Marin Tender Tracks Tues. Oct. 7, 2014 Day 9

Waxing Crescent Moon/Day before Full Moon
Roy’s Redwoods

Another full, fun, glorious day. Linsey was back and was brought in with such warm and beautiful welcoming.  The children were delighted to have her back and she was delighted to be with them.  We went to Roy’s to get away from the heat and that is exactly what happened. Sweaters were actually on 2/3rd’s of the day!  We also went to find redwood cones and alas, that DID NOT happen!!!  We were with the Redwoods all day but never found but a couple of cones.  As I research this I still am not sure if they are intermittent with their reproduction like Oak trees and acorns having a good “crop” every two to five years or not.  More study I will do!
When we got their initially we went to the closest place to the bus but, as is typically the case at this point, they need to run and play for a bit before circle.  When we got together they had snack of home made gluten free apple crisp, Peppermint tea and lemon from my garden and a story with a turtle shell that played music for them to join in with at certain parts of the story.
The story was about a little turtle that had something fall on his head that made him very scared to stick his out again but then, he DID need to finally eat.  In the end he decided that “Sometimes  it would be wise to stick my head out and sometimes it would be wise to keep it in.”
Then off to play they went!!!  The boys and Thea went back to the structure they were building, back to run up and down and up and down the empty creek bed, and building, building, building, and Velia, Hana and Ariel played with Linsey for a very long time on a laying down log house, airplane and such.
I roused the others into games of chase, then a game called Coyote and Rabbit.  In order to not get caught by the Coyote, when it comes up to you, the rabbit, you must be perfectly still otherwise you then become a Coyote.  Julian and Theron were really involved in staying still but alas, they finally moved and, became Coyote’s. Then the game morphed as it typically does with this age and Theron became a Dinosaur, others were cheeta’s, lions and so it went. With this I ran, they ran and they found them selves in another magical place, very close by though it seemed miles away.
They invited the others to come join us.  It took a bit for them to do so though because, Hana in particular, was extremely content with their log, their game and the continued joy of being there.  However, we were able to coax them into discovering an even grander place.  When we got there Jai, Theron and Enzo made a special digging type castle and did not want anyone else to come in.  With some playful work around that, a path was made to allow all “Subjects of the land” to gracefully pass.  And then, the rest found ANOTHER castle that was just as grand.  But don’t you know, a Storm, also known as Linsey, came in. Luckily they had prepared for this season with all the firewood they needed and a good wood burning stove.  But oh yes, before that Velia, Hana and Ariel were having babies and they didn’t have blankets, rattles, food for medicine and clothes. Well, the forest provides us with all so we found lot’s of materials for blankets: lichen, scrapped soft redwood duff that we were able to get due to the squirrels going up and down the Redwoods, a bone for a great rattle, and then a bed for Mom’s was made with the ground debrie.  The girls gave birth throughout the day and it reminded me so much of my eldest daughter when I was pregnant with her sister. She gave birth dozens of times during each day before her sister was born!  And so these girls were playing the same game and finding what they needed straight from the Earth.  We even found medicine from the Bay tree right there.
I was playing with Julian and Nico for awhile jumping over logs, running and jumping over fist one then another.  It was grand fun!  They then brought the other boys into this later on.
I realize that there was so much that took place on this day that at this point I am just going to share some highlights.
• bringing out small cups for them to put water into, then a few redwood cones and then watch the magic.  The clear water turned RED!!!!!!
• Climbing into a Redwood cave where maybe the Gnomes live?
• Climbing on top, climbing to a higher cave like place way up the hill
• Getting stuck and helping each other through it
• Burying feet in the dirt and becoming trees
• Getting more black scrappings from the burnt Redwood Trees
• Stalking up on each other
And so the day went.  A very full, beautiful, expansive and alive day.