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?

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Tender Tracks Thurs. Day 56

April 25, 2019
Waning Moon
Lake Alpine

Luna off to work with Mom for Go to Work with Mom day.

So, it was Josie and the boys and, a great deal of warm Sun!

Josie, fairly soon as we got there found, with Ruby, a stick, fishing line and a feather.  They made a beautiful weather stick, or that is what it looked like. For circle I asked if she would like to be the Weather Watcher with her stick and she seemed happy to do so. She always likes that job!  Holden and Eamon were content being snack helpers and Theo wanted to help fold the mats.

We stayed in our area that we were in for awhile. Holden LOVED running down the hill and FLOPPING on to the ground. I think at first he didn’t mean to slip and slid but after that he loved it and kept doing it and doing it.  Theo and Eamon tried it yet, I must say, Holden had it down!  The boys, led by Eamon, went over with great curiosity with what Josie was doing and there they all stood at the edge of the lake like happy fisher people.  Theo was his usual self IMMERSED into finding bugs and such. He found many Cicada skins. They all really liked seeing those. It is spring and there were many, particularly this year. And, we were surrounded by their sounds on and off in this area.

Spring was surrounding us with it’s new life and vibrancy every where we turned.  Josie found the fresh Rattle Snake weed and ate a great deal throughout the day with joy.

As we went on our adventure we went to check out the spill way and the place that we have walked across when there is no water. Holden instantly went sliding down it, Theo followed and then they would climb up and down and do it again.  Eamon went down yet climbing up was hard for him. Holden instantly tried to help him yet in truth, he wasn’t strong enough to do so, though his attempts WERE valiant.  Ruby and I coached him through it and he made it and then did it one more time. Theo discovered a specific way of sliding down that he then realized ripped the most of the back side of his pants off. All the children thought that that was very funny, as you can imagine. 🙂

Then, off we went down the top side of the dam. There were crystals found in the ground and the heat of the day pouring upon us. We finally made it to the other side and went into the woods, down a skinny trail and to the place we wanted to go. However, there were happy and quiet fishermen there so, we back tracked and found a small place to sit and eat lunch.

There we ate. A Dragon fly came to visit us and then we saw many others.  The question of what they were doing flying together came up.  We said it was Spring and they were making more of themselves.  “How do they do that?’ one of the boys asked. I said ” They have a very special dance that they do.”  Oh yes, I have seen them do that” One of them said. And Theo and Holden did a little wiggle dance. Like the Dragon flies soaring together.  All was easy and questions satiated.  Theo had asked about death at the beginning of the day so I told them a creation story of How Death came to Be. The gist: The world got TOOO full, when we don’t know when someone or something is going to die it helps us to remember to be as kind as we can and appreciative to the precious people and things in our lives and the lives of others. And, even when they leave their bodies they are always in our hearts and sending us love.

We had fun at our spot watching a Mallard couple swimming about.  Holden in particular was very happy to see them and to share this joy with the others.  We left this area and walked back to the bus. There were our fun Hide and go Seek games along the way and enjoyment of the gentle breeze in the midst of such warmth.

Back at the bus, Ruby drove and I read a book that, Eamon in particular love’s called What a Mess.  In truth this was read because Eamon has requested it several times from the last time I read it.   I wasn’t able to finish it but we had a lot of laughs all the way home with it. We then got there early so we went down to the creek and played there until they got picked up.

 

 

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Tender Tracks Wed. Day 28

April 24, 2019
Waning Crescent Moon
Roy’s Redwoods

Gideon was absent today.

What an absolutely glorious day.  Going to Roy’s Redwoods shielded us from the great heat and allowed us cool, comfortable and easy sensations on our skin.  They loved going back here too.

When we got there though we saw immediately what Brother Sister Wind and Great Rains had done over our winter.  Four big trees had fallen down. 3 were Bay Trees and One was a young Redwood tree.  We still had our bouncy tree yet the path that we take into the woods was thwarted and the only way was to go to the upper skinny trail, which we did at first to check the trees out and then to use to get into the woods.

After checking that all out they went straight to the creek. There they found ways to cross over and ways that were hard and ways in which they wanted to see if they could actually make it over such obstacles.
Beau was very hesitant all day, Rohin was glad for his rain boots. Nathan said “my shoes are water proof.”  Ellery fell down and got wet yet after her tears she discovered that she was fine and then went to the challenge of crossing over the big log. Sienna followed with no concern over getting wet. Nelly was LOVING it all and Addie was very happy playing in one spot on the creek where there was some water and a place for her to sit down and tinker there.

We all wound up over on the bouncy tree.  We took our time making sure everyone could get up and be safe and then: BOUNCE!!  We bounced our way to many different places: The moon, Hawaii, under the ocean to see Arielle and then, finally we bounced our way right over to circle time.   There we had such a fine and happy time ALL singing our songs, eating our snack and hearing the story from last week Rabbits Wedding.  Oh how they loved this.

After snack they went RIGHT into playing the games from the story, all together and then running back in one single line ready to play more at the creek.   I then took Nelly to the porta potty for her to go poop. We then packed up to go on our adventure through the forest and to the other side of Roy’s Wonderland.

They were all proud of themselves for going up and down a big trail and then down through the muddy swamp, over the big laying down tree and down onto a path where the creek showed itself. There we saw that in some places the water bubbled and in some places it was still. How could that be??????  We must watch and watch and watch and some day we just may begin to discover how this all works.

We spent a lot of time really looking at the LARGE sized Poison/Guardian Oak and staying clear of it and then finding our way to our spot. But wait a minute, what did we see there???  More trees fallen down at the hand of Mighty Winters friends, Wind and Rain.  This place however had lot’s of Yellow Tape all around these trees. Happily though the bouncy tree was not lost and, everyone had their turn on that with songs to go with it.  Then, exploring in the big Redwood tree Cathedral!!

I snuck up on the girls inside that were playing some kind of game. Beau was up top. I began to give a bird call and Beau just watched as I moved about with this call smiling the whole time in delight and never revealing what I was doing.  The girls wound up leaving and helping the group set up lunch time. I kept making my sounds and then saying “Come find me! Come find me!”  So they all looked about and looked about and looked about and then…THEY FOUND ME!! And it was time for all the little birdies and children to go eat lunch.  Most of them ate very well while others, we feared, had eaten a good deal of snack and left less room for lunch. 🙁

While we were eating some fine people came through. They were so very nice and we all struck up a conversation with them.  The children shared who we were and that we were a school.  The people were impressed how peaceful the lunch circle was too and, it was true, the beauty, ease, peace, and togetherness just keeps growing grander and grander as it has been doing all year.

After lunch we all played together and then got ready to leave.  The walk back was easy and fun and in the bus they all had thank you’s to offer while Ruby drew their gratitudes of the day.  As we drove home she told her magical tales. We actually got back 8 minutes early. Unprecedented!!!! 🙂

We all went down to the creek and painted with rocks, watched sticks float down the creek and get stuck, noticed that some of the rocks were hot, got them cool and delighted in the next moment of our day. Then they got picked up and our day came to a close.

Today was just one pure delight after another. They have been and still are an extreme joy to be with and share nature with and, oh yes, we came upon a Millipede. Nelly, Addie and Beau enjoyed holding it and feeling it tickle their skin. The others just watched.

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