's dawn.

Weekly · every Friday night

Fight Night: Five bouts in the Ring under the lamps, three rounds each, gloves touched twice, a ref in the middle and a corner behind every fighter. Anyone may put their name on the card by Wednesday; nobody may take it off.

Weekly · every Saturday

Match Day: The Long Field plays a full match, eleven a side, the captains shaking for the whole side before and after, the stands bringing the Tank's towels for the rain.

Each season · the season's first dawn

The Loss Lap: Every Beast does one lap of the whole Court with a ribbon for their worst loss, round the track, past the Yard and the Tank and through the Fieldhouse; the stands cheer losses louder than wins. The Tank does its part wet. A newcomer carries a blank ribbon and is booed, fondly, to learn what the boo means. Old Twelve carries a blank ribbon too, and is booed, fondly, all the way round.

Moon · the first full moon of autumn

Bell Night: Twelve pairs in the Ring, three rounds of pad work each, judged on footwork, gloves before and hands after, the bell rung by the oldest Beast present.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

The Frost Cup: The track's relay: the crew behind names the course, the holder names the hour, both captains shake on both under the Old Baton the week before; the winners keep the Main Track at dawn all winter.

Yearly · the first Sunday of winter

Plate Day: One bar, one weight, every Beast lifts it or tries, newest first, the stands counting aloud, nothing shaken on.

Yearly · midsummer

The Long Game: One game of everything, dawn to dark, Morning Court against Late Lights in every sport, not one result shaken on.

Yearly · midsummer's end

The Crossing: The Tank swims Trusty Lake, boundary stone to boathouse, by an arrangement older than the estates' current committee, who would like to discuss it. The Lake's rowers escort.

the first warm night of spring

The Moved Lap: Section 15.

spring, if the Court decides it is yearly

The Marathon: last spring for the first time: forty-eight hours through all twenty Beasthoods. Whether it is yearly is the Court's own argument this winter.

Each season · each season's first morning

The First Watering: every Beast waters a row on the other side of the argument, and Champions Court is invited to the Dew Lawn to collect the season's homework. The Court collects it again next season.

Moon · the first full moon of autumn

The Moon Fair: the Star Terrace opens to all, the Moon Book is read aloud for winter sowing, costumes come out, and the Weir drums till the moon is overhead.

Yearly · the first frost (19 November)

The Harvest Supper: the whole Grove eats on the Terraces with the neighbours it has invited, a seed twist tied to each invitation, and the night's Last Bowl sets the rows for winter.

Yearly · the first Sunday of winter

Fallow Day: every trowel hangs on the shed wall, no bed is dug, and the Reading Tent turns one card for the whole Grove, which is done as a chore by lunch.

Moon · every new moon

Dark Sowing: roots go in by one lamp after supper, as the Moon Book says.

the first warm morning of spring

The Open Shed: the seed shed carries its wall onto the avenue and gives a twist to every Beast who passes.

Yearly · midsummer

The Long Drum: the channels drummed from first light to dark, one drummer always on the Weir, and a noon Stretch to the beat.

Each season · each season's first morning

The Great Ambush: every house plays the Good Morning Ambush at once. The Lawn counts who arrives untouched, and the season's first pear goes to the quietest.

the first warm morning of spring

The Graft: every house grafts a cutting from the Graft Walk onto a neighbour's stair-rail, and the two houses argue all summer about whose fruit it is.

Yearly · midsummer

The Longest Minute: the gold holds longest of the year, and every Hanging Roof keeps a salon from lunch until night drops.

Moon · the first full moon of autumn

The Unlikely Fair: once the noon paths are out, the Breakfast Lawn fills with stalls of ideas: impossible machines, first lines of novels, a song for a Beasthood that hasn't asked. Ideas are given away; a Beast who takes one owes the giver a pear when it works.

the last Sunday of autumn

Box Planting: the lane plants the Winter Box for the Fairy's morning, and the planter names what went in at the Fairy's morning, when it comes up.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

The Frost Telling: the year's journals come down from the Journal Tree to be bound for winter, and every house tells one dream from the year on the Lawn, after good morning, as a story.

