Snowdrops are shaking their little bells...

  
    Snowdrops are so pretty and I get excited at the sight of this little flower!
Crocuses are coming all out in their pretty blues and purples and yellows...and soon the daffodills will be blooming too!
Last weekend I did some early spring cleaning, and I made the rooms brighter and clutter free...well, almost...but instead of feeling relaxed I am more restless than ever...and I know now that this is when Spring really starts; it's almost inevitable, it's a buzzy feeling I get, a new energy springing up from underneath, whooshing upwards! The urge was great and I had to start throwing things, getting rid of the old to make room for the new...soon I will put my new bamboo blinds up! To finish the look I have new curtains of delicate white cotton with an embroided hem, reminding me of simple Italian curtains.
I'm singing all the time and I love to see more light coming through the window! Out there walking through the park or on the way to school with my daughter we like singing and listening to the birds singing with us. I'd like to share some stories, verses and songs with you.
My nature table now has earth colour and various shades of greens and purple and a snowdrop child...baby seeds sleeping...a plant with green shoots...   I am ready for Spring!
  
Spring Short Stories
The Snow Drop
By Hans Christian Andersen (Adapted)
The snow lay deep, for it was winter time. The winter winds blew cold, but there was one house where all was snug and warm. And in the house lay a little flower - in its bulb it lay, under the earth and the snow.
One day the rain fell and it trickled through the ice and snow down into the ground. And presently a sunbeam, pointed and slender, pierced down through the earth, and tapped on the bulb.                             "Come in," said the flower.                                                                          "I can't do that," said the sunbeam - "I'm not strong enough to lift the latch. I shall be stronger when springtime comes."                                   "When will it be spring?" asked the flower of every little sunbeam that rapped on its door. But for a long time it was winter. The ground was still covered with snow, and every night there was ice in the water. The flower grew quite tired of waiting.                                                                   "How long it is!" it said. "I feel quite cramped. I must stretch myself and rise up a little. I must lift the latch, and look out, and say 'good morning' to the spring."                                                                             So the flower pushed and pushed. The walls were softened by the rain and warmed by the little sunbeams, so the flower shot up from under the snow, with a pale green bud on its stalk and some long narrow leaves on either side. It was biting cold.                                                                "You are a little too early," said the wind and the weather - but every sunbeam sang, "Welcome," and the flower raised its head from the snow and unfolded itself - pure and white, and decked with green stripes.          It was weather to freeze it to pieces - such a delicate little flower, but it was stronger than anyone knew. It stood in its white dress in the white snow, bowing its head when the snowflakes fell, and raising it again to smile at the sunbeams, and every day it grew sweeter.                        "Oh!" shouted the children, as they ran into the garden, "see the snowdrop! There it stands so pretty, so beautiful - the first, the only one!"
 

"Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell,
       and the splendor of winter had passed out of sight,
The ways of the woodlands were fairer and stranger
       than dreams that fulfill us in sleep with delight;
The breath of the mouths of the winds had hardened on tree-tops
       and branches that glittered and swayed
Such wonders and glories of blossom like snow
       or of frost that outlightens all flowers till it fade
That the sea was not lovelier than here was the land,
       nor the night than the day, nor the day than the night,
Nor the winter sublimer with storm than the spring:
       such mirth had the madness and might in thee made,
March, master of winds, bright minstrel and marshal of storms
        that enkindle the season they smite."
   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"Through all the frozen winter
My nose has grown most lonely
For lovely, lovely, coloured smells
That come in springtime only.
The purple smell of lilacs,
The yellow smell that blows
Across the air of meadows
Where bright forsythia grows.
The tall pink smell of peach trees,
The low white smell of clover,
And everywhere the great green smell
Of grass the whole world over."


Deep in the forest, lives the spring gnome
The smallest of gnomes
In the smallest of homes.
He has slept all winter, he’s slept quite a lot
In his cozy little home,
Where the snow is not.
One day as he snores
In his dreams hears a call
Of the sweetest little spring fairy
The sweetest of them all.
She calls for him to wake  “wake up” (singing voice)
The little sleepy gnome
From his wintertime slumber
In his cozy gnomy home.
His ear perks up
His snores do stop
He opens one eye, and wakes right up!
He peeks out the doorway
And what does he see?
A tiny little tip, of a flower to be…
He steps outside
To the warm soft breeze,
And this is when, he begins to sneeze!
“Achoo, achoo, achoo, achoo, achoo!”
He sneezes five times,
And when he stops   
Five little spring fairies, are all lined up    
All ready to begin, the spring work ahead,
Of bringing the flowers and bugs out of bed.
They have been sleeping all winter long,
the way to best wake them is to sing a spring song
The song that they then – sing, sang and sung
Reminds everyone – spring truly has sprung!
They dance ‘round the forest,
All day and all night.
Now in morning sun – COLORS SO BRIGHT!!
Flowers blooming, short and tall
Bugs buzzing and flying, some big and some small
We know the song that they do sing
Let’s sing with the fairies to welcome the spring…………

