Shana Tova

We danced in the Jewish new year... 5772!

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Baked moon cakes for the first time.

Served tea

and feasted!
We'll be making more moon cakes next month on Oct 26, and as we near All Hallows Eve and the thinning of the veil between worlds, we'll put on masks to try out other ways of being, so we can
... decide
Which is right
And
Which is an Illusion*
(Moody Blues: Nights in White Satin)

Round We Go!

Getting set

Warming up

Stretch and shimmyStepping out
Follow me!

going round

Good Tymes, Bye Lymes

Preparing "tea."
Whipping cream
reading poetry,
remembering our ancesters,
washing dishes to news from Wisconsin.
A very wiggly isosceles triangle.

Wheel Visions

With stacks of old magazines, posterboard, scissors, and glue; Alicia guides us to imagine and represent our desires on "visioning wheels" for the April 3rd New Moon.

Darwin loves "PINK!"

Wash Day

A fun swim in the Geer pool and a good lunch at Grandma Jean's...




The February 2 new moon is the first evening of Adar, the twelvth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year. It is a time of joy and renewed hope expressed during the full-moon celebration of Purim when Queen Esther courageously stepped forth to expose Haman's deceit and save her people. February 2 is also Ground Hog's Day, the midpoint between winter solstice and the spring equinox. Pagan rituals include setting out a loaf of bread and an ear of corn to entice the blessings of the goddess of swelling grain, Brigid and her white cow. Christians bless candles for "Candlemas" in honor of the day Mary first presented her son Jesus (the Light of the World) to the temple as part of her cleansing as a new mother. In New England, this is time farmer's hope their hay supplies are only half-way consumed for we are mid-way through winter.

Stirring Cycles

This January new moon marks the beginning of the Jewish month, Shevat. Trees are honored this month as they begin a new cycle of life. In the midst of winter's stillness, their sap starts flowing to the tips of their newest branches, brightening their color and ever so slightly causing their buds to swell. We quietly honored our cycles too. Darwin painted with watercolors for the first time with her older friend Margaret and with Margaret's older friend Rachel (Darwin's mother) as Rachel's older friend Debra (Margaret's mother) took pictures.
Rachel stitched a dowel into a weaving done by Debra's mother Jean to give it new life as a wall hanging.
Dody and Lynn stopped by and Dody took up trying to churn cream, (that wonderful gift from our cows' lactation cycle) into butter. When its unwillingness became apparent, she took it home to make into luscious cheese (with the help of microbial life cycles).

Rachel continued her sewing theme and created a hand-stitched maxi-pad out of fabric from one of Debra's old sheets, giving new life to an old "rag" while honoring her own cycle of life.

Red Letter Day for Rachel!

Today we bedecked the house in red in honor of Rachel's first period since Darwin's conception.

Margaret and Darwin played with marbles...

Rachel cooked red Hannukah latkes... Debra made a red cabbage salad....

We feasted...

sewed...

and re(a)d!
This was the first evening of Tevet, the tenth month of the Jewish ecclesiastical year. In New England, this new moon will wax into the Cold Moon or Long Night Moon. This year the full moon falls on the Winter Solstice when nights are at their longest and darkest, and winter cold settles in for the season. It is the natural time for rest and introspection.