mamas need camp, too

This summer I expanded a bit from just offering the one weeklong girls' camp that I've been doing for three years and hosted several days of 4-5 year old day camp and two days of 'Mama Camp'.  The kid camps were great and several little buddies of mine had lots of fun learning about chickens and compost and tasting all the different herbs in the garden and making tea and doing all sorts of art.  But mama camp?  Oh my goodness.


Twice in the last few weeks a dozen women (mostly a different dozen each time, but a few lovelies came both times) have come together at my place (some I hadn't even met until they bravely parked in my driveway and walked up the front steps to introduce themselves) to make and craft and brew and chat and eat and connect with each other for a stretch of about four hours or so.  It has been a blissful thing.  The first time around I wasn't sure I knew just what my role would be- yes, I organized it and ordered all the materials and put it together and invited folks, but 'teacher'? Hmmm....... I'm used to that when I've got a group of kiddos around, but a group of my peers?  It is true that several folks were coming to learn something, as these things that I feel are second-nature are not necessarily the average skill set of the 30-something and 40-something crowd in 2018.  I realize not everyone is going around asking for neighbors' permission to tap their sugar maples and foraging for mushrooms on the roadsides and kegging kombucha and rendering backyard beeswax.  And such.  We all have things that we come accustomed to making and doing and sometimes all we need is a little nudge to expand into a different space.  (now I'm rambling.  and also thinking of all the things I want to do but need a nudge to do....)


As much as I wasn't sure how I'd carry out the actual 'event' that first go around, it came together beautifully and was just such a lovely time.  Truly, I think all the mamas would have probably been thrilled just to be together with a dozen other mamas without all of our kiddos in tow.  That rare chance to completely remove our 'mama hats' and relax and exhale into adult company and camaraderie for a good stretch of time.  The fun stuff we made together was the icing on the cake.  A great big collectively made party favor, if you will.  And did we ever make!  We made a lot.  Indigo-dyed tea towels, sauerkraut, deodorant, body butter, tinctures, two kinds of herbal teas, indigo-dyed pillow cases, healing herbal salve, insect repellent, beeswax food wraps, a flavored secondary-fermentation kombucha, herb-infused facial oils...... whew!  That is a lot of stuff to make but we pulled it off, and all while connecting and learning from one another and enjoying delicious food and drink.  Good, good stuff.  Soul food, I believe.

late fall bits :: leaves, love, and bears

maple against a fall-blue sky :: a few weeks ago

we hope a screech owl may decide our nesting box is a good home

sourwood in our driveway (also, weeks ago)

a fall favorite :: beeswax-dipped leaves strung up on the mantle (these are being replaced bit by bit with holiday cards as they arrive in the mail)

goodies from a recent swap that I hosted :: smoked sea salt chocolate chip cookies, body butter(s), essential oil blends, homemade wine, soap and lip balm, glassware dipped in sea glass paint (there was also some lavender-coconut tapioca pudding that I ate before I had the chance to photograph it)

there were faint flurries right around Halloween- it set her immediately to the serious business of snowflake-cutting.  soon, all of our windows will be covered I'm sure

grain-free, egg-free, dairy-free (but my goodness they actually do taste good!) pumpkin muffins. yum, yum, yum.

hot cocoa :: coconut milk + cacao nibs + cinnamon chips + cocoa powder. strain and add coconut sugar and a splash of maple syrup.  cayenne if desired.  yumyumyum

someone has decided her loved ones are getting little handmade "love" pillows for Christmas this year.  someone is working rather hard at it.

this last week or two has seen us starting to feel the coming shift from late fall to the start of winter- it is colder, there are many frosty mornings, the wood stove is being put to work nearly as often as not.  the bright, crisp fall-blue skies are still around, though now without the vivid backdrop of brilliant leaves that it had a few weeks ago.  we've had a flurry, several freezing nights.  winter stars and constellations are coming back into view.  the fall swap has come and gone.  there is much hot tea and time with books and quilts.  hot cocoa, pumpkin muffins...

