AFTER reading The Gingerbread Baby, of course we had to make some gingerbread! Just as we were thinking about this, a package arrived from our German grandparents with a gingerbread house to make and decorate! This kept Emma and Grandma busy for quite some time.
A mother mouse fears for her freezing newborn mouseling as her nest is blown away. Other animals offer her the use of their homes as they are going to see a King. As one after the other these beds too are blown away by the blustery north wind, the mother mouse runs desperately to a wooden shack, where she is surprised to find all the other animals. Also there are a man, a woman and a baby lying in a manger. The mother mouse snuggles her mouseling under the baby's covers and knows that they are safe.
Well known in the US but not so well in the UK, Jan Brett is an award-winning author/illustrator famous for her illustrated borders that give clues to what will happen next. The Mitten is her retelling of an old Ukrainian folktale in which a boy loses a mitten in the snow. It is discovered by more and more woodland creatures who take shelter inside it. The mitten is stuffed to bursting point when the bear sneezes and all the animals fly out. Unaware of all this activity, the boy catches the mitten in the air and runs home, where his grandmother wonders how one mitten got so big.
As with The Mitten, this book is full of the most incredibly intricate illustrations, but beautiful and not overwhelming. The story is a twist on the Gingerbread Man, in which a little boy opens the oven too soon and instead of a Gingerbread Man, out pops a Gingerbread Baby. He runs away and everyone chases him. But the boy Matty goes back into his kitchen and begins to bake again. The whole procession of people chasing the Gingerbread Baby arrives in the woods to find a pile of crumbs and assumes he has finally met his match. But in fact, the Gingerbread Baby is happily dancing around inside the gingerbread house that Matty baked for him.
While out in the woods to feed the animals in Winter, a family comes across an exhausted and starving deer. They bring him home, feed him and keep him warm by the fire. In the morning he is gone. Under the Christmas tree, an extra present awaits with a note from Father Christmas himself. The deer the children had found was his lead reindeer, and by caring for him, the children had saved Father Christmas' present delivery. A sweet story with wonderful pictures in warm glowing colours. 
WE were patiently waiting. Lighting only one, then two, then three, then finally all four of the small candles in our Advent wreath. Every Sunday in Advent a new candle was lit, and we added a verse to the poem dedicated to the four kingdoms. 
Then, on Christmas Day, the children found baby Jesus lying in a manger in the stable, surrounded by his parents, the animals and some shepherds. And at the table, we lit the centre candle. Happy Birthday! 
MMH the smell of baking in the house! Officially, Tuesday is baking day in our house, but we've had a lot of Tuesdays recently to get everything made. We've also had fun mixing traditions. No self-respecting English household would celebrate Christmas without mince pies. Using a muffin pan, these turned out a little deep. Then there was the Christmas cake. That was a first for us. Again, we didn't have the right sized pan, so that turned out a little flat. Moving on to America we baked dozens and dozens of snickerdoodles for gifts. They were placed a little too close to one another on the tray so turned out a little too - erm - joined together. By the time we got to Germany it was two days before Christmas so we gave up and bought Lebkuchen at the shops. They were yummy, but they didn't make the house smell delicious.
MUSIC is such an intrinsic part of the Christmas experience to me. Whether a beautiful and reverent Nine Lessons and Carols service at church, or the short list of 'holiday songs' that repeat ad nauseum in every public space starting in November, there's no doubt that they play an important role.
AS we are busy preparing Christmas gifts for friends and family, we took a moment to prepare something special for the birds in the garden too. A pinecone bird feeder is a great project for even quite young children. First we had to collect some pinecones that were not too prickly, then carefully poke peanut butter with a butter knife into all the holes. "One for the pinecone, one for me..." The sticky blob was then rolled in a plate of bird seed, then finally a ribbon selected and tied to the top.
We have quite a few of these tasty ornaments around the garden and have learned from experience the optimum hanging place. Too low and the dog eats them. Too close to a sturdy branch or tree trunk and the squirrels have a feast. On the end of a rather spindly twig seems to work best to reserve this treat for the little birds. 
THOUGH originally used year-round, over the centuries pomanders have become associated with Christmas. They are natural air fresheners usually made from oranges, lemons or apples studded with cloves. Pomanders may be hung as an aromatic decoration, grouped in a large bowl as a beautiful display or placed in laundry cupboards or drawers to scent your clothes.
