Marin Tender Tracks Thursday Jan. 14, 2016 Day 30

Waxing Moon
Lake Lagunitas

Velia and Io were absent today.

What a grand day!  Fire, pancakes, time to unwind, explore and relax into the beauty of winter weather.  The rain did not dance upon our heads until right before we were leaving.  As soon as we got there it was beautiful to see the children’s freedom, joy and ability to just join the land with graceful harmony and loving relationship with Nature. Newts were found and loved, the flow of the waters were explored, dipped into and laughed with.  Mud and boots played with abandonment and fire born by hand drill  brought us warmth.
We had some store bought sticks for the fire because we are almost out of all that we have gathered.  The children went straight to building all manner of structures with these as well as making a beautiful arch way to their fairy home with the Redwood tree fallen branches.   They took some of the extra plastic tools and used them for digging and had a grand time not only building up the fire but getting water in their mouths from the spigot and going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth to put the fire out.
All the children helped stir and stir the pancake batter putting their love into it as we sang a song that aided them in taking turns.   The pancakes were beautiful and Layton and Rhett had fun with flipping them on the griddle. Tricky business doing this and navigating around the fire without getting burnt!   They all gobbled them up with delight too. They then, after putting out the fire, went back to their building and such. And then, a great adventure took place. Ariel, Alara and I went to take Ariel to the bathroom. When we got back, where were our friends????  We listened and then heard and saw them way up above us on the fire road.  They came down to us and we ran over to them.  Alara wanted to see where they went so they took us back up their adventure.  Some ran ahead and some of us were behind. We found Rhett excited to go down this off trail path down to the creek but, alas, we needed to all be together.  The children wanted to show him this incredibly magical Snail that we saw that looked like part of an ancient tree as it slowly crawled down the tree. I wish I had a photo to show you. We have never seen one like this!!!!
The rain began to drop, drop, drop, faster and faster more and more.  We found all manner of Earthly treasures and wonders and then made our way back to the bus.   There were some clothes that needed to be changed and then off we went. A fine day that left us with the beautiful smell of smoke in our hair and warm bellies from yummy food made together and shared.