The day was mellow and acorny.
During the circle we asked (whilst passing the ‘talking acorn’ around, instead of stick) what did equinox mean to everyone/ what was their favourite part of this autumnal time of year? This conjured up a lovely selection of thoughts: letting go, space for the new, balance , equal night and day, fluffy socks and stew, pushing their way through scrunchy leaves, hearing the robins herald of autumn bringing a different song to establish territory, soups and different layers of clothing.
Walking down to the hornbeams for chi gong with N, we moved our bodies serenely (and corrected) in unison to the sounds of tree swaying and occasional crash of an acorn plummeting onto the cabin roof.
After rigerous witch testing, we planted acorns as a jay would plant, no deep but deep enough, and labelled and dates. So now we wait.
We painted and drew with acorn ink which we made by Kally – here is her description
I made the ink by smashing a handful of acorns with the pestle and mortor and then poured boiling water on them in a small saucepan, left them to steep over night them simmered for 30 minutes and left over night again and simmered again for 30 minutes and to this mix I added a little acacia honey and some gum Arabic. It produced a lovely subtle tan shade if ink
Here’s what we said
- Two tone leaves – when the leaf miners have eaten through the veins and stop the colour from changing
- letting go, space for new beginning
- I love anything about the countryside, I remember collecting blackberries on bikes pregnant with son and my daughter saying there’s not many mums like you
- mellow not harsh , but fruitful
- I like it
- Not that mad about Autumn, means summer ends – soup
- I like all seasons
- Not keen, I prefer spring to summer seasons
- Collecting things with my three year old grandchild, acorns, he let me have three.
- When we had dogs, kicking the leaves, you couldn’t tell the leaves from the boxer, joyful
- Bittersweet, own beauty, love pushing way through scrunchy leaves
- Herald of Autumn, robin’s different song establishing territory, the change of the song, spring joyful, autumn melancholy
- I like all the seasons
- I prefer to be warm rather than cold
- Autumn a different light, a winter light
- Don’t berry me not until I die, then I’ll feed the trees. little acorns, one of my little ones
- Takes me by surprise heading for winter again, crunching through the leaves
- I like warm and cooler, different layers , it came quickly. Memories with boys conkers, dogs
- Ideas of stews + being warm getting over to spring
- Every season has its wonderfulness, I like to do jobs, fluffy socks and stew. Nox – night, Equi – equal, equal day and night twice a year
- A door to the next season through to something else
- Balance
Kinda Forest School 