Leaf kicking

I'd been thinking about leaf kicking days and crisp air. I'd been thinking about how much my son loves crunching through those leaves with wellies and scooping armfuls up. So, that's what we did.

An autumn carpet, warm clothes and a dry day with all but that slight mist that seems to linger all day. Across the field of cows and through the woodland and along the pathways. Running and cheering and the nearby cows did not mind,  just carried on grazing and looking every so often from under the canopy of trees.

The wellies were making a debut, Star Wars ones for that is all that they had in his size but they look smart and kept little feet dry as they scudded and scampered in the amber heap of leaves. A time to do so for you can blink at this time of year and suddenly it is winter and sludge and bare trees. Today though, cold air biting, mushrooms springing up from logs and mellow happiness.

Martinmas & seasonal ramblings

We have a lot of seasonal traditions in our home, I've collected them over the years, a real mixed bag. Every week I seem to be decorating the house for some special day or just for the love of the current month - nature displays on the mantelpiece, books according to the current festival or the season. 

I've always been really driven by the seasons since childhood, excessively so, I don't know where it came from  - not my parents who don't really care for even the big events like Christmas. Maybe it was my primary school and the activities we did? I would spend hours making up poems about leaves falling off trees, snow on the ground and would then illustrate the edges of the paper. So.....now I home educate my son we can experience these things together. For me, it is my childhood all over again and over the past few years I have seen everything I loved creep back in again after a long period of suppressing these 'whims'.

Today is Martinmas, St Martin's Day , the day that St Martin of Tours was buried in 397AD
The legend goes that Martin met a beggar man in Amiens, France, who was cold and shivering. Martin cut his own cloak in two in order to give half to the man and so the day is celebrated for compassion and the hope of getting through the dark winter days.

waldorfmama.com

Martinmas is celebrated more in France or Germany with lantern parades and singing but the Waldorf educational approach which we follow parts of was brought into my life a few years back and it's a magical, creative way of learning that celebrates such days. 

Across the community we make little lanterns, whether that be paper ones or decorated jars. The light in the lantern represents our souls, a tiny light for protection through the dark whilst we sing lantern songs.

I go outside with my lantern, my lantern goes with me
Above the stars are shining bright, down here on Earth shine we.
The cock does crow, the cat meows, la bimmel, la bammel, la boom.
‘Neath heaven’s dome till we go home, la bimmel, la bammel, la boom.

I go outside with my lantern, my lantern goes with me
Above the stars are shining bright, down here on Earth shine we.
So shine your light through the still dark night, la bimmel, la bammel, la boom
‘Neath heaven’s dome till we go home, la bimmel, la bammel, la boom.

Other traditions we do for Martinmas are baking cookies, shadow puppet plays and St Martin bags filled with treats.  In the UK there are various Martinmas fairs but mostly it is just us at home with our pretty lanterns. 

Waldorf inspired learning

The eve of St Martins is associated with eating roast goose, Martinsgans, with red cabbage and potato dumplings.  The legend is that whilst trying to avoid becoming an ordained priest, Martin hid in a goose shed where the noisy geese caused him to found. 

Mili Weber [Swiss painter and illustrator 1891-1978]

source

Follow Happy Homebird's board Martinmas on Pinterest.

Watts & Co candles for a cosy autumn home

This week has been noticeably darker much earlier in the evening and somewhat colder. Waiting for the dogs to come in from the garden, cup of tea in hand, I can feel the damper, chillier air. Autumn is here to stay now and it is time I start to hibernate and transform my home into a cosy den.

When night rolls in well before teatime, out come the candles. Twinkling and flickering, curtains open a little to create a soft ambiance for the outside world hurrying by after work. On the mantelpiece burn perfect ivory beeswax candles, a little bit of me time listening to music or reading a book, magical.

I have a love of candles in the home, they provide a peaceful look and I enjoy styling them for the season. Vintage candle holders picked up on my travels or as gifts are perfect for my new handmade Church Candles from Watts & Co, natural blended beeswax made in England by the traditional methods since 1874.

Arriving wrapped in brown paper and tied with raffia, wonderful packaging that speaks of the home made crafts ethos of the company. It almost seemed a shame to unwrap them but there inside were 12 perfect candles that I then was keen to show off. The candles are unscented so ideal for a natural feel, just exquisite pure light and no overpowering scents or unwelcome chemicals. There are many candles to choose from, Watts & Co pillar candles in different sizes and also classic church candles. 

Watts & Co are a company with an interesting history, its founders were three notable architects - George Frederick Bodley, Thomas Garner and George Gilbert Scott junior who designed some of the countries buildings that are part of our heritage - Battersea Power Station, the red telephone box and the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park. The founders moved into providing ecclesiastical textiles and with this the company moved forward through the generations until the current day.

