A Place Like This......

Rock Paint Before Lunch and KAL

Coming downstairs for breakfast I heard a lot of bustling activity from the kitchen.

"Morning Mom! Hurry up we have places to go. We're going to do something fun today." And with that my sweet little "O" continued to pack a picnic lunch.

"Where 're we headed sweet boy?"

"Tremont"

Tremont is this beautiful little place in the Smoky Mountains and home to the Smoky Moutain Research Center at Tremont.

Last year O had gone to camp there and had such a good time. He wanted to share a little of that with his mom.

First a stop to the council house is made to speak our intentions. "We are planning to make rock paint before lunch", the young "O" stated.

 From here we walked down to the little river having wonderful conversation.

As I stopped to take it all in,  young boy ran ahead to start his quest for the perfect stone to make the perfect paint.

As I looked up he was already in "creation mode".

 Choosing a stone, dipping it in the water and then rubbing it back and forth on the large river rock creates a color. 

How's this color mom?

And as tradition dictates, one can not eat their lunch or any meal for that matter, at Tremont without having decorated theimselves with rock paint.

It was such a nice occasion to have "O" create such a lovely excursion from his own design. I can honestly say after painting myself before lunch that I felt dressed properly for the picnic.  Such a beautiful sight to sit and enjoy with my sweet boy.

I have to confess that I did take some knitting with me. Here's a look at this week's KAL which I'm doing with Linda. I'm almost ready to start binding off for the armholes. Next week I hope to have a body on this giant version of the Shalom sweater.

The horrible heat of last week has left and so now I'm off to work in my garden. See you tomorrow!

And even more buzz about Bees

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I spent a lot of time taking long walks and working in my garden as well as crafting a bit. So all in all it was a perfect weekend.

On Friday I wrote about this great movie Queen of the Sun. What reminded me that I wanted to share this movie with you was my Ren over at Lady of the Arts.

Ren ended up having bees in her chimney. Everyone told her how to kill the bees but she wanted just to remove them from her chimney, not to kill them. After some searching, she found someone who could remove the bees and place them in a hive. She wrote about this incredible experience. If you have a bee issue please look for a beekeeper to come and help you. We need to save every bee we can. It is becoming a very dire situation.

Also commenting about the bees was our favorite crofter Jacqui who mentioned Gunther Hauk, a bio-diverse beekeeper. He just happens to be one of the beekeepers in the movie Queen of the Sun. It was after seeing the movie that I realized there were different types of beekeeping. Industrial honey making has it's share of woes just like industrial farming, meat, etc and is one of the reasons for the decline in bees. 

Intrigued by Jacqui's comment I decided to look into things and discovered the Gunther Hauk lives fairly close to me and teaches bio-diverse bee-keeping at the Spikenard Farm Bee Sancturary, which he co-founded. Don't you think my biodiverse garden needs bio-diverse bees?

Today I will look into this further and see what the road holds. Thank you friends for your wonderfully insightful emails and comments. They have inspired me to no end or should I say "to know" end.

Rose Jam

I think by now you've figured out that everything is in full bloom around here. Between the smell of the honeysuckle and all of my roses blooming, the fragrance around the house is almost unbearable......in a good sort of way.

 
My zephrine rose which smells like raspberries is flourishing and so before the bugs get to it I thought I would pull a few blossoms off and make some rose jam.

Carefully we cut the roses.

 
 
Carefully we pull the petals off the rosehip.

 
Measure out 6 cups of rose petals.

 
Soak them in water for about an hour.

 
Pick up a handful of rose petals and squeeze the water out of them.

 
Bruise and squeeze the petals well.

 
After you've brusied one handful of petals, place it in the tray and sprinkle a little sugar so that each petal is touched by sugar. Keep repeating this process until all the petals have been brusied and sugared. They can be in the same tray. Cover and refridgerate over night. Save the remaining sugar for the following day.

 
Place the remaining sugar, water, and lemon juice in a saucepan. dissolve contents over a low heat. Stir the rose petals into the mixture and allow to simmer 20 minutes.

 
Bring to a boil and continue to boil for about 15 minutes until the mixture thickens. If you have a candy or jam thermometer, cook and stir until the jam reaches 221F or 105 C. Remove from heat and stir in one box of pectin. Place in a steril and warm jar.