A Caterpillar crawled to the top of a tree.
‘I think I’ll take a nap’, said he.
So under a leaf he began to creep
To spin his cocoon and he fell asleep.
All winter long he slept in his bed,
Till  spring came along one day and said,
‘Wake up, wake up little sleepyhead,
Wake up, it’s time to get out of bed’.
So he opened his eyes that sunshiny day.
Oh! He was a butterfly and flew away!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the heart of a seed buried deep, so deep,
A dear little plant lay fast asleep........
“Wake!” said the Sun, “and creep into light”,
“Wake!” said the voice of the Rainbow bright.
The little plant heard and arose to see
What the wonderful outside World might be. 

  Daffadowndilly
She wore her yellow sun bonnet
She wore her greenest gown,
She turned to the north wind and curtsied up and down
She turned to the south wind and shook her gentle head
Then she whispered to her neighbours
“Winter’s gone to bed!”
   ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Tu – wee, tu- wee,
A little bird sits in the Hawthorn Tree
I sing and sing for my bright eyed wife
Who shares my blossomy and thorny life.
We’ll build a nest with eggs in it – one, two, three.
And mother will sit and keep them warm
And I’ll go and find a big fat worm,
So happy we will be,
Tu-wee, tu-wee
A little bird sits in the Hawthorn Tree.

Candlemas/Imbolc

»

The Magic of Candlemas

January 29, 2010 by Carrie

This is a festival that is new to many people, and really can be two separate days and in that regard can be a bit confusing.
February 1st is the day to honor St. Brigid (or Brigit, depending upon what reference you use). ( February 1st also is Imbolc or Imbolg in the Pagan tradition).
February 1st is seen as the first day of Spring.  I know this seems very odd indeed when in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere people are dealing with ice and cold, but within the agricultural realm, this day is the day that marks the days getting a bit longer.  This is a traditional time to prepare for lambing, and usually spring sowing begins.
Brigid was originally viewed as a Celtic goddess, at least according to the Irish tradition as counted in “Celebrating Irish Festivals” and then Brigid became revered as a Saint within the advent of Christianity in Ireland.  There are stories about Brigid as the daughter of  the innkeeper that gave the holy family shelter in the stable, that she helped Mary escape with an infant Jesus by distracting guards who searched on King Herod’s orders…
She is associated with having a cloak of miracles.  In some stories, Brigid requested to have land given to her by the King of Leinster, and when the King said she could have whatever her cloak covered, she laid it down and the cloak covered a large parcel of land!
Here are some ways to celebrate:

• Make Brigid Crosses as protection from evil, fire,  lightening, disease.  There are many instructions for this one the web. Here is what they look like if you are not familiar:  http://janegmeyer.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/fifth-century-weaving-a-saint-brigids-cross/
• Leave out a cloak for Brigid to bless as she comes by that will give the wearer protection. 
• Leave out a bowl of milk, butter, salt, for Brigid to bless as she comes by.  Leave out a bowl of oats or blessed food.  If you leave out seeds, these will be blessed for Spring Sowing.
• Food may include freshly churned butter and braided bread. (Brigid was known as a cowherd and also a beekeeper).  Making some sort of bread with honey may also be appropriate.
• Snowdrops and dandelions, white and yellow, might be festive for your table with white or green candles and your Brigid’s crosses. 

February 2nd is Candlemas, and this is traditionally the day that celebrates the ritual cleansing of Mary after the birth of Jesus and also when Mary presented the infant Jesus in the temple as according to Jewish tradition.   Simeon called Jesus a light, thus tying Him to this day.   There are some stories that say Mary was uncomfortable about presenting Jesus in the temple and the attention that this would bring, and Saint Brigid walked ahead of Mary with a crown of lighted candles in order to divert attention from Mary and Jesus.  Some sources also say that Brigid wore a crown of candles in order to divert attention from Jesus when Herod’s soldiers were hunting Him.  Therefore, Candlemas is celebrated as a festival of lights and also is seen as a day to celebrate the lights of Saint Brigid and her role in helping Mary and Jesus.
“All Year Round” always has such a nice way of putting things.  The authors write here:  “At the beginning of February, when the infant light of spring is greeted thankfully by the hoary winter earth, it seems fitting we should celebrate a candle Festival  to remember that moment when the Light of the World was received into the Temple, when the old yielded to the new.”  Indeed, this day in Eastern churches is “The Meeting” – the festival of the old meeting the new.
Candlemas is the day the Church officially blesses the candles for the year. People used to also put candles around the beehives that they had on this day.
Of course, Candlemas is also Groundhog’s Day in the United States, and there is much weather lore surrounding that event.  There is also lore surrounding weather and Candlemas in general.  “Festivals, Families and Food” recounts this weather verse:
“If Candlemas Day be fair and bright
Winter will take another flight.
If Candlemas Day be cloud and rain
Winter is gone and will not come again.”
Here are a few ways to celebrate Candlemas:

