Tender Tracks Friday Day 28

April 26, 2019
Quarter Moon
Lake Lagunitas

As Ruby and I prepared for the day in Juniper Rose, we had a furry visitor hop on the bus! A neighborhood kitty came to join us and explore while we had our morning meeting. We told our sweet new friend that we had to get going to meet our Tender Trackers and the mystery cat made its way off the bus for its own day of adventures!

At Lake Lagunitas was so alive with springtime! We heard cicadas, noticed ladybugs and darkling beetles, heard turkeys calling, and saw fresh green tips on the fir trees. We visited the sunny spot by the water trough and Raccoon Family play (and stew making) commenced.

There was much plant play and appreciation all morning. The children munched on the tops of rattlesnake grass and gathered fir tips for tea (and snacking.) We launched little shooters with the plantain plant stalks and flower heads. Many wildflowers dotted the space and Ruby and I searched the trees for cicadas. The keen eyes of Miles and Violet found a ladybug, Charlie found a small grub in a log, and Margot and I sneaked up on a tiny tree frog!

At snack time we enjoyed some delicious scones baked for us by Wendolyn. Ruby retold the tale of Douglas Mouse, who hid in the cone of the fir tree while playing hide-and-seek with the woodland animals. The children reached eager hands into the bag of animal symbols to find what jobs called to them this day; Charlie and Blake became Guardians of Safety, Rohan and Miles were Guardians of the Earth, Snack Slugs were Violet and Siena, and Margot was our Weather Watcher!

We set off to explore new spaces and made it to the creek and bridge we hadn’t played at since fall time. The water was nice and low and perfect to enjoy with or without boots! Blake and Rohan here gathering many plants, including Miner’s Lettuce, in Rohan’s hat and transporting them across the creek from the opposite banks to me. Ruby and Charlie, Violet, Siena and Margot went in search of gnome homes, and later emerged with a gnome and fairy boat! It was thick bark topped with moss and a leafy sail. They launched it and we all watched and chased it down to the bridge where it stopped, gently bobbing in the deeper water. After lunch, we saw that it had moved past the bridge and we launched another small boat to join it.

We decided to head back to Peri Park early to enjoy our Fir Tip Tea with our stuffies from Juniper Rose, in a proper tea party! We were very thankful for the two horses we saw, gathering plants in a hat, sunshine, fir tips, scones, and boats. At the park, we enjoyed our tea with the stuffies as the children got re-acquainted with some stuffies we hadn’t seen in awhile (as they had been in the bottom of the basket!) We sang our goodbyes and welcomed family and friends to our party and pickup time.

can you see the mouse “feet and tails” hiding in the fir cone?