Grey is November, 
except
by the bright fire
with a story,
a cushion for the cat,
the dark shut outside
and the light in the flames
where mysteries lie
and we dream.

~Around the Year :: Elsa Beskow

November is going out with the same grey it brought in. I feel similarly, just somber and dull.  I guess my melancholy has got the better of me.  I've been reading The Hobbit this week, some of it even to the children, until it got too adventurous.  I'm not sure that was the best idea, though my father read it to me as a child.  I do love the imagery of ancient times and peoples and their magical treasures.  And Beorn--he always fascinated me. 

We'll spend our Advent with the stories from Christmas Roses, which are pretty fantastical in their own right.  I can't help but look for something beyond the usual stories, and I really enjoyed them last year when I read them to myself.  It seems the more I grow, the more fiction and fantasy appeal to me, as do the stories of people from long ago.  Anything but now, it seems. 

Here's a little soundtrack for your day, whether sun or clouds.

Crafting On :: Christmas Neck Things

'Tis the season to be knitting!  I'm working on things for the in-laws, scarf-like things for their mild climates.  It seems there's a negative connotation surrounding "shawls" for non-knitters, and "shawlette" just sounds a little fussy.  Neck things.  There.  The blue is the Ooh La Lace Shawlette.  Tanya gave me nice long size five needles, so that is making the 243 stitches much easier to manage.  I look forward to seeing the little Eiffel Towers when I block it.

Here's the One-Skeiner No-Brainer, which just isn't a no-brainer, as far as I am concerned.  It requires weighing yarn and keeping records, which is clever when you're looking to work within your means.  It's pretty fast, though, and I'm also curious to see how it turns out.

And now, well, time for more knitting and sitting.  I was alone last night and this morning and really turned the house upside down for a Christmas clean.  I got everything right again with plenty of time to spare--a Christmas miracle!  The children and I have been making a few other gifts and I'll share those next week.  Happy Tuesday!

For more crafting, visit Frontier Dreams.

School Days

School days are chugging along, doing the next thing, and making adjustments to the schedule.  I've learned a lot in these almost three months of two students, both about my students and my materials.  Roan has completed his quality of numbers block, and I believe he was glad.  He said he wouldn't go past drawing thirteen fairies!  He does have a kind of diligence that is admirable, and he is willing to complete things without shutting down. 

My thoughts on his first grade year so far are that we are taking our time.  He is younger, chronologically and developmentally, than Willow was during first grade.  I am glad to take things at his speed, stretching him where needed and letting him linger over things and revisit them, too.  I need to do some research on how to handle this in my state, but I think we'll just plug along slowly and pick up with more first grade work next September.  That is the bonus of homeschooling, after all. 

Willow has completed her time and money block.  Telling time has been pretty easy for her, so we focused on units of time outside of a clock.  We learned about the phases of the moon and some units of time people used before clocks came on the scene.  Willow has a pretty good grasp on how to buy things in a store on her own, so we did the same with money.  We learned some of its history (more on Yap Island here) and worked on firming up carrying over.  I'll have to get a photo of our "math house" improvisation.

This block required me to make up the materials myself, so I relied on life experience and encyclopedias.  It feels a little archaic to use them, yes, but I think there is real merit to doing so.  They do tell about things in a sort of a story format, which I think fits well with Waldorf.  We take what works and leave the rest, in terms of outdated or biased information.  I really think it is important for children to see me using books to learn, instead of a computer.

From here, we'll move to Old Testament stories for Willow and fairy tale letters for Roan.  Willow hasn't heard many Bible stories, believe it or not, even though she has attended church.  We've kept that to seasonal festivals and bedtime rituals, which is further explained in A Guide to Child Health.  That could sound terrible to say that (especially living in a very religious area), but I suppose it is up to each parent to make choices about what their children are exposed to.

I think she is ready to hear the stories and I am seeing that Roan is ready for the more challenging fairy tales of grade one.  There is always something to learn, and I must admit I can't think of a better use of my mind.

Christmas Plans 2017

Imagine my surprise (and relief!) when I was told Advent begins a week from tomorrow.  I think we are all glad to have a little extra time this time of year.  I've begun clearing some things from the house to provide some visual silence before things begin the slow (but very excited) build toward Christmas.  This is our nature table from last year, at the height of last year's celebration.  I thought I would try to lay out my plans for this year, both to gather my thoughts and share them here.

My overall mood for this year is quiet and historical (traditional?  What's the right word here?)  I mean to say that we'll just do our own things together, for starters.  We live in a culture that's always trying to drive us away from our homes in the name of "socializing," and my personality just doesn't fit that.  Let my children see who I am and how one lives a quiet life.  As for the traditional or historical part, I mean share with the children what the people of our mountains did in their Christmas celebrations over a hundred years ago.  I'll be writing more on that very soon.

