Summer Solstice

Our summer solstice was nothing fancy, but still very nice. And the weather is great these days. To me, the summer solstice marks the beginning of summer. So I try my best not to pay attention to the fact that days will grow shorter and nights longer from now on.


We collected seven different kids of flowers and put them under our pillow. Seven or nine different kinds of flowers under the pillow on midsummer night is said to make you dream of your future spouse.


We did our very first attempt on making fairy houses. This one is for the forest fairies.


And this is one for the garden fairies. - Or angels as T. call them. We’ll make more of these. And T. is checking regularly for signs of anyone moving in or staying over. Maybe we’ll make a fairy bed and breakfast? I wonder what fairies like to eat… (something sweet maybe, like honey?)


And in the evening we went to a lake nearby. Not to take a bath (too cold yet – about 15 degrees celcius/60 degrees F). Too cold for me anyway…) T. was just testing the water… And (of course) she fell and got all her clothes soaking wet.


So she got her first bath of the year anyway, and was totally thrilled about it.


And baby V. was happy in the wrap with daddy.

Spring Equinox preparations

The journey

Photos taken on holiday this autumn. I stumbled upon these while searching my computer for something entirely different. Soon, at least soonish, these photos will fade into a wage (but good) memory, and the doll will be substituted with a baby. Another person. A real person. I need to tell myself this quite often. Although I’m well into the second trimester and the baby moves around in there like crazy sometimes, even though my energy levels are at an all time low, my back hurts already and I have the occasional attack of heartburn. Still – I need to remind myself – I need to try and get the idea of having another person in our life – our family. It’s very strange and hard to get used to. I guess it’s something I/we cannot prepare ourselves to – it happens, and we’ll have to take it from there.

It has been, and still is occasionally, a bit hard. This pregnancy is so different from the first one, but still so similar. I’m pregnant at another time of the year, and that has definitely made the first trimester (with the extreme nausea) even harder – especially emotionally. It was a tough ride for all of us as a family.

It’s better now – so much better without the nausea. I can feel happiness again, I can feel the rollercoaster ride of emotions linked to (I guess) every pregnancy. Butterflies and shooting stars. Euphoria and anxiety. The waiting, the preparing, the getting ready, the reading of articles and books (all the things you forget in just a few years!), the internet surfing on forums and web shops (all the things you’re told you need… well, that’s a good thing about the second time around – you know you don’t need much), the talks with friends and family about their experiences and expectations, the choice making…



But here I am, and soon here she/he is, and we’re all waiting and trying to get used to the idea in our own way. What an adventure, and what a spiritual journey it is. For all of us. Motherhood, fatherhood, becoming a sister. That’s what I’m hoping and aspiring to write more about; the spiritual journey of pregnancy and birth. And what a blessing to be pregnant now – when the sun is soon to be “born” on the winter solstice.

Honey cake/gingerbread cake

I love making this cake when Christmas is approaching. It’s an old and traditional Norwegian recipe (or that’s what I’ve heard). Although it’s called “honey cake”, it’s very spicy – like gingerbread. This cake keeps for a long time as long as you keep it wrapped in foil or in an airtight container. The recipe even says that you should not cut the cake until after it has been in the fridge for a week. Let’s see if we can wait that long ;)

Set the oven on 175 degrees Celsius (ca. 345 °F).

150 grams of butter/margarine
100 g sugar
150 g honey
3 eggs
225 g plain white flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
½ tsp black pepper

Mix the butter, sugar and honey until it has a creamy consistency. Add the eggs and spices. Sift in the baking powder and flour and mix.

Use a rectangular bread tin – butter and dust with flour before you pour the dough in and straighten it out a bit with a spatula.

Bake for about 45 min. – 1 hour (my recipe says 1 hour, but that is way too long in my oven. Check on the cake once in a while to determine how it comes along).

Cool and put it in foil or some plastic wrap and put in the fridge for a week.

Serve with butter or cut it lengthwise and butter it before serving.

Drying oranges

So we've dried some orange slices. And they turned out ok, so we will be doing more of it closer to Christmas. I haven't really found out what to do with them yet, although I initially wanted to use them as ornaments on our Christmas tree. But the colour orange and Christmas is a bit hard to get used to... I love the connection to the sun though - a perfect solstice ornament.


The slices ready for the oven. I had a small opening on the oven door to let the steam out (or else the slices will burn easily, and get cooked – not dried) and turned it up to around 80-100 degrees Celsius. You could probably let them dry overnight, depending on how thick the slices are. The final result so far is this very simple mobile hanging above our wood burning stove.


Of course you can make more elaborate crafts with these – for example a wreath, garlands, use them in potpourri...

Crafting

Some very hush-hush holiday crafting going on right now. At the moment our kitchen looks like an art gallery and, well -chaos. I guess December is soon upon us. It's good. Although I'm late as always - So many ideas and plans and not so much time or energy to do it all. But there will be some homemade gifts this year. Quite a lot of edibles - it has somehow become a tradition of mine. We've made candy, walnut and apricot biscotti , heavy duty Christmas fruit cake, oranges soaked in brandy, vanilla sugar, tarragon vinegar, chili sauce, mocha liqueur, green/mint tea from the garden... And this year I'm making apple chutney for the kindergarten Christmas fair - and probably some for gifts as well.

I love the idea of edible gifts, and of course handmade gifts in general. And I'm looking forward to Christmas (or jul/yule as we say) this year. Although a part of Christmas is seasoned with stress and the immense pressure to buy more stuff, we can somewhat choose not to follow the masses, not focus on the consumption. Instead we can focus on, and rediscover, the true meaning and traditions behind this season and this holiday. It is difficult - at least for me. Not to get stressed out about gift buying, cleaning, decorating, list writing, crafting, and even more buying. But I am working on it - on slowing down, on grounding and centering and celebrating our way.

This year I'm really looking forward to the decorating and the making of decorations. I'm thinking of drying slices of oranges (haven't tried it yet) to symbolize the sun (we're pagans, and we celebrate the winter solstice - more on that later). Hanging them in windows around the house and probably decorating the tree with them as well. We're also making lots of gingerbread hearts, animals, people etc to use as decorations, making popcorn garlands etc. I'm hoping to make most of the decorations this year - and because a lot of them will be edible - the birds will have a feast sometime after new years :)