Mother Earth

How do you imagine Mother Earth? Is she old & wise? Young & adorned with flowers? I have different images of her in my head. They change with the season, with stories I hear & tell. 

To me she is such an archetypal figure on the Nature Table. I've been experimenting with creating the different Mother Earths of my imagination.

This one is about 10" tall. Her body is needle-felted. She wears a hooded cape knitted on teeny-tiny needles using some Koigu yarn. Her apron has a simple grass - sky - sunflower scene needle-felted onto a piece of wet-felted wool-mohair felt. She is wise & old. Her hair is thus gray, with a lil' bun in the back. 

I love how she turned out. How about you? Well, guess what. I'm not keeping her. This is a bit of a teaser. :-) On Monday I'll tell you more about all of that. Do check back in!

In the meantime, if you have a link to the Mother Earth of your imagination, the Mother Earth who lives on your Nature Table maybe, please do share a link in the comment section. I'd love to see her!

Mayday

I've been a-wandering all this night and the best part of the day. And when I come back home again, I will bring you a branch of May...

Maypole.

Toy treasures.

Pretty roses for Mayday Queen crowns.

More pretty blooms.

Mayfaire Menu. Yummy. The spinach pies were so good.
Nate & I helped prepare some yesterday using a recipe from the Moosewood cookbook. (I did a search and was surprised to find a copy here, just click on the recipe tab.)

Noah as one of the Robin Hood's Merry Men in the 6-8th grade play.

... A branch of May I will bring you here and at your door I'll stand. It's nothing but a sprout, but it's well budded out by the works of God's own hand.
~~~
It's a hot 90F/33C day. Nathan and a friend are strumming the guitar. Noah is resting with a headache from the heat. I'm going to fix some iced tea, put my feet up & get some knitting done.
Happy Day!

So...

... the amazing kiwi-dude traveled 34 hours just to come see me. Awww, huh? ♥ Here I am eating chocolate fish & reading Cuisine ("The Perfect Kiwi Christmas") & NZ House & Garden (Christmas Special) while he recovers from the trip halfway around the world (including a "detour" via Australia). Never thought that would still happen, but here I am. - And those magazines. I've always loved the Christmas editions of home & cooking type magazines. I have a stash of them. Nostalgia. Idyllic Christmas. Snow & sleighs. Cookies. Okay, I'll stop now.

We were lucky to have an invite to my cousin's house for Thanksgiving, so I got to be lazy on Turkey Day. They just moved to Virginia from Tennessee & I feel so blessed to have family not-quite-an-hour-drive away. The boys enjoyed hanging out with the "cousins", playing football, being boys.

We're not vegetarians, although we do eat very little meat. Anyhoo. Today I'm preparing a nice Sunday dinner for us - in the spirit of Thanksgiving so to speak. We'll have a petite baked ham with a simple maple & orange glaze, Sausage, Apple & Cranberry Stuffing, homemade mashed potatoes & gravy, and a salad of winter greens. For dessert, we'll have some baked apples & fresh whipped cream or something like that.

I'm also gearing up for a cookie exchange next weekend. We'll be baking Thumbprint Cookies, or Thumbprint Cookies, or maybe Thumbprint Cookies? I can't decide on a recipe.

Enjoy the first Sunday of Advent!

Martinmas

Our lantern walk on Friday was "rained out," so today was the rain date. It was the warmest lantern walk ever - a short sleeves & shorts kinda day with temperatures in the low 70s. My 2nd grade performed a Martinmas song & I told the story of St. Martin & The Robbers.

From left... A lantern wet-felted over a small balloon. A recycled can with hammered holes - Freeze water inside before pounding as to avoid can denting. Line with wax paper if desired. This was our 2nd grade lantern project. So loud & awakening, but so much fun especially for the boys and the cholerics. The 5th graders carved gourds - fitting with the study of Botany. The 6th graders used Chinese take-out boxes and made lanterns with the moon, sun & constellations punched in.

The 1st graders glued tissue papers onto glass jars. The round ones are the traditional glue & tissue paper over a balloon type lanterns created by kindergarteners, I believe. The blue one with cathedral windows was created by 4th graders.

Just more lanterns. :-)

Nathan's gourd lit there on the right. It was a smokey kind of lantern walk. Some lil' fuzzies inside the lantern burned down & it started smoking.

Noah's 8th grade had created torches. For some reason the wax on the torch spread downward, further & further, thus it ended up on the ground as a safety precaution.