Welcoming in the Autumn

I do so love this time of year, it's not so hot so as to leave you sweaty and puffing and yet there isn't quite the chill in the air to force you to grab for a coat and woolly scarf. But more so than enjoying the pleasure of going out in a cardigan is the beautiful autumn light which, on a sunny day gives you that warm feeling inside as it lights up the cobwebs and brings a glow to rose hips and elderberries.  It makes everything look warm and like a memory, like a photograph that you wish you could hold in your hand and keep forever.

We have been fully embracing the season, soaking in the fading rays of sun with beautiful Autumnal walks, seasonal food and Autumn crafts.  The river and the woods have been calling us and we've been collecting seeds and berries, opening and closing locks, pushing swing bridges, riding canal boats, picking apples and throwing sticks to knock pears from the tree! And we still have conkers and sweet chestnuts, harvest festival and Michaelmas to come.  It's bittersweet though because I know it will all too soon come to an end and we will be plunged into the depths of winter where sleet and wind will make us far more hesitant to leave the house for fresh air and exercise.  I am sure one day I will be able to enjoy cosy afternoons by the fire enjoying a puzzle with one of my sons.  But right now charging about, wrestling and generally causing mayhem with sword sticks and guns is the order of the day, sedate and genteel afternoons with three wild boys are a thing of a fantasy of my own making at the moment!

Today we enjoyed a delicious ploughman's lunch with sourdough bread purchased from Borough Market, some delicious vegan cheddar-onion cheese, Autumn chutney made by my mother-in-law and a crisp apple from our own tree.  We accompanied this with a side salad including lettuce from out garden and we really felt like we were enjoying the fruits of our labour!

So yes, we are enjoying this season of mist and mellow fruitfulness, but life goes on with the challenges of trying to raise 3 boys to become good, kind, Godly men and as I watch the leaves of the trees quickly change from green to yellow and brown before my eyes I am reminded of how quickly this season of life with little children passes. And just as I savour the sharp tang of cheese and chutney, the sweet, crispness of the apple and the delightful pleasure of being able to go out in just a cardigan, I am trying my best to savour the moments of pleasure with the little ones. Their playful imagination, their elaborate fantasy role plays, their den building and their sweet sleeping faces.  I know these things won't last forever (well maybe the sweet sleeping faces) and I can feel the time slipping away, I just want to savour it all.  Bittersweet. Autumn and childhood, just let me inhale, touch, savour and remember it all.  I'll see the Autumn again, but once these little ones are grown and fly the nest I will just have the memories and the photographs left, so I pray, let me remember and let me make the most of it.

If you like my writing and want to read more visit my Patreon page and subscribe!

Hello Autumn!

Oh I do love this time of year. The colours alone are enough to make my heart burst at the beauty of it all.  At Forest School I sometimes feel like closing my eyes as it's too much beauty for my little mind to handle!

There are lots of wonderful festivals at this time of year too and I am trying to enjoy them all, savoring and relishing every one.  Squeezing all the meaning I can out of every moment.

Friday the 22nd September was the Autumn Equinox which marks the day when the number of daylight hours is equal to the number of night time hours.  It means that Winter is approaching and that it is time to say goodbye and thank you very much to Summer.

We decided to visit the standing stone circle at Avebury to mark the occasion. I am not entirely sure why.  I am drawn to the place at these times of the year when the seasons change, maybe it makes me feel a connections to my ancestors or British history or nature, I am not sure.  It is notable that the meaning of the standing stone circle at Avebury is still not known.  It is thought it might be to do with fertility, but no one can say for sure, it doesn't align with the stars, or with the sun or moon as Stone Henge does, it is till a mystery to historians. I find this fascinating because there were a number of people camping at Avebury who I thought must be Druid based on their dreadlocks and rainbow tie die (not that all Druids have dreadlocks and wear rainbow tie dye, or that all those with dreadlocks and rainbow tie dye are Druid, I happen to have penchant for rainbow tie dye myself.) who are obviously drawn to the place at this time of year also, but like me really don't know the meaning of the stones.

We walked round the circle, I tried to go "through" the stones (in the style of Claire Fraser from Outlander), it didn't work, incidentally, and we visited the museum and manor house.  All really interesting  (I highly recommend a visit).

