The Annual Christmas Garland Festival

Years ago, a follower sent me a hand made felted garland. I had some fun with it and shared it in photos, with the animals taking turns to wear it. It became an annual Christmas tradition and is great fun for everyone, including my followers. That garland has been sewn together so many times! It has been dragged through the mud and pig mire and poop, but still keeps on giving love back to us.

I have been posting daily pictures all week of the Garland Festival over on Instagram.

I have been preoccupied with the kitchen remodel [also posted on IG]. I have never had a harder painting job in all the six houses I've remodeled. We ripped out two layers of ceiling to expose the original hand hewn 1760 beams. I'm finally getting about 2/3 done with just the ceiling. It is going to be so nice. Martyn is doing the counter tops over, and I will be painting the cupboards too. We're going to an alabaster white-pure, clean, fresh.

The Annual Christmas Garland Festival -the importance of tradition

I wasn't thinking I could pull it off this year, with this head/sinus cold going on day nine....but I rose with the Christmas spirit and we had our annual Christmas Garland Festival yesterday. I'm so glad I made it happen. Amazingly, except for Moose and Goose, everyone was on tip-top behavior and this year the garland did not suffer as it has in some past festivals. Even the blind chicken partook.

The garland was a gift to me many years ago from an Apifera follower. I liked it so much-it was handmade out of felt, buttons and jingle bells-that I decided to share it with the barnyard for Christmas photos, and it immediately turned into an annual tradition.

Many of the traditions I had as a child for Christmas are gone, mainly because we keep things very simple around here, and without children or extended family, our holidays are spent like many nights-by the fire with some spirits and good conversation. I cherish our time together. I spent a lot of energy in my youth complete with broken hearts and bad choices looking for a solid mate and friend, so when I met Martyn at age 42, I had no problems with spending time with him. We are rarely apart, but also have very independent lives during the days. I like being with him.

We honor the spirit of Christmas by celebrating with a Charlie Brown tree harvested from The Wood, and in so doing we create more light for the other trees. The tree goes onto the barnyard for the goats to eat and so we honor the gift of food from Nature. So that s a tradition we created. And The Garland Festival has become an Apifera tradition, and it matters. Why? Well, despite all the chaos of life and the world, knowing that there is a day when a beautiful red and green garland-made by hand and given in friendship-will adorn the animals that we care for, it brings a sense of stability. It reminds us that a tradition s something we create, and do over and over, and it shows those watching or partaking what our true values are.

We nourish each other with good food, and warm ourselves with the fire made hot by the wood Martyn has chopped from the our land. That is tradition.

The Garland Festival is something I like to do for the animals too. I really think most of them understand this is a special activity just for them. The one that really made me smile was Birdie. The second I put it on her, she literally posed, she must have stacks of old Vogue magazines that she knows how to stand just like Grace Kelly. She truly loves to be admired but not really in an ego way, it is the same feeling I had about her on Misfit Love Day when I put the crown on her head-she was working the crowd with love and...well, her beauty.

You can see all the photos from this year's Festival on our Instagram feed. And past years too can be seen right here on the blog.

Christmas faces-our feelings get worn on our sleeves

It's really like any other day here, the routine is the same no matter the occasion. It's the routine the animals come to expect, the routine that keeps them feeling secure in knowing food is on the table morning and night and water buckets that iced over are replenished.

We are in the middle of another big storm. I'm grateful we aren't traveling or even driving a short distance. Just getting to the barn in the winds and hard pellet snow was a nippy endeavor, and there are slick spots [but thanks to some loyal Apiferians I have really good boot cleats that work wonderfully].

As I came back from the barn this morning, I took time to just stand in the field, the wind howling, the tree limbs bending with a light layer of ice from yesterday's morning rain. I breathed in deep, I felt it all, I left myself in it all. It was seconds, but is part of the wonderful time between Christmas and New Year's, like I said in my post yesterday-it is full of hope, and plans. I have a personal challenge I am determined to face, and I told the sky realm keepers I was going to do it. I felt strong.

I took extra time in the cat room too, grooming Maxine, sitting with the new arrivals, talking to them all, or not, just sitting. When I came in it was already lunchtime and I had a cup of Martyn's homemade soup he left for me.

I am loved.

The dogs were watching me. Time for some more Christmas Garland festivity and I wrapped The Old Blind One Eyed Pug in it. The way Mud looked at me, the way the pug looked at him...it's Christmas, every feel gets worn on our sleeves.

The Magical Garland

Many years ago, a follower of my blog and all things Apifera sent me a handmade felted Christmas garland. Shortly after, I decided that it was meant to be shared with all the animals too and that was the birth of The Garland Festival at Apifera. Back then, I would take the garland out to the barnyard and we'd have a wonderful if not sometimes chaotic festival.

