Monday Tender Tracks May 14, 2012

Waning Moon
Roy’s Redwood

What another glorious day.  We or I sang our new songs.  They watch with joy and Aero does the hand movements and a quiet yet somewhat audible voice.  Even Bodhi listens now with a smile of happiness where once he would have hands over his ears.  He is very particular about the sounds that he wants to come into his system.     Purnat has claimed Bodhi to be his very, very good friend now and it is so wonderful to think what it was like when we started.  Purnat kept to just me  yet now he is running about with his Tender Tracks friends and so happy that that is what they are, his friends!

When we got to Roy’s we decided to take a different path then the one we have been taking the past several times. It was the old and direct path to the beautiful big Redwood Tree Grove.  What a delight this path turned out to be because we found so many treasures along the way.  First I found some gizzards lying on the ground.  Purnat thought this was GREAT and after checking it out for quite sometime and all of us trying to figure out what animal these insides came from through many questions and quieries, Purnat picked it up with some wood and took care of it all day so that he could bring it home to Mom!!!  Kind of like a domesticated cat dragging in the dead mouse for it’s Guardian to see!    We then came across beautiful Lady bugs, crickets and other unknown types of bugs (FYI: there are over 1 million types of bugs that are known! and who knows how many undiscovered) on the grasses we were walking by. But then we kept seeing all of these tall grasses laid down on the ground like a Deer lay but that wouldn’t have made sense.  These flattened out spots were right next to the trail and, though the Moon is getting smaller there is still good enough light at night to not make this a very safe place to lay really ANY time of day for a deer.  We scouted about more and Aero discovered some cabbage in one of the spots we found.  People?  Yesterday was Mother’s day. Would people have set up a picnic spot right off the trail with blankets on the grass eating their lunches?   We didn’t find any animal scat/poop or animal hairs so that was the story we came up with for the moment until more clues were shown.  Then, off we went down the trail.  We found several other spots like this off the trail and our curiosity peaked.

Then, into familiar territory and climbing up the Great Big Redwood tree Aero went.  Bodhi and Purnat went around and we decided to set up camp here for a time and explore.   I found some of the burnt Redwood that I wanted to gather for pencils . However, Purnat wanted to paint our faces and for him to be a Tiger.  I ground some and then Aero ground some. I painted Purnats face and then he painted mine.  Aero just liked pounding.

In this grove there was an existing shelter.  All the boys really wanted to dismantle it so, together they took each log down, piled them up and then brought them out of the area.  As in their typical boy mode they were INVOLVED and vigorous with joy with the task they gave themselves.  In between I told a few stories and then, as they were cleaning up this area, I pulled some big rocks in for a fire circle and then went out to find a natural broom.  It didn’t take long before they began to follow me.

Aero found another shelter and began taking it down. Bodhi and Purnat came and joined in.  Then there was a very big log that Bodhi was moving up and down and it turned out that it was a bit rotten.  As he was bumping it up against another log he created, in that moment, a great tool that began to sharpen and cut this big log.  He really liked how this happened and kept working with his new tool.

I made a bow and arrow and he and Purnat attempted it’s use.  They all kept building, exploring and then we found a HUGE Polypore shelf fungus that could be written on in a tree nook. They then got into me making spears for them to go hunting for rabbits with. This followed the theme from last week.   We then wound up back in our Redwood grove to finish their lunches.  Aero brought in, on his spear, a pretend rabbit and put it in the pretend fire.  Bodhi put more duff on the fire to keep it burning and they finished their lunch.

We explored the little holes in there to see if any small critter sign could be seen.  I saw something earlier scurry in so we got curious.   They didn’t want to leave but alas we had to pack up and we did and then we found our way back.