That evening I had a little fire in the garden, said thank you for all the good things that summer brought us; camping, visiting family, the seaside, birthdays, playgrounds, swimming pools..... and welcomed in the Autumn, (although with slight hesitation and apprehension because I am really not a fan of winter.).

The Autumn festivities continues into the week and yesterday we celebrated Michaelmas, also known as Feast of St Michael and All Angels.  The Bible story in Revelation tells us that there was a war in Heaven; Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, (who was the Devil), and the dragon was cast out of Heaven.  Incidentally the Archangel Michael is often pictured in artworks holding a set of scales, supposedly to weigh the souls of men, and Michaelmas comes within the astrological sign of the scales (Libra)!  (I love the interconnectedness of it all!) The scales represent a balance between the darkness and death that Autumn brings and our own ability to raise ourselves up into re-birth and resurrection.  We have to fight against the inner-dragon in our own being and find the spirit to come alive in the dying year.  Taking up a new task has long been a theme for this season and we are encouraged to take a new step on our inner journey.  (I read about this in a beautiful book I have called All Year Round)

We marked the occasion by making a bread dragon, which started off as a pretty convincing dragon (though I forgot the wings!) and became a rather puffed up, swollen dragon, (giving new meaning to the song "Puff the magic dragon"!)

While researching Michaelmas I came across a website which explains an ancient tradition that occurred on the Island of Iona in Scotland (more interconnectedness because.....Outlander) all the people and even the animals walked sunwise around the Angels Hill to seek God’s blessing on the island for the coming year. This tradition goes back to pre Christian times when Druids believed the Devil was frustrated by anything that had no end, no break, no entrance.  Celtic Christians adopted this idea, it made sense because God has no end in both time and love, and the three selves of God (Holy Trinity) form an ever circling presence. Celtic Christians would walk circles around their crops asking for God to bless them, as an adaption of the Druid practice of turning sunwise to entice the sun to bless their crops.  There is a couple of circling or Caim prayers that can be spoken to ask God to encircle anyone or anything you pray for:

                  

                                 

Aren't they lovely!
If you want to know more visit THIS website, where I got these images and this information from.  I also came across THIS website which gives even more information about the meaning behind Michaelmas.  I really love how us humans have this deep desire to make meaning, and it is this very desire that urges me to paint, document and write.

Now as I continued to research Michaelmas, another piece of interconnectedness came up, I happened to stumble upon talk of a St Michaelmas Bannock, relevant because you know....Scotland...Outlander...St Michaelmas!! This is THE food they eat in Scotland in the 1700's!  So I was immediately drawn into this, and who would have thought I would even come across a website with a recipe for a vegan Bannock, which also talks about Outlander! (You can just imagine my excitement about this and having no one to share it witht!)  SO I am planning on making myself a vegan Bannock next week and will let you all know how it goes (check my Facebook page)

These festivals are all about transition; the transition from Summer to Autumn; and because we humans so love to embed meaning into everything, we can take this opportunity to meditate on the beauty of the season, everything is dying and it seems somehow ironic that it is at this transition point into dormancy that we find the most beauty.  At the same time the dying leaves and sleeping trees whisper the promise of the new life that is to come in the opposite time of the year (the other side of the scales if you will).  While we were walking round the stones Boris found a little chick's egg, with it's tiny peck marks going all round.  It seemed meaningful that at the turning point of the season, as it turns to death and darkness, we were reminded of the promise of new life in the mirroring season to come.

So as Summer ends and Autumn begins I am following with tradition and trying to take a moment to think about what tasks I want to complete before the year is out.  At this time of year it's easy to feel like starting new projects is a fruitless task with the end of the year approaching and the thought of New Years Resolutions on the horizon, but I feel like I really want to make the most of the year by setting goals that I can achieve before the year is thorough. I still have so many unfinished projects on the go, from my book that I have been writing for about two and a half years now to video tutorials and half finished paintings, and I also have some festive projects and products I hope to release soon.  I really want to feel a sense of completion on these.  Maybe I should pray a Caim prayer over them and the coming season!

Wow, that was a much longer blog post that I had planned, I do so love meaning and interconnectedness (is that even a word?) and Autumn! We have several more Autumnal festivals still to celebrate this season including Harvest Festival, Hallowe'en (Samhain), All Saints Day, All Souls Day, Rememberance Day, Guy Fawkes Night and Martinmas, to name but a few. I am excited for the season ahead and all opportunities for fun and family and friends that it brings.

