Litha - Summer Solstice.

The Oak King has relinquished his hold and the Holly King now reins, slowly bringing in the longer and darker nights. 

It has been a lovely day, tempered with a little sadness.  Today was the last day for one of minded children, such a shame when he'd settled so well, but his parents have decided to put him in nursery.  So, I tried to make his last day a fun filled one.  Obviously, I can't show photos of the minded children, but here's Rye doing the same craft.  We started out in the garden, but it was a bit too windy and the suns kept flying off, lol.

 Each child made 3 suns, and glued on the letters "S", "U", "N".  They seemed to really enjoy it, and Rye's one makes a lovely addition to the nature table.

 I was thinking of purchasing a bouqet of flowers, but then I decided some foliage from the garden would be nicer.

 Then we walked down to the park.  All the kids really enjoyed this; although the little girl did get a wee bit worried about the council man using an industrial mower to cut the grass - she soon became fascinated, like the others, watching him zip around.

 Tea.  Sausages, roast potatoes and sweetcorn.  Hehehe, I do love watching the children eat sweetcorn, such a messy business.
By half past five, the last of the minded children left, and Rye and I went out on the bikes, initially just to the garage to pick up some kindling and marshmellows for a fire to celebrate Litha.  Alas, the garage doesn't sell marshmellows so we ended up cycling to a wee corner shop near the recreation grounds.  This meant a much longer bike ride, but Rye didn't mind in the least.  We stopped at the park near me and I showed Rye how to use his brakes.  Up to now he's just been putting his feet down to slow himself, but this does mean he wobbles a lot, which contributes a lot to him falling off.  He did really well with the brakes, and a wee bit more practise and I think he'll have the hang of breaking gently and then we'll be able to do more cycling, as he'll be able to stop more quickly when I need him to.

 And then building the fire.  I just used kindling, as I didn't want a fire that would burn for too long.

 Quite a blaze, and inbetween toasting marshmellows I told Rye the story of the Oak King and Holly King wrestling, and the Holly King winning to rein supreme, thus after tonight each day will get a wee bit shorter.  We'd also read the Litha story from Luna Moon Hare too.

 Nom, Nom, Nom.

 My little Holly Prince holding his marshmellow victoriously.  (i.e. waiting for it to cool down before devouring.)

 Not so successful attempt to fashion a "corn" dolly from wild grass as a symbolic Oak King being sacrified.

 And naturally, no Litha would be complete without a bit of "BOOOOOOO"