 

                                              Rose Jam Recipe

• 6 cups red, pink, or white rose petals.
• 2 cups of sugar
• 4 1/2 cups of water
• juice of 2 lemons
• one box of pectin

* Very important tip. Do not use roses which you have sprayed with insecticide. Your roses should smell very fragrant and be chemical free.

 

 

 

Spring keeps on Springing.

There I was on Earth Day wishfully planting my sunflower forest. By the time I woke up on Saturday my garden was in full color and the sun was shining brightly.

 

 

From the smallest of herbs,  my thyme......

 
to the Irises my father planted 10 years ago.

 

The garden is alive and well. I spent a little time under my fig tree, shading myself in all the glory of Spring. Hope you enjoyed your weekend and any celebrating you may have done.

 

 

Happy Earth Day

I woke up this morning and did my usual.....I took a little ramble around the yard. The air had shifted overnight. No longer was there a cold morning bite to the air. It was just a little breezy with a hint of warmth. I just couldn't go inside. In the quiet of this morning I grabbed a tray of hope.

A short time ago we planted some sunflower seeds.

 

And now the seeds have unfurled their mystery and magic and have become seedlings ready to plant in the garden.

 
So in my pyjamas and mucklucks, no bathrobe, I grabbed this tray and started planting. Completely celebrating this day of the Earth in hopes that this tray will grow into a beautiful sunflower forest.

 
A place for us to hide and read a book in, to capture our summer days.  There's a lot of hope in this little tray. We'll just have to wait and see what happens. Happy Earth Day friends and have a wonderful weekend.

 

Giveaway from Little Acorn Learning

 A little over a year ago I virtually met Eileen Straiton from Little Acorn Learning. The moment I received her e-newsletter, I immediately felt nurtured by her daily creative caring. As the year has progressed I've had the honor and pleasure of collaborating with Eileen on her newsletter and working as a contributing author for the Little Acorn Enrichment Guides.

Her bright energy, kindness, good humor and creativity never cease to amaze me. I thought you might like to meet her too and so today she is visiting and at the end of this post a giveaway for your very own edition of the April Enrichment Guide.

 

Tell us a little bit about you and your family.

 

My husband and I have four daughters ages 17, 10, 6 and 4.  We live in a small town in Connecticut and strive to create a home filled with warmth, love and creativity.I run Little Acorn Playgarden out of the lower level of our home.  I also publish the Little Acorn Learning guides which support parents, homeschoolers and caregivers in their work with children. Our daughters attend our local school and enjoy coming home to our playgarden each day.  I work hard to enrich their lives with nature, crafting, baking, song, artistic activities and domestic tasks.  I like to call us ‘waldorf afterschoolers’ and the term inspired me to create a new monthly enrichment program for other parents and teachers working with school aged children. My husband, Brian, works full time and also enjoys woodworking and creates many fun project with our girls in his workshop. 

 

2. What led you to starting a day-care center in your home and how long have you had your nature based daycare?

Before my work with young children, I was a direct mail advertising executive working crazy hours.  I desperately wanted to find a way to be home with my daughters and was frustrated with the childcare offered at many of the centers I visited.  After a brief time of freelancing from home, I decided to open up my playgarden and created the childcare program that I had dreamt about for my own children.  Our little ‘school’ opened in 2005 and I have been so lucky to have such wonderful families that also support me in finding balance as I raise my daughters. 

 

3.       How did you first become introduced to Waldorf?

I rediscovered myself after becoming a mother and sought out anything I could find on how to provide my children with a healthy childhood.  I was naturally drawn to the beauty and truth behind the philosophy of Waldorf Education. It not only supports the healthy development of a child’s physical being but also that of the child’s soul.  I feel this is so very important, especially in the times we live in now; to develop the whole child – head, heart and hands.

 
 

 

4.    What inspired you to start your own publishing company?

Little Acorn Learning began as a monthly childcare program that I used in my own childcare center.  I decided to offer my monthly ‘guides’ to others who work with children each day and the response was amazing.  The guides offer crafts, recipes, songs, games, book recommendations and caregiver inner-work for the well-being of the adult. 