• Make candles, of course.  Earth Candles are lovely if  your ground is not frozen – essentially you dig holes, put in a  weighted wick and melted beeswax and help give light to the coming Spring.
• Making floating candles are nice (there are instructions in “All Year Round”) and dipping candles is a lovely way to spend the afternoon of Candlemas.
• This is also a great day to make your Nature Table look more toward Spring.  The first flowers, pussywillows or catkins, all those things bring us toward the season of Lent.  Also a great time to make some small flower fairies for your Nature Table and put them out.  There are instructions in “All Year Round” and also in “The Nature Corner”.
• “Mrs. Sharp’s Traditions” suggests enjoying a candlelit dinner and reading a short story after dinner by candlelight. 
• Crepes or pancakes are traditional for breakfast.

Many blessings in your celebrations,
Carrie

Full Moon January 19th 2011

A Baker's Dozen of Full Moons -
    - Adjustable Full Moon Dates & Information

Updated Jan 1, 2011 by J McCaul

Full Moons are a frequently researched event. Regardless of the audience, be it scientist, housewife, student or gardener, everyone wants to know the date so that he/she can take advantage of the energy of the day/night. Full Moons are intriguing, mysterious and, in many ways, like a beautiful sunny day, only at night.
Below is a table displaying the current Full Moon dates, times (GMT), zodiac sign that the Full Moon will be in and the seasonal reprentative name given by some Native American cultures. With a complete year of information, finding the next Full Moon date just got easier without a lunar calendar. The hours for the Moon Event can be changed to your time zone. This information can be used in conjunction with the Moon Phase - Lunar Calendar or Void of Course - Astrology Calendar. Athough Eclipses always fall on the day of a New Moon (Solar) or a Full Moon (Lunar), they are less frequent and listed on a different page. The Eclipses can also be time zone adjusted.
Today is January 19, 2011 7:27 GMT

Zodiac	Date	UT (+0)	Name
Cancer	Jan 19, 2011	9:23 pm	Wolf Moon
Leo	Feb 18, 2011	8:37 am	Snow Moon
Virgo	Mar 19, 2011	6:11 pm	Worm Moon
Libra	Apr 18, 2011	2:44 am	Pink Moon
Scorpio	May 17, 2011	11:08 am	Flower Moon
Sagittarius	Jun 15, 2011	8:13 pm	Strawberry Moon
Capricorn	Jul 15, 2011	6:39 am	Buck Moon
Aquarius	Aug 13, 2011	6:58 pm	Sturgeon Moon
Pisces	Sep 12, 2011	9:27 am	Corn Moon
Aries	Oct 12, 2011	2:07 am	Harvest Moon
Taurus	Nov 10, 2011	8:18 pm	Beaver Moon
Gemini	Dec 10, 2011	2:38 pm	Cold Moon
Cancer	Jan 09, 2012	7:32 am	Wolf Moon
(+)      (-)      Time Zone 1 Hour 2 Hours 3 Hours 4 Hours 5 Hours 6 Hours 7 Hours 8 Hours 9 Hours 10 Hours 11 Hours     To reset - click button without changing the time zone.

To adjust the Full Moon times for your time zone, add or subtract the number of hours your time zone is from 0 UT. If you live in the western hemisphere (mostly the Americas) you would subtract the number of hours from the time shown on the table. Most of the eastern hemisphere will add hours to the time shown in the table.

Solar wind

Friday

Northern Lights January 13th 2011

Last night in Tromsø, Norway, the solar wind combined with moonlight and snow to produce a scene that had onlookers asking themselves, can it get any better than this? One of those onlookers was Thilo Bubek, and he took this picture:

"The whole evening was a perfect show with strong auroras in many colours," says Bubek. "We were able to capture some fantastic images."

But can it get any better? Maybe later today: A solar wind stream is due to hit Earth's magnetic field on Jan. 14-15, possibly sparking even stronger displays. NOAA forecasters estimate a 30% chance of high-latitude geomagnetic activity when the solar wind stream arrives.