Over several weeks, the pomander will cure dry and shrink to about half its size. You can also coat the completed pomander in a mixture of orris root and spices, which helps the drying and preservation process. Done correctly, it will last many years. The name comes from the French 'pomme d'amber' (amber apple). In the middle ages, pomanders containing many different scents, such as ambergris or musk, were worn on a chain around the neck or belt and carried as protection against infection and bad smells. Hopefully that won't be necessary in our home this Christmas!
THE weather's getting colder. In our driveway, we had hundreds of acorns fallen, but now we only have the caps. Same with dogwood berries. They're all gone. And when we went out for a walk, we tried to find some really big acorns for crafts, but also only found the caps. Well of course - they have all been snapped up by hard working little animals building up their winter stores. This might seem obvious, but I have never noticed them disappearing before.
THANKS to a little friend called Carmen, I learned something new the other day. We got fresh pecan nuts from our farmer's market and wanted to take them along as a snack to the park. But I didn't have a nutcracker. On the way to the park we scoured three shops looking for a cheap nutcracker but didn't find one. Recounting this to our friends, they just laughed and Carmen demonstrated how to crack them. Oh. In my defense they were not the store-bought kind that you can crack with your hands. They did need to be crushed with a stone. But still - no nutcracker was required.
MARTINMAS commemorates the life of St. Martin, a knight who is best remembered for sharing his warm cloak with a beggar on a cold night. It is also the first of many festivals of light celebrated at this time of year. With our Waldorf group, we remembered St. Martin's deeds through song and theatre then shared light through the neighbourhood on a lantern walk. In the cold, dark evening, there was something magical about the sound of children singing and a penny whistle, and a parade of little lights walking through the streets.
THIS Autumn's nature table has - as always - been a work in progress. We like for our table to be a living part of our family life rather than something to be looked at only, and it is played with every day. But as the 'treasures' threatened to turn our living room into a wild, unbridled forest, the nature table gnomes visited more and more frequently at night for a little clean up.
OUR morning didn't pan out quite how I planned it today. While searching for a snack, Emma declared with zeal (and hopefully a little exaggeration): "We need to clean the fridge, Mama. It's filthy!" She proceeded to empty all the jars and bottles from the door sections and her toddler brother made a beeline for the chocolate syrup. Trying to look beyond impending mayhem, I played along.
THERE'S no greater justification for dressing in layers than weather that just cannot make up its mind! By mid October it was getting consistently chilly enough to switch out summer for winter wardrobes, especially when we had our first night frosts. Definitely coats, hats and gloves in the morning, but now it's warming up to summer temperatures by the afternoon.
NOW that the summer heat is gone, it was time to go back to "our swamp" and see what it looked like. (The humidity and many many spider webs make this an unappealing walk with two little children in the summer.) 
There was a silver lining in the cloud of foliage: in an area usually undisturbed by humans, a box turtle sat beneath a tree. Box turtles are the original omnivore: they eat almost any insect, virtually any fruit or berry, mushrooms, a variety of vegetable matter, and even carrion. They must be doing something right, as this diet keeps them alive and kicking on average 25-30 years.
WE haven't had raw milk for a while, so when we got some this week it seemed to be a good opportunity to make butter. First we had to pour the milk into a wide-mouthed container and let the cream settle. Then we skimmed off the cream and put it in a jar with a lid. Next came the fun part: shake, shake, shake then shake some more. Gradually the butter began to form as a yellow chunk, the buttermilk separating out. After rinsing the butter in cold water, it was ready to be eaten. Hmm, needed a little salt for my taste, but otherwise quite delicious, especially with homemade apple butter.
AFTER looking for leaves shaped liked stars and hands in nature class last week, we continued our study of leaf shapes in our own back garden. Autumn is so often about the colour of leaves, but having them all around on the ground is such a great opportunity to look at their other attributes! We found leaves with fingers, with noses, with teeth, with holes. Even to me it was quite a revelation to ignore the colours and look at other things. Of course, most leaves were from trees in our own garden, but we found a stray tulip tree leaf and couldn't even identify the source in neighbouring properties. I said it must have floated a long way on a breeze, and Emma contemplated: "Perhaps it heard we were having a Michaelmas Celebration and wanted to come to the party." Perhaps indeed.
With our leaf collection we preserved the shapes by splatter painting all around the edges with old toothbrushes. It took a few tries to get the paint consistency right, but they turned out quite pretty. We'll do some more for our nature table, I think.
We were honored to host our Waldorf group for this celebration - and what an enjoyable occasion it was! After a circle of seasonal songs and verses, the dragon was released and chased all the children. One by one each child received a golden cape of courage - a silk that the children themselves dyed with turmeric and carrot tops at our last play group. How lovely to see them all running around, climbing trees and swinging, their golden capes flowing in the wind. 
