Palo Alto Tender Tracks Wed. April 24, 2013

Day 30
Crescent Waxing Moon
Windy Hill Open Space Preserve

Misha was absent today. Everyone else was here and ready to go for a fine day of explorations.   We were going to go to Martins Creek and when we got there there were workers there and a sign that it was closed to the public while they were working so, What to do?
Well, just moments before we arrived I had a thought that it would be nice to go to Windy Hill and experience the Bull Frogs calling. They are always alive and active this time of year.  It is located only five minutes from Martins Creek. So nice to have had this thought because, that is where we went.
On our very short walk to the pond where the bull frogs live we spent a lot of time with many of the plants: Poison Hemlock, Poison Oak and, the best and most fun of all, Teasel or Nature Hair brushes.  These plants, when dead and dry, are wonderful for brushing your hair.  When picked the prickely parts need to be scraped off with a knife and so that is what I did for all of them.  Harper really wanted to brush my hair so, at a later time in the day, that is exactly what she did, and Duncan and Davey too!
When we got there we checked out this new place.  It was different then it has been in the past, