Palo Alto Tender Tracks Tues./Thurs. 9/20/2012

Huddart Park
Waxing Crescent Moon
Day 6

After a time, all were here and off we went.  We sang some of our morning songs in the bus and we played some listening to natural sounds while in there.  Can YOU hear the birds or the wind, or the bugs when you are inside?  They have been practicing each morning to hear the sounds under the sounds that are louder like the cars, airplanes, trucks and the like.  With practice it is VERY possible.
On the way to Huddart park, a bit of a drive, there were some sounds that were too loud for some of the children in the bus so we pulled the bus over and brought some awareness into how we can work together to get a little bit of what we want here and there.  Those who wanted to speak with robost and great vitality quieted their voices a bit and those who wanted it completely quiet found some ease with some sounds.   When we got to our destination, they all ran out with their back packs and ate some of their snack with Audrey while I brought out the many things that we needed to make our Stone Soup!
After snack it was time to begin cutting our vegetables. ‘So who will help with this?’ Miu, Aoife, Emme, Paul, and Alice.  They had such a good time cutting, dicing, splicing, figuring out how to do this all and then putting their grand cuttings in the big pot.  Giesselle wanted to just keep eating her snack and Evan, Kaden/Bumblebee/Optimus Prime wanted to run, play, explore and be other wonderful inventions of their grand imaginations.  All was well.  It was getting close to putting the pot on the fire so, we had to make the fire.  ‘Who will gather some sticks and dried leaves?’  Evan, Kaden, Miu, Alice…. Then, they all got pulled back in from their grand castles, houses, good guys, bad guys, unicorns, and……to call forth THE FIRE FAIRIES!!!!!  so we sang the traditional fire song “Hey nickety hay wa na, Hey nickety hay wa na, hotsay wanna hey wanna na, hotsay wanna hey wanna, wanna…..
We sang, and played sticks and then THE FIRE BEGAN TO BLAZE!!! the smoke came to Evans eyes and he didn’t like it so we encouraged him to move, he finally did.  They all watched this beautiful fire for awhile until, well, time to playyyyyyyyyyyyy, and off most of them went accept Emme and Miu.  Miu LOVED the fire and helping me with it and Emme loved giving me the sticks to feed the fire. The other girls came in and out and when it was time for more of the firewood that you parents collected the boys RAN into the bus to bring it out.

Audrey had found some great and grand and many Redwood tree cones and then most of them went foraging for more with her.  Emme was very challenged, I heard, going down the steep hill yet made it half way until she decided that her shoes and clothes just were not going to work. Besides she got very scared going down this steep slope.  They came back and showed me and the few of us that were up with the fire all that they gathered.
We  fire tenders were making sure the fire would keep going so we built it up and sang different fire songs to make sure that the fire would boil and boil and boil our soup and, IT DID!!  Alice and Gieselle set the table and then all came though the boys were a bit reluctant, especially Kaden.  They really were not sure about eating any of this soup.  Evan did try it though and the rest, well, they got their bowel of soup yet I do not think ate much of it.  They also got bread, butter and cheese, in various combinations of this for each of them and ate it all up!  When lunch was finally finished the games began again.

Audrey took us on an exploration of some grand mushrooms that she found and we harvested them for a later time. We will  use them to make dyes. We discovered a great shed to play Coyotes and hide and go seek in, they chased Audrey relentlessly and it was here that I lured them into the shed. I then ran away and Audrey and I hid until THEY FOUND USSSSSSSSS!!!!

I took most of them on a journey to the Lizard Log before we left but there I saw a friend of mine with some of his teenage students in their nature program.  We stalked up on them, creeping, creeping creeping along like Racoons and then, all the children were too shy to go right up to them so I finally ran up to my friend to say hello and then off we scurried to pack up and make it back to Eleanor Pardee park.  But oh dear, in the bus it got louder and louder and we had to pull over again and find ways to co habitat!
Well, we did and back we went.