A Quiet Michaelmas

Michaelmas daisies and apples blend harvest time into the festival.

Public battleground, or coffee and and a show!

Most people have heard of Saint George and the Dragon, the story of England's patron saint. That legend is often the story we reflect on when we explain Michaelmas to young children. Essentially the festival is about defeating the dragon (lurking within and without). There are many better blogs that explain the significance of the Michaelmas celebration and some of them can be found here:

http://cedarringmama.wordpress.com/2012/09/29/neither-was-their-place-found-anymore-a-michaelmas-meditation/

http://loveinthesuburbs.com/wordpress/michaelmas-time

Since our town's Waldorf school is only in its second year, there is no older class to help dramatize the story of Archangel Michael defeating the dragon. We will have to wait a few years for that to happen, but over our few years of homeschooling we have celebrated Michaelmas in various ways. Last year, our co-op had a day at the arboretum full of verses, songs, and games. This year brought a different approach and I welcomed the flexibility to weave our own observance in between a teething baby's needs and naps, our Daddy's coming and going, and my own low energy level from a bit of a busier week than usual. Fairy Girl suggested a nature walk. I aimed to take that walk by 1:00pm, but we didn't leave the house until 3:00pm. That slight delay did cause some grumbling, but I never know how long it will take bread to rise and I wanted to get the dragon bread baked before we left. We left it on the counter to eat when we were home again.

It was a bright and dry day. It was also a bit breezy on the mountain but still comfortable for t-shirts. The added bonus of hiking on my friend's property was meeting her newborn after the hike.  But I digress. When I called ahead she mentioned moose out and about. That scared me just a bit, but having been recently bolstered by the stories of knights defeating dragons, I hiked on; but admittedly, talking louder than necessary. I had previously hiked this trail in a group with other mamas, so I guess I prefer people to wildlife...

Though the sky above was blue, looking out at the horizon it was smokey and the visibility was more limited than usual.  The dry month caused some fall colors to be more muted than usual and the air smelled dusty and aching for a rain. There is a seasonal spring/ stream I like to hike to but it was very dry when we got there. That made it a good turning point and time for a treat.  The kids asked about the dead standing trees and I explained how important snags are for wildlife habitat.  They decided they were high rise gnome homes.

How some gnomes get around the woods.

Feeling cleansed by some time out in nature, we headed home (after a few errands) and ate our dragon bread with some honey. We played some more bowling knights after rescuing the dragon ball from the errant path it took into the heating duct in the kitchen down into the playroom in the basement!  I then became aware of a battle reenactment going on in the living room and was happy to catch some video (that of course won't upload for me).

Stealthy dragons in years past.

Seven-headed beast from Revelation

I love this verse because I think it is a great one to teach the essence of Michaelmas to young children and enables their sense of righteousness and faith in what is good and true and beautiful.

We cuddled up later and watched the "Cave of the Yellow Dog," which is a nice slow moving docudrama about a small girl in modern Mongolia. Then this very tired mama, happy for the way the day went, put everybody to bed.  I had grateful thoughts about some very big dragons of my own from earlier in the year -that the battles they represented were resolved just in time for changing with the season. I can look into the dark winter months ahead and say."Brave and true I will be."

Welcome Fall

Tonight we celebrated the autumnal equinox with our 4th annual fall potluck. Our group was smaller than usual because some mamas were very near their due dates and one just had her baby yesterday. But with our close crew of six couples and kiddos, we visited well past sunset.

I look forward to this potluck and through all the trials of raising little ones, I have somehow succeeded each time at pulling off some seasonal decor and bringing some food made with local ingredients. My kids look forward to this yearly mark as well.  It wasn't hard to convince them this morning to help me pick sunflowers from the garden. My son even remarked there were too many sunflowers.  But obviously, that's not possible.

I added a volunteer tomatillo (for their little lanterns) that I knew wouldn't develop enough before the frost and Michaelmas daisies.

I am excited to have discovered a volunteer elderberry on the east side of the house and added one of its two clusters with some hound's tongue for added contrast.

This Joe Pye weed had four sleeping bees on it when I  clipped it this morning for the arrangement.

After picking flowers, I went in the backyard and picked some more plums.  Our plums are small and tart, but still yummy.  I have dehydrated some, my sister made some into fruit leathers, and the kids eat them off the table, but still there are too many; even the chicken have grown sick of the fallen fruit. By the front driveway, our neighbors have a bigger and sweeter purple plum with yellow fresh that we can pick. So far, the flowers and fruit for tonight are straight from the yard and free!

A beautiful salsa garden harvest.

Then it was time to make some salsa, roasted beets, and some roasted potatoes for the potluck. I made salsa first because it was a good way to get rid of the fruit fly bait. I have never made salsa before but I had all the ingredients I needed, most of which came from my Dad's garden while he was away. Then roasted beets because, well because, we are just not a beet eating family yet.  I have lots of beets from my CSA cooler the last couple of weeks and thought tonight's potluck would be a good way to send those off.  Finally, the roasted potatoes were something I knew my own family would eat. There was a lot of chopping, nursing a baby, chopping, roasting, and getting baby to nap before assembling food for the potluck.

I snuck some zucchini in the salsa just to use another one up.

These potatoes had been in the fridge awhile (which worked out well for roasting texture), and I added carrot and apples with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey, thyme, and rosemary, garlic salt and pepper.

Due to the uneven napping nature of my teething seven month old, these potatoes got stuck to the foil because I didn't have a chance to stir them up, and note to self, using the convection oven changes the time needed for roasting veggies!

I didn't take pictures of the beets, but I made this recipe: Roasted Beets with Balsamic Glaze.  For the beet-eaters at the potluck, they were a hit!

Three babies under seven months and two due in a week (remember there's only six couples here!)

As sunlight dwindled on the last summer's evening, conversation carried on and babies settled into warmer clothes and blankets. Finally, the apple candles burned out, and except for two more mechanical re-lightings so that eager candle-blower-outers could have their turn, it was dark and time to pack up. I am already hoping the sunflowers are as abundant as they were this time.  Here come sweaters, short days and long nights, colorful leaves, soup dinners and cozy reading. Happy Fall everyone!