As for Saint Nicholas Day, I chose these gold coins in a velvet pouch that I think they will love, and I'll give them a few chocolate coins, per our tradition.  We'll likely read a few stories from Christmas in the Family about St. Nicholas.  We used the Jakob Streit book last year for a mini-block on St. Nicholas, fitting in with the Saints and Sages mood of second grade.  We don't generally do gifts on that day, but I may give them the books I got them over the Summer:

For Roan: Lucy and Tom's Christmas (as we all love Shirley Hughes)
For Laurel: Christmas Angels (always angels for Laurel)
For Willow: The Cricket and the Shepherd Boy (she really love Reg Down)

We've decided to get our Christmas tree around December 15th this year.  We'll go to the tree farm we've visited in the past.  It is a little funny to read about tree shortages, honestly, when I have been watching truckloads of them leave our mountains since October.  And many farms have overgrown trees, meaning we often leave a tall stump when we cut ours.  It will re-sprout, in addition to providing fresh greenery for the many wreath-makers who are so busy this time of year.  I'm not too worried about a tree shortage here. ;-)

I've bought the children's presents already and expect them to arrive on Monday.  I always love A Toy Garden, so I got everything there.  I really prefer to use small online Waldorf shops, and I do compare between them for selection and price.  Here's what I chose:

For Roan: Wood Marble Run and an Audubon bird call
For Laurel:  Tea kettle and tall soup pot
For Willow: Wooly sheep rug hooking kit and Grimm's rainbow keyring

As far as Christmas baking, I'm thinking less is more this year.  I've planned the Saint Lucia crown that turned out so well last year.  We will probably bake it the day before, since I will be alone with the children and they really want to "wake" me up.  I'm hoping to put together a Christmas pudding tomorrow, but I'm still puzzling over which recipe to use and how long to let it sit.  I'll make my usual eggnog cheesecake bars some time, along with some peppermint bark and sugar cookies.  And that's it.  Can it really be it?  It sounds luxuriously simple!

November Nature Table

Getting things just right for the evening, including the plate of food for the Tomten.

Memories

It is a chilly sixteen degrees here this morning.  I was shocked when I looked at the thermometer.  And, I was pleased, of course, and felt smug that we got our Spring bulbs planted yesterday.  It feels exciting to think of flowers appearing in those first tentative days, though I am very much hoping to be thoroughly frozen in between now and then.

Speaking of first tentative days, here are some photos of the Old Davis Homeplace back when it was the Old Howell Homeplace, a 4.3 acre piece of a larger 80-acre (or so) farm.  The outbuildings were made of American chestnut, built to stay and lean.  How did many a UPS man find our house?  The old leaning barn.  Oh, how I wish I could go back and see all these things again, as they were.

I want to say that my parents purchased it in 1981, complete with a little farmhouse the burned down in quick and mysterious fashion.  No, really, mysterious.  As were the holes in the yard they would wake up to.  Someone was convinced there was a fortune buried on the property.  The wealth was the land itself, as far as I am concerned.

My parents built their home over a period of six years (give or take) and lived in a single wide trailer in the back yard.  It had followed my mother from college to the first four years of my life.  And then one day, it sold and a truck came to haul it away.  I remember that day.

For a cute bonus, because I am dying of cute here, I guess this to be Easter of 1986.  I suppose I could have checked the back of the photo.  Oh, well.  This reminds me of Laurel when she is all dressed up.  That girl is an interesting mix of bear-wrestling strength and sweet flowers.

And here's the homeplace today, the big old trees gone and new ones having grown up.  The old buildings--the tobacco shed, well house, grainery, and barn are long gone.  A couple old apple trees remain from the orchard and my parents have had a few horses graze their way through the field.

Well, happy day to you, ever how you feel about it, whatever you are doing.  

The Woods Whisper Christmas

Who loves the wind on a stormy night, 
When curtains are drawn and fires are bright? 

~Sing Through the Day :: Plough

Yesterday was balmy, in the sixties with a cloudy sky.  I saw a mosquito come into my kitchen, flit around, and get scorched as I opened the oven.  Strong winds came in the night, ushering out the warmth, with us gladly snuggled into the feather bed.   
 

Today, the woods whisper Christmas.  You can hear it if you listen to the wind or look at the sunlight on the ferns.  I really love this time of year, when the cold and dark are still new.

I met the snow near Hurricane, and it was such a gentle sight.  I had to stop on the road and clear some big branches out of the way, with some help from others who saw me working.  The wind had littered every surface from town to country with tired leaves, twigs, and bigger branches.  Driving through Fairwood, after a stretch of green, the snow was back again.  