In addition to our original monthly guides we have added natural childcare menus, seasonal celebration ebooks, ecourses and our new monthly enrichment program which has taken a unique form of almost an ezine with contributions from amazing writers and bloggers based on weekly themes.

 

5.    I know everyone is going to want an answer to this next question, Where do you find time to get it all done?”

Finding balance is a real challenge for me.  I struggle just like all working parents to manage home, family, work and self-care.  I often have to shift things around to make it work.  I get overwhelmed sometimes – many times.  I remind myself often that my main responsibility is to be a good parent and wife.  That will always be my most important job in life… the rest is just a bonus. 

 I am very lucky to have a husband who cooks dinner many nights and helps with dishes, baths and bedtime stories when need be.  He is a wonderful father and I’m so grateful to have him.  I also have great kids who do their part around the house when asked and are very responsible. 

 One thing I am working on now is finding time to include more silence in my life.  As you can imagine, working with children and having a large family makes that very difficult.  I have begun by including walks alone, yoga classes and time outdoors into my schedule.  Nature heals me and brings me back to center when life gets too crazy. 

For a chance to win the April Edition please leave a comment below. The Giveaway ends on Friday at 8 pm EST.

 

This is a completely enchanting edition for the whole family to enjoy. Eileen says:"The Afterschool Enrichment books are different from our regular 3 day and 5 day lesson plan guides... the Enrichment books follow the
rhythm of a weekly theme with the flexibility that teachers, homeschoolers and afterschooling parents need to enrich their children's
Waldorf learning experience at home or school.  Our new Monthly Enrichment Guides are filled to the rim with crafts, recipes,
activities, stories and inner-work suggestions and they follow a weekly theme to keep your home or school following a seasonal rhythm.  
They are not structured like classroom lesson plans, as our Childcare Lesson Plan Guides are and keep older children in mind along with
the caregiver.  They are created so you can use the ideas as time allows without having each day specifically planned out for you

 For more information about April's Enrichment Guide have a look here.

 Comments are now closed. I want to thank everyone who participated. We'll have a winner announcement soon.

Mesmerizing Music Rolling Along in Japan

I was visiting Ren's blog Lady of the Arts today when I saw the most incredible video. Filmed in the Japanese forest of Kyushu. A wooden ball goes down a very long wooden marimba playing Bach's Cantata # 147: Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring. The sound you hear comes from the actual marimba and is not super imposed.

I know when little "o" gets hold of this it will inspire him to do the same thing. Maybe we'll start with Twinkle Twinkle Little Star before we work our way through the Smoky Mountains with more dificult repetoire .This amazing instrument was made by Kenjiro Matsuo at Invisible Design Lab.

Spring Alive

The cold weather has finally turned warm. The weather over the weekend was nothing less than exquisite.

 
 
 
Some people in my family were just plain giddy. Couldn't stop laughing for any thing.

 
 

 

Oh well, good weather will do that to one. What did you do this weekend and how was the weather where you're at? Did you get the April Fool's snowstorm?

 

 

 

It's Spring

Spring usually makes it's first appearance with the sign of side walk chalk.

 
Close behind this is my favorite Forsythia bush. This year the yellow is almost palpable.

 
With the warm weather comes the fairy house building. I had a couple of very cute scavengers in the yard this week collecting sticks for their fairy abodes.

 

 
And then of course with Spring comes our very favorite gardening companions and friends .....worms.

 
It's not who we dig up exactly, but more importantly, who we dig them up with.

 

I'll leave you today continuing to remember Japan. We have a beautiful Sakura forest near our home which was planted by Denso, a Japanese company here in town. Every year I wait for the blooming and this year it holds a special place in my heart. Please have a look at the last two posts below to see how you can help the people of Japan. Be well and I'll see you tomorrow.

 

 

Tuesday Through My Window

 
Tuesday Through the Windows is officially over at Swedish House but how could I not share this. The colors in my garden are so intense I can almost taste them. Though there is a bite in the air I still feel the warmth of the sun on my face.

 

 
These are the views from my kitchen window. To the left I see the mountains and to the right I see our forest. I love this time of year. It feels cozy and a million crafting projects run through my mind. But for now, I'm just going to walk through the forest to the treehouse to see what's going on down there. Oh and don't forget the giveaway. It ends at 6 pm est today. Have a great Tuesday.