Autumn Activities Roundup

So Autumn is officially over and it seems no sooner has the calendar ticked over from November to December than the weather suddenly turns chilly.  But we are fully embracing the change of the seasons and joys of Christmas that come with it.  This year is just that bit more exciting with a toddler who is very excited about anything Christmas related and another who likes anything shiny!

But before I move on to our Christmas activities and challenges I wanted to share some of the Autumnal ones which missed out from having a post all to themselves. 

So here is my Autumn Roundup, starting with a little look at a small learning space I set up which includes a couple of discovery baskets, some autumn books and a few other bits and pieces. 

Cork Painting:

I painted a basic outline of a tree and Boris filled in the leaves by stamping the end of a cork into the paint then onto the paper. He learned about colour mixing and he used fine motor skills. I learnt that I need to explain activities really well for him to understand what I have in mind.  He began the activity by smearing a big red blob across the bottom of the trunk!

Autumn Discovery Baskets:

These were for Biscuit and I left them out on the shelves for him to use periodically throughout the season.  These included pom poms, some bought and some made from some yarn I had lying around in seasonal colours. 

Faux Autumn leaves (I bought a pack of 400 like some crazy fool, from ebay, I am not sad to have packed these away), pine cones, conkers and some scented string balls from a potpourri set.

Wooden pegs.  Biscuit used his fine motor skills, improved his understanding of the world, textures, shapes, weights etc and stimulated his senses.

Sponge Leaf Printing:

I bought some leaf shaped sponges for Boris to paint with.  He created a lovely falling leaf scene which I put up in the kitchen.  Again he learnt about colour mixing and he improved his fine motor skills. This activity also helped him (along with lots of walks outdoors pointing out the falling leaves and that they had changed colour) understand that leaves change colour and fall from the tree in Autumn.  At one point he was getting very excited about any tree with coloured leaves and shouting "that tree is Autumn Mummy".  So cute.

Pasta threading:

Boris threaded Autumnal coloured pasta onto Autumnal coloured pipe cleaners. Improving fine motor skills and had eye co-ordination.  And learning about colours.

Pumpkin carving:

This was for halloween, I cut leaf shapes into the pumpkin using leaf shaped cookie cutters and a mallett. I liked the effect, it was easy and quick to do, (took a bit of muscle though)  I put the inners of the pumpkin into a ziplock bag for Biscuit to explore. 

Corn sorting:

Boris picked corn kernels off the cob and put them into little pots. Improving fine motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination and counting skills.

Clay Leaf Cutting:

We rolled out some air dry clay, cut leaf shapes out with the leaf cookie cutters, poked holes in them then let them dry. We then painted them and varnished them with PVA glue and threaded them onto embroidery thread with some beads and buttons.  He had a lot of help with this activity, in some ways it was more for me than him, but he enjoyed manipulating the clay and painting them, helping develop his fine motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination and understanding of colour.

So there you have it, a very quick run down of our Autumn activities. I hope you find them useful for doing with your toddler, either now of next year. And here's to the next season and all it brings!

Fun Things to do With Toddlers - Autumn scents Playdough

Playdough is always fun, adding colour livens it up and adding a scent adds a further sensory element. I decided to create an Autumn themed playdough invitation to play by adding some spices to the playdough and teaming them with some leaf shaped cutters and some pine cones, feathers, twigs and conkers to press into the dough.

I fragranced the dough with ground cinnamon, all spice, ginger and coco powder.  I just kneaded the spices into the dough. It smelt amazing (especially the chocolate)

I didn't need to add any colour to the chocolate scented one because the brown of the coco also added colour.

I bought some leaf shaped cutters from Amazon, I am hoping to get lots of use out of them by using them to make biscuits and with clay.

Fathers from Hobbycraft 9I bought these years ago when I was at uni, not sure how ethical they are or if I would buy them now)

Pine cones gathered from one of our many walks.

Boris stuck twigs into the playdough to begin with, he needed quite a bit of encouragement initially, I am not sure he knew what to do, maybe he was a little overwhelmed by all the different bits and didn't know where to begin. 

