It's October...

I realised this evening that the nights are really starting to draw in close. We had the bantams out just before 6 pm and I felt the rush to put them to bed because the sun was starting to descend and darkness was coming in, along with the feeling that predators were starting to be out and about.

We had a nice homemade soup for lunch today - chopped an onion, fried it in my soup pot with some olive oil, added a crushed clove of garlic, some celery, a bit of chopped up butternut squash and added some boiling hot water from the kettle. Then added a cup of red lentils and boiled and then simmered it all up for 20 minutes - about 3 minutes from the end I added some miso and also added a handful of fresh garden herbs earlier in. I also added a dash of canned tomatoes. It was very yummy.

Springy and I made some herbal honey for the winter. We stuffed a glass jar full of sage and a little bit of thyme and then poured honey onto it. This is sage honey and is excellent for coughs and sore throats.

I really love Samhain. I always feel the magic at this time of year and I think it is because of the darker nights. There's something very primal about eating dinner and then getting all snuggled up in blankets later on in the evening as the cold creeps in.

There's a pumpkin craft link here:

http://cjstitchingandblooms.blogspot.com/2008/08/wool-felted-pumpkin-tutorial.html

It looks the same as the one in Living Crafts magazine.

On to home education (not that the above isn't related) but Springy has been working hard on her main lesson book thing. She only likes to write either in her best Magic book or if there is a purpose. She will write shopping lists and also we sometimes play at restaurants and she writes down my order. Other things that seem to encourage her pen control are those mazes in puzzle books and she loves word searches. We have a small chalkboard too and she will write with chalk on that (because she can rub it out). She uses that to practice her pictures and writing before putting them onto something more formal (her idea, not mine since I'm not that fussy).