Then the children took part in a nature treasure hunt, using images on the Knight's Shield as clues. Their treasures all found, they could then seek green glass dragon tears, hidden throughout the garden. 
Finally we gathered for a feast including warming soup, pumpkin bread and cupcakes, toffee apples and two magnificent dragon breads. It was indeed a celebration worthy of a great knight. Thank you to all the families who contributed!
WHAT better way to spend a rainy Saturday than exploring a real working wood shop? Along with two friends, Emma and Alexander looked at the different types of wood, played with scraps and dug around in huge mounds of sawdust. The adults got lessons in machine sawing and sanding. I made three trees to go with our stable/farm setup and Thomas made a rocket. We've had fun finishing off the sanding by hand, and will oil our creations next.
IT was hard to believe that Georgia has been in an official drought for much of the last ten years, given the monumental flooding that occured here last week. Though many farms in the state have suffered catastrophic damage, there is one crop that has flourished in the wet ground. 'Shrooms!
Hearing about a particularly fungus-filled area, we went to check it out. And really - wow! There were red ones, yellow ones, brown ones and white, smooth and speckled, 'mushroom'-shaped and the flat kind growing out of trees, tiny little bobbles and huge great fungi. I had warned Emma that I wanted to photograph fungi, but they didn't hold her interest quite as long as mine, and she soon sighed: "Mama, you don't have to take a picture of every one."
So what exactly is a toadstool and what is a mushroom? Both terms have been used for centuries and never clearly defined. Now, 'toadstool' usually refers to an inedible or poisonous cap-and-gill-shaped fungus, and mushroom an edible one - though this is by no means official. The word 'toadstool' may be connected to some kinds of poisonous toad, (one school holds that toads made mushrooms poisonous by sitting on them. Now that's something you don't see very often.) It has also been suggested that the word derives phonetically from the German word 'Todesstuhl' (literally 'death chair'). Either way, we were just there to look at them - we weren't planning on testing any poison theories.
NOTHING tastes as good as a fruit you've just picked off the tree. Our first visit to an apple orchard was an exciting discovery of all kinds of apple varieties you can't find at the supermarket. We picked Arkansaw Black, Golden, Cameo, Rome Beauty, Honey Crisp and Mutsu. The children were delighted to have so many apples within reach - Emma was able to pick many at her own height (they were dwarf trees), and Alexander just had a field day with windfalls.
OVER the summer, we've spent many a lazy afternoon working and playing in what's become known as "The Magic Forest". This is a small wooded area at the back of our back garden which has been adopted by children and gnomes.
Emma likes to play homeowner and designates me as the gardener. She finds this a good arrangement, as she is then at liberty to drink tea and mustard soup (her recipe, usually made from sand) while I carry out whatever maintenance is required. Now and again she gives me advice, or even deigns to help on occasion. This week I was needed to fix some holes in the roof of her fort, which was a good use for pruned branches. Wisteria vines are especially great for fort building, as they are like rope! Alexander takes on various roles in the game, usually involving sticks in his hand, dirt all over and some object in his mouth.
Just in case the gnomes get lost, we thought perhaps the Magic Forest should have a sign, which kept us occupied another afternoon. (Actually two - one to paint the sign, the next to scrub paint from the patio.) I wonder what the forest will look like next year? 
AS summer gives way to early autumn, we set about updating our nature table with an apple theme. The tree was a collection of twigs that we decorated with felt leaves. 
The apples we made by wet-felting small balls of green and red wool. (Alexander found a new method for this - apparently saliva works as well as soap to aid the felting process.)
A painting of an apple orchard and needle-felted rabbit finished the scene, which I'm sure will be added to with various treasures found on walks throughout the month.
We found some great apple books at the library, including The Apple Pie That Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson, and The Apple King by Francesca Bosca, which I will bring to Emma's pre-school as a puppet story.
TIME to say adieu to our first successful little garden plot. The tomato and squash plants returned to the earth by way of the compost heap, which, we were delighted to discover, had actually yielded some useable compost! This we used to prepare the bed for autumn plantings, and Emma and I had lots of fun choosing seedlings and seeds at our favourite gardening shop. We planted dandelion, green and red kale, rainbow chard, broccoli, cauliflower and brussels sprouts 
transplants; then turnip, golden and red beets, rapini and spinach from seed. It has been fun to watch the seeds sprout and produce tiny leaflets just four days after planting (pictured are turnip seedlings); however, something has been gnawing mercilessly with equal speed on the larger plants' leaves. Not sure what kind of animal is responsible, but I dare say a little fence wouldn't go amiss.
