Tender Tracks Thurs. Day 64

May 27, 2019
Waning Moon
Lake Lagunitas

Holden out sick and Theo out with a very pronounced swelling above his Right eye from, what turned out to be, a spider bite. So, just four children and 5 adults!!! 🙂

It was not only Ellie’s last day before they move away but we also celebrated her birthday.  Her Mom and Nanna came for the celebration and Mom came with us on the bus.  Ellie seemed happy for this all.

When we got to our spot it was the usual fun.  Eamon was playing with Luna in particular but then his usual sadness that she, Josie and Ellie did not want to play his game of choice, Ninja’s.  ” We are playing Princess and Fairy” said Ellie.  Well, as you might imagine that just was not what he wanted to play and, he still is in the stage of feeling ever so sad over not being able to play what he would like. Thwarted you might say.  I shared with him the very hidden tales about the mighty BOY Fairies that are great Guardians AND, carry GRAND silver swords.  He stood still for a bit listening and then, ran off and came back shortly there after with a stick. I thought it was a sword but in fact, it was a “gun”, so he proclaimed.  🙂 And he was back into playing with them all.

At circle time we had Ellie’s bday story and she passed out the Birthday snack that she brought for everyone. And, they gobbled it up, as, there were 5 choices!!! 🙂

By the time circle was over and all the play, it was actually quite late so, instead of what Ruby and I initially thought we were going to do we instead went up the stairs and looked over the ledge to see if there were any bull frogs and such. We didn’t see them but we did see a VERY large Crawdad. So large that it looked like a small lobster!  We then went up the hill and to the right instead of the left.  As they were walking down the fire road who should come roaring up but the Water District BIG truck!  Luna and Ellie scattered up and over to us and we were a bit surprised too!!! Yet, all was well. PHEW! and down we went, playing all the way.

When we got to the bottom we “made camp” right near the waters edge and near a great Redwood castle area of sorts.   There they played for a bit and I told a story. Then we went to lunch and from there, oh my such fun!  Luna and Eamon went to the bridge near by and, OH DEAR! They became Trolls!  And, Ellie and Josie were the “Neighbor Trolls,” said Josie, on the other side.  When any one came over the bridge oh they simply had to recon with these Troll’s and their fee for crossing.  There were two women that were coming by and ( they over heard it all) and played right along. They finally paid the price ” a rock they had found” and were able to move on their way. 🙂

From here on out the best I can say is that there was chasing, finding a picnic table whose benches bounced up and down, Ruby and I tag teaming with running, chasing and playing and such. Oh my, what a  great deal of fun and laughter we all had until we made it all the way home.

Just plain and simply, fun AND delightful warm and full day that was also spacious in explorations and the immersed in the work of children: PLAY!

And, oh yes, earlier there was much climbing and swinging on the great Redwood tree and becoming Monkeys or Bats.  Ruby and Eamon made incredible maps on the ground. He hid a treasure for Ruby to read the map and find the treasure and, SHE FOUND IT!!

 

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Tender Tracks Tues. Day 65

May 28, 2018
Waning Moon
Lake Lagunitas

Everyone was here and in fine spirits. There was more unity on this day than ever before. Though, the boys, at the end of the day made it clear that they did NOT play with the girls because the girls, well, I don’t recall the exact word but, basically, boys are better.  And, again, no matter what they shared, they all played with each other on and off throughout the day with delight. 🙂
However, the girls had a grand time, all three of them, together, and the boys did indeed love being with their own gender. Which, is so very appropriate at this developmental stage.
When I asked Eamon if he liked his little sister he said “Of course! She’s my sister!” another 🙂 from me.

When he said this I was reminded of an 11 year old girl I had in a girls group that I ran for three years.  All the girls had younger brothers that they all thought were QUITE annoying.  One day this one girl made it clear that boys are just so DUMB, ANNOYING et al…. When I asked her what she thought about her Mom loving her day she stated, quite confidently, “Well, she just forgot! ( how dumb and annoying they are.)”  I am chuckling.  Yes,  puberty sets in and then, oh dear, things do begin to shift, like it or not  🙂

The day was filled with such life all around us.  Eamon, after circle, really wanted to find a worm.  There were so many birds, dragon flies, and, this was the most amazing, LOT’S of trout right in the small part of the creek under the waterfall!  I have NEVER seen this before. This is the time of the year when all the bull frog tad poles are swarming this area.  Didn’t see any of those but there were so many trout, large trout, swimming around and, the water fall was flowing stronger.

