October moon...

A big, round Shepherd's Pie for dinner...

...and a big, round Apple Pie for dessert :)

We texted this toast to Naya and Sodie away at college...cheers!

...and went for a night-hike through the fields with these two "monsters"...

...and enjoyed this favorite book, The Rainbabies, by Laura Krauss Melmed, to cap our evening.

Beautiful, luminous illustrations by Jim LaMarche....happy moon!

It's the Equinox, the moon is full...and Mado is 17!!!!

(a birthday pie!)

(beautiful moon)

(Our first Autumn fire)

(Pomegranates...part of our Autumn Equinox tradition of telling Persephone and Demeter's story)

(a new baby cousin born on Mado's birthday!)

(our gnomes storing their harvest for the winter)

Happy birthday to my Mado...happy Autumn to us all!

Books for the full moon

A quick sharing of a couple of books that we have long loved to read in celebration of the full moon:

When the Moon Is Full is one we have loved for many years. It gives each month a two-page spread depicting a verse and an illustration related to a traditional moon name.

 Here, for example, is April's "Frog Moon". The illustrations are colorful block prints by Mary Azarian.

Here is the page for July....so beautiful.


Here is another of my very favorite books about the moon:

The Dancing Tiger


Written by Doyle Malachy, pictures by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher.

The illustrations in this beautiful book capture perfectly what it is like to be out under the light of the moon. 

The story is simple, gentle, and fantastic...it carries the reader through the seasons...it tugs at one's heart.


We have many books about the moon...these are just a couple. I hope to share others with you as the months roll on.
One of the other things we sometimes do at our "moon parties" is to make our evening meal mirror the full moon in appearance somehow. We've had moon feasts centered around quesadillas, shepherd's pie, pot pie, quiches, pizzas, and round bowls of potato soup, among other things. Tonight we made a big round pan of enchiladas and had a cheesecake for dessert!

Happy Moon!

Full moon

 

One of the ways in which we mark and honor the turning of the year is to celebrate when the moon is full.

There is a certain magic to being outdoors in the dark of night...for kids and grownups alike. What in the daylight is a mundane and familiar backyard becomes a place of mystery at night, under the moon.

 

(Naya)

Do you know this lovely round?

round and round the earth is turning

turning ever round 'til morning

then from morning round 'til night

(I learned it with my children at a Waldorf school, so while I'm sure it shows up in a book somewhere, written by someone, I don't know to whom the credit goes...but I love the song and the sentiment.)

Watching the moon wax and wane and come into fullness in rhythmic cycles is another way to be mindful of our connection to this earth we live on. I want that connection to be palpable for my children...I want them to feel that bond as a stabilizing force in their lives.

(Sodie)


Last month when the moon was full, our fields were covered in 6 inches of snow and we spent the night sledding in the dark. Tonight we went out into the cold and built a bonfire...someone (more than one!) sneaked off to build this fairy house:

I am keen on checking it out more fully tomorrow in the sunshine.

 

We sipped hot lemonade and had a festive meal of sauerkraut, frankfurters, potatoes, and applesauce.

 Mado played the harmonica (she can play anything...gah)

So, her trusty (and imitative) little sidekick ran to fetch her ocarina.






There is no ritual or ceremony involved here...no formal verse or incantation.

Just us, outside under the sky, again, just like we were 28 days ago....and 28 days before that.
Just us, feeling a little awe at the dark magic of night.

More snow??!

We said goodbye to the snow last week, thinking that that was the end of our luck with snow here in the South this winter....but yesterday morning brought this:

 

I know some folks don't welcome slushy roads, school closings, and burst pipes, but I am willing to endure those things for the romance of a snowy landscape.

If it went on for weeks and weeks, I probably wouldn't feel the same way, but it is just such a rare commodity here...I treasure every flake :)

Some spent a little time like this:

 

And some (me!!) found cozy spots like this:

 

 OK...True confession time: 

Having set myself a goal to read 60 books or more over the course of 2010, I sometimes find my self in a dry spell between great books. During those times I fall back on frivolous, fun reading...usually a long-running (so, I never run out of books to read) mystery series that takes place in a time period or locale that I find attractive. Last year I read the fantasy/mystery Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher (It's good to branch out!).  This year I'm infatuated with M.C. Beaton. She has two separate series: the Agatha Raisin series (set in the Cotswolds), and the Hamish Macbeth series (set in the Scottish Highlands)....I love them both and have been going back and forth between them during those spells when I'm waiting for access to the next piece of "great" literature on my list. And if you are wondering how I'm doing on my goal...so far this year, I've read 14 books. (Highlights being The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver, and Jigs and Reels, by Joanne Harris). I'm currently reading an Agatha Raisin book (as you can see in the photo above) while I wait for my copy of AS Byatt's The Children's Book to be sent to my branch of the public library.

Anyway...enough about books...we can talk about book love another day. I'll just wrap up my snow day post the way we wrap up almost all our snow days: sledding ! Sledding in the moonlight, sledding till the cows come home, sledding till we drop. We're going to squeeze every drop of fun out of our precious snow.