Pumpkins and Angels in Autumn

Another equinox has been and gone, signalling shorter days and colder nights for us, and the spring surge of energy and lengthening days for all you Northern hemispherites.

We celebrated our autumn festival yesterday. It’s our harvest festival, with the theme of Earth, where we give thanks for all the fruits of the earth and the children build and decorate sandcastles in our big sandpit.


After a really cool week, where it felt more like winter than the end of summer, it warmed up to a perfect early autumn day, with blue skies and warm sunshine.

We make straw angels too.


The first time they were made of lengths of straw from wheat that had seeded itself from the straw bales used to build our houses and we wove it into angel shapes to hang around our circle. Subsequent years have lacked the long straw and pressed us into more creative ways of making angels, with materials like the restios that grow wild here, lavender, flowers and raffia.

This year the angels were more creative than ever!


This is also my chance to carve pumpkins, which for some reason I really enjoy, and make pumpkin soup with the contents.

One of our friends made a fantastic mandala in the sand around the circle, radiating out in glorious sun rays the whole way round.


The kids lose no opportunity of combining sand and water and had a full on sand castle water feature.


We carried all our creations and harvest offerings of almonds from our trees into our circle at sunset, lit pumpkins glowing, and said some blessings and gave thanks for all the fruits of the earth and the harvests of the year.

And then we feasted on the pumpkin soup, bean stew, salad and homemade bread followed by plum quiche, apple pie and chocolate pudding and all the children ran around outside in the dark, playing hide and seek and jumping on the trampoline way past their bedtimes, with only two doses of Arnica required!