Celebrating Candlemas

Yesterday we celebrated Candlemas for the first time.  This holiday has both Christian and Pagan roots, and it is the midpoint between winter solstice and spring equinox.

"If Candlemas Day be fair and bright

Winter will take another flight.

If Candlemas Day be cloud and rain

Winter is gone and will not come again"

                   --Festivals Family and Food

We took advantage of the good weather and spent time at the park in the morning and at the beach in the afternoon.  This good weather is apparently a sign of more winter to come, so we are outside every chance we get.

We visited a local honey farm and purchased some lovely blocks of beeswax.  We then melted the wax and poured it into molds to make ornaments, which we have hanging from our nature table tree.  (I used the instructions at The Magic Onions for how to make the wax ornaments.)

Dinner was eaten by candlelight, which was a special and memorable occasion for Little Man.

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Birthday Crown

Yes, the birthday crown was finished in time!  It worked out exactly how I pictured it in my head, so I was really pleased with the results.  And Little Man LOVES it.  He wore it almost the entire day on his birthday.  It is nice when you spend a lot of effort on a project to have the work appreciated by the recipient.

I used two colours of felt for the body of the crown, and repeated this layout on the back.  Little Man loves nature and the outdoors, and I wanted to create images on the crown that would have a lot of meaning for him both now and in the future.  There is a cedar tree, a sun, and a mountain towering over the ocean.

 

Although I machine-sewed the body of the crown together, all the designs were hand-embroidered (both the detailing and in attaching them to the body).

 

I sewed velcro to the ends of the crown, both to make it adjustable (it even fits me!) and reversible.  The moon on the reverse side of the crown makes it a great wizard's hat.  I know we will have fun incorporating this crown into our daily play.

For more photos of the crown, including closeups of the detailing, please visit my Flickr site.

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Double Rainbow

Yesterday was an amazing day.  Little Man has waited a year to see a specialist.  At our long awaited appointment yesterday we were told great news -- what looked like a potential problem last year has turned out to have gone away.  No follow-up visits are necessary since everything looked good.

On the drive home, I saw the most brilliant rainbow.  I have never seen one with such intensity.  And then I realized there wasn't just one -- there were TWO rainbows!  I didn't even know that was possible.  I grabbed my phone and snapped some quick pictures while the car was moving (fortunately I wasn't driving).  Although I have cropped these photos, I have not altered the colours;  the main rainbow really was this brilliant.  I could only photograph a part of the rainbows as we moved through traffic, but we were able to see the full arc of both rainbows before I thought to get out the camera.  It is interesting to note that the outer rainbow has the colours in reverse order!

 

 

It was such an incredible sight, made even more special because the sky was echoing what was in my heart:  pure happiness and joy.

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Backyard Wildlife

Today we spent a nice quiet day at home, performing some spring cleaning and enjoying time together.  Every time we looked out the window we saw animals -- squirrels gathering leaves, birds flying overhead, and then two bucks travelling together.

Occasionally they would stop and lock horns for a minute or so, then separate and meander some more. 

 

 

 Such a beautiful sight to see without even leaving the house.

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