Yearly · the last night of the year

The Long Telling: the Late Porch stays lit till dawn for the year's best stories, and at first light the whole porch shouts GOOD MORNING up at the Dawn Tellers' windows.

Each season · each season's first morning

First Cards: Every house writes one invitation to a Beast it has never asked in, and a steward carries it out before breakfast, while the Court is still stamping round its Loss Lap.

the first calm dawn of spring

The First Boat: One boat rows the Long Row's line across the Lake and back, the estates watching from the lawns in silence. Who crews it is the Lake's oldest argument.

Yearly · the first Sunday of summer

The Paddle Regatta: Every house, steward and gardener in anything that floats, nothing timed. The Eight and Open Trials are barred for being good, and judge the hats.

Yearly · midsummer's end

The Crossing: The Court's Tank swims the Lake, boundary stone to boathouse, by an arrangement older than the current committee, who would like to discuss it. The Lake's rowers escort.

Yearly · the first Monday of autumn

Clipping Day: The avenue hedge is clipped end to end in a day, every house sending a Beast with shears, chairs included.

Yearly · dusk on the first frost (19 November)

The Reading: The Lake road gate is shut. Lettice Hume reads every open guest's debt in the second volume aloud, the called ones with the favour named, and then the chairs sit.

Yearly · the last night of the year

The Founders' Ball: In the boathouse, boats hung from the rafters. Every card the Mooring sends has a second line left blank, for a Beast never asked anywhere on the Lake. The List opens the dancing.

Weekly · every Sunday

The Sunday Lawn: Three o'clock on the Vanderhoek lawn, cake at four, the week's politics by five.

Each season · each season's first morning

Topping Up: every Parks Beast stands at the Swatch Wall while one friend says their name, once, and leaves. That covers the season. Greer Dunmore books two minutes past six and is gone by four past; most Beasts linger over wall porridge.

Yearly · the first Monday of the year

Blank Page Morning: every Parks Beast starts a new notebook, writes the date on page one, and leaves the rest blank till noon. The old one goes to the Library or the Exchange.

the first warm day of spring

The Two Vats: the dyers fill the vats and every Parks Beast brings one faded thing to dip. By evening washing lines run oak to oak, and the Parks look, for one night, like a party.

Weekly · every Saturday

Swap Saturday: poems and one-copy zines on the long table outside the Exchange. Take one, leave one, write back to the maker within the week.

Yearly · midsummer evening

Backs to the Stage: anyone may perform anything on the Empty Lawn, and the whole Parks sits facing away, reading. It is their highest compliment: I trust you enough not to watch.

Yearly · dawn on the first frost (19 November)

Owed Letters: every Parks Beast answers every letter still owed before the frost lifts, and at noon the runners go out with satchels for all twenty Beasthoods. The Meadows judge their knots; the Parks clear the desk.

Each season · each season's first morning

Cord Morning: The foragers untie last season's knots on the Hedge Cord and tie this season's, called aloud. Newcomers tie the knot for the first wild find, always wrong, and the Cord keeps it anyway.

the first thaw of spring

The Fence Walk: Every fence is walked by its builders, and every post the frost heaved is knocked back with a mallet and a remark.

the first warm morning of spring

First Rise: The year's first fish to take a hookless fly at the Slow Pool is admired by the whole bank and let go.

the first clear night of summer

The Long Look: After the roll the whole Meadows carries blankets up to the Sky Field and sleeps out.

Yearly · midsummer

The First Swath: The Haysweep's first cut, dawn to dark, every Beast who can hold a rake, walkers included.

Yearly · the first Sunday of autumn

The Sack Walk: The first sack of grain goes down the avenue to the Beastro, and half the Meadows walks behind it to see it gets there.

Yearly · first frost (19 November)

First Frost at the Fire: The Grove jar is counted aloud before winter's first tale. Each newcomer's Ugly Knot on the Last Post is judged by lantern, every Beast holding their lantern to the knot they judge worst, and whoever tied the ugliest tells winter's first tale, uncorrected, the same way all winter.