Apples, Autumn and Dwarves

Autumn Harvest , Ruth Elassar

We have picked the lot of the apples on our property and Anders made A LOT of applesauce, and a wonderful apple cake involving, well, applesauce, and a cake lid made up of ground almonds, a la Jamie Oliver's Plum and Almond Tart (which is dangerously good btw!)

Last of the apples. Notice the kid nibbled ones. 

Rural living: escaped sheep in the garden.

I have hung up a board. But what to hang on it? Current songs and poetry!
This weeks poem: Come little Leaves, from A Journey Through Time with Verse and Rhyme.

Wonderful collection of verse. 

The book also contains quite a few for Michaelsmas, which has just passed with dragons and jewels and quests. Among others, JR Tolkiens epic "Over the Misty Mountains", which I am going to clip in here for you to understand what I speak of:

Far over the Misty Mountains cold, 

To dungeons deep and caverns old, 

We must away, ere break of day, 

To seek our pale enchanted gold. 

For ancient king and elvish lord 

There many a gleaming golden hoard 

They shaped and wrought, and light they caught, 

To hide in gems on hilt of sword. 

On silver necklaces they strung 

The flowering stars, on crowns they hung 

The dragon-fire, on twisted wire 

They meshed the light of moon and sun. 

Far over the Misty Mountains cold, 

To dungeons deep and caverns old, 

We must away, ere break of day, 

To claim our long-forgotten gold. 

Goblets they carved there for themselves, 

And harps of gold, where no man delves 

There lay they long, and many a song 

Was sung unheard by men or elves. 

The bells were ringing in the dale, 

And men looked up with faces pale. 

The dragon's ire, more fierce than fire, 

Laid low their towers and houses frail. 

The mountain smoked beneath the moon. 

The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom. 

They fled the hall to dying fall 

Beneath his feet, beneath the moon. 

Far over the Misty Mountains grim, 

To dungeons deep and caverns dim, 

We must away, ere break of day, 

To win our harps and gold from him! 

To Rivendell, where Elves yet dwell 

In glades beneath the misty fell. 

Through moor and waste we ride in haste, 

And whither then we cannot tell. 

We must away! We must away! 

We ride before the break of day!

I love Tolkien. I look forward to the day I can read for my children. I think my dad read the Hobbit to me, quite young, but how young? I don't know. Ten years old? Maybe younger. I have to admit I loved the Lord of The Rings films as well, but they are definitely not for children, . The books on the other hand are exquisite. Reading this poem again has reminded me how important verse, poetry and words are. And I believe young children benefit from hearing it, even though they do not understand, the flow of the voice, the beautiful words are enough. And they listen, they move around, but they listen.

Speaking of dwarves, we made a few of our own, since we figured our dwarf of the day was getting a little lonely in his underground house, with only nuts and silly hedgehogs to talk to all day. It took about ten minutes, plus time for the glue to dry overnight. I found the idea in small craft book for gnomes, but I just cut the jackets by freehand and sowed them up with each kid hanging around my neck. Sorry, no pictures of cute little ones putting wool on their little autumn gnome, due to the dangers of picking up a camera in close proximity to glue, scissors and needles.

Two bodies in the making.

Four little gnomes waiting for a beard.

Busy gnomes on a walk outside on the October Table.

Mother Earth welcoming all the flower children home.
Jasmin's reenactment of the Root Children story.

Two wonderful woman bloggers

Two amazing woman out there doing amazing things.

First Lunchability, she posts her packed lunches everyday. My children get lunch at their Kindergarden, but if they didn't.....

And something that creates order. Jasmin is five, and right in that age where she wants HER things in HER drawer, and she wants to know where things "live", so she has received her own little night stand by her bed, with three drawers. She kindly enough took only one herself, and gave one each to the twins.  And she has her clothing bag, which she opens herself in the morning and gets dressed on her own. Here I found another genius way to put things in order :

Now this is a smart mom.
Shivaya Naturals: Tutorial Tuesday ~ Children's Activity Bag

Autumn Inspirations

"Fugle uro" -mobile #2 and a lot of fog .

We found a real fairy woods up in Fitjadalen. 

Making food on the Primus putside, a little egg goes along way...

When it comes to meal planning and inspiration to veture outside the box, I highly recommend inviting someone to come and stay for a few weeks, and let their "normailities" rub off. Let them make dinner and bake pies, and go shopping, preferably at an arab grocers in Bergen, and before you know it, you have expanded the horizons and are eating the most wonderful breakfast ever, outside in the sun, of scrambled eggs with kale, which you scoop up in a piece of Nori seaweed dipped in soy sauce and sesame seeds.

