I’ve only read three pages of the section, but it’s been pretty overwhelming so far. More words I don’t know even compared to usual, plus some unfamiliar grammar and just generally confusing sentences. I’m not even sure how much time has passed since the end of last chapter.
I agree, it was a bit harder around the start, but it then goes back to normal at some point after that. It took me a couple rereads of some sentences as well to understand, I can help with those if you have questions. (Or maybe I can make a summary as before? Not sure if that will be helpful overall though)
For the first two pages, I honestly don’t care enough about the specifics of the honey harvesting to go back and figure out what to ask. I got the general idea anyway.
I guess all I want to know right now is...
I haven’t gotten to any specifics about this yet, so maybe it’s cleared up later. But I think I’m supposed to understand already, so I figure I’ll ask. Basically, how much time has passed and is this Erin’s first time to the market? I have no idea between:
They’ve been together for a week. It’s the first market day since Erin started working, and she’s going.
They’ve been together for several weeks, indicated by the season approaching summer. It’s the first time Erin is joining him at the market despite it occurring several times since being together.
They’ve been together for several weeks. Erin has been going the whole time and the text it’s just indicating the nature of their visits (she’s told to stay silent, he tells people she’s the daughter of an acquaintance, etc.).
The part about John realizing that she really has no family and no one is coming to get her as spring approaches summer seems to indicate some passage of time. But I’m really not sure.
I didn’t focus on the passage of time at all so I might need to recheck. But about the market, it opens once every 7 days, and John goes to it every time I think. (Once upon a time) he told Erin he’ll take her with him, and that describes Erin’s first visit.
So overall, I don’t think it was clear how much time passed since she started working, and maybe that’s not important. But it seemed like at least she got used to the work by the time the chapter started.
Well, this one I would have gotten wrong. I guessed みっとう or みつは. ^^ thanks~~
Talking about passage of time - spoilers for the end of this week’s section - I wonder if that last sentence means she’ll stay with ジョウン for 何年も, or if she will still find time to devote to this after she’s moved on.
Anyway, I loved ジョウン in this. We’re slowly getting to know more about him and fragments of his past, and he’s so good to エリン. These two’s days seem so peaceful, and it was great reading about how エリン has slowly begun to heal! Good girl トッチ.
Also loved how she’s getting more crazy about understanding all those books Seems she’ll be trying to unveil what really happened with her mother and the Toudas.
Yeah! Who doesn’t love a good book? This chapter also addresses エリン’s good memory - I remember a question that was raised when we were reading out loud was whether she’d be able to remember later what her mom had told her about the とうだ.
I’ve gotten lazy and have stopped cross-referencing the physical copy for pages.
夜は布団に入ると、すぐに寝入ってしまうし、朝目がさめれば、一日の仕事が待っている。
Two questions. How would you read 朝目? I’m guessing あさめ, but wanted to double check. Also, why is the conditional ば? I swear I still don’t get when you’d use ば versus たら.
I get the meaning of the sentence, but is the ば here a slightly different thing from the conditional ば? It seems more like it’s saying “for each different kind of wild bee”, but I’m not sure.
The book has furigana over 性質 as たち. I don’t see this as a normal alternate spelling for 性質. Is it saying this is meant to be the same as 質 alone, which I see can be read たち? Any idea why it was done this way here? The author doesn’t seem to often use non-standard readings for the kanji, except for completely made up words.
Because I think that whole thing is a clause and then the sentence ends with はなかった. Also, the following sentence seems to reinforce my interpretation that she doesn’t run back home telling him what she discovered.
たら might be used more for one-off happenings. This does sound like something that should use ば to me, instead of たら. As in:
When you wake up tomorrow, do this => たら
When I wake up [every morning[, I would usually do this => ば
(Honestly I stopped caring about the “why this not that” when it comes to conditionals I think with time I’ll instinctively know more about the difference in similar choices. Problem is it sometimes does bug you)
36% #1
Exactly. Literally “if the kind is different, then the food and the nest is different”, but of course we think of it more as “depending on the kind, …”. I think 違えば like this is a common usage to mean “depending on A, B”
Oh I see. That’s interesting, since really both 性質 and 質(たち) would mean the same thing so why use the kanji of one but the reading of the other In the book I’m reading from it’s just 性質 though.
Seems like everyone agrees that it’s not the right reading, but it happens that the author wants you to read it in that particular way, sometimes because of a certain reason, other times just because. Can’t think of a reason in this case.
These two’s days seem so peaceful, and it was great reading about how エリン has slowly begun to heal! Good girl トッチ. 
s
Seems she’ll be trying to unveil what really happened with her mother and the Toudas.
This chapter also addresses エリン’s good memory - I remember a question that was raised when we were reading out loud was whether she’d be able to remember later what her mom had told her about the とうだ.
In the book I’m reading from it’s just 性質 though.
I didn’t liked much the 
part… 