we rehung our bird feeders and suet, excited to start Project FeederWatch again this year.  and then a couple nights later we had some visitors who were also interested in the suet- a mama black bear and her three cubs.  we've long known of bears in and around our neighborhood. we even put an electric fence around our hives last year because they were getting into some of the trash cans at our neighbors' houses.  but beyond a quick sighting now and again, we hardly saw them and they never came into our yard.  until one recent night.  around 11pm I kept hearing weird sounds and eventually looked out on the deck to see shadowy figures and hear something that sounded like raspy whispering.  it was a bit........ creepy.  I ran back in for a light and shined it upon three little (relatively, they were actually the size of large dogs, the cubs) bear faces, busily munching away at some spilled sunflower seeds and a suet cake they'd grabbed down from the suet cage.  I quickly looked for mama and spotted her in the yard.  I was about 20 feet from the cubs and 30 feet from mama.  I made sure not to get in between them or stray far from my doorstep.  they wandered around a bit, one ending up in our small pond for a few moments (accidentally?).  I ran in to wake Mike and we watched them for a bit.  he woke the little one and she seemed excited for a few seconds then crawled under the covers and went right back to sleep.  he and I went outside and by that time mama was no longer in the back yard.  we shooed the cubs off the deck and they plopped into the garden to finish off the suet.  mama was walking through the yard next door.  I banged the flashlight against a metal water bottle and shooed them away so they'd go off to meet mama bear.  one cub ran right into the bee fence on the way and yelped then shot right up a tree.  after another 10 minutes they were all ambling along through the neighbor's yard and the excitement was over.

I took the suet down for about a week before deciding to give it one more go.  If it lures in the bears again, that it'll be it.  so far, so good- we've been watching and recording the birds and the woodpeckers that come for the suet are definitely a favorite.  watching and monitoring the winter birds is a favorite for us, but I feel it's far more important to do what we can to help keep the bears wild.  alas.

now, with the calendar turn to December, we are beginning to make merry.  her simple advent 'calendar' is hung, there are a few decorations here and there.  we watched the town parade today and have begun to listen to some christmasy Pandora stations.  tonight we watched the Muppet Christmas Carol.  soon we will get a tree and tape snowflakes in the windows. and other wintry things.

spring swap

another swap has come and gone and again, as always, I came away feeling so full of inspiration and love and gratitude for this wonderful group of women.  due to some travel and family matters and such, it was a smaller swap than our usual 15-20 people.  I most certainly missed several of our regular swappers, but there is something to be said for a smaller and more intimate group.  I actually got a chance to really catch up with everyone, which was nice.  and we all still came away with such wonderful goodies.  there were indigo-dyed tea towels, sandalwood malas and necklaces, lots of beautiful, healthy plants, kombucha, salves and balms and body butters, tiki torches and bug spray and fresh shiitakes.  essential oil inhalers and reusable counter wipes, yummy seasonings and adorable little zippered pouches.  it's always such a beautiful spread on the swap tables!

I contributed flavored kombuchas (lemon-ginger, and blueberry-lime-cardamom), two jars of our backyard honey, and some plants (comfrey, elderberry, and echinacea).  I came away with some milkweed and motherwort starts, a lip balm/salve set, two beautiful sandalwood and seashell/stone necklaces (one immediately gifted to one of our swap regulars who couldn't make it here for the swap but came by shortly after to hang out), a tiki torch with vegetable-based oil, the most delicious crackers made entirely out of seeds (which I inhaled quite rapidly), an essential oil big spray, a magnesium/shea butter achy body balm, nutritional yeast/seaweed seasoning, and a generous set of 5 reusable cloths/counter wipes.

I've actually lost count of how many swaps I've hosted here now, but I think we're up to somewhere around 10.  I host them twice a year, and I so look forward to them.  this year there may even be a third one because..... well, because they are such fun and because I just truly love these women and we have such a grand time trading our goods.

I'll link below to older posts highlighting some of the previous swaps- it's always fun to peek back at what sort of things have been traded in the past.  and for anyone interested, I've got an article coming out in the upcoming fall issue of taproot magazine that will go into detail about how to get started with hosting swaps and setting them up in your community.


fall swap, 2012 (the first one!)
summer swap, 2013
fall swap, 2013
fall swap, 2014
soup swap 2014
spring swap, 2015
fall swap, 2015
spring swap, 2106

looking back like this and adding in other swaps that I didn't write about, I think we may actually be on swap number 11 or 12 now! whew!

