Creative Natives

Littleun loves books and he has started to read fairly nicely coming home from school with prizes for getting better. As such having a few pence left on a book voucher card I got given at Yule I thought I would treat him to something from waterstones. His choice, anything he wanted (well excluding those blood thirsty things he seems intent on having nightmares with!). I do love wandering about the bookshops and as he does too was looking forward to a good hour or so browse. This time though Littleun surprised me and found something within only a few minutes.

Creative Natives is a book I’d recommend to anyone but those who already love nature will really enjoy it too. Written By Sam and Steve Sullivan and illustrated by Maggie Sam it is a short story following the day of a family and their friends. The story works through the woods and tells them about things they find, how to make a den, animals in the area and working together. In the margins of the pages are beautiful little drawings of all sorts ranging from different types of bark, leaves, berries, animals to help you teach the basics to your littleun. It also shows via the story how to make things like mobiles out of twigs, leaves and other similar debris and how to respect each other and nature as well as talking about the seasons.

Well worth the read and a good reference point with a fun story I was more than happy to get it for Littleun and will definitely be watching out for any more that might come this way.

Creative natives ISBN: 978-0-9558023-0-0

The allotment and with Imbolc around the corner

Well just when I thought it was getting warmer the cold is back. Which is a bit frustrating as we have been preparing for the new season up at the allotment and now the ground has gone from soaking to frozen.

We celebrate Imbolc a little differently than some might. We tend to use it as a way to start new with the shoots of the bulbs we put in around Samhain time now showing. We have planned out what we want to do with the allotment and now is the time to start clearing greenhouses in readiness for the seeds to be sown.

It’s a lot of hard work and as I am still learning sometimes it can be frustrating. The ground has some sort of strange long grass which instead of a root mat structure seems to have bulbs and is a devil to get out. This all needs to be cleared before I can dig over and as I’m not that fit plus trying to get it done around work means that it is a lot slower going than I hoped it would be. But we are getting there. The diagram below shows what we are hoping to grow in the season and we are about half way across the potato patch (about 2½ metres). Little has a spade and fork just the right size and mixed in with playing with the toys comes and digs over for me. Though more often than not get sidetracked by the fascination of watching fat worms dig back into the earth!

Last year for Imbolc we made a Priapic wand and at Samhain burnt it as part of the turning from old to new by creating light for the forthcoming nights. So we have spent today making a new one. Which after a lot of thought and care Littleun took up with us to help the bulbs and we will be taking it with us to the green house in a few weeks when we start the seedlings. Littleun has already waved it several times over the potatoes out to chit and has made a chant of his own as he does this:

“Grow and grow and grow so I may grow and grow and grow. Thank you very much”

Which I was pleasantly surprised at, it would seem he does listen when I explain to him about Cernunnos. It’s a much simpler chant than the one I use but it sums it up, and the way he adds the thank you is very funny, in this little voice as if to say oops must not forget that bit!

Anyway that’s enough rambling for today, my bread is yet to be kneaded for the second round and there’s a toyroom to inspect!

Cherries Galore

It’s that time where I start to bake again. Having dragged myself out from under the 31days of Hades (otherwise known as the Tax Return season) I am now free to do a bit more of my things. This is a recipe for a friend who only likes cherry cakes. Unlike most that seem to use glace cherries this one uses fresh so would be better for the summer months but I am splashing out (I know goes against my live within season thoughts but he is worth it) and getting them now.

Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
350g fresh cherries
8tbsp granulated sweetener
5 eggs, separated
1tsp almond extract
150g ground almonds
100g self-raising flour
You'll also need:
20cm loose-base cake tin or spring form tin



1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas 4. Grease and line the base and sides of a loose-base cake tin or spring form tin. Grease the paper. Halve and stone the cherries.

2. Using a hand-held electric whisk, whisk together the butter and all but 2tbsp of the sweetener until pale, creamy and very soft. Whisk in the egg yolks, almond extract, ground almonds, flour and 1tbsp warm water.

3. Whisk the egg whites in a thoroughly clean bowl until they form soft peaks, then whisk in the remaining sweetener. Using a large metal spoon, gently fold a quarter of the egg whites into the almond mixture. Gently fold in the remainder with half the cherries.

