Abnormal Beyond Stressed

Question

The autumn had already coloured the nearby tall hill,
and the chilly breeze was almost cold enough to cause serious injury,
when Rose crossed the wide street that was almost blocked by a large herd of sheep.
She decided to take a breather, even though she had almost no money,
at her regular disreputable bar, the one with the pigeon in the logo.

Today, the barkeep resembling a huge animal felt like a totally uninteresting person,
and even the heavy metal and the blinking light failed to improve her mood.
The barkeep asked for permission, and then grabbed a bottle on one side.
Rose uttered a mild curse as she downed her tequila in one go.
This was a difficult situation that she wasn't going to clear in a single leap.

The reason Rose was so glum was that although she had no means of acquiring one, she had promised to the kids in the local kindergarten that she would donate a piece of playground equipment. Which one?

Answer 1

Rose promised to buy a ...

... see-saw.

In each of the lines, ...

... there are two adjectives, nouns or noun phrases that can be reworded so that they are homographs of a verb and its past-tense form, for example spell and spelt. (Homographs are words with different meanings that are spelled, but not necessarily pronounced the same.) These replacements are never used as verbs in the puzzle.

In particular, the lines are:

The fall had already coloured the nearby fell,
and the chilly wind was almost cold enough to cause a wound,
when Rose crossed the drive that was almost blocked by a drove of sheep.
She decided to take a break, even though she was broke,
at her regular dive, the one with the dove in the logo.

Today, the barkeep resembling a bear felt like a bore,
and even the lead and the led failed to improve her mood.
The barkeep asked for a leave, and then grabbed a bottle on the left.
Rose said "shoot!" as she downed her tequila in one shot.
This was a bind that she wasn't going to clear in a single bound.

Further, ...

... the name of the protagonist, Rose, is a homograph of a past tense. I first thought that the answer would be "rise", but that's not the name of a playground equipment. I also considered swing and slide, which both have irregular past tenses, but none of their past forms are nouns. Only then did I think of see-saw, which is, of course, a perfect fit.

Finally, the words in the title...

... are synonyms of irregular past tense.