Ritual and Rhythm - Burying Our Pet Fish

Ode to Splash - Life as Art - Burying our pet fish

Friends have asked about rituals marking various times of change in our lives and in our children's lives. I have promised a note on our ritual to mark the death of a family pet - we have fish and they all have personalities :-) the children do get quite attached. Under the title of better late than never here is the gist of our last passing, a fish named Splash.


We have a place in the garden where we bury lost pets or found dead birds etc. It has had a couple of names, Magic Mountain and more recently the Grave Garden. Because our animals are small we simply wrap them in tissue and place them in one of those 4" wooden match box boxes.


One of the children adds a seed to the box with the body and we close it up. Sometimes we decorate the box, sometimes not.


Then we go off the the Grave Garden and each of us take a spade and a heart shaped stone or a pretty rock or perhaps the children have made a Popsicle stick cross.


We each dig a scoop of dirt, the box is placed at the bottom, and the dirt is thrown back. We light a tea light and leave it burning in a glass candle holder on a flat rock. We send a wish or prayer and toss our stone on the grave, or place the cross, and that is that.


We love the seed idea, my son came up with it, life from death, I don't know - the children like it. We also celebrate los dios de los muertos with Halloween and our shrine to the dead has notes for departed friends both human and animal :-) Splash was also honoured with a fairy tale by A Pink Dreamer written by a blog friend from far away in the Greek Islands - how cool is that?!

Many thanks to those who leave comments - we always enjoy them!

What's a Pysanka?

Ukrainian egg decorating. We are not Ukrainian as such, however our ancestors lived in the Ukraine after they left Germany, or was it Russia? They never considered themselves Ukrainian I know that - have to check the details!

Here is how we made Pysanka at home, however, as mentioned a fabulous source is www.babasbeeswax.com

Blow eggs and wash, leave to dry and plug holes with a wee bit of beeswax (either use a tiny whole at each end and carefully blow the egg out - i find it hurts my jaw these days so i bought an egg pump from the fore mentioned web site).

Outline your egg with a pencil on the egg itself (or not).


Use your kistka (egg writing tool - a tool that is used to apply the beeswax, again check out the website mentioned or others) to draw traditional or other designs on the egg.


Submerse egg in dye no 1. Colours should be used in order yellow, green (with a Q-tip or toothpick) orange, red, purple, blue, black. You don't need to use all colours, just in that order the ones you do use. We only use 1 dark colour, purple, blue or black to simplify. Not sure why the green is applied differently rather than egg submersion but it is so :-)

After dyeing, dry egg with paper towel.


Decorate another layer with beeswax using your kistka. The wax locks in the last colour you dies wherever you apply it. This is a resist. The wax, resists the dye.

Continue until you have used all the colours you want - this can be 1 or several. Dry egg with paper towel after each colour.

Use the heat of a blow dryer and a paper towel to remove wax. Be careful not to burn yourself with hot wax!

Ta da! Your first Pysanka!

April Project no 2!

Fall Short Story List

I am always getting requests for reading lists of great stories!

Something I really cherish is reading to my children. Even as they get older we still make time for that. We have two simple story spaces - the fireplace in my bedroom and our cozy living room, both equip with rockers, quilts and pillows. The children's quilts are from when they were just wee so they love that, and we leave them out to use any time the notion takes us, usually evening, but not always. I usually sit in a rocker to read (seasonal stories that have become tradition in our family, or chapter books or tell stories I just make up on the spot) and I usually start with the same words (my personal preamble is about a lady rocking by the sea in the Mediterranean because that has personal meaning for me and feels old and timeless) but you can create your own lines to set the tone, or chime a little bell or sing or speak a one liner. Here's a simple one I like, "Once upon a time, but not so long ago..".

Read Aloud list for Fall - Short Seasonal Stories

Scarecrow by Cynthia Rylant Illustrated by Lauren Stringer *Love this!

The Oak Inside the Acorn by Max Lucado Illustrated by George Angelini *Love this !

Pelle's New Suit by Elsa Beskow

Pumpkin Pumpkin by Jeanne Tihington

Hegedt Peg by Audrey Wood Illustrated by Don Wood

Mrs. McMurphy's Pumpkin by Rick Walton Illustrated by Delana Bettoli *One of my Childrens' favorites since very young!

Cold Feet by Cynthia DeFelice by Illustrated by Robert Andrew Parker ( traditional British ghost story - preview first for developmental appropriateness for your child)

Halloween Circus by Charise Neugebauer Illustrated by Robert Ingpen

A Poppy is to Remember by Heather Patterson and Ron Lightburn

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae

Feathers and Fools by Mem Fox Illustrated by Nicholas Wilton *Love this!

Something From Nothing by Phoebe Gilman

For Story Telling resources I recommend and Story Telling Society or Festival or How Too books by the fabulous Nancy Mellon!