Autumn Festival - Pumpkins, Sand and Straw Angels

Preparations in the sandpit

Our Autumn Festival combines sand and water, pumpkins and straw angels, toddlers and big kids in a fine celebration of harvest and earth. Mix them all up and you have a recipe for sand strewn around the house, a carpet of cut restios and raffia over the floor and a new generation of small kids discovering the delights of limitless space out on the farm.

Our kids are now the big kids. It seems not long ago that they were the littlies, loving chasing around after older kids after supper, playing hide and seek in the mysterious darkness of the stoep until way after their bed-time.





Now they are the ones who know what is what, spend hours constructing elaborate castles and try to stop the little ones from destroying them too soon. They can make their own straw angels without any help now, and they are no longer just straw but weave flowers and and all sorts into the making.


They are also very gentle with the toddlers helping them bounce on the trampoline and making sure not to leap too wildly themselves when a delicate little fairy of a toddler who has only just found her feet on solid ground decides to wobble precariously in their midst.

This year I gladly left the carving of pumpkins to the first volunteers to arrive and they cheerfully produced some gorgeous grinning lanterns.


Instead of pumpkin soup I’d planned on doing a baked pumpkin dish to go with the bean stew that my sister-in-law specializes in. I couldn’t find a recipe for what I had in mind, so just made it up and it turned out pretty well. Wedges of red onion tossed in with the pumpkin bits rescued from the lanterns, a sprinkling of cumin and cinnamon, olive oil, salt and pepper and then afterwards a generous scattering of Nomu egyptian dukkah. It was good, gentle enough in flavour to be a side dish and not steal the lime light, but interesting in its own right too.


One of our friends took the straw angel theme and went way beyond our usual creative efforts to produce a stunning restio/straw woman and man to go on the top of our archway. When the almost full moon came up behind them, it created a wonderful mystical energy that seemed to link back to the age-old harvest traditions of ancient Cornwall or Scotland, evoking fertility for the land and prosperity for its people.


This year our festival coincided with Earth Hour, and the prospect of switching off all the lights and appliances and lighting the house with candles with a bunch of toddlers on the loose was just a little unnerving. In the end it was fine. We just remembered to put out the lights at 8.30, by which time several of the little ones were drowsy anyway. Tea lights in glass cups glowed on low tables and high, and though we kept a weather eye on them there were no incidences of pyromania. That had already been indulged in by the big kids with the pumpkin lanterns in the circle, so no doubt the little ones will soon learn the joys of fire.

Candles for Earth Hour

Candles, lots of them... for Earth Hour we got out all our most colourful candles and candle holders and lit them all along our big table, before going round the house, switching off all the lights, the TV, the computers. Our eyes adjusted to the low light, the gentle glow of yellow candle flame reflecting off our red clay walls, and then we each took a candle and went out to our circle. As we walked along the path the lights went out in the other houses on our property until they were just dark silhouettes outlined against the starry sky.


The children were in pyjamas and winter jackets and the cool breeze kept blowing out the candles, until only Youngest's was still alight. Amazingly there was enough glow from the stars to see quite well, even though there was no moon. The sand was cold under our feet after the first autumn rains the night before, so we didn't stay out long. Just enough time for each of us to say some positive intentions for saving energy in the future and put out some hope and love for the future of the planet.


Then we headed in to make hot chocolate (with the electric kettle) and sit around our candlelit table enjoying the reflection of all the different colours.

Soon the children were yawning and we carried candles through to the bathroom for brushing teeth.

We've had plenty of practice at going to bed by candlelight, with the power cuts we've had now and then over the last couple of years, but this time it had more of a magic through being intentional. We weren't fretting for the power to come back on, just sitting back and enjoying the calm. And experimenting with candles as camera flash!


After the children were in bed three of us sat on the sofa chatting. In the pauses in conversation the silence seemed absolute. No background hum of music or television, no computer whirr or dishwasher swoosh. We ended up going to bed early once our hour without lights was up, there was something soothing about the quiet of dim candlelight that didn't want bright lights and loud noise to chase it away. We'll definitely take part in Earth Hour again next year, if we even wait that long.

Earth Hour

Tomorrow is Earth Day. In an event called Earth Hour, millions of people and organizations are going to be turning off their lights at 8.30pm local time for an hour, to make a gesture towards awareness of energy use, global warming and saving the planet. Major monuments like Table Moutain and the Pyramids are going to be turning off their spotlights for an hour and thousands of communities and organizations are joining in.

We only heard about it this week but are all going to join in, have a candlelit evening and sit outside looking at the stars shining even more brightly with less light pollution out there. Yes, we do get light pollution, even here 50 km from Cape Town there is a dirty orange glow on the horizon.

Middle Daughter was really excited about the idea, even though we get plenty of candlelit evenings courtesy of Eskom, who are doing their bit towards saving the planet by inadvertantly giving us compulsory energy saving hours on a regular basis. When she heard it would be after her bed-time she was disappointed, so maybe we'll have to start earlier and read a story by candlelight tomorrow evening.

I'm excited about the amazing energy (sustainable of course!) this will put out into the universe, if everyone is part of it.

Are you going to join in too? Sign up if you haven't already.