Mini Celtic Wattle and Daub Roundhouse (when the ancient Britons came to our back garden)

It started with soaking coppiced branches in warm water.

(Willow branches are particularly good for this project.)

These will make the wattle structure.

For the daub mixture we used half mud half clay mixed with water.

Historically daub probably contained cow manure as well but we left that interesting ingredient out this time :)

For the roof we tied small bundles of hay together and attempted to loosely thatch them on.

Here is our finished house! We could have woven a little blanket to hang over the door space.

I think that might be a nice detail next time.

Our own Celtic wattle and daub round house.

The ancient Britons came to life in our back garden!

Through doing this project the children gained appreciation for lost skills.

And got are hands deliciously muddy in the process!

We staked some stronger pieces of willow in the ground first forming a circular shape.Then we simple wove the thinner pieces of willow around the skeleton starting from the ground up, leaving a small space for a door.
The daub was added later and used to "cement" the structure in place and fill up the gaps in the woven branches.
We made a wigwam structure for the roof and thatched on top of it. Then the little house was ready to make itself at home in our fairy garden.

Cosy reading on a grey day.

We've really been enjoying this book.
It is so magical, and so, so beautifully written. A really compelling story, so unlike many modern story books for children today. None of us wanted to put this lovely old book back up on the shelf.
Afterward Emmy starting studying chivalry, the troubadours and medieval lore.
I still wonder with joy at how natural learning can be, how fluid and how deep and human.
Slowing down on grey days with warm drinks in hand a bed full of pillows, candle light and an old story book....
Magical.

Garden pottering

First the ywanted to help Daddy in the garden, to make a play table out of recycled wood.
But horsey just wouldn't stop show jumping over everything!

So after, not too long, the princesses returned to their pink castle.

"Fina Ballerina"

Learning outside yesterday

Learning from the trees, and sky and earth

"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books."
John Lubbock
 

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Come forth into the light of things, let nature be your teacher."
William Wordsworth

 

 
"I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars."
Walt Whitman
 

 
"If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen."
Henry David Thoreau

"I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets."

Hamlin Garland

Multitude Monday

This is "Dobbin"

Dobbin is 28 years old. He was mine when I was little.

He has a little bell but it's rusty. And sometimes his wheel get stuck (they're a little squeaky too)

Last week, Seraphina and I rescued him. He was dirty, rusty, sad looking and his wheels had stopped turning. They had seized up altogether.
But Seraphina, did not see the dirt, or the rust, she saw a little yellow horse with big sad eyes, and she loved him!
Together we cleaned him up gently with sponges, soap and warm water. Then we dried him with a dishcloth.
He is now Seraphina's very best friend and follows her around wherever she goes!
And strangely enough you can almost see a twinkle in his big old eyes now!

We tied an new string on his collar and fed him some grass and a bowl of water. It had been a long time since his last meal. So as you can imagine, he gobbled it up!

Little Fee showed him around the garden and he seemed very happy with his new home.
Poppy, Peter and cottontail (our rabbits) all got introduced and they all seemed very interested to meet this new garden friend.

And I sit here in the quiet to thank God for memories and friends both new and old.
And the strings that tie them together.

We brought Mary Flowers from Grannies garden for the month of May (the special month of Mary)

In Gold white and blue we laid our prayers, fresh, fragrant, open, vulnerable, unfolding, revealing the words of our heart, the nectar of souls.

Matilda prayed these words, words so simple, like pollen rising, hovering.
"and unto these does the kingdom of heaven belong".

"Thank you Mary for praying for us. Thank you for loving us and being our Mother."

Do you have a home alter?
 It has been a beautiful addition to our home. Ours is small and simple but the girls love to decorate it with candles, palms and prayer stones, they love to bring flowers for  Holy Family.
Inside the cupboard we have prayer books and rosary beads and Bible stories for them to look at whenever the want.
*

Saturday Sewing.... Sunhats!

"The sun has got his hat on" this week. The girls have been needing new sunhats for this year so I drew up my own sunhat "recipe" and got to work sewing them up.
I made one for Seraphina and one for Matilda. I still have to make one for Bujana.
The fabric was a lovely white cotton sheet found at a charity shop for 70p. I have enough fabric left for another 3 hats! Worked out that means each hat cost approx 11.6 pence (not including threads and buttons) to make! Well just call me "little miss thrifty" :)
Of course I finished them on the only day of the week that it rained so I couldn't take them outside in pretty sundresses for pretty sundress and sunhat pictures.
Maybe I'll just have to save that for next weeks adventures.

Peek-a-boo! Little you.

Sweet Sunshine girl!

I think they look a little nineteen twenties "cloche" like. Do you think?

... So what creative projects are you busy with this week!
Feel free to share the creative joy in the comments :)

Oh, and HaPpY MaY DaY!