I continued my climb through Konnarock toward Elk Garden and met more snow, fog, and rime ice.  Snowy lichen--be still my heart.  It was another world of beauty, as Dick Proenekke would say.

Arriving at Elk Garden, the snow was beginning to drift across the road, making it just a bit slippery.  The wonderful thing about an early season snow is that the ground and roads are often warm enough to avoid any significant ice.

Here's my shivery photo of the blowing snow and fog.  It was time to hop back in the car and head back down.  Twenty-seven and 20 mph winds is pretty chilly (a mere 13° F!)  Yes, a warmer skirt is in order, though I think I prefer them to pants in the cold.  Brrrrr!

November, Inside and Out

I've come to enjoy the waiting times almost as much (or maybe more?).  There is something about that pause before the big out-breath of color or celebration or flowers that is so special.  November is a time to keep, for sure.  I'm making lots of cranberry mors these days, several times a week, always eyeing my honey supply.  I've upped the water to eight cups, and I added in a few extras like orange zest or sliced apples that were not so great for eating fresh.  Star anise makes all the difference, but it's still very good with powdered ginger and spices. 

I made Susan Branch's star croutons (and discovered that I do like them, just not the rocks served on salads) and tomato bisque (that's your cheese, Kim!)  The croutons are from Christmas from the Heart of the Home and go like this: tiny cutouts (I used the end of a loaf of whole wheat), 2 parts butter, 1 part oil, healthy dose of garlic, toast in skillet.  I always use way more garlic than a recipe recommends.  Always.

We are horse sitters, again, as my parents have gone out to the original Old Davis Homeplace in Missouri.  The children love Golden Boy and he loves them, though he would love us more if we had grain for him or some of those long-gone September apples. . . I think Willow is mimicking his movable ears here.

I'm getting excited about Christmas and formulating some things to say about our plans this year, as always.  I like to keep a list of presents past for the children, as I forget so quickly.  I will say that my plans this year involve fewer baked, sweet things.  This is for health, in addition to easing my mind about the to-do list.  Oh, and look at this holly at my parents' house!  The trees near us in town are covered, too.  Holly in all the rooms!  I even have a wee green glass vase, just like my mother's big one she always fills with holly. 

Speaking of plants that are so beautiful right now, the blueberries are on fire with color.  Ours are a wonderful red-orange here in town, and my parents' are a purpley-pink as you can see.  The oaks are the last trees to come into their own with colorful leaves.  I love that the background of this photo has one of the children of the old-growth oaks.  Oh, to turn back time.  Roan would have loved those trees.

And some sheep for Willow, always sheep.  When I was little, there weren't many folks raising sheep, as best as I can recall.  Now, they are everywhere here.  Willow used to ask me to take alternate sheep-free routes if she had not brought her Lamby in the car, but now every road seems to have them.  Sheep and donkeys litter the landscape in the sweetest, softest way.  Maybe if my parents' field is still clear when the Old Davis Homeplace becomes mine. . .

Well, it's time to get up, I guess.  I think I hear someone stirring inside the house--the computer now lives on the enclosed back porch, which is also quickly becoming a library.

Happy final-weekend-before-the-speedy-slide-to-the-end-of-the-year!

Nature School :: Places to Go at the End of the World

We had our quarterly (or so) outing with Dr. Davis this week.  Up to Elk Garden to see the sleeping forest.  There is no smoke to cloud the view and no crunchy grass to walk over.  Even so, I can tell that the slow desertification of the Appalachian rainforests is happening.  Streams that flowed when I was younger, ones that iced over in the cold winters, are now dry.

Does it ever feel funny to be alive right now?  I suppose every generation must have said something similar.  There is always some looming threat, small or large, and ours is climate change.  It reminds me of the introduction from Michael Chabon in D'Aulaire's Book of Norse Myths:

We all grew up--all of us, from the beginning--in a time of violence and invention, absurdity and Armageddon. . . I took comfort, as a kid, in knowing that things had always been as awful and as wonderful as they were now, that the world was always on the edge of total destruction. . .

There are times that I just want to run away to these mountains and lose myself deep in a mist-shrouded valley or on a ridge covered in stunted trees, never to come out again.  I know that running away is a fantasy of children and adults, alike.  Too bad I don't seem to find it when I am asleep.  I think I need a real vacation, completely alone, to be in some wild place for a day or two. . .  The introverts dream.

A Lantern Walk

A whole fleet, flock, herd of lanterns this year.  We were joined by our friends and their daughter for our Martinmas lantern walk.  It felt like such a crowd of us, meandering up the street at night.

