Celebrating Michaelmas

Ahhh, the beginning of Autumn is truly here in the Northwest! Crisp mornings, drizzly days and dark evenings.

Last week we celebrated Michaelmas. This festival is all about courage, bravery and heroic deeds and is a perfect analogy for the soul strength we need to get through the long, dark, cold winter.

I didn't get too many pics (having too much fun actually DOING!) but here are the few I did capture.

We picked the last of the blackberries in the sunshine and Kaiya found this woolly friend

We read Saint George and the Dragon and made Dragon Bread. Almonds for the spikes and teeth!

Dinner was cozy chili and bread with blackberry jam

We also dyed silk capes with yellow dye to make "capes of light." The kids had fun reinacting the scenes from the book (especially the part where the dragon falls into the blackberry bushes) with their capes and (invisible) swords.

How was your Michaelmas?

Farm Friday

I so enjoy our trips to the local farm on Fridays to gather milk and any other goodies that the season brings! This is also the kids' favorite part of the week and it is so very hard to get them to leave. I guess I could have worse problems.

Today we visited the growing chicks and milk cows in the pasture. We've watched the chicks grow from tiny fluff balls to awkward chicken teenagers. It is quite a way to mark the passage of time.

I love the feeling of being so close to our food source and this is reflected in my children's knowledge. My four year old believes that milk only comes from farms (not the grocery store) and my nine year old says he would like to study to be a farmer someday. They understand that the beef cattle in the field will one day nourish a family and that the farm's precious baby cow, Della, drinks the same milk that we do.

Seeing the white prefold diapers blowing in the breeze as we left was the perfect way to end today's farm trip. I love knowing my farmers, their family and the animals that benefit from love, sunshine and bountiful pasture!

Have you met your local farm community yet?

Dwindling Light

Oh heavens! I just scouted the forescast for the next ten days (ahem, snow showers? For real?) and happened to glance at the hours of sunrise and sunset; 7:20am and 4:31pm, respectively. As our dark nights get longer (and longer and longer) and daylight is at a premium, we're turning inward here to help each other find the light inside each of us.

On Thursday, we'll be celebrating Martinmas. Making lanterns, cooking warm, nourishing food and talking about giving of ourselves to help others. I'm excited to be passing along this tradition to the kids and, most of all, I'm excited for our lantern walk and soup and bread afterwards!

I found some great resources for telling Martinmas stories here, and many tutorials for creating lanterns. My favorite lantern story is here.

Here's to the fading sunlight and inner spirit!