My dear friend Taryn is giving away one of my cast-iron skillet grabbers and mason jar warmers over on her blog, Wooly Moss Roots! Stop on by at this link: http://woolymossroots.blogspot.com/2011/05/mountain-hearth-handcraftsgiveaway_17.html for a chance to win! ...
Life
In Oregon, We’re Covered in Moss
With all the rain we have out here in Oregon, we also have a lot of moss. It carpets forest floors, grows in marshes, hangs from trees, engulfs boulders, and grows on our roofs. It's a wonder it doesn't grow on Oregonians. Having grown up in the Pacific Northwest, it's a familiar and fond flora to me, and this Spring I have enjoyed observing some of the different kinds. ...
100th Blog Follower Giveaway
To celebrate my blog reaching 100 official followers this week, I decided it's time for a giveaway. It's my way of saying "Thank You" to all of my readers out there. There will be three winners, each receiving a gift from my Mountain Hearth Handcrafts Etsy shop at http://www.mountainhearth.etsy.com/. I have been amazed since I started up this writing project at how many folks out ...
May Faire
With Spring here at long last, it was time for our Waldorf School's annual May Faire. Year after year, rain or shine, the community puts a lot of work and a lot of love into creating a festival in honor of the season. This year, in spite of a little early morning rain, we all gathered around the May Pole and shared in beautiful music, dancing, homemade food, art and games. The day was a ...
Around the Maypole
Yesterday was our Waldorf school's annual May Faire, and in honor of the season, I made this needlefelted wool wall hanging of a May Pole dance to sell at my booth. I had started out intending to felt a different scene entirely, but the excitement of May Faire got me thinking about the May Pole dance, and it took shape from there. As I was making the pole I decided it should have roots, and ...
A Gardening Song for Living on the Earth
Today is the 40th Birthday of Alicia Bay Laurel's artistic homesteading manual, Living on the Earth. So many of my childhood homesteading dreams were fueled by my parents copy of this wonderful book that I was delighted to discover an accompanying folk album she recorded called Music for Living on the Earth. It's an earthy collection of songs about waking up early, going ...
Garden Fairy Houses
Making miniature homes for wee folk is a wonderful pastime for folks young and old. At our last house, we built a whole fairy house village all throughout our garden under the big old shrubs. We made little houses, roads, gardens, ponds and a dance hall. Interspersed throughout were delicate little plants like Irish Moss, violets, and ferns. It was a great outlet for ...
The Magic Rattle
If you can think back and remember the first time in your life you wanted something so badly you saved up all your pennies, birthday money from relatives, lawnmowing wages, and stray quarters picked up off the sidewalk until you attained the object of your heart's desire, I'll bet you treasure it among your gems of character-building childhood memories. These early lessons in the power of our ...
Beltane in Bloom
The merry month of May has arrived at long last! Today the sun was shining, a soft breeze was blowing, birds were courting, and bees were humming all around. It was a productive day. I got my potatoes planted and seedlings started. My mama chicken came out of her nest to scratch around with her three little chicks. A friend of mine had a swarm of honeybees move into his backyard over the ...
Camping at Cape Blanco
Last weekend we set farm work aside to get out for an April camping trip at Cape Blanco State Park. It's a favorite spot of our family's, near Port Orford on the Oregon Coast, and we've gone there the past couple of years to enjoy warm Spring days on the beach. This was not quite the case this year, but we still found plenty to do in the rain. You can read my blog post about last year's fair ...