Marin Tender Tracks Tues. Oct.20, 2015 Day 11

Waxing Half Moon
Samuel P. Taylor

Rhett was home sick today.
We had another most glorious day!  It started out with Talay bringing Bay nuts, then Alara with a huge bag of Acorns from her back yard and then Velia with Walnuts in their green beds for us to us as dye for today.
Such abundance in this time of Harvest Season!  I too brought something, apple cobbler made from Apples that were in a big basket last week at a home on the way to Deer Park with a sign FREE!  I took many for Tender Tracks. What a beautiful  harvest.
We have never gone to Samuel P. Taylor and we did so because we needed to make fire in order to boil up the walnuts and some Redwood Cone’s previously soaked and a previous batch of Elder Berry and Onion dye.  When we got to this place the children ran out with great delight exploring the many nooks and crannies around that the Redwood People have left for the children to play in.
Michelle and I got circle time together, called them, we sang our songs, continued to notice who is wearing what with our last song of each song time and then hear a story that was a continuation of Tuesdays story of Turtle and some of his fears and, what he did about it and who helped him along the way. Of course, in this tale he wound up meeting an “Ancestor” that was his great friend and helper. There was much more to this story but the bottom line was that it was ushering us into what we were to do on this day.
After circle we cleaned up and began getting our two fires going.  The spot we picked had fire places that were back to back. This was Perfect for us!  Aaron and Xander were very much into helping out and tending the fire throughout the day.  They were all excited when the fire fully manifested itself. The children filled  big pot with water and then they put the Walnuts in.  The other pot we poured past Tender Tracks Redwood cone batch and then, we built the fire up and watched it all with delight.
The day was filled with tending to the fire, playing so many wonder filled games in parts of the Redwood trees that actually brought tears in my eyes due to the incredible beauty of it all.
It came time to choose what color they wanted for their capes and then put the cloth in.  Michelle and I were quite surprised as initially most wanted the Redwood color but only two in the end chose that and the rest went for the Elderberry/ Onion one and no one chose the beautiful, beautiful brown color that came from the Walnuts.  No worries, it will be used at some point. We watched the white capes change their color in front of our eyes and it was SSSOOOOOO fun!
Later on we took two of the pots and brought them down to the creek in order to cool them down before we could pour the contents into the plastic buckets that had tight lids.
The children wanted to immerse in the mud and water but alas, we needed to curtail that due to only having about 10 min. left of play.
This was a red letter day as Ariel pooped in the tender Tracks potty, while the other girls watched. Last year this was BIG only Ariel was not in the place of “sharing” this experience with friends. But today, It was easy peasy for her and she was delighted!
Talay decided to try and pee without taking her pants off but it seemed like it was still a challenge for her/beyond her comfort zone.
Xander was willing to be Talay’s buddy when she went back down to the creek to fetch her shoes and the rest all just had a grand time.
The fire, the water, the plants that gave us color, the place and so much more was a simple delight to the senses.  And, wait until you see these capes!!!!!