How the Bramblebury Gazette celebrated it's fourth anniversary

It was to informally celebrate the fourth anniversary of the Gazette, as announced in the editorial preface of the 9th edition of this year. When the musicians took a well-deserved rest, not to mention a free drink, Peppy stepped forward and addressed those present:

Peppy:

Hullo everyone!

Tonight is mostly like any other Yard Party, but we have decided to reflect a moment on the fourth anniversary of the Bramblebury Gazette! The Gazette will pay for all your drinks tonight to thank you, it's readers, for all the support we've been getting over the years.

Four years is not long, but a lot has happened since that very first hand-written edition was hand-delivered to all in habitants of the then recently opened homestead of Bramblebury.

And who else can better tell us bout the early years than my sister, one of the initiators of the Bramblebury Gazette.

Lasses and gentlehobbits, please welcome..

Yola Plumblossom!

Yola stepped forward and stood next to her brother. Although speaking for a prolonged time still makes her uncomfortable due to a serious injury she has sustained, she cleared her voice and started to give a speech:

Yola:

Thank you, dear friends.

As Peppy told you, it is now four years ago that the very first edition of the Bramblebury Gazette came out.

A few things preceded that moment, first of all the opening of a brand new homestead, called Bramblebury.

My dear friend Akelay Shrubland, now Rumblebelly, made me aware of that fact.

And as I had had the wish for some time to own my own place, I dawdled not too long and bought the burrow next to Akelay's.

I met some of my new neighbours, most notably the future Deputy Mayor: Master Byronbrand Stepwise.

We had a few talks, where he proved to be quite a charmer, and made plans to get to know all the inhabitants of Bramblebury

and maybe organise meetings for that purpose.

To let everyone know about these plans, we thought it would be nice to write a newsletter containing articles and announcements that would be of interest to the Brambleburian inhabitants.

I took it on me to compile all the articles we had written and after that was done, I copied them to have one copy for each household. That was Issue number one and the month was September 2010.

It spurred the interest, not only of the inhabitants of Bramblebury, but of other hobbits as well, who tried to get a copy for themselves.

Luckily I had made a few extra ones.

But Byron pointed out, that copying all these pages by hand was a lot of work (which I had discovered by myself as well) and that for the second edition, we should find another solution.

He found a clever device, called a printing press ((set up a website)).

Now, with that we could make as many copies as were required with no extreme effort at all. The new possibilities were grand as we could now mix in pictures with the words. Artisticly gifted hobbits such as Delonix, Zinniamae and Lingard contributed their art.

We even dedicated a special section to the arts: Art's Corner.

Some readers thought you had to bribe a hobbit called Art to get your work published, but that was just an ugly rumour!

Anyway, it was not just pretty pictures that were being published: Song lyrics and poems too.

Like the song that Lina wrote for the occasion of the presentation of the brand new printed edition of the Gazette.

It's still one of my all time favourites!

Now, back to the history of the Gazette.

It turned out that having their own Gazette made Bramblebury the envy of many other, and equally fine I may add, homesteads.

And as we now wrote about all things relevant to the Shire, we decided to give other -active- neighbourhoods, their own section in the Gazette.

The name will always connect it to it's origin, Bramblebury, but many people in the Shire and even out of bounds now read it and use it as their source of information. Which is lovely, ofcourse.

Well, so much for the origins and early years of the Gazette.

Back to you, Peppy dear.

Relieved that she had managed to deliver her speech, Yola stepped aside and gratefully accepted the mug of ale handed to her. Peppy continued with the more recent history of the Bramblebury Gazette:

Peppy:

Thank you, Yola.

Thank you and Byron for coming up with the idea and thus giving us the Bramblebury Gazette!

When Yola mysteriously disappeared and was presumed dead, I, her brother Peppy, took over her work

It was a hectic period in my life as you can imagine.

Stepping in my sisters shoes was no easy job, but I did it to not let her efforts go to waste.

Then I was, let us say, tempted away to help work on another newspaper like magazine.

The Gazette was then taken over by a team of editors: Bovso, Tibba and Yllisa,

who expertly continued the work of the Bristlebrush siblings.

It was Bovso who added many innovations that are still in use these days.

Technically beyond my level of knowledge, but very effective and giving extra service to the readers.

Lina then joined the team and made sure the Calendar of events was up to date.

It was in fact a copy of her own calendar over at the Biscuity Burrow.

That calendar evolved more than the Gazette could cope with in print,

so we now urge readers to vist the Biscuity Burrow directly to have a look at the much improved version of the Hobbit Calendar.

After the other magazine did not succeed as much as I had hoped, I returned and joined the editorial team again.

Bovso and Yllisa then had to travel for a prolonged period of time, which left Tibba and me running the Gazette.

Last year, we had unexpected but much appreciated support from  a very talented hobbit.

It was Master Speckles who made a totally new look for the Gazette.

It took a bit of getting used to for both readers and editors, but we are very happy with how the Gazette is looking now.

I hope we have not forgotten anyone who has been deeply involved with the running of the Gazette?

Well, there are many not named here, although they get the credit in the Gazette.

They are you, the readers, and in particular those of you who write articles for the Gazette,

be they announcements, reviews of events, art, recipes or letters.

I want to thank you all for that, as without it the Gazette would not be such a good read, I am sure!

So, all you readers out there, thank you on behalf of the editorial staff of the Bramblebury Gazette!

Well, enough talking! Let's have some entertainment again!

And remember that the drinks are free tonight, courtesy of your Gazette.

Thank you kindly!

The evening went on as always, with musicians taking the stage in turn: experienced ones and ones that bashfully took their first steps on the way to fame in the Shire. The audience cheered them on and took part in the dancing.

The Bird and Baby Staff worked hard to refill the glasses and mugs of the thirsty guests. Drinks were free, yet there was no extreme drunkenness and the Michel Delving bounders did not have to be called in and they all remained at their station near the statue. This amazes me, by the way. Were they not invited? Do bounders not read editorial prefaces? I am sure they will from now on!

Congratulations, Bramblebury Gazette on your fourth anniversary! Going towards five years next September. We may be able to talk editors and founder into throwing a real big party then!