We sang our usual songs and chatted a little, glad for the social time.  The little girls had battery-powered tea lights, which was just perfect.  I think we should do this at sunset next year, note to self.

We didn't stop in at any houses this time around, but we were passed by plenty of cars.  I have a feeling I'll have to take another walk this evening, and I wouldn't mind a bit.  Maybe I'll try for sunset.

We returned home to potato soup and some play time for the children.  They seemed to have more fun as the hour wore on, while we mothers were wilting at the end of the day.  Social naptime--that's something I never though I would want. ;-)

I set all the lanterns on our new piano (having folded down the music stand).  I couldn't get a clear shot, but that's how good memories are, soft around the edges.  I don't think we'd have it any other way.

Here are some links for this time of year--it's not too late to have your own lantern walk.

Lighting the Way with Martinmas
A Tired Mother's Impression of Martinmas
Lantern Walk Songs

Martinmas Blessings

It completely escaped my mind to send out any Martinmas wishes yesterday.  I hope the day was magical for those who celebrate.  We've been quite busy this weekend with the new old piano and shifting lots of things around.  Our lantern walk is this evening, and that will be a quiet pause before beginning another week in this dark time of year.  I've got a few more lanterns to make, so I'm off to get busy.  Happy Sunday!

Fog on the Mountain

 Fog is the theme lately, it seems.  The world is covered in icy crystals down here in the valley and I am betting there is rime ice up high, once more.  Rime ice is, of course, frozen fog that drifts by and catches on things.  Yesterday, though, fog and mud.  We'd had plans for Raccoon Branch, but opted to go up high, instead.  The rain overalls and boots were still a help, and the children enjoyed a different kind of romp in the woods.

I think I feel foggy, in general, lately.  We've been in the thick of birthdays and guests and school and leaf piles.  We're also getting a piano tomorrow morning.  Wish us luck on the move--it's only going one block, but it is the trip out of one house and into ours that will be the challenge.  It all feels so messy to me, and I am ready for a little quiet and order.  I've been looking around the house, trying out new furniture arrangements and taking out clutter, hoping everything will fit. 

Rose hip November
Autumn I'll remember
Gold landing at our door;
Catch one leaf and fortune will surround you evermore

~Vashti Bunyan

The final blaze of color is over, I think.  Heavy rains this week, and the winds that brought them here, have taken care of that.  Laurel's birthday was the last day, I think.  The leaves were just barely hanging on.  We made the leaf crowns around lunch time and then the leaves showered down all afternoon.  I took these other photos over the weekend, on a little drive alone.  It feels like this Autumn, though late to come and spotty in appearance, has really been beautiful.

The time change, along with the damp weather has ushered in the time of year that I love so.  I am hopeful that this Winter will feel more like Winter than the last one did--one long, perpetual, fickle Spring.  It seems like the temperatures and moisture have been more of what we are used to in the few weeks.  There are no big swings up into the mid-seventies in the forecast.  Everyone feels more like hibernating, and more like having cabin fever, at the same time.

It's time for cranberry everything, like this cranberry mors, and tea every day, all the things that make a home and meal cozy.  I am trying to like tea again, as we somehow fell out of favor in the past couple years.  Chicken soup was met with rave reviews yesterday.  I'm now looking at my knitting plans and panicking, while Willow is making her list longer.  I'm glad she's taking off on knitting, as I think it is important to have such skills.

Nature school is going to be cold and wet today.  The rain overalls and coats are at the ready, along with parkas, so it's just a matter of getting us all dressed for it.  I am looking forward to a bit of a hike and maybe we'll see some rushing streams.  I would like a bit of sunshine, though.

Four

Puppet play of "Father Birthday" from Wynstones Gateways.

Crafting On :: Birthday Things

We've been working on birthday gifts for Laurel as of late.  Willow made Lily the Lamb from Knitting for Children: A Second Book.  I helped with the assembly and embellishment, but Willow gained a lot of confidence with stockinette stitch and casting on.  She has plans for the Leaping Cat next.

Roan and I worked on the Fairy House kit from Sarah's Silks.  Making peg people with silk clothes is tricky, but they came out well.  I found myself digging for acorn caps, when I am usually covered up in them!  The little girl's hat was held on with a clamp until the glue dried, in the event you try this.  There were enough supplies to dress a number of peg people, so I am planning to make three for Christmas stockings.

Lastly, a fun, fast craft--leaf crowns from Earthways.  These were very simple to do with fresh leaves that were ready to fall.  Just clip off the stems with scissors and then use them to attach the leaves to each other. 

For more crafting, visit Frontier Dreams.