Our magical and cozy autumn days

How my children and I spent this autumn so far with doing our favorite autumn activities...

When it comes to beauty, autumn and spring are my favorite seasons of the year.

I just can't get enough of these firey, saturate, warm colors and the many different shades of yellow, green, orange and red...

So, I'm all the more happy that this year we've had (and are still having) a quite long autumn season. And thanks to the much rain we've also had, many, many mushrooms sprouted here and there.

Since I love mushrooms, I was thrilled about all these many different little, big, round, filigree, tall, small, cute, beautiful mushroom buddies of all forms, shapes, and sizes popping up almost everywhere you look, outdoors.

So here are some of my favorite mushroom shots of this year:

Besides picking mushrooms we also collected autumn leaves.

My daughter Jamina needed them for school to make an artwork with it. I remember that I had to do this when I was in school, too. And I think that's a very nice activity!

I love those typical seasonal activities, when you appreciate what nature is offering you and use it either to eat/drink it or to make something decorative out of it.

I think seasonal activities help us to reconnect with nature.

The whole process of going outside to look for certain materials/fruits/nuts/mushrooms etc, and then collecting them, bringing them home, holding them in the hands to process them... all these actions connect us with nature and make us feel more as being a part of it, instead of being separated from it.

Something you can use very well for handcrafting is chestnuts. On one day my children Noah and Jamina collected many, many chestnuts. And since it was an inedible kind, they used it to make little handicrafts out of it.

They really enjoyed working with these natural materials

Another wonderful experience these days was to go for a walk around a little lake in a nearby forest. I've wanted to go to see that lake for a long time already, but somehow - I don't even really know why - it never happened until then.

So, I'm very happy we finally went there (my children and I), because it's a very beautiful and magical place and immediately after we arrived there I declared it to be one of my favorite places in the area.

Here are some of the pictures I shot there as a slide show:

These days I have also tried 'kulning' for the first time.

Kulning is an ancient Nordic herding call to call home cattle from the meadows where they grazed during the day. Women in Scandinavia used melodies with high pitches, so the animals would hear them over far away distances.

I first heard kulning from the Swedish artist Jonna Jinton in one of her videos and fell in love with it. And since we have a herd of sheep and goats and one cow, I thought I could just give it a try and look at what would happen...

And as you can see in this little video, the cow and the sheep immediately came to me when I started with kulning.

And that was really funny and fascinating for me because I didn't have any food for them with me and normally they aren't just coming like that. Only if they see that there is something to eat for them. But I didn't bring food intentionally, because I wanted to see if the kulning really works. And it does!

So this first little video was just taken with my phone and it's completely raw, unedited and was very spontaneous. A bit later I brought my camera and tripod to catch this again, a bit more professional:

So, now you're 'up-to-date' with what we've been up to, these days...

I hope you all had a wonderful, magical and cozy autumn-time, too!?

What did you do during autumn, so far? Do you have any favorite activities in autumn, any traditions, rituals, celebrations?

I would love to hear/read about your autumn activities, this year!

So if you like, just share it with me in the comment section, below.

If you haven't seen it already, here is my latest vlog, fitting to this blog, showing you what we've been up to, this autumn, so far:

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog!

I'm wishing you a wonderful rest of autumn, or beginning of winter (depending on where you are) and hope that you stay healthy and happy in spite of the cold, wet and dark days..!

Much love to you,

Sarah