This Saturday found me out on another mushroom hunt with my daughter and some long-time mushroom hunting friends. After a coffee cake brunch, we headed for the hills with our baskets, bags and a whole passel of girls. Although the area we went appeared to be recently picked, I found some of my best Chanterelle finds in some out of the way spots where nobody had looked. For some reason, this part ...
Lantern Light
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Walking With My Lantern
"The sunlight fast is dwindling, My little lamp needs kindling. Its beam shines far in darkest night. Dear lantern guard me With your light." In this time of year when the days grow shorter and Winter draws near, parents and children involved with Waldorf Schools all over the world are making beautiful handmade lanterns and holding Martinmas lantern walks. As my children have gotten ...
Fall on the Farm
There are so many things to enjoy about Autumn time. The trees put on their brilliantly colored mantles of red, orange, rich brown and golden hues. The abundance of fruits, vegetables, nuts and mushrooms is ripe for the picking. Gardens are tucked into bed for the winter. Flocks of Canada geese sing travelling songs overhead. Creatures and humans alike nest and settle into their homes and burrows ...
For the Love of Mushrooms
The rain has come to stay, and with it comes one of my favorite wild foods, mushrooms. I took my kids out on Saturday for our first mushroom hunt of the season, and was delighted to find the familiar bright orange caps of chanterelles poking their way up through the moss and duff. Many were just emerging, and this good news tells me the season is just getting rolling. Now, one of my ...
Autumn Leaves
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Passing Through the Graveyard on Halloween Night
I aimed for an old fashioned Halloween this year, with creative handmade costumes, lots of jack-o-lanterns, a party, bobbing for apples, homemade cupcakes, and a bonfire. In keeping with this idea, we began and ended our trick-or-treating at the old Masonic pioneer cemetery that sits on a forested hilltop with winding paths lined with native plant ID plaques, and interpretive historical plaques at ...
A House for the Fairy Folk on Halloween
In keeping with my yearly tradition for Halloween, I carved one of my pumpkins into a fairy house. I endeavored to make this one very cozy. After all, it's important to give those roving faeries a place to stop, kick up their shoes and have a cup of hot mulled wine. They have a lot of hard work to do making mischief! I chose this pumpkin out of the pumpkin patch for the misshapen top ...
A Wee Fairy Family
I just finished this custom order for a woman's niece as a birthday gift. She likes to pretend everyone in her family is a different kind of fairy, so I made a mother and daughter rose fairy, a papa Tomten, and a little baby brother Tomten. I hope she enjoys playing with them. I have really been enjoying making these enchanted little families for folks. There is still plenty of time for ...
Happiness is a Great Pumpkin
I don't know exactly what it is about them, but pumpkins make me happy. Perhaps it is that way they stand out like glowing orange beacons against the fading autumn landscape. Perhaps it is the way in which they are round, and full, and imbued with the abundant qualities of the season. Perhaps it is the artistic medium they become when one applies some carving tools, chisels and a candle. Or maybe ...