4. Turn the mixture into the tin and spread it out in an even layer. Scatter the remaining cherries on top. Bake for about 50 mins until the cake has risen and firm to the touch. Test by piercing the centre of the cake with a skewer, it should come out fairly clean. Leave to cool in the tin then transfer to a serving plate. The cake can be stored for a couple of days without drying out.

Wassail Chant part two

Well they sang it in rounds, not sure they meant too but it was fun. The film is wobbly sorry, difficult to keep a littleun away from the draw of flames whilst filming at the same time! But hopefully you'll like it.

Was a fantastic evening, catching up with friends, new and old. Celebrating the apple trees. Oh and the smell, of the hot ciders, the fire, the hog roasts just lovely. Littleun enjoyed it, dancing away to the drum beat, watching the Morris sides (only Borders though not sure why) singing the tunes. Beats Saturday tv anytime!

Wassail Chant

Oh Apple Tree we honour thee,
In hope that you will bear
The Blessed fruit of Avalon,
At harvest time each year.

Each golden apple you bring forth,
A gift to Aphrodite,
Has at is heart a pentacle,
The symbol of her mystery.

Your blossom heralds Springtime,
Your leaf brings summer shade,
Let Samhain's harvest cup be filled,
With Cider freshly made.


When winters cold envelopes you,
In wind and rail and hail,
Then we'll return each year to bring,
Our grateful thanks,
WASSAIL!!

Guess where we have been tonight...

Winter Solstice - Total Lunar Eclipse 2010

So did you get to see it? Sadly due to immense fog we didn’t . Shame given that the last time it fell on the winter Solstice was nearly 400 years ago. But not to worry the next one on the Solstice (oh ok a day before) will be in the comparatively short amount of time in 2029!

For those of you who might not quite know how a lunar eclipse works it’s where the Moon passes through the shadow created by the Earth blocking the Sun’s light. This creates an effect where the moon colour appears to be a shade of red/pink.

I found the above youtube clip and really liked it, clear and without newreporters adding their own comments you can sit back and watch the beauty.

Cernunnous and Winter Solstice

I like reading up and learning about all sorts of things but find that in this day of technology books of old are suffering. I have to wait for days for a book I've ordered to come into the shop or from online suppliers. So often I find myself wandering the echoey halls of the web and trying to piece together fact from fiction. Now of course a lot of what we study and believe is called by lots fiction but the key word in what we do is faith. As such I take a lot of what I read with a pinch of faith and try and pass that on to others.

The recent study I wanted to read was about Cernunnous. I feel drawn to Him, in His many forms and am often hunting out writings, art, images etc of Him. I wanted to share some of my thoughts with you all but seem unable to put the words together in any fitting form today (a bit of a mental block with everyday madness filling the gaps). So I thought I'd post some information I found on Themystica.com and let you read it for yourselves.

Cernunnous was the Horned God of the Celts. He was associated with the hunt and fertility. Occasionally he was portrayed with serpent legs, torso of a man, a head of a bull or ram, or shown with stags wearing antlers. The name Cernunnous means horned.

He is the lord of life, death and the underworld. Being the Sun to the Goddess of the Moon as he alternates with her in ruling over life and death. With her he cooperates in continuing the cycle of life, death and rebirth, or reincarnation.

His own life is said to be circular. The Horned God is born at the winter solstice, marries with the Goddess at Beltane (May 1), and dies at the summer solstice. His death represents a sacrifice to life.

The Horned God's origin possibly dates back to Paleolithic times, as evidenced by a ritualistic cave drawing found in the Caverne des Trois Freres at Ariege, France. The picture is with one of a stag standing upright on its hind legs, or a man dressed in a stag costume performing a dance. The wearing animal clothes in rituals to secure game was practiced in Europe for thousands of years.

He was worshipped by the Romans and Gauls who portrayed him with a triple head. Sometimes the Romans depicted him with three cranes flying above his head.

Other deities associated with, or others have claimed them to be representative of, Cernunnous, the Horned God, are Herne the Hunter, a ghost of Britian; Pan, the Greek god of the woodlands; Janus, the Roman god of good beginnings with his two faces looking in opposite directions representing youth and age, and life and death; Tammuz and Damuzi, the son- lover-consorts of Ishtar and Inanna; Osiris, the Egyptian lord of the underworld; and Dionysus, the Greek god of vegetation and the vine, whose cult observed rites of dismemberment and resurrection."
The Celtic god Esus was analogous to Cernunnous. Similarly the animal of Esus was the bull. Esus was sometimes identified with Cernunnous who appears on the Gundestrup Cauldron. Supposedly Esus was also ruler of the underworld, but this did not keep his worshippers from considering him to be a god of plenty and portraying him holding a sack of coins.

