mamaUK

Autumn books

 

 

 

(These are the seasonal flowers we have had on our dinner table for the past few days)

Today has been a busy day. We drove into London so I could go to my annual appointment at the hospital to check if I'm still in remission from Hodgkin's Disease. They do lots of blood tests and check my neck (where I had the tumour) and it looks like it is all OK which is always a relief. The two and a half hours drive each way was tiring. It's nice to be back home again. I always forget just how busy London is. 

I wanted to say thank you to my readers who left me a comment yesterday. While I was waiting to go in for my appointment, I went on-line in the cafe and read your comments which kept my mind off feeling nervous!

So, to get back to yesterdays post about the seasonal book basket, these are the books I have dug out so far to see what we already had for Autumn:

Woody, Hazel and Little Pip by Elsa Beskow

Autumn by Gerda Muller

Autumn Story by Jill Barklem

The High Hills by Jill Barklem

I guess if I'm going to rotate the books, I am going to have to put the other Gerda Muller  and Brambly Hedge seasonal books away which I am actually going to find quite hard to do. The illustrations are so beautiful. We have all the My First Little House books which are seasonal but I just cannot bear to put any of those books away. They are looked at every day by the children. They are my favourite children's stories! I think I will simply shift County Fair and The Deer In The Woods over to the special book basket ready for the new season. I haven't decided which two new books to choose for Autumn yet. 

 

Seasonal book basket.

 

 

Yesterday we took a trip to the Waldorf book store. While the girls looked through all the beautiful books I began to think about how wonderful it would be to have a seasonal basket of books. This is something I have wanted to do for a couple of years now but never got to sorting it out. With the next season in mind, I am going to choose a couple of Autumn books and a basket to start it off and as each season comes around I will buy two books to match the season. This way, we should gradually be able to build a collection for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter without it being too expensive all in one go. The three seasons that aren't being used will all be put away until it is their time be bought out and read. I have never rotated books with the children before so it will be nice to see their reaction when the books come back out after being put away for nine months!

RSPB Garston Wood: picnic time

 

 

 

 

  ...as we wandered through the woods yesterday  we looked out for the perfect picnic spot to lay out our blanket amongst the trees.  The children sipped hot chocolate with marshmallows and then lay back and looked at the sky through the canopy of leaves above. Afterwards, we picked blackberries until our fingers were stained with their dark juice.

RSPB Garston Wood : woodland wandering

 

 

We decided to go wandering in the woods today amongst the spectrum of lush, glossy greens. We wanted to make the most of the late summer woodland before the leaves start to change and fall to the ground.

Dolls House

 

K and L have both been setting up their little dolls house frame when it's been too rainy to venture out this week. They have been organising the furniture so it is just how they want it. It's a nice cosy activity for them to do indoors when the rain is pattering on the window panes and it's just too miserable to be outside.

Gardening

 
 
K and L have been pottering around helping out while we have been digging up the potatoes to store away, picking and blanching the last of the runner beans to keep in the freezer until we need them. We've been pulling weeds, trimming hedges, cutting the grass...We have spent a lot of time in the garden which the girls have loved. K had her own pair of gardening gloves and scissors so she was happily going around snipping things here and there while L was helping rake up dead dry leaves. All this, of course, has been mixed up with lots of playing. K dressing up and L wearing her hula flowers. L is just learning her colours and took great delight is yelling 'pink' this morning as she was picking out what to wear and came across her favourite cord dress.

Lantern Community Cafe next to local Waldorf school

 

 

While the girls have been staying at their Nanny's house for a couple of days, we took the chance to visit The Lantern Community cafe and shop which neighbours our local Waldorf school. This is one of my favourite places to visit, selling lots of natural, Waldorf style toys as well as a beautiful book section full of Rudolf Steiner / natural parenting and Waldorf style children's books. We ate lunch at the cafe which sells organic and whole food produce grown and made at the Lantern Community.

Butterfly meadow at Arne RSPB nature reserve

 
While we were camping we visited Arne, a beautiful RSPB nature reserve on the edge of Poole Harbour. The girls loved wandering through the Butterfly meadow filled with hundreds of sunflowers, it was such a summery scene...

They got to see wild deer amongst the trees and bracken, the ground carpeted in thick purple heather.  After they ran up some steps to the top of a steep hill they were startled to see the expanse of Poole Harbour beneath them. They weren't expecting to see water after running through woodland. K said, 'I can see the whole world up here. You didn't tell me it would be so magical.'' It's amazing to hear K appreciate the wonders of natural beauty surrounding her.

Summer camping

 

 We decided to head off camping for a few days to Dorset with the girls. We stayed at a campsite in the Isle of Purbeck, near Corfe Castle. The views were beautiful and K and L took great delight in yelling 'train' whenever they saw the little steam train trundling through the valley below. Even though camping can be a lot of work, we had a great time living under canvas for a few days, the children got to stay up later until the sun began to set, endless rolling down the hill and running (or crawling) back up the hill again, L beginning to ask 'why' all the time about everything. It was lovely to hear the zip on the tent door first thing in the morning, rain drops on the canvas and the hissing of the gas lamp in the late evening. It was good to simply get back to basics and see the girls enjoying setting up camp. It's nice to get back to home comforts too though!

 I will be posting some photos of our trip over the next few days. I hope you are having a lovely summer ♥