Thanks! Yours too! I think it kind of helps for the speed going from the impossibly faint colours of the D&D, and now not having to work too hard to come up with what to put in there to make things appear. I think a low-details setting and just the one little house there helped too :D

Wood texture is going places now I think. It looks a bit like carrots for the time being but with the side patterns being brought into the fold, later, I think that won't be a problem. I mean, if it's all carrots....

Oh, and yeah; I ended up with a winter story there of a serpent going for the star and whatnot on the left. So maybe each side of the wooden frame will be telling a story of sorts.

Going back to front is the way to go so I will do the frame (back) and move my way up to the holly and whatnot. No contours until it's all done on top; I don't feel like to going over the stuff that needs to be blocked out with Colour Key this time.

Giving the wooden frame a hollow fill style means I get the boundaries for the norse/dwarf pattern, while also actually being able to see what I'm doing. Which is preferable at all times.

Coffee break and administrative duties await.

Since the map itself is more or less done with I thought I'd spend some time on embellishments.

8 triangular shapes and a circle (colour coded for ease of acquiring when tracing the contour). I think some sort of stereotypical norse/dwarf wood carving will make up the frame of the design. Perhaps the bottom right corner featuring a figurine of some kind with a serpentine pattern for the sides - partially wreathed in a ribbon/holly combo.

Colour scheme probably needs sorting out there; going dark to bright with the cut-out effect seems more appropriate somehow - but that would depend on the tree one was pretending to paint being carved upon.

The colouring pattern kind of works, other than that, I think.

Getting there. Some shading perhaps and then maybe some holly for framing the text.

As per the call to arms, here's my contribution-in-the-making.

There's a village in Sweden called Ensamheten - (the) Solitude. There's also a children's book called "Viktor builds a bridge" - in which the protagonist (a man on an island) decides to connect with the mainland by building a bridge. He lives to regret the decision.

Not sure it's accessible by boat only, but I rather like the idea of whoever lives in the cottage on the left side of the map - where there will also be woods - gets the occasional visitor (enough to keep the route clear)) but do not themself own a vessel.

We catch them, I think, at a time when there are no guests. Perhaps they are inbound, expected - in keeping with the season.

Or it's just the calm before the Norsca raiding party.