Workbook – Page 12 – Wineberry Woods

27Oct 2023 by catbird 2 Comments

Winter Solstice Countdown Calendar

Craft Project, Play, Winter, Winter Solstice

My kids loooove countdown calendars. They have a Lego countdown calendar every year, individual countdown calendars for their respective birthdays and this one to countdown to winter solstice. It starts with all of the sections folded in-- dark like the longest night. As you open each section the sun is slowly revealed symbolizing the return of the light the days slowly getting longer after the solstice. Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year with the most hours of darkness. Every night after the Winter Solstice is just a little less dark. Ancient people believed it was the rebirth of the sun, so much of the symbolism around this holiday involves the sun and light. They wanted to encourage it to come back! Solstice Countdown Calendar This calendar is…

10Oct 2023 by catbird 1 Comment

Decomposer Hike

Autumn, Hike Ideas, Learning, Samhain

One of our favorite activities any time of year, but especially Fall, is turning over logs to look for decomposers. Decomposers are an organism, especially a soil bacterium, fungus, or invertebrate, that decomposes (breaks down) organic material. They play a critical role in the flow of energy through an ecosystem. They break apart dead organisms into simpler inorganic materials, making nutrients available to primary producers (like plants!.) Maybe that doesn't sound exciting, but decomposers are an incredibly important part of life-- without them, dead leaves, dead insects, and animals would just pile up everywhere. Imagine what the world would look like! You can do this in your backyard or on a hike in the woods, once you start looking decomposers are everywhere and it's fun to see what different types you can find and identify with…

10Oct 2023 by catbird 2 Comments

Pokeberry Ink

Autumn, Craft Project, Nature Art, Nature Art Materials, Samhain

While pokeberry is a native plant in North America it is generally considered a weed. It spreads readily from birds eating the berries and can often be found clustered under fences and trees where the birds were enjoying (and expelling) their meal. Phytolacca americana comes from the Greek word phyton which means “plant” and lacca which means “crimson lake.” Crimson lake is a traditional red pigment. It was a common source of ink in early America (hence the name inkberry) and during the Civil War particularly, it was the most common way for soldiers to write home and journal. The Kiowa people used the dried berries for jewelry and the Mahuna made dyes and inks. The Pawnee people made a red paint that they decorated horses and clothes with. Early…

10Oct 2023 by catbird 3 Comments

Falling Leaves Intentions

Autumn, Falling Leaves Moon, Folklore, Play, Samhain

I love the idea of using falling leaves to transfer your intentions into the world-- they will fall and decompose and take your message to the soil and the roots. We wrote right on leaves still on the tree and check back every few days to see if they’ve fallen yet. I always struggled to connect with Samhain. Even as a kid I never liked spooky stories and scary decorations. As I’ve gotten older several important people in my life have passed away this time of year and I always seem to find myself feeling down in late October. The place where I finally did connect with ideas of death and rebirth was through composting as a seasonal metaphor. You collect all of the spent dead things and through their…

09Oct 2023 by catbird No Comments

Celebrating Samhain with Children in Nature

Autumn, Craft Project, Nature Art, Samhain

Six fun ideas to celebrate the Halloween/ Samhain with kids!! Save for later! Click on the images for more information.

09Oct 2023 by catbird 1 Comment

Turnip Lanterns

Autumn, Campfire, Craft Project, Folklore, Nature Art, Samhain

I have been meaning to make these forever--turnips actually are the original vegetable lantern. They gained popularity in the Middle Ages and continued to be made well into the 20th century. Pumpkins are actually relatively new to the scene even though a Halloween/ Samhain without them seems unthinkable now. The turnip lantern tradition began with the Celts, who believed that the veil between worlds was especially thin on this night halfway between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. Because of this, people would light lanterns as extra insurance from wayward monsters and spirts. Metal lanterns were expensive at the time, so people in the British Isles began carving lanterns (and faces) from vegetables—particularly turnips, but in some cases potatoes, radishes and beets as well. They would place lit candles inside the cavities,…

05Oct 2023 by catbird 1 Comment

Nature Spiders

Autumn, Craft Project, Nature Art, Nature Collection, Play, Samhain

This super easy project brought our nature table into fall. These nature spiders are made from sticks, and Osage orange fruits and a black walnut. The sticks are just jabbed into the fruit (do it outside because they leak juice) I hot glued the bent part of the leg, but you could easily skip that, have straight legs and not need any glue at all. The walnut is just set in front on the table. It’s a testament to the crazy way my mind works that I was inspired to make these by a one of those blow up yard decorations… our neighbor got one and my kids were entranced. So I started to think about making a giant spider out of sticks (which might still happen) and then we…

25Sep 2023 by catbird 1 Comment

Mexican Hot Chocolate for the Harvest Moon

Autumn, Campfire, Harvest Moon, Recipes

As far I know this is not traditional anywhere except in my family, but Mexican hot chocolate on the Harvest Moon is a longstanding tradition for us. It started because my kids were always asking for hot cocoa in the summer and I was always telling them that it was the wrong season for cocoa. (Spring and summer are obviously tea season!) While winter is proper cocoa season fall is cocoa adjacent. Mexican hot chocolate has cinnamon which gives it a decidedly fall feeling for me. Because of that we decided that the Harvest moon was the official start of hot chocolate season. First things first, only Americans call it Mexican hot chocolate- in Mexico its just chocolate or champurrado. As early as 500 BC, the Mayans were drinking a chocolate…

25Sep 2023 by catbird 2 Comments

Gluten Free Mooncakes for the Harvest Moon

Autumn, Full Moon, Harvest Moon, Recipes

A mooncake is an East Asian pastry traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival celebrates the harvest and the moon. Most mooncakes consist of a thick, tender pastry skin enveloping a sweet, dense filling, and may contain one or more whole salted egg yolks in their center that symbolizes the full moon. Traditional fillings include lotus seed paste, sweet bean paste and mixed nuts in syrup. Mooncakes have a lovely design imprinted the on top. There are tons of different designs, but some traditional ones include: Chinese characters for "longevity" or "harmony", the moon, the Chinese goddess of the Moon (Chang'e), flowers, vines, and rabbits. I came across a fascinating snippet that Chinese revolutionaries used mooncakes to send coded messages in the olden days-- you had to cut the mooncake into quarters and rearrange it to decipher the words.…

24Sep 2023 by catbird 2 Comments

Bunny Mochi

Autumn, Full Moon, Harvest Moon, Play, Recipes

These mochi are so adorable and so simple they hardly need a recipe. I was inspired to make rabbit shaped mochi because of the East Asian myth that there is a rabbit in the moon making mochi. Rabbits have ended up playing a somewhat key role in our Harvest Moon celebrations over the year due to their associations with the moon. (Read more here) This is also simple enough to do after work when you don't have the energy for much else. (Speaking from experience...) Ingredients: pre packaged mochi. You can get these in a large variety of flavors. You want round ones. scissors black and pink food safe markers Method: Gently squish the round mochi into more of an oval shape. With the scissors snip two ears from one…