Lughnasadh

Today, the 1st of August, marks the traditional first harvest. In celtic folklore Lugh, the sun God, celebrated his mother's death on this date with games and a feast. His mother had cleared Ireland 's plains to make way for agriculture and the planting of grain. So on this anniversary we think about the cyclical nature of grain and food; it's planting, it's growth and it's harvest, and of course it's eating.

I really struggled not to think about autumn today, it was damp and dull and windy (it's not autumn though weather...are you listening!? You owe us a good deal more sunshine!!). It feels as if the growing cycle is coming to an end, many of the flowers in the garden are past their best, we have eaten most of the peas and of lots of the lettuces.

The kids and I decided to go on a seed walk, we dressed up and walked around the woods and the fields looking for as many different seeds as we could find.We found so many in all shapes and sizes and colours. We talked about the life cycle of the plants and also about how the different seeds are scattered some by wind power, some by animal, some by bird and of course dandelion seeds by children.A few days ago we spotted a patch of early, ripe blackberrys and we went to harvest them.Benny tried SO hard not to eat them all, I had to take his bucket in the end because it was just too tempting.It's a very serious business, this gathering!At home we washed a lot of apples that Rebe had gathered from a friend's garden a few days ago, we also washed what were left of the blackberries and made a delicious crumble...

Before dinner we spent some time reading this book, We picked it up from the library bus last week. It is a lovely story about the cycle of the year and the beauty and wonder of an apple tree (and the wonderful play it provides for the children) all year round. Quite a fitting story for today.

It's been nice acknowledging the cycle of the food that nourishes us. I think that it's important for the kids to understand where their food comes from, how it grows and the work and love that goes into every stage.

And now for something completely different...

oh, oh, oh, Joa your curls are to die for!

A swan toy made by Rebe (with a little help with the pinning from me) using socks, a cushion, paper and safety pins

I asked Rebe today why she doesn't really play with any of her toys. She tells me that she prefers to make her own. Our playroom is full of these amazing wee things that she makes. She comes to me so many times in the day asking for an edge of the sellotape or for yet another cardboard box or in need of a bit of wool. She is so clever and I love that she is so creative and that for her the play is in the making (kind of like her Mama!)

a quiet little drinking village...

...with a fishing problem (car bumper stickers from the Courtmacsherry Hotel)

A couple of days ago Andy took the boat out fishing, and what a trip he had!!! He called me as he was coming in and we went down to meet him at the harbour. We watched and vaguely helped him bring the boat in. He has a really ingenuous way of getting the boat back onto the trailer using a winch. This means we don't need some swanky 4x4 and he can tow and launch the boat using his wee golf, even when the slipway is thick with sea lettuce. It's very clever and I felt really proud watching him, knowing how much thought he had put into the problem of launching and retrieving the boat single handily.

This was his catch, the best result I have ever seen, so the best fishing trip in well over a decade!

Benny was SO interested in everything (see him poking the googly eye of the pollack?)

Amongst the catch were 2 fine cod

a whole box full of mackerel

You'd think Benny had caught them!

oooh big fish!

As well as 2 cod he also caught 4 pollack and a small ling.

we washed them down in the garden and filleted them also. Andy went off to drop a heap to some friends of ours. I put the dinner on and Benny refused to come in, he still wanted to investigate the fish some more.

I found them like this when I went to get him in for dinner.

After filleting and washing them we had a huge bowl full of gorgeous fillets for the fridge and freezer. We also did some bartering with them and swapped them for these eggs and veggies...

which all together made this sumptuous dinner....

Another neighbour we gave some mackerel to gave us strawberry's and cream in return, oh yum!

The only down side to this trip is that Andy hurt his back with the strain and has been laid down for 3 days, poor thing. Still at least he has something to smile about...oh and he did inform me that over the past week he used no less than 7 different reels...and here's me thinking he was going overboard buying all those fishing reels from ebay ;-)

Also I just want to share 2 more foody pics...

These beautiful artichoke's a friend gave me from her garden. Oh I love artichoke's!

These cakes we baked while Andy was out fishing, we think they look like 'real cakes'.

Hmm yum, what have you been eating of late?

Excited

Today I'm excited about..

making soup with the rest of the veggies my friend gave me from her garden. The grapes (yes Irish grapes) were gobbled on the first day though. I'm excited about the pounds of elderberries that Andy picked for me on one of the trees at work,

and the three pints of Elderberry Syrup I made with it.

I bought this stuff last year for 10 euro for a 150ml bottle! It's so packed with vitamins and anti-oxidants and tastes just yummy. It'll hopefully ward off the autumn and winter snuffles!

I'm excited about the arrival of my craft materials...

and trying new crafts...

I'm also very excited about the Clonakilty Steiner Kindergarden parent and child classes that we attended yesterday. It was just so lovely, the place was beautifully set up, with natural (non plastic) toys, open ended toys. the shelves were filled with arts and crafts materials and the staff were just a delight. The garden was bursting with veggies, herbs and flowers. There are swings and slides and, joy of joys, an old boat to play in (Benny heaven!). We had playtime, then we made biscuits together, played in the garden, then sang some songs, then had tea and the delicious biscuits we'd made. It was just wonderful, so calm and peaceful and the kids had a ball!

What are you excited about today?