Sluggy's Pages!

Volume 2, Issue 4 - Summer Solstice 1997

Welcome to Sluggy's Pages. This is Shining Lakes Grove's kids' page. It comes out eight times per year, with information and activities for the young folk and their parents. We encourage you to send us any seasonal stories, poems, art, games or puzzles for us to include in this newsletter. Editor is Mama Moon: (313) 439-0434 or send mail to: 38 Neckel Ct., Milan MI 48160.

Lore Corner

• This is the longest day of the year. After today, the sunset will come about two minutes earlier each day.
• Summer Solstice is particularly important to the Slavic people, or those in eastern Europe.
• Stonehenge and Newgrange, and many other ancient stoneworks are aligned so that the sun at midsummer dawn shines perfectly on the keystone or altar.
• This is a traditional time for strawberry festivals.
• In our grove we celebrate the marriage between Ana, goddess of the Huron river watershed, and Lugh (called Samildanch, master of all arts) patron of our grove.
• Many young animals test their independence at this time of year. The deer stag are growing new antlers. These antlers are covered in velvet which they will later rub off onto the trees.
• In western tradition many marriages happen at this time of year.

Solstice Song

(from Rudyard Kipling's Reward and Fairies)

Sing oak and ash and thorn, good sirs,
All on a midsummer morn,
Surely we sing of no little thing,
In oak and ash and thorn.

Ana's Playhouse

Bird Feeders

Cut two "windows" on opposite sides of a milk carton. Make a hole under each window and put a twig or dowel through both holes for the perches. Make a small hole in the top of the carton and attach a string so that it can hang from a tree branch. Fill the feeder with birdseed and hang it outside for the birds to enjoy!

Sunflower Sprouts

Now that the sun is so high and hot, here's something you can grow in the dark. You can make your own sunflower sprouts. Get a bag of raw sunflower seeds. The salted kind won't work. They should be in their shells. Soak them overnight in a shallow bowl. Meanwhile fill a shoebox up with an inch or so of dirt. After the seeds are soaked, toss them into the box and sprinkle more dirt over them. Sprinkle them with water and hide them someplace cool and dark such as the basement or closet, or under the sink. In a week or ten days, you'll see lots of little two-leafed plants. Those are delicious sunflower sprouts. Put them in salads or on sandwiches, or you might even save a few to plant outside.

Bird Calls

• Bald Eagle - "kak, kak, kak"
• Robin - "cheerily, cheer-UP-CHILD"
• Crow - "CAW, CAW, CAW"
• Chickadee - "chick-a-dee-dee-dee"
• Yellow Warbler - "sweet, sweet, SWEET I'm..."
• Canadian Goose - "honk, honk, honk"
• Mallard Duck - "quack, quack, quack"
• Barred Owl - "who cooks for you, who cooks for YOU ALLL"
• Blue Jay - "Jay, Jay, Jay"
• Pileated Woodpecker - "CUCK, CUCK, CUCK"

Solstice Word Search

Q H L S G N I D D E W U E


U U G U N E C I T L O S V


A M H N O I A L N G O D O


I M Y S R A B O R O D D D


L I A H E N A O G W P R G


L N D I H Y U N R U E I N


A G T N A S A E H P C B I


N B S E E I N J N I K K N


I I E H D U C K E T E C R


D R G A E G R E T U R A O


R D N W H I P O W I L L M


A A O K E T I H W B O B E


C S L W O R R A P S I N G

• blue jay
• bob white
• blackbird
• canadian goose
• cardinal
• duck
• egret
• grouse
• hawk
• heron
• hummingbird
• longest day
• loon
• morning dove
• owls
• pheasant
• quail
• robin
• sunshine
• sparrow
• solstice
• sing
• wedding
• whip o will
• woodpecker
• wren

Circle the left-over words to spell a Litha message!

----- --- --- -----

(Answer at the bottom)

Family Traditions for Lughnasadh

From midsummer to Lughnasadh, many fruits become ripe. My family likes to pick strawberries, raspberries, and peaches. Blueberries will come later. Lettuce is also ready at this time of year. In this area, there is a saying, that the corn is knee-high by 4th of July. By Lughnasadh the ears are ripe and ready for eating. Lugh is traditionally associated with storms as well as the sun. The family might enjoy sitting under a blanket and telling stories while watching the wonderful show put on by the lightning and thunderstorm.

In the late summer, there are many craft fairs and art shows. Traditionally this was the time of hiring fairs, and people would use these occasions to show off their skill, hoping for employment for the winter. You and your family might enjoy trying a new craft. This is also a time for students to get summer jobs, such as lawn mowing, yard and garden weeding, etc. In this region we're fortunate to have the Ann Arbor summer art fairs. Perhaps you might to get together with other Grove families to attend. We like to take wild flower walks in the woods by the lake at this time of year. Can your family recognize burdock, chamomile, staghorn sumac, echinacea (purple cone flowers) or other helpful plants?

Activity - Charting the Length of the Day

Now that the days are getting shorter again, this is a good time to start a log of their lengths. Then you can see how the days get shorter and shorter, little by little, until Fall Equinox, when the days are 12 hours long. It's easy to know the exact time of the sunrise and sunset each day. If you watch the sunrise and sunset, and keep track of the time, you will see for yourself exactly how much shorter each day is. You can watch each day, or if you like you can watch once a week. On those days when it's too cloudy to see the sun, you can check the newspaper. Sunrise and sunset times are listed there. (Remember NEVER to look directly at the sun. It could blind you.)

Draw a chart like this one. Because there are 3 months between now and Fall Equinox, you will need enough DATE boxes to last that many days. A good way to do this might be to make three charts, one for each month between now and Fall Equinox. Record each day what you observe in the sky.

Answer to the word search

Lugh and Ana unite

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