That garland has been dragged through the mud by pigs, chewed on by goats and dogs, pooped on by chickens and stomped on by donkeys. Garland is like a well worn teddy bear-abused in love, and appreciated no matter what condition she ended up in after a day of heartfelt sharing.

It's been a wonderful tradition and when we moved she fell off the radar for a bit. But I came upon the garland as I unpacked some decorations for our tree. I gasped. I had certainly not forgotten her, but seeing her in the box, holding her, it brought back so many feelings of whim and joy that the season should bring, can bring if we let it. Despite missing my own elders, or slogging through the news, or down the bumpy cobblestone streets of friendship, the garland was right there in my hands, asking me,

"Do you remember that time when....the pig dragged me into a muddle and I almost drowned?"

And so our farm in Maine now begins its own version of The Garland Festival. Instead of spending one long hour or more sharing the garland with the animals, we will celebrate in smaller bursts of magic. This is much more fitting with our new Maine residence-where we do things a bit slower than out West, not because we have to but because we are more inclined to listen to our internal waves lapping on the shore we have chosen here.

I have to say on a practical note, spreading out the Garland Festival over weeks instead of an hour is helpful to the garland. Right now, she sits on my desk, waiting for me to fix her up again, sew her together after a particularly festive hour with the llama. Birdie really put on a show, which you can see in these photos.

I'll add more Garland festival photos here as the days and weeks to Christmas arrive. I hope there is a garland in your life-that item that you bring out every year and you too gasp, and hold onto all the memories it brings out of your heart.

{Thank you Christine Gross, again, for making this important piece of Apifera for us. You never would have known its destiny...then again, maybe you did, and that is why it has so much magic}

Please consider Apifera in your end giving.

Thankful

Well, what a year. Probably the most change I've ever been through besides birth. I had intended to go all out for Christmas, with a tree and all, and revive the Garland Festival [but I have posted here some past and present Misfits form past Garland festivals-until next year]...but you know...I went with my inner flow instead and focused on art and spending time in my new home with animals and Martyn. We said so many goodbyes this year, and now I am focusing on the hello's while still honoring people and creatures from the past.The changes this year were more significant than usual. I would not want to relive this year, but it is a conduit for so many things to come. and some of those things are already presenting themselves. I hope for light, for all of us. I am grateful for a warm bed, clothes, food, a life I like and somehow manage to survive financially each year and care for the farm...my husband....and all these four and three legged wonders out there. Life is going fast. I'm whirling right along with it and at this speed I don't dare blink. As long as I can be in Nature, I can survive emotionally I think, I hope for that as I age-Nature.


Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays to so many who share their lives with me.

The Annnual Christmas Garland Festival at Apifera

The Garland Festival has become a tradition here at Apifera. It began after a friend and follower of The Misfits and my art gifted me with a lovely felted garland. It was so pretty and I casually took a photo of the dogs wearing it to share with her as a thank you. Of course it grew from there.

Annual Christmas Garland Festival!

A couple years ago, a kind friend of Apifera sent us a hand made felted garland, thinking it would be nice on a tree. She had no idea what it inspired in the barnyard-an annual day to celebrate the merging of animal, woman and one Dirt Farmer.

What do we do at this festival? Not much, except I always leave full of appreciation for this life and these animals, embraced by this farm on this specific spot. So many imperfections here which make the days rich with compromise and appreciation. I can not complain, nor do the animals.

It was the first festival for Ernest the pig and Little Moose and Little Goose-and Doris and June. As a child, I hated when I was forced to sing or do pagent things at school-so nobody is coaxed into wearing the magic garland. It is said that by wearing the garland for at least one minute allows the soul to cement some future dreams. So Little Goose jumped right in-that is so him- but I wasn't surprised that Little Moose felt like watching. And Pino and Lucia were feeling voyeuristic too-perhaps Pino likes to just be a donkey during the non pie months, I can't blame him really. Doris and June were very eager to eat the garland, and Old Rudy likes to suck on it like a binkie–so one Christmas miracle is the garland still exists- another indication of its magic.

Sit back, and enjoy the photos from this year's festival.

The Christmas Garland Festival!

Last year, a follower of Apifera sent some lovely vintage fabrics and a gift of a felted garland she made. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was sharing the garland with the barnyard and then sharing the photos with followers.

The happiness it seemed to bring to so many in such a simple way left an impression on me. So I declared it a new holiday tradition - The Christmas Garland Festival.

I hope you enjoy the slide show - thirty plus images of the Misfits and then some. Wilbur the Acrobatic Goat chose to observe versus participate - one must not force garland wearing. Raggedy Man would have nothing to do with it, and he was much too busy flirting with The Head Troll - flirting is a kind word.

In the end, I garlandized The Dirt Farmer. The man doesn't take a bad picture, does he?