Midsummer Celebrations

MIDSUMMER snook up on us, but we found plenty of ways to celebrate without much preparation. We made a new summer nature table based on the story of Runya the Fire Fairy, one of Emma's alter egos. It featured an orange and yellow fairy house and a bonfire, to which all the woodland animals were invited to roast acorns. We learned a new summer song while preparing a special festival snack of sun tea, orange slices, apricots and butterfly biscuits then read The Sun Egg by Elsa Beskow together. Dinner was cooked over a real fire in the back garden, the bowl of chilled fruits a welcome addition in the 80 F temperature and higher humidity. No evening of magical happenings would be complete without a gift for the fairies, so the children assembled a miniature feast of fruits, herbs and tea along with a tiny campfire for the fairies to dance around. By morning, the food was gone and in its place, a little thank you gift of flowers and a pile of embers. There really must have been fairies in our garden!

Recipe for Sun Tea
Chamomile tea "brewed" in the sun, muddled with fresh mint and orange slices and sweetened with honey. Quite delicious!

Summer Solstice

EMMA and I began our celebration of the Summer Solstice by learning a new song:


VERSE 1:
"Darkness, darkness flee away!"
This is what the sunbeams say
When they come at dawn of day
Bringing light and gladness.


CHORUS:
If I were a merry sunbeam shining
Shining all the day
Clouds and darkness I would scatter
With my brightest ray.


VERSE 2:
Melting all the winter's snow,
Making brightest flowers grow
How the whole wide earth will glow
'Neath the sunbeam's glances!


VERSE 3:
I would like the sunbeam say:
"Darkness, darkness flee away!
Into some sad heart today
Send a ray of gladness."


VERSE 4:
Little deeds of love I'll do,
Words I'll say so kind and true,
Thus I'll be the whole day through
Like a sunbeam shining.


'Merry Sunbeams' by A.C.B.


Next came homemade sun cookies - round sugar biscuits covered in yellow and orange icing. While they were baking, we changed our nature table from Spring to Summer. As the table usually morphs and has pieces added throughout the season, I try to keep it simple to start with. We started with gold and orange sheer cloths, with a bright blue cloth in a bold sunflower print in the corner. A vase of simple tree and flower cuttings from the garden had a nice kind of overgrown feel to it, and though it didn't last long, the honeysuckle had a wonderful scent. We placed a beeswax candle that we had rolled ourselves on the other side, and from the ceiling, I finally got to hang my sun-shaped sun catcher that we brought back from Germany ages ago.


Since then, we've added some crafts: a bumblebee made out of a cork covered in navy and yellow felt stripes (didn't have any black felt), and a little summer picture we made with various dried pasta, beans and pulses. Oh yes, and we are accumulating quite a collection of feathers too.