Candlemas - info and inspiration: follow these links

http://waldorfmama.blogspot.com/2008/02/candlemas.html
 Candlemas - info and inspiration: follow these links


http://theparentingpassageway.com/2009/01/10/candlemas-is-coming/

http://christopherushomeschool.typepad.com/blog/2008/01/candlemas.html

January Activities

This article first appeared in the Homeschool Journey newsletter, January 2004
January can be a depressing month for many homeschoolers. Panic and guilt lurk just around the corner as well realize that the children have done no math since Thanksgiving, that the last Main Lesson book is still hanging around unfinished and that list of vocabulary words has yet to see the light of day... Beware - burn-out is approaching! Be brave! Call it by name, face it down and relax. Say the following to yourself 10 times out loud: “My children will learn, they are learning all the time”.
The weather - mud and rain or ice and snow - can be extremely unhelpful, and instead of making home seem warm and inviting, makes it seem like a cage. The mall, McDonalds, the TV and video, all seem to call alluringly to us...
Put it all together and it can seem overwhelming. Either we feel like just chucking it all in and watching cruddy videos with the children all day or we start the day by announcing we have lots to catch up on and there’ll be no time to play for the next month at least! Not good choices!
Maybe the thing to do is to let go a little, have a day or two of relaxed fun and, in the odd peaceful moment, check in with yourself and reaffirm why you started this crazy homeschool thing in the first place. Remind yourself of all the good things that have happened and acknowledge, but gracefully let go of, all the not so great things.
Here is a list of activities to keep you sane without resorting to the TV or the mall. Do a few of these things to get you through your crisis and then, once you’re feeling a bit more together, get back to that school work:

1. Get some big pieces of paper and masking-tape it to a whole wall. Get the crayons out and make a mural. If you want this activity to last more than 10 minutes, you’ll need to form it: start by telling a story, perhaps of a long journey, and sketch in the mountains or woods or a path...and let the children take it from there - if they’re old enough. Otherwise, draw with them. Other themes could be: how Grandma and Grandpa came to this country; scenes from past family outings; Noah’s Ark; gnomes underground and fairies above ground.
2. Get out every blanket you own and rearrange the furniture into one huge maze of tents and tunnels.
3. Read a favorite fairy tale, make figures out of clay or beeswax, and act out the story. The Three Billy Goats Gruff is a good one: improvise with a blue cloth for the river and blocks or pieces of wood for the bridge. If you do the Three Little Pigs you can have fun building the pigs’ houses.
4. Spend the day preparing a meal from another land. Get music from the library, make a menu, learn how to say please and thank you in the appropriate language(s). Children can decorate the table with flags of the country.
5. Dig out photos from when Mommy and Daddy were young and spend the afternoon giggling about them.
6. Read a book of pirate stories together (the Barefoot Book of Pirates is a good one) and learn some sailors’ shanties (Rise Up Singing is an excellent resource).
7. Get some special window paint (Hearthsong - http://www.hearthsong.com/ - carries some) and decorate all the windows and mirrors in your house.
8. Learn to play cards - Snap, Old Maid, War and Go Fish! are good ones. Rummy is great for older children as is solitaire. Lucky 13: Solitaire Games for Kids by Michael Street is a great resource.
9. Take out some of the children’s board games and help them change the rules and figure out different ways to play.
10. Put all the mattresses, bedding, cushions and sleeping bags you have into one huge, safe pile and let your children roll, scream, bounce and scramble. Follow with a quiet activity like a story.
11. Let the children take off all their clothes and cover themselves and their siblings with face paint. Finish with a big family bubble bath.
12. Curl up on the sofa with cups of cocoa and just read, read, read a really good book and forget about everything else. (Check out the list of great read-aloud books on our website: www.christopherushomeschool.org/great_read-alouds.htm )

January mood

Could people please stop looking gloomy!? January is a lovely month, with light and hope; new year's new beginnings bring optimism and a sense of great things coming...
Grow up! Christmas is over but in a way it has just begun...The Great Big Shining Star is still bright and the Sheperds have been...but everyone is still talking about Jesus...so don't get sad when you take the tree down and put it in the garden or to a recycle collection point... Brighten your room, start with some de-cluttering and good cleaning. get some new throws/cushions/curtains or if not new, just change to a different one...The mood I create is clean and simple and bright with a lot of white... and some candles and crystals....very soon is Candlemas and wax is a lovely thing to touch and work with...so I get my beeswak/modelling wax out for the children to play with and get plain white candles and we decorate them.
The Park is beautiful at this time of the year...and I am still very much hoping for snow........oh yes!

Happy New Year 2011!!!

May this coming year bring serenity, health and happiness, growth and guidance and a new stronger self.