Hurricane Sandy

We are gearing up for the arrival of Hurricane Sandy today around lunch time, I have tried to get the littles outside as much as possible before she arrives because they are predicting she'll be around for a couple of days, and hurricane winds in the deep deep woods is just not good news, we lost our shed in a hurricane earlier this year when a very large oak tree came crashing down.

The Weather Faeries checking to see if it is safe to go play this morning.

Looks good just a little wet, but not too much wind

Play is such important work for children, I do not keep all of their toys in their rooms or just in the playroom, there are lovely things to be played with in every room of the house, but our sun room, has become the only place in the house dedicated to play.  I snapped a few photos of our little room to show where we will be spending the next few days as we ride out the hurricane.

a few Steiner dolls 

the children's playstand, with
baskets of musical items, blocks, felt balls,
 playsilks and a few other goodies.

Baby Nigel and his little dragon waiting
to go for a ride in the wagon.

The children's table and chairs I leave the silk
and fruit bowl set
up for them unless we are doing arts
 and crafts then the table is covered in smock cloth.

One of the bookcases in the playroom, mostly housing elemental stackers and wooden fruits and vegetable for chopping stored in the basket in the corner.

Our very loved and often used play kitchen

a few additional shelves in the room

I hope everyone stays safe, and Sandy passes quickly, I'll be sitting on the comfy green couch in our playroom working on a purple plain pickles vest.

Autumn

Autumn is my favorite season and is particularly welcome and beautiful in Virginia.  Our summers are just too hot and humid to really enjoy our time in nature.  Here are some photos of how we marked the changing of the season in our home.

 

Our Nature Table

A little shelf in our hallway

Our dining room table

We also transformed our barn into a haunted house and have been practicing trick or treating with our wooden figures, this will be the littles first year going trick or treating to collect lots of sugar for the sugar fairy of course!

Our ooky spooky haunted barn!

The Squirrel

(From Wynstone Press's "Autumn")

Whisky, frisky, hoppity hop,

Up he goes to the tree top!

Whirly, twirly, round and round,

Down he scampers to the ground.

Furly, curly, what a tail!

Tall as a feather, broad as a sail!

Where's his supper?  In the shell.

Snappity, crackity, out it fell.

The littles have been very interested in the squirrels recently, often asking to look out the window when they first wake, to see what the squirrels are up to, laughing in delight watching them run up and down the trees and bury their acorns in the ground.  Luckily at any given time our yard has squirrels to watch.

We have been telling a simple story at night about father squirrel playing in the woods, when the cold wind blows (I gently blow the children's hair) and he knows Father Winter is coming so he must collect all of his acorns to eat during winter.  I throw up a handful of felted acorns and have the children help collect them and bring them back to Father Squirrel so he will have plenty of food to eat this winter.

We usually repeat this story a few times before bed, they have great fun gathering the nuts and it helps to get the last of their energy out as we settle in for bed time.

A few more photos of Fall in our playroom.

A shelf in the playroom

the bookcase in our playroom

The children's table with their felted fall harvest

Corners of my Home

It is a cold, wet, grey and gloomy kind of day outside, the littles had gone down for their nap and I just finished tidying up the living room and snuggled up on the couch to knit, when I took a moment to admire how warm the seating area across the room looked at that moment.  Usually the blanket, dolls and toys on the fireplace are put away elsewhere, but they were left behind today and I rather liked the warmth they brought to the space.