Marin Tender Tracks Thursday Sept. 25, 2014 Day 6

Waxing Crescent Moon
Lake Lagunitas

The sun was up, warmth was all around though it had rained the night before and the ground was still  wet.
My Intention of the day or rather my personal desire, was to bring them back to where we were Tuesday and see if any of the wood was still dry like what we had gathered.  Well, the deepest intention, to see if any wood was dry, happened.  Going back to that place did not.  No worries, the explorations were grand and we didn’t need to go far, as usual, to find the diverse and many splendors of Earth and Sky right in front of us.
Lisa Doron joined our band today and she was welcomed in beautifully.  Circle was fun with our songs, story and the ritual of it all.  Theron did not however, wish to hear a part of the story so, he found a nice tree to sit by and all the children made sure he was ok. When the part of the story he didn’t like was over they all called him back, which he then came with ease.   They then all scattered into beautiful areas where  they explored and played.
There was A LOT of clothes changing today, peeing, pooping, or trying and spending time with clothes, shoes, boots, wetness, dryness and such.  It really became quite comical.:), :), :)!!!
There is a big log there that was grand for exploring the possibilities of walking over it to the otherside of the creek. There were rocks to navigate over further down the creek and, Theron, Jai and Everett found a BEAUTIFUL burnt out Redwood tree stump to play in. Someone had made the beginning of a house structure there and the boys just loved getting inside and creating their games.  One of MY favorite “games” was to sit quietly near them and hear the stories they were creating, without them noticing me.  I do this often I, quietly, share with you.   Their  play was sweet and involved in imagination.
Lunch was wanted just about that magick hour of 11 and we ALL wound up sitting in a circle to eat together. WONDERFUL!  There we ate, talked, shared stories and then, packed up to go on an adventure.  We started out the same way as Tuesday yet, there was a creek with Water cress to be tried  and a spider that Hana found. All the boys found a great hill that they wanted to climb up but alas, there was a sign that said we could not so, we had to find another route.  The boys were sent to scout out a place and, they quickly began to climb up the hill.
The rest of us had to navigate over the creek, figure out how to climb up this  big hill and then, Lisa found a great piece of bark that became her Queenly crown!  We saw some beautiful, large and radiant golden orange fungus growing on a tree up ahead that became the Queens gold for all to find.  They scampered up the hill to find this “gold” and see what it was really like.  And the bark became a crown for many.   Velia was below and in order to climb I suggested that she climb like a bear. She said no then instantly put her hands on the Earth and started to walk like a bear until she could stand upright.  She got to where we were and then THERE were even more wonders that we all found.   We finally all got to the top of the hill on the path and then, WHERE TO NOW?  “To the stone stairs” I proclaimed and off they all went.  At the top of the stairs they had remembered that we were about to go into Wood pecker Forest so we sat quietly and listened for the sounds of the birds and, as Linsey called them, the Laughing Birds.  Ariel has the keenest of ears and is always the first to point out the sounds she hears for us all to listen more closely.
We walked a bit down the path and a pee party was proclaimed.  Boys ran quickly to the trees but the girls had to take their time finding a place and then pulling everything down and up!  While that was happening, Theron, Everett, Ja, Nico and Julian made their way down the hill closer to the lake where lots of Cat tails were and a bench.
The rest of the day was filled with exploring this area.  We found old bark on the ground with holes in and lot’s of Acorns around.  We then began to stick the acorns inside the holes.  We found single acorns, “twin” acorns, triplets and many different forms of growth that they were in. This brought up a lot of curiosity about where they came from, how come some were grown and we could find the acorns and others were still nestled in their caps.  We gathered, played with,explored with, made up stories about all the acorns and caps for the rest of the day.  Ariel, Velia, sometimes Thea and Hanna sat upon the bench taking clothes on and off and playing all manner of games.  There was integration of the others with them on and off and then, time to pack up and make our way back.  But which way???  They found it easily and off we went.
When we were almost back Everett found the bark we were playing with earlier. He then made it into a mask and pretended that he was a tree.  After myself and a couple of the other children played with him, he took it off while walking with me down the path and said how much he loved playing with this bark and the game!!!
Earlier Theron, Nico, Thea, Jai and I, mainly, explored some of the wood around us to see if it was really dry and collectable.  We explored a bit on how to find dry wood when it is wet on the outside.