Words for Wednesday -- Á Íslandi -13

I still have not used all the prompts, we were given for Wednesday 16, so I continue.
The prompts were:
Sweetheart    
Succotash    
Semi-stable    
Solace    
Singularly    
Solution   
     and/or
Married
Lately
Diet
Denied
Squash
Urban

  I used the crossed out words in Á Íslandi 13, but I think I soon have to change the name of this series, as they are not in Iceland any more. 
  For this instalment I used Semi-stable and Lately. There's more words, and more story yet to come.


Early dinner was enjoyed by everyone and Hilde praised the kitchen facilities at Birch Manor.

Next morning Hilde and Rasmus took off for Oslo, with the dual purpose of getting the mahogany for Rasmus' wand and getting news on Liisa's condition.
Marit and Fiona looked drawn and tired after testing and reading about diseases, magical and not until late in the night.
"Your library is well- stocked, as the conditions are, but there's so much missing. So many books and things I only half remember from The Farm or from Taavi's tuitions," Marit said with a sigh.
Rósa too was perusing the books. "I still think there's something we have forgotten," she said. "I'll stay here and look through the books and maybe sort them a bit."
"You're welcome," Susan said. "Sorting of the library is one of those things that keep getting postponed by more urgent matters."
Fiona  added: "Sandra's disease sure is not natural. With her permission I looked at all the test results from her medicinal web-pages. There's nothing there. She's as healthy as a horse. But here she is, wasting away, bedridden, weaker by the day. It must be some curse."
"Have you had Finnbogi look at her?" Susan asked. "I do not know much of curses, but shouldn't they leave some trace or markings on the cursed person?"
"I don't know, bugger it," Fiona said with a despondent shrug of her shoulders, "but it sure cannot do any harm."
"Let's wait for Rasmus to get back and have his wand sung," Finnbogi said, and with a shy smile he added: "If you ask me afterwards, or tell him, I never said this. But he is far superior to me - even now, untrained."

The morning was not idle, much painting, sanding, hammering, hanging and sewing was to be done before Birch Manor would be the school they dreamed of and all set to work with good spirits. Martine came over and gave informal lessons in broomstick handling to all who were not needed and she gave the smallest children rides in front of her, squeals of delight were heard from the meadow every now and then. Little Susan and the older children fed the rabbits and the other animals, and helped make the old garage buildings into a stable and planned a paddock for horses and magical creatures.

Susan was hanging curtains in the dining hall, all the time listening for Hilde's car in the driveway.
As soon as she heard it, she left the curtains to their fate and went out to greet Hilde and Rasmus, returning from Oslo. Rasmus looked a bit green, but Hilde smiled reassuringly at Susan. "It's just the portals getting to him, he'll get used to it. I already did better today."
Soon Hilde, Rasmus, Finnbogi, and Knud were seated in the big kitchen with mugs of steaming coffee or tea, Knud's efficient antidote to all evils. Rasmus handed Susan a parcel, containing a large piece of mahogany and asked if that would work for a wand. "Only way to find out is to try, Susan said. But first, please, did you get some news about Liisa?"
"The doctors said she was in a semi-stable condition, whatever that means. They also told that her brainwaves were altered. They did not know either what could have caused it or how to cure it. She's unresponsive to any external stimuli, and the only idea they had, was to keep her alive with intravenous nutrition and so on, and hope for time to heal her," Rasmus explained in a toneless voice. "After all you said and I've been thinking, I  don't know if I hope for her to wake up or not. She seems to have done something to the girls, stolen their magic or ..."

Finnbogi rose and went over and placed his big hand on Rasmus' shoulder: "We need you here. We need you to heal Sandra, and your girls, or not to heal, but to help me find the reason they're ill!" He turned his head towards Susan: "Susan get started singing that wand! I'm impatient."

Susan took Rasmus' parcel and unwrapped it. She looked forlornly at the big slab of wood inside It was beautiful, soft and with a nice grain, but it did not inspire her at all. Disappointedly she said: "Dear Rasmus, I'm afraid this won't do. I can see you making bowls and things from it, but as for making a wand, it's as inspiring as a kitchen cabinet door. I think wand woods have to be alive." She thought back to Unicorn Farm and to all the wands she had made so far. "Rasmus," she said, "grab that slab of wood and let's find Rósa, I need to talk to her as well, she might know something I don't. And I need you nearby when making a wand for you."
He grabbed the wood and followed Susan into the library where they found Rósa surrounded by books in smaller or bigger stacks.
"You'll have to come and copy some of the books form the museum," she said after half a glance at Susan. "Some of this is in a sorry state, I have more than enough work for my two weeks' holiday preserving and sorting this mess. Where have these books been stored?"
"At the bottom of an old well!" Susan said looking like an excuse for herself. "But right now I need your help as a wandsinger."
Rósa looked up and noticed Rasmus standing a little behind Susan with the slab of mahogany.
Rósa ran over and looked at it. "No, won't do. old cabinet doors can't be made into wands."
Susan and Rasmus started laughing.
"Oh, please let me in on the joke. Life has not been too funny lately." Rósa said impatiently.
Susan stopped laughing: "No, life is not funny right now, but I said almost the same upon seeing Rasmus' precious mahogany. Kitchen cabinet wood indeed!" And she burst into laughter again.
Rósa smiled broadly and added: "Wands have to be sung from live wood, now get out of here, find a nice tree somewhere near for Rasmus' wand and leave me to nurse these poor books back to health again."
"Can we leave the kitchen cabinet door here," Rasmus asked, still a bit short of breath from laughing.
"Yes, I won't touch it," Rósa promised.

Susan and Rasmus went out into the garden.
"OK," Susan said, "Apart from tropical cabinet doors, which kind of trees do you feel attracted to?"
"I don't know," Rasmus said. "I have always been interested in trees purely for their crafting properties."
"Then I suggest you walk the gardens, and look and touch all the different trees you see - and we have many. When you find one, you like, call me. I'll be in the dining hall hanging curtains," Susan said with a small sigh.

... to be continued