 To start with he used to cutters with the playdough balls, but I demonstrated rolling out the dough and using the cutters that way and he imitated me.

 I stuck some of the cut out shapes to the balls of remaining clay which Boris seemed to enjoy, he also stuck some of the cutout shapes on.  He then had a good time mashing it all up into a big doughy mess.

This is the playdough recipe I used:

• 2 cups plain flour (all purpose)
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• Up to 1.5 cups boiling water (adding in increments until it feels just right)
• Poster paint for colour.
• Several teaspoons of spices till desired amount of fragrance is achieved, some scents require more spice than others.

I am hoping to do a few more Autumn themes activities as the season goes on.  Are you doing any seasonal activities?  Add a link in the comments. 

Allotment Update

Or - What went down at the allotment in 2013:

I originally took on my allotment from the local council about 5 years ago, shortly after we moved into the area, things have changed so much there over the years, but I am still not on top of it.  I wonder if you can ever be "on top" of mother nature?  This year I knew that I didn't want to over do it by planting loads of different, exotic vegetables, so stuck with what I know works and what I could manage.  With it being such a dry hot summer things didn't flourish as much as they could have if I had watered on those dry days but I still
harvested a modest amount of food considering how little work I put in.  It is so difficult to get down there with a toddler in tow, he is so curious and loves to explore so I have to either go there and hope he falls asleep in the car on the way or wait until I can go there with someone else who can watch him while I get on.  I am still so thankful to have it though it will be wonderful when Boris is a bit older and I won't have to worry about him eating something he shouldn't or wandering into other peoples' plots.

So now I am just starting to shut everything down at the allotment in preparation for both winter and my impending childbirth, covering the ground in plastic and picking the last of the harvest, a few small beetroots and, some runner beans and a couple of courgettes.  My mum helped me a couple of weeks ago, tidying the edges, tucking everything under the plastic and laying more plastic to keep the weeds at bay.

So I thought it was a pretty good time to do a little review with some photos of the allotment I took a few weeks ago.  I can't believe how much the weather has changed in such a short amount of time!  We were in the heart of summer what seemed like yesterday and now it seems like everything is closing down.
So here is what went down:

The last of the courgettes

The last of the rather straggly looking runner beans,

Small harvest

View of the whole allotment, my mum helped me put down the black plastic. 

What are you currently doing at the allotment?  Are you putting anything in?  Or just taking things out and covering things up? 

Autumn is here!

Well not officially, but when I stepped out of the house this morning I could feel it.  The air had a slight nip to it and there was condensation on the cars.  I could smell it too, which is hard to describe but there was definitely a freshness to the air, combined with a mustiness (can those two go together?)  There are yellow leaves on the tree in front of my house now and a few have begun to drop leaving their delicious crunchy carpet behind for us to enjoy

As the day wore on I felt like it might have been the last day of summer, it got really hot and I felt like I should really relish it.  There are other things I need to relish at the start of this season, such as time alone with my son, as the season changes the days of being alone with him are quickly coming to an end because by the end of the Autumn, all being well he will have a baby brother or sister. 

The impending childbirth adds to a mixed feeling about the season.  On the one hand there is so much to love about it, the falling leaves, pumpkin pie, bonfire night, planting onions, but there is a worrying aura hanging in the air fir me when I think about giving birth again, it is a bit like the feeling of waiting for my own execution, I didn't have a very enjoyable birth experience with my son and am currently working on overcoming my negative feelings about childbirth, but it is taking a long time.

 
Another thing that I am reflecting on today is that pupils went back to school for their first day after the holidays, and a few years ago I would have been doing the same thing as a Secondary Art and Design teacher.  I loved the excitement of a new term, I really loved planning and fantasizing about all the wonderful displays that the work would create, imagining the kids getting all excited and not to mention the best thing of all about starting a new school year....new stationary!!, and in this sense I am feeling a sense of loss. 

However the reality never quite matched the fantasy, the lesson planning sometimes fell through, some kids hated the projects and the fresh new stationary was soon messy and creased, so in this way I am hugely relieved and thankful that I am not having to go to work and can spend my time with my husband and little boy, relishing these last few warm days of the year. 

So it is a season of changes in nature and in life, a season which holds contrasting colours as well as contrasting feelings. Lets see what it holds...