After the fox spent time with "Sechs Paar Schuhe" last week, today we're meeting Anna and Jil. Anna’s photos are brimming with Wildling feeling, and that's why they can frequently be seen on our Instagram feed, on our blog and elsewhere!
Anna and her 3-year-old daughter, Jil, live in Berlin, but take every opportunity to flee from the capital! As about.little.j on Instagram and on her blog,www.aboutlittlej.com, Anna describes adventures with her little family.
“My blog has three new readers every week. I think it’s going well. The art of living is to be content with little. Living without plastic. Or at least trying to. Sociologists call this kind of life “slow living”. Or minimalism.
I call it back to the roots. And that's exactly what my blog is all about.”
The sun’s rays are getting longer again. Trees are donning their colourful autumnal robes, each more beautiful than the last. The wind whistles through the tops of the trees, whisks the leaves from the ground, making them dance through the air. Autumn is here. During this season when it's getting colder, what happens in the forest and what adventures are waiting there for little explorers? In today's blog post Anna shares some of her ideas.
Precious treasures in the forest
Last autumn there were huge amounts of mushrooms in the forest. Actually it had already started in the summer. In July came the first slippery Jacks, porcini, bay boletes and chanterelles. After each trip to the forest our baskets were chock-a-block full of wonderful, magnificent mushrooms. We fried mushrooms with onions, made mushroom cream soups, marinated them with cloves and rosemary, dried them in preparation for the winter and gave them away.
“Mushrooms” was one of the top ten first words spoken by our little daughter, Jil. Armed with woven baskets, she went mushroom hunting.
Our daughter soon became a mushroom expert. With a skilled eye she scanned the grass for mushrooms and ran around tree stumps, shaking with excitement when she found a mushroom herself.
... also for little wild things
It has been proven that the forest is good for people. The natural environment, the smell, the exercise: it all has a positive effect on our souls, psyches and immune systems.
But as is the way with all lovely things, at some point the mushroom season came to an end and Jili’s mushroom basket remained empty. What now?
Without mushrooms the forest wasn't exciting enough for our daughter.
So how can you make a misty autumn afternoon in the forest exciting for a child? How do you explain how wonderful the mighty fir trees are, and that special scent that’s only there at this time of year?
Ideas for little forest explorers
We read books about ants and other forest dwellers. Together we built a hut out of sticks, rekindling Jil’s interest in the forest.
It quickly became a favourite place for her again - her second home.
She loves collecting horse chestnuts and acorns, which we later make into beautiful necklaces. In front of our house we have a huge arsenal of sticks, and after each forest trip it gets bigger.
This year it was very dry in the forest, and up to now there have been hardly any mushrooms. And it doesn't matter at all. Our daughter’s learned that the forest is a wonderful and exciting place to explore at any time of year, somewhere that never gets boring.
And for us parents, it's enough to stomp through the forest, feast our eyes on the beautiful emerald green and simply whisper a little “thank you”. Thank you that everything is how it is.
With much love, Anna
All Fotos by about.little.j