Amazing. I would never come up with that! Thank you Joshua and Ramona, for the inspirations and pumpkin pies!

Orange Pumpkins

Stocked up on dates, nuts and feta.

Went a little bananas at an arab grocers shop in Bergen a few weeks ago. Everything is so much cheaper and fresher and better in town. Ah, the sorrows of living rural! Well, went a little crazy at this small shop, and came home with f.ex. a 7 kilo pumpkin, 5 kilos chickpeas, beans, parsley and miscellaneous you just cannot get out in the district. Like REAL hot chili flakes...

We have had pumpkin soup a few times, baked it in bread, and so on. Wonderful and nutritious. And very orange. Matches the late summer now well. We are enjoying hot summer days, but the cold autumn is always lurking in the back of my mind, I just keep expecting to start putting hats on the kids, and the rain getting cold, and the oak trees fading. BUT they don't. So, life moves along. Official daycare start gone well. Lucky that Noa and Lea are so old they can speak up for themselves. And say how much they missed me and love me when I pick them up.

I am bunkered down in the office, trying to write and read and do all these adult tasks. Lucky life indeed. Teh break from constant childcare is welcomed. I feel graced to able to just be me for a while, do my yoga and breathe, read what I studying with full concrentration and gusto. Very exciting.

August, by Ruth Elsassar

Am keeping up with the rhythm of our days I feel though all the same. We pick up the children at 14.45. Home to relax, we make dinner together and eat at 16.30. Which leaves wonderful time to DO things. Take walks in the wood, swimming in big basins of warm water out on the deck. We still watercolor paint, draw every morning breakfast and do arts and crafts, though they will mostly be on the days I am home with them all.

Tuesdays wildflowers,pressed on watercolor painted boards

(sample wooden floor boards we receive in the mail for the new house)

Greenness all around

Spring nature table.

The small flower children.

I received these beautiful wooden Sprites from Syrendell on Etsy. They are wonderful! It is Jasmin's job to run out in the mornings and fill their hands with fresh flowers.

Felted bees.

a few glimpses into what we have been up to lately:

My WIP project now is cloth bags to hang by their beds, to find their clothes for the days, no questions and less mess. Jasmin made hers together with me, making the twisted rope and stitches along one side. She realy looks forward to finding out what she is to wear, now I just have to make sure I don't forget...

We did a lot of watercolor painting a while back, everyday, and did a whole wall feature, all of us painting our own side.

We celebrated whitsun (or pinse in Norwegian) with the kids Sunday morning a week ago, with paper white doves and washing, making everything clean and fresh.

The dandelions have sprung into seed, covering the hills in fairy-dust. Our garden is coming along, the days have been hot and dry, which requires a little more watering then I had expected, I was of course hoping mother-nature would take care of the watering situation. Pictures to come. Am slightly immobile as of yeasterday, on a hike up the mountain here with the family, I seriously sprained my ankle, have to use crutches, and am off to get an x-ray tomorrow.

our garden flag. handmade flagpole, just a little crooked...

Our greenhouse on the porch is an ingenious food-cart from and old ship Anders came home with one day. Not the most beautiful/ aesthetic piece of furniture, but very effective.

The tomatoes seem to like it at any rate, and the baby-salad is thriving.

To sum it up, Noa's tractor love. I made up a blue tractor lullaby special for him (I sing them all their own good-night song). A couple weeks ago we were at a great local small cultural happening, and they had put out this gorgeous little old blue tractor which WAS HIS tractor! He was amazed! Stunned.

::Work In Progress Wednesday::

I am felting all the kids little easter eggs, for Easter Sunday next week. I had been wanting to for a long time, something organic and natural, and I found a great tutorial on Rhythm of the Home. Will post some more pictures next Wednesday. Have finished one so far. As I was working on that, Jasmin wanted to felt too, she does best at flat, dry felting.

Yellow hearts everywhere.

I am also making a dolls blanket for Cecilia, Jasmin's doll.

Funny pictures of Noa in girls clothes show up everywhere. Not so easy to understand for him WHY he is not allowed to wear a dress, so I say he can. Hoping that will not damage his masculinity...

House plans.

Spring is upon us! Thank goodness. The winter had been famously long, stabile and cold. Spring will be absolutely divine. The house plans are moving forward. Beautiful, functional.