FoodFamily

  • Subscribe to our RSS feed.
  • Twitter
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • Facebook
  • Digg

Monday, June 20, 2011

Winter Festival - Fire and Light and Pots of Food

Posted on 12:44 AM by Unknown

Our midwinter celebration, a festival of fire and light, giving kids old and young a chance to play with sparklers, make lanterns, sit mesmerised around a bonfire cradling mugs of hot soup and mulled wine, watching sparks fly into the air to join the stars.






By some miracle,  year after year, we manage to have an evening that is clear and still, and this year too, the wind dropped on cue, the rain held off till after midnight, when everyone was already tucked up in bed and the bonfire burned in fine style.


As we sat in the circle, the kids with lanterns parked in front of them, others hanging theirs on the sticks to make a colorful dancing circle of light around us, we read our blessings and St Francis' prayer, the girls sang the St Johns song that they all know from Waldorf school and there was a wonderful peaceful quality in the air.


Then it was time for sparklers, hot chocoolate, mulled wine and lighting the bonfire.

I needed my biggest pots – we had 45 people, 20 of them children, who were on hot chocolate, but even so the mulled wine vanished in a flash from my big stockpot. All the mugs from all three houses were requisitioned and we ate soup from mugs, moving on to sausage and boerewors rolls as the stalwart braai team produced them.


I’m going to need to invest in more pots if we have this many people next year – the lentil soup went down so well that the poor old braai master (my husband) only got one, not full, mug and no seconds and the mulled wine also ran out before he got a chance for seconds of that too... proof that everyone enjoyed it of course!

So I’ve made notes for next year, but there’s no guarantee that I’ll find that piece of paper or even remember that I did make notes – so reminder to self: make more soup and more mulled wine next year! 






The rain poured down all night, putting out the fire very thoroughly and washing the colour from the crepe paper decorated lanterns.


When the sun came out in the afternoon the sandpit was washed clean of footprints and had taken on another form of beauty – the calm after the storm.


Thank you to all our friends for joining us and making this such a special occasion for all of us!
Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest
Posted in Festivals | No comments
Newer Post Older Post Home

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)

Popular Posts

  • Books
    In my latest exploration around the web, I've just discovered a tantalising site. Called Book Mooch it is a book swap site. You ca...
  • Old-fashioned Ginger Cake
    Sometimes the old recipes are the best. No tweaking, no ‘making it my own’ was needed for this lovely moist, aromatic  ginger cake.  It’s on...
  • Muffin Meme
    Oatmeal and yogurt muffins It's official - muffins are the new meme. This oatmeal and yogurt muffin recipe is whizzing around the glob...
  • Risotto and A Marcella Hazan Recipe
    Jeanne at Cooksister wrote a great post on risotto recently, covering all the important points of cooking one properly and featuring a ver...
  • Spinach Torta For Sunday Lunch
    A Sunday roast tends to be meat-centric by its very definition. The crispy roast potatoes, the steamed veggies, the baked butternut are all...
  • More on the SA Blog Awards
    Loathe as I am to oust a classy shot of opulant chocolate from the top of my blog with this piece of blatant and tasteless self promotion, I...
  • Grootbos Nature Reserve – Five Star Fynbos Getaway
    The view from our suite We’re back from a fabulous night away at Grootbos , a gorgeous nature reserve overlooking Walker Bay, near Hermanus,...
  • Food and Water Security – Save the PHA
    They say that future wars will be fought over water, not oil. Or maybe I’ve been reading too many post-apocalyptic YA fiction? Whether that’...

Categories

  • #Afrikado (2)
  • #bakebrave (1)
  • #FreshlyBlogged (8)
  • Animals (28)
  • Blogging (67)
  • Books (13)
  • Braai (2)
  • Children (226)
  • Christmas (25)
  • earth hour (3)
  • England (8)
  • etc (26)
  • Festivals (40)
  • Flowers (15)
  • Food (177)
  • Frugality (4)
  • Garden (11)
  • Green living (9)
  • Health (3)
  • Herbs (8)
  • Houshold Tips (4)
  • Kitchens (1)
  • Living in South Africa (161)
  • Meme (22)
  • Musing (28)
  • Photography (9)
  • Poems (4)
  • Recipes (82)
  • Restaurants (2)
  • School (46)
  • Travel (13)
  • Working World (13)
  • World Baking Day (1)
  • WTSIM (15)

Blog Archive

  • ►  2013 (34)
    • ►  September (2)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (7)
    • ►  June (3)
    • ►  May (5)
    • ►  April (5)
    • ►  March (3)
    • ►  February (2)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2012 (35)
    • ►  December (1)
    • ►  November (1)
    • ►  October (2)
    • ►  September (3)
    • ►  August (6)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (6)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (2)
    • ►  March (3)
    • ►  February (4)
    • ►  January (3)
  • ▼  2011 (36)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  September (5)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (3)
    • ▼  June (6)
      • Risotto and A Marcella Hazan Recipe
      • Mulled Wine Recipe
      • Winter Festival - Fire and Light and Pots of Food
      • Aloo Gobi - The recipe
      • Winter on the Farm - Time for Marmalade Making
      • Stickers
    • ►  May (1)
    • ►  March (1)
    • ►  February (5)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2010 (36)
    • ►  November (3)
    • ►  October (3)
    • ►  September (1)
    • ►  August (2)
    • ►  July (4)
    • ►  June (5)
    • ►  May (2)
    • ►  April (3)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (5)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2009 (65)
    • ►  December (2)
    • ►  November (4)
    • ►  October (6)
    • ►  September (4)
    • ►  August (4)
    • ►  July (7)
    • ►  June (4)
    • ►  May (7)
    • ►  April (6)
    • ►  March (12)
    • ►  February (5)
    • ►  January (4)
  • ►  2008 (68)
    • ►  December (5)
    • ►  November (9)
    • ►  October (7)
    • ►  September (6)
    • ►  August (5)
    • ►  July (2)
    • ►  June (8)
    • ►  May (3)
    • ►  April (8)
    • ►  March (6)
    • ►  February (7)
    • ►  January (2)
  • ►  2007 (118)
    • ►  December (8)
    • ►  November (7)
    • ►  October (9)
    • ►  September (10)
    • ►  August (11)
    • ►  July (8)
    • ►  June (10)
    • ►  May (11)
    • ►  April (9)
    • ►  March (10)
    • ►  February (11)
    • ►  January (14)
  • ►  2006 (108)
    • ►  December (9)
    • ►  November (30)
    • ►  October (12)
    • ►  September (15)
    • ►  August (13)
    • ►  July (14)
    • ►  June (15)
Powered by Blogger.

About Me

Unknown
View my complete profile