The boys came filled with a great deal of energy of exploration, intrigue and movement.  When we got to the lakes and sent them on a task: take one bucket each and clean it out with the creek water. Then, find some liken and moss and use that to clean out all the dirt that was in them and then see if you can catch a fish.  Well, they were REALLY gung ho on this and went for it! Washing with the moss was truly a favorite of theirs.  Seeing how it could clean off the dirt so well brought smiles to their faces and enthusiasm to the cleaning.

While the boys were doing that the girls were up above, I think around the fairy tree but I wasn’t there.  Eamon called me over to help with something at the Water fall. We discovered that we could barely hear each other even when we were close because the water was soooo loud.  He was frustrated that we couldn’t just get rid of the water fall.  Josie and Luna came down to me and wanted me to be the “Monster Baby Mom” again, and play that game like we did last week. So, it commenced. Theo was a Ninja who wanted to eat us but of course, Monster Babies LOVE to eat Ninja’s.  Theo likes to chase better than being chased! 🙂

We went to circle then packed up and made our way to one of their favorite spots but first, the girls were really into climbing the tall Redwood tree and became monkeys and Bats hanging upside down and swinging from branch to branch.

As we were working towards going up the hill it took a long time as the children kept, beautifully, finding many many wonders all along the way.  It was fun and funny.  When we finally got to our spot what did I find but very large turtles on the fallen down tree that lays in the lake and encouraged them all to come see.

Throughout the day there was a challenge to see who might be able to get close enough to touch the turtles.  Mainly Theo and Ruby were interested.  Theo I don’t think really put together that talking loudly encourages the turtles to plop off of  the log and going slow does the opposite.

The boys had a GRAND time throwing the wonderful rocks found at the back side of the fallen down tree and “cleaning it up” they said.  The girls made beautiful “offerings” to the fairies that were ever, ever so beautiful .  And, I believe it was Josie that found a little fury caterpillar. Everyone came over to explore that for a bit.

The walk home was filled with children turning into rocks and having a song sung to them to wake them up as well as hiding behind trees and being found.

A picture of the day was drawn along with gratitudes.

A fun and beautiful WARM!!! day.

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Tender Tracks Thurs. Day 64

May 23, 2019
Waning Gibbous Moon
Lake Alpine

Everyone was here today, Josie and Mom and all the rest.  The Sun came too though later in the day the Dark clouds showed their face again and covered up Sun’s warmth for a bit. More on that further down.

This day was so beautiful, rich and filled with explorations, observations and growth.

The children instantly explored this area we have not been too in a time.  The big rock, the very full lake, the plants and, the wonder.  Holden came with a shirt that had a Rattle Snake on it and I, in my morning meditation asked the question ” What would be a good story to share on this day?” The answer I received was ” Tell the tale of How Rattlesnake Came toBe and Why they always rattle their tail for protection.  At the beginning of this year  Theo found many LARGE Rattle Snake skins tucked into the rocks at this place. Today the ranger came and shared with us that they just are now finding the Snakes coming out of Hybernation. We are all aware of our Rattle Snake friends and coming together with that awareness. How fun and delightful is that?!

So, we came together for circle, and story though we changed our spot to another because, a dogs large poop was left in the grasses. I covered it up but it was clear, we all agreed, it really smelled and was very close to our usual spot. No worries, we just went to our other spot next to the big rock.

We had our story, songs and snack and then, got ready for our adventure, to find the TURTLES!!!  But oh yes, before that, Ruby took out a rope and a great game of jumping over the rope as it was made like a slithering snake in the grass.  At first it was just the girls but then, the others came in to play as well.  A great deal of fun was had. From there they all hung onto that rope for a time as we went up the big hill. At the top they looked over and saw the water flowing down, down, down.  We then took Josie’s Mom up to see where, when the water wasn’t there, how they used to slide up and down and up and down on the concrete water flow. Theo shared that that was how he got so many holes in his pants.  We then went down another big hill to find the turtles. And, WE DID!  At one point Ruby had counted 31?

There was much exploration down by the water but I will share the most beautiful part for me was when all the children were working/playing together on these boards in the water and having such a good time.  The thing of it was however, the clouds came over, the warmth went away and when they were done playing and we had to go…COLD set in!!  And, we still had to walk back no matter.  Josie’s mom had some extra out layers of varying grownup to child size and helped the girls with that and then we just went off. The more we walked the warmer they got and, so, it happened.

It was a glorious day of air, wind, sun, clouds, so many animals to see. Ruby and I saw a muskrat, the children saw many Turkey Vultures soaring, playful crows and Canada Geese with five baby ducklings.  A Kingfisher sat upon the wires above us at the lake and the turtles were of great fascination to watch, particularly at lunch time as we sat facing the waters together.

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