The candles would make a super quality gift or a treat to yourself for the home, to style on the mantelpiece, dinner table or side board. It is a clean flame and is burning really well so look like they will last a long time - plenty of quiet, relaxing evenings ahead by the gentle light of candles for me. As always with candles, do be safe and don't leave unattended. 

Styled with my  found autumn items from country walks- amber coloured leaves, moss fringed twigs, shiny conkers and then my home grown mini pumpkins, I think they look really special and just the seasonal look that I enjoy to make me feel all fuzzy. 


I was sent candles by Watts & Co for the purpose of the review, opinions are my own honest words.

Collecting autumn treasure

 Stepping into the garden as its colours start to fade and spider's weaving webs across every walkway. Be careful for you may find yourself dancing about the lawn trying to rid yourself of them from your hair.

Gather late summer flowers and drying hydrangeas for the home. Mind the snails and leave some berries for the blackbirds.

Find a feather or two. Barn owl and rook. Stripy brown and a shimmering navy blue sheen. Soft beauty and pretty textures to add to the mantle nature display for a little boy to look at, feel and learn.
 Late summer walks with chestnuts on the floor already, padded cases and tiny conkers inside.

The joy of randomly stopping to look whilst in the countryside. Observing the leaves already changing colour, patches of trees turning yellow with streaks of umber. Noticing how some trees change quicker than others.
 Treasure to take back into the home and arrange for a splash of colour and to inject late summer magic into the rooms. 

Winter colour in the garden and a creepy heron island

 Rode Hall in Cheshire, a beautiful home that opens up its 10 acres grounds for the snowdrop walks at this time of the year. We were there anyway for the monthly farmer's market and thought we would go and look around their gardens too.

A winter's day in Buxton

Rockpools, castles and a stack of pebbles

 Autumn breezes and soft sun rays for our exploration of the coastline near Tenby on the Pembrokeshire coast. Down a hill and past a Medieval castle, across dunes held together by Marram grass is a beach perfect for rock pooling. The best I have been to for looking under rocks for crabs and searching out tiny fish. Also the best for a little boy to collect pebbles and splish splosh them into the pools.
It is an unusual beach with all the slimy bright green seaweed. Most of the other beaches in this area are either mostly sandy or pebbly but this is a rock pooler's dream and we saw many a family wading in with nets and buckets. The terrier did not want to get his paws wet as per usual and skipped over the rocks whilst our collie plunged straight in.  LB had a good look into as many glassy pools as possible, holding on tight to our hands. You could see tiny creatures darting around and in a beam of late season sunshine was a little shore crab. Rock pools can be such treacherous environments but this little crab picked the right pool that wasn't going to dry out any time soon and in a couple of hours would be languishing under the waters of the bay. Pondering and day dreaming, T that is and not the crab, although who is to say that crabs don't dream.....of side scuttling on warm beaches and eating bacon.   Throwing pebbles with your dad up on the rocks. They reach up quite high so he was very brave climbing up them.   A dog friendly beach too so our pair enjoyed themselves with lots of doggy friends running about greeting each other. Love this beach so much, very inspirational and I have recently found out that this beach inspired Virginia Woolf to start writing in her early 20's. In fact, I think Manorbier Castle holds writing workshops and it must be a real treat to practise creative writing in such an atmospheric environment. 

We did not manage to visit the castle itself, just admired the amazing view of this prominent landmark but we will be returning next year  and will be sure to explore some more. 

Elsa Beskow - pretty little books

Elsa Beskow, born Elsa Maartman was a Swedish children's author born in 1874 with a distinct style of artwork in her books. I first came across them last year when looking into Waldorf education which again I had only just discovered through Pinterest. Oh what that site is responsible for! Elsa was born in Stockholm and was one of six children. She loved fairy stories and started to create her own to tell to her siblings and would also spend her free time drawing the natural world. The untimely death of her father meant that the family had to move in with extended family - her two aunts and an uncle. The Swedish women's movement was prominent at this point in time and this heavily influenced Elsa's attitude and is reflected in some of her books. Elsa studied art at University and it was here that she both met her husband to be, Nathanial Beskow and started her children's illustrations. After marrying they had six children and Elsa started to have her books published. Her first book was The Tale of the Little, Little Old Woman in 1897 but her first real success was in 1901 with Peter in Blueberry Land.  The children in her books are modelled on her own children and she drew using their wonderful home and garden near Stockholm as inspiration. Her style of drawing is unmistakeable with nature, fairies, pixies and wildlife. Beautiful drawings that make these books a real treasure to snuggle up with your little ones and look through. Her drawings heavily reflect the seasons and one of my favourites is 'Around the Year' with a poem for each month.Elsa continued to write books until a year before her death at aged 79 in 1953. I thoroughly recommend her books and they are reasonably inexpensive to buy although I've never seen them in a bookshop but most of them are available through Amazon. I'd like to collect them all and have them on a bookshelf of their own as their pictures are so wonderful and would make a nice display for our snug room.

Have you heard of Elsa Beskow before and do you have any of her books?