year end cheer

there were a couple batches of gingerbread, and some peppermint bark.  there was a caroling party at a friend's house.  sweet notes in the mail.  sweet surprise boxes in the mail filled with goodies.  there were bird treats made on the solstice and later in the evening, a candlelit dinner with the best of friends.  sparkly lights, felted gifts for special little people, a christmas morning tea party with a very special new tea set (also made a dutch baby pancake instead of our usual cinnamon rolls and it was a huge hit- we went on to make it again twice over the next three days).  there were gifts brought back from Italy (Mike spent a week in Italy in mid-December, and hid the goodies until Christmas morning) - wine, some honey candies, honey, a huge bag of olives, and parmesan cheese from Parma.... yum, yum.  I was gifted a great new pair of slippers.  we had a low key and sweet holiday, to be sure. visits with friends and family, lots of time spent in pajamas and near the fire, many books read and movies watched.  delicious soups with dumplings (and without) and hearty wintry meals.  I knit a pair of matching hats for me and my girl.  Claire has watched The Secret Garden at least three times since Christmas.  I keep hoping the temperature will drop a bit and some snow will come our way.....  hopefully soon.

and now tomorrow we get back into the swing of things.  back to work and back to school.  time to make some plans and set some things into motion.

happy new year~ cheers!

making merry

hanging the little christmas walnut mouse from my childhood on the tree, with the sweet little mouse advent calendar from my childhood in the background

I so love that little walnut mouse..... so I am working on felting some buddies for her

and then since all the wool was out, we each made a barn owl

making swags for friends

swag-making, narcissus-planting....

her advent calendar that I made several years ago, and her own little swag on her bedroom door

I just want to sit on the couch and look at the tree

made photo cards this year for the first time ever, and she and I are working on getting them out

welcome!

2 ukuleles

"Gary's tree"

hot cocoa enjoyed out on the trail on a chilly, festive day

best of friends

advent/solstice spiral

It is beginning to feel quite like Christmastime around here.  We got our tree last weekend after the annual town parade.  Her paper pocket advent calendar is up (I love this little calendar- each day I slip in a little note with something written on it for us to do that day- buy groceries for the food pantry, visit a friend, make swags and wreaths, drink hot cocoa, etc., and each day she tells me something she is grateful for and I write it on the back of the note and pin it to the calendar so we can keep track of where we are, and she can be reminded of all the many things she is grateful for), along with the advent/solstice spiral, and now (after finding it in a bin at my dad's place) the little cloth pocket advent calendar that we had when I was a child- I loved moving the mouse each day, and now she does, too.  To be sure, there is no lack of countdown opportunities in our household.

Sometimes I think getting the opportunity to relive and re-experience the holidays through the eyes of a child is one of the best parts of parenting.  I suppose it isn't just holidays, of course- it's a shift in perspective regarding so many things, all the time.  A slowing down.  A looking deeper.  A sense of wonder and a willingness to be caught off guard.  I try to keep my eyes and heart open to these shifts, and to let the slower pace seep into my bones.  There are plenty of times when I am aware that I am hurrying things along, hurrying her along, and not allowing that shift to take place, not allowing myself to just be and to recalibrate.  I don't know why I ever resist it- the slowness, the deliberateness, the introspection...... these are the things, after all, that feed me most.  Especially this time of year.

I used to not be a big fan of winter.  All that grey and cold and dark and slush.

Now, though.  I love seeing the lines of the mountains and the bones of the trees.  I want to bundle up and walk in the forest and feel the leaves and the frozen ground crunching under my feet.  All that grey is a soothing, misty shawl that I want to wrap myself up in.  I am grounded by this time of quiet, dark reflection.  I sit by the fire, by the sparkly tree.  I sip warm drinks and think and think and think.  I love all the time there is for sitting and thinking and snuggling.  I feel like a little old lady, or a cat seeking warmth and soft things to curl up on.

We made swags, we planted narcissi bulbs, we felted little creatures.
We sit by the fire and read.  We light candles and listen to holiday music.  My favorites these days are the Indie Christmas and Celtic Holidays stations on Pandora.


Today was a great day.  We met our dearest friends at a nearby trailhead and took a short hike through the woods to a tree, a little hemlock, that is adorned with decorations year-round.  It is called "Gary's tree", though I'm not sure why.  Claire asked today who Gary was.  She asked if maybe he had died and this tree was for him.  I am not sure, but I want to find out.  Surely a little digging will lead to an answer.  So we met our friends and walked through the forest to this tree.  We sat by it and had hot cocoa and popcorn, and the girls decorated the tree with things they brought and we read a Christmas book and it was awesome.  A instant and dearly-loved holiday tradition was born today, I am quite sure.