Most frequently whenever Cernunnous was depicted or portrayed, he was shown as an animal, usually a stag, or surrounded by animals as he is depicted on the Gundestrup Cauldron seated in a lotus position. This was seen as appropriate as he was the god of the hunt and fertility. He was also the ruler and protector of the animal kingdom. He is often seen holding a ram-headed serpent.

In the Welsh tale "Owain" his role as a herdsman-god and a benign keeper of the forest is told. Here he summons all the animals to him through the belling of a stag. All the animals even serpents obediently came to him "as humble subjects would do to their lord."

Some feel that the honoring of Cernunnous even continued in the early Christian era. Many of the early ascetics still had pre-Christian longings for nature. To substantiate this there is the account of Saint Ciaran of Saighir. This humble man went into the wilderness to establish a cell that would eventually become a monastery. A boar came, seeing the man he was terrified, but later returned and was submissive to the man of God. Saint Ciaran considered the boar his first monk. The boar was later joined by a fox, a badger, a wolf and a stag. These animals left their liars to join the community.

There are other tales such as this one that give rise to suspicions they caused early Christian writers and artists to associate Cernunnous with Satan. Although some Christians never lost their love of nature. Saint Francis of Assisi is well known for his love of animals and birds.

Oh no!

Is this a sign of how this week is going to be? Firstly the weather changes so I can't get together with Fella, far to much snow in between. Then the tumble dryer stops working so snow clothes taking an age to dry. The chimney is leaking so front room damp and then finally this morning my Goddess statue fell and broke into lots of bits. It was one of those slow motion things, you know the sort where you know perfectly well what is going to happen, you try to do your best to stop it but you just won't get to it in time.

So am now really sulking. Was my favorite statue of Her too.

Stomps off to strop in corner quietly...

Rocky Road in a Stocking

Littleun has made quite a few new friends and he has found it difficult to choose who he would like to give gifts to this Yule. So we came up with an idea that meant he could give out a few without breaking the bank. Rocky Road in a bag. We were lucky as last year in the sales I managed to nab a brilliant deal on stockings (no not my leg coverings but the sort you hang up for Father Christmas). Lovely deep red velvets with fun appliquéd characters and just the right size. Well the idea is get all the ingredients (minus the butter) for the recipe, put them into the stocking with the printout on how to and tie the top with a ribbon. Hey presto, you have a gift which Littleun has helped put together and which his friends can make and do with their own families. If you fancy doing similar this is the recipe for Rocky Road (and yes couldn’t resist had to make some for ourselves, boy am I putting the weight on this year!).

Rocky Road Cake

400g bar milk chocolate
1 tin of condensed milk
100g butter
Bag of marshmallows
Tub of glace cherries
Packet of digestive biscuits
Raisins or sultanas

Put the digestive biscuits in a thick plastic bag and roughly crush so that you end up with nice chunky biscuit pieces, then set aside.
Melt the chocolate and the butter together on a low heat (or in the microwave), then once melted, add the condensed milk, mixing thoroughly.
Take the chocolate mixture off the heat and add in the digestive biscuit and all the other ingredients. Mix well. You can add as little or as much as you like of the other ingredients and vary it to suit your tastes.
Tip the mixture into a tin lined with cling film (this well help you later!), flatten out into the tin, and place in the fridge to set. When set, cut into pieces and turn out.

my camera has stopped working so photo credit is Tristan Tristan

"On the road to Beth Beth Beth"...

Ah, it became clear after all. That annoying song that has sounded like a rapsters tune for the last 3 weeks suddenly made sense as I sat watching littleuns school nativity yesterday. My little darling was a star both in behaviour and as a character. In a bid to involve all the younger children in the nativity they added a few extras. Least of which was a side story of an angel who hadn't got her wings. On her way to Bethlehem she was always late in catching up the others, till it became obvious that she would get her wings after helping several animals with ailments. A fun afternoon of enthusiastic children who despite having rather short attention spans and waving madly at their parents, gave it their all. And yes, I did have a tear or two.

Now we are sitting here this afternoon, putting together our latest Yule gifts, Rocky road in a bag...

ps, the snow is apparently on the way back, argh.