litha – Wineberry Wood Press

06Sep 2024 by catbird No Comments

The Best Summer Solstice Party Ideas

Craft Project, Garden, Play, Recipes, Summer, Summer Solstice

We love to celebrate the changing of the seasons and the longest day! Looking for some fun and easy ways to celebrate with friends and family? Check out some of our favorite parties and celebrations! Fun for all ages! t A Solar Luncheon Let the sun be your inspiration and your oven! Building a simple solar oven is easier than you think! You can find instructions in my summer solstice book, or a simpler pizza box version all over the internet, or you can buy a fancier version online. It is truly amazing to be able to cook with the sun (and not heat up the house) on a hot summer day. The Summer Solstice, being the longest day of all, is the perfect time to make a solar luncheon!…

06Sep 2024 by catbird 1 Comment

Summer Stream Craftbrunch

Craft Project, craftbrunch, Hike Ideas, Nature Art, Nature Art Materials, Nature Collection, Play, Recipes, Summer, Summer Solstice

Summer is miserably hot and swampy where I live and sometimes we struggle to get outside as much as we do the rest of the year. It’s theoretically a slower time of year, but it never feels that way to me. One minute the whole summer stretches in front of you and then suddenly it’s September. I started hosting “craftbrunches” years ago to slow down and connect with friends and family. The premise is simple, everyone brings a simple dish and works on a seasonal craft together while laughing and gossiping. It’s an afternoon event which feels easier to schedule between clubs, camps, and soccer games. Including a simple kids craft keeps the littles occupied while the grownups catch up. A Summer Solstice craftbrunch is a perfect respite from…

06Sep 2024 by catbird 2 Comments

Garden Fairy Toasts

Garden, Play, Recipes, Summer, Summer Solstice

Garden fairy toast is so simple yet so satisfying to make! It takes inspiration from the classic fairy toast- bread covered in sprinkles, and reinvents it as a healthier and more versatile snack. The premise is simple, you just collect a little bit of whatever looks good in the garden and then artfully arrange it on your toast. It's fun and easy for kids, and can be quite elegant for adults. It celebrates the garden harvest (even when that harvest is small!) and makes vegetables fun! Ok I always think vegetables are fun... but not everyone agrees with me. You can use cream cheese as your "glue", or get fancier by using goat cheese or ricotta, or by tinting your cream cheese like a do in my love bird toasts.…

06Sep 2024 by catbird 1 Comment

Garden Party Tea & Cakes

Garden, Recipes, Summer, Summer Solstice

I recently learned that garden centers in the UK often have cafes and serve cake and tea and it kind of blew my mind. There seems to be a general association between cake and gardens there that just doesn't exist in the US– but I fully support it. Ever since I have been super inspired and developing cake recipes that use garden fruits and vegetables. I have included a few here, but feel free to make your favorites, zucchini bread, carrot cake, parsnip cake, beet red velvet, spinach, just about any fruit! Garden cakes for days! I even want to try a tomato cake! There are also a ton of common garden plants that are perfect for making herbal tea, so you can harvest the whole meal from your garden! …

12Aug 2024 by catbird 1 Comment

Solar Powered Floral Lanterns

Craft Project, Nature Art, Recycled Materials, STEAM, Summer, Summer Solstice

I don't think it's any secret that I love making lanterns, I have tons of lantern projects on this site and am constantly trying to think of new and different ways to make them. They have however, all been fall or winter lanterns until now. This hasn't really been intentional. I just seem to gravitate towards lantern and candle projects in the dark half of the year. But as I was planing my Midsummer's Eve Party, I knew I wanted to make a summer lantern. Flowers seemed like the obvious choice, and I decided on a wooden frame, but I wanted something that really made it a summer lantern. I found a solar powered light bulb and it all come together. This lantern doesn't just look summery, it is literally…

25Jul 2024 by catbird No Comments

Stream Art & Paint Rocks

Craft Project, Foraging, Nature Art, Nature Art Materials, Nature Collection, Summer

One of my favorite things to do while the kids are splashing around and collecting minnows is to look for paint rocks. Paint rocks are actually little chunks of ochre which is a soft rock that has been used as pigment since prehistory. Ochre can be found in various red, yellow and brown shades and largely derives it's color from iron. The best way to test and see if you have found a paint rock is to scratch it on a rock or hard surface. Ochre will not only make a mark, but mix with water to make, an almost creamy textured paint! You can see how it transferred to my fingers in teh picture below. There are a number of things that look like they might be paint rocks…

10Jul 2024 by catbird 1 Comment

Fun Summer Solstice Craft Ideas For Kids

Craft Project, Nature Art, Nature Collection, Nature Journaling, Nature Table, Play, Summer, Summer Solstice

Looking for fun crafts to do with (or without…) kids for the Summer Solstice? Click the text next to the images for the tutorials. Save for later! Sun Catchers: Plarn Sun Catcher Bioplastic Sun Catcher Blooming Fern Sun Catcher Tidepool Sun Catcher Sun Powered Crafts: Solar Oven Crayons Solar Oven Shrinky Dinks Shadow Drawings Solar Lanterns Solar Circuits Solar Balloons Decorations: Sun Prints & Anthotypes Turmeric Shibori Bunting Shell Candles Sea Glass Mobiles Shell Fragment Wreaths Flower Crowns Summer Nature Activities: Summer Nature Journal Summer Nature Table k

10Jul 2024 by catbird 2 Comments

Summer Sun Cookies

Recipes, Summer, Summer Solstice

If you have read any of my recipes before than you may have picked up that I love to use natural ingredients to add color to my baking and the proliferation of freeze dried fruit powders available on the internet has only fueled my obsession. I used to buy freeze dried fruit and grind it in a spice grinder, but now you can find nearly anything already neatly ground up into powder and ready to use. It is a bit more expensive to buy a bunch of fruit powders, especially if you don't plan to use them for multiple recipes, so as always, if that isn't your thing, then by all means just use food coloring and get a very similar result. That said, the mango and goji powders in…

10Jul 2024 by catbird 1 Comment

Sunny Orange Mint Popsicles

Recipes, Summer, Summer Solstice

It's not really summer without a good popsicle! I recently have come to realize that orange and mint together are delicious and refreshing, maybe everyone else knew this already, but I was surprised! I think in head I was tripped up by toothpaste and orange juice, but that isn't at all what fresh mint tastes like in orange juice. It just adds another herby layer and makes them taste extra cool and refreshing. They also make for a super quick and easy popsicle without any added sugar which is my favorite kind. The clementine suns are completely optional, I shaped them into little suns and froze them in the popsicle, but they were only sort of visible and I'm not sure I'd bother next time. They did look adorable held…

10Jul 2024 by catbird No Comments

Solstice Shadow Drawings

Craft Project, Learning, Nature Art, Play, Summer, Summer Solstice

The Summer Solstice is the longest day of the year and the sun is it it's highest position in relation to the Earth. This means that the shadows are the shortest than they will be all year. (Think about how in summer the sun feels directly overhead, that's because it is!) In fact areas close to the equator will actual be able to observe zero shadow days on the solstices at solar noon. Ancient astronomers measured the length of shadows to make mathematical calculations, like Eratosthenes, who in approximately 200 BCE calculated the circumference of the Earth be making detailed measurements of how shadows lengthen and shorten throughout the year. In addition to the shadow drawing project described below, you could also draw or record the shadow of a fixed…

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