May begins….

We enjoyed a lovely long weekend, with it being a May Day bank holiday on Monday and my husband’s birthday on Tuesday.

On Saturday I took a trip to London to meet a German friend of mine and her family and be a tourist for a day. We did a lot of walking along the river and caught up on each others lives too, which was nice. Her boys are the same age as my girls and are very sweet. We met them in Germany a couple of years ago and had a lot of fun together. My daughters didn’t want to come this time – they find London too busy, overstimulating and tiring and I must say I came to the same conclusion by the end of the day – I was so exhausted I missed my bus stop twice on the way home!!!

On Sunday we met up with friends in Sussex for a walk amongst the bluebells. What a deep joy it is to see that lovely blue haze amongst the trees. The place was literally carpeted in these beauties.

We met our very best friends with their daughters – who are like sisters to my girls – and we all had a wonderful time, playing fairies and just enjoying each others company amongst wonderful scenery.

I even spied a pheasant taking a stroll through the bluebells.

I love May and bluebell time – it is such a joyful season.

On May Day (1st May – Beltane), I added our little May Pole to the Nature Table.

I made these needle felted children when my eldest was still in Kindergarten and I didn’t have much needle felting experience. I was determined to make some children dancing around the Maypole! They are rather “rustic” and don’t stand up very happily, but as with many of the rustic items for my nature table, they have been imbued with some special quality after years of use and so will continue to dance for  years to come 🙂  Who knows how many more years my daughters will still appreciate the Nature Table? I imagine I will continue to decorate regardless for a while as I love having a Nature Table – it is nourishing for me too!

I did have to make some new decorations for the mobile over our dining table as the tissue paper flowers were looking very worn after years of use.

These paper flowers are so easy to make and bring a smile to my face. The May Day mobile is probably my favourite mobile of the whole year, so it was worth the small effort to make them anew. I thought I would share how I made them, just in case anyone out there fancies having a go and isn’t a regular crafter.

Cut out two identical circles of paper by folding some tissue paper in half and tracing  a circle around a tiny plate, bowl or play doughnut (!)

Cut petal shapes into it or just snip many many times into the sides of the paper for daisy like flowers

Scrunch up a little green piece of tissue paper and stick it in the middle with glue, making sure to putthe glue on the green tissue paper not the flower itself or it may tear.

Take hold of the centre of the flower on the underside and let it fold into itself naturally – when it is opened, it looks very natural that way.

Pin the flower to the mobile – using a pin in green or a similar colour to the flower itself.

Make lots of tissue paper flowers and pin them to your mobile with ribbons for a May Day Maypole effect. Add a candle below and let your mobile dance 🙂

My youngest had a party to go to on Monday, but before she went, she and her sister sowed their beds with (plenty of!!) meadow flower seed. We have given each of them a small bed to grow things in. They have decided to grow flowers this year, with the bees and butterflies in mind and because they, like me, like to bring cut flowers into the home.  My daughters love to watch the visiting wildlife and since it was “flower” day in the biodynamic calendar, we seized the moment!

There is always Maypole dancing at school, which we are invited to, but it will take place later in May this year because of the late Easter. There is quite a bit of practising to do I believe – there are some quite intricate dances! Here is a favourite photo of my daughters dressed in their May Day finery when my eldest was still in Kindergarten. We gave it to Daddy for Father’s Day at the time. They have grown up so much since then….

A favourite book for May Day is Little Grey Rabbit’s May Day

This lovely book tells us of some of the pagan traditions for Beltane. The animals wish to decorate the May tree for May Day and Hare has to ‘obtain’ a couple of Crown Imperials for the top of the crowns. I smiled when I recently discovered this row of Crown Imperials at a garden we visited, They are quite remarkable.

My husband celebrated his birthday yesterday. We spent a quiet morning together in a village nearby, enjoying a leisurely breakfast and walk.

We picked up our daughters at lunchtime as we always like to celebrate our birthdays as a family – luckily my eldest was only missing out on handwork and eurythmy so it was fine to come home early. We went for an afternoon of fun at a nearby National Trust Property. As it was midweek, it was nice and quiet, so the girls and my husband managed to have the rose garden all to themselves to play chase in. I joined in towards the end to give my husband a break. Great fun!

We were all hot and out of breath by the end of it!

Of course there were the usual birthday traditions and decorations. We wouldn’t have it otherwise 🙂

My eldest made up this cross stitch book mark for her Daddy in a couple of hours on Monday, whilst her sister and I were at the party and my husband was working from home.

I know I am probably biased, but i love it and find her so creative.

and my youngest, knowing there was little time to make a present, chose to make Daddy some birthday bunting in coloured card, which looks lovely and festive and will no doubt take pride of place for many birthdays to come!  🙂

Since I last wrote, I have been doing a fair bit of care for our little guinea pig ‘Pipkin’; dosing him up on medicine and special food via a syringe and also giving him water by a pipette as he wasn’t drinking either. He patiently let me look after him and didn’t struggle when I wrapped him in a towel to keep him still whilst administering all these things.

In fact it has been a really lovely bonding experience. Caring for a sick animal is quite humbling – a real soul to soul experience. My daughters also spent a lot more time than usual with him  (and his friend ‘Bubble’) and we think he is recovering quite well. His abdomen is still a little tender and swollen, but he is eating well now – mainly hay at the moment as we heard that greens, especially new spring grass can be very gassy for guinea pigs.

We have been doing quite a bit of research online – thank goodess for the internet! We have now re-introduced carrot and parsley and have been giving him a twice daily tummy massage with an electric toothbrush, which seems to help and he finds it relaxing!! The things you do for those you love!! 🙂 I do hope we have turned a corner. He certainly seems to be back to his old self – fingers crossed!

Apart from all the above, I have been trying to put the house back together after the school holiday (!) and had a good session sorting our new ‘studio’ space out on Thursday.

It is getting there – it just needs a bit of prettying up and an injection of colour/inspiration, but those are just the finishing touches, important at they are 😉

I am so looking forward to getting some sewing done in there. It has been a while since I have sewn anything much, except little things by hand. My youngest daughter’s birthday is coming up at the end of the month, so I had better get started!

I hope you have had a enjoyable start to the Merry Month of May!