Imbolc

On Tuesday we observed and celebrated Imbolc here in the Southern Hemisphere. According to my moon calendar it was the 2nd August, but it seems there is a lot of information that states it's either the 1st or 2nd or both!

So anyway, Spring is on the way! The earth is waking up, the days are continuing to get longer (and at a faster pace now), and I see signs of spring everywhere I go.

I've been walking the kids to and from school this week and it's been so nice to go at that slow pace and take it all in. I've seen a lot of Jasmine vines all coming into flower, as well as daffodils and many other plants that have been in hibernation over winter. My own plum tree is now in full blossom.

Photo taken this morning before the
 sky completely clouded over.

Over dinner on Tuesday night, the kids and I chatted about the things we all each look forward to over the coming year. We had a meal based on the colours white, yellow, and orange to represent the return of the light - a chicken and chickpea curry served on rice!

After dinner I headed off for an Imbolc celebration with my women's group. We gathered outside and were able to be at a venue with a lovely firepit to sit around and discuss what things we'd like to let go of over the next year, and what things we'd like to work on creating. We then shared a delicious hot cup of chai tea! It was pretty cold out there in the beautiful, crisp, clear night, but nice and toasty by the fire.

Sunday

Well, the school holidays are over and we had a really nice, relaxing time.

I was talking with the kids how Imbolc will be on Tuesday, and what we'd like to do to celebrate it. Imbolc symbolises The First Light - the start of the return of spring and new growth. The kids really look forward to a family meal (although Simon won't be here for this one), a story about the seasonal changes, and a few decorations that help us tune into nature and the seasons. I'll be heading off for a meet up with my women's group.

All that talk inspired Danielle to pull our our Earthwise activities book, find the winter activities and browse for something to make. She settled on these little paper decorations (although they are for valentine's cards and the wrong season for that ... as well as the fact we don't do anything for valentine's anyway lol).

Simon arrived home with another trailer-load of sand from a Freecycle offer. The base for our garden shed is almost ready lol. The chickens thought it was great having us all down in the garden - especially since there were bugs on offer! The kids spent ages sifting through the sand to find tasty treats for them to snaffle.

And there was plenty of sand left over to refill the sandpit! Enjoying a little play until they were shooed inside to get warm!

I'm now onto the fourth Earth's Children book - The Plains of Passage. I zoomed through The Mammoth Hunters last week while on holiday (and no computer in the evenings...). I realised while reading The Mammoth Hunters that I hadn't read this far into the series before.

I'm going to get back into my drawing this week and hopefully finish off the course.

Lantern Festival

Last night we joined up with some friends and went along to their Steiner school Lantern Festival.

It was a magical evening out (after having rained all day, we were fortunate it stayed away for the hour we were there). We were prepared for anything though, and were weather-proofed in our coats, hats and gumboots.

Winter Solstice part 2

This evening we had our family winter solstice celebration. I invited my parents over to join in our feast (they came last year as well) and we had a lovely relaxing time.

After school the kids and I gathered together some fresh greenery for part of the table display. We found all our candles and had them set up around the house to provide all the lighting we would need.

As we all sat down at the table in the dark, I lit our centre candle that represented our "family/sun". We then each shared special things that we appreciate about winter and what we love best. Then I lit my own candle using the centre candle, I lit Danielle's, she lit Simons, he lit Grampies, who then lit Nathan's, who then lit Nannie's.

We then ate our feast!

Oh, and I planted another 20 or so garlic cloves this morning as well!

The seven stars...

I've been wanting to make a set of cute candle holders with the kids to represent the coming winter solstice and the return of the light and longer days. I proposed 5 as a number, but then Nathan suggested that we make 7 to represent the 7 stars of Matariki - the Maori New Year.

We made the holders using salt dough, and then baked them till hard (removed the candles and left the holders in place while they baked). Apparently though, while sitting on the table that night (before decorating), the dog thought they would make a tasty treat...fortunately I was able to fix up the one chewed holder with a little left over dough (and replaced the munted candle/foil holder!).

We then decorated them with water paints, sequens and paua pieces.

A weekend of outdoor fun for all...

On Sunday, Simon took the kids over to Wainuiomata so Nathan could ride in the Bike Jams. He rode in the Bike Jams for the first time last year and really enjoyed it. This year's course was a bit longer (being a year older), and a bit more challenging. I was a bit sad about missing out, but they had loads of fun. Danielle rode on Simon's bike on the bike seat attached to his front bar, and they rode at the back of the pack while Nathan rode on where he was comfortable. It's not a competition, just a friendly ride with kids of similar age and ability.

Me? I had another women's weekend away. This one was a bit closer to home, but equally surprising and pleasant. Music, singing, sharing stories, campfire, delicious food, sleeping in a yurt... I went along thinking I didn't "know" anyone, but, as I have been finding more and more lately with people I meet, our lives seems to be interwoven and full of synchronicity. And there were many I recognised from around my community and was given the opportunity to get to know better.

Then Mother's Day dinner around at my mum's.

A yummy, fulfilling weekend all round.

Autumn tradition

About a month ago we decided to head off and do some apple picking. We made the trip last year as well and can see this becoming a yearly jaunt...

We came home with 15kgs of apples. They were lovely and crispy for almost 4wks before softening. Last week I dehydrated the remainder for snacks.

Winter Solstice

We had a lovely evening with my parents at our house to celebrate the winter solstice and the returning of a stronger sun and longer days.

The menu kind of took on a life of its own and just "happened".

I had decided already to do a regular roast chicken meal with roasted veges and greens. However, it felt a little lacking and this is where I wanted to bring in a bit more of the Maori traditional food to honour Matariki.

So I got googling on cooking a Boil Up - otherwise known as Pork and Puha - and Doughboys - otherwise known as pumpkin dumplings. Not sure why they don't have more attractive names, but there ya go.

After googling some recipes, Simon was in charge of making the pumpkin dumplings while I got onto the boil up (although didn't have any puha in my garden so substituted in some spinach). That was the starter. Tasted good too! I did add flavouring/chicken stock though which wasn't in the recipe..and our one didn't have the tomatoes.

The main was the roast chicken meal with a dessert that Grampie made.

Some of the decorations the kids made to welcome the sun (and somewhere in my parenting I haven't told Danielle to not glue things on the walls and windows lol ;))

Connecting with the seasons

One thing I've been increasingly working on for myself and the kids this year is to be more in touch with the seasons. While I've been connecting on a basic level just because I grow a garden, I have been wanting to enhance the experience through other avenues.

In my last book buying stint just after Christmas I purchased a couple of seasonal craft and activity books where I can get the kids involved in a fun way that makes the seasonal connection more meaningful than just announcing that it is now officially summer or autumn.

Today is our Autumn equinox so it started off a new round of crafts, stories and activities in our home.

Yesterday I read the kids a folk story about the equinox and then we made some lanterns to symbolise the coming darkness and a means of providing some light to light our way through the dark season.

We then picked some pears off our pear tree and made a yummy pear crumble (just like the apple crumble I blogged about a few weeks back).

A few weeks back after we processed the corn, we used our left over corn husks to make "people" that are currently on display. I have also got a mini-pumpkin from last year's harvest that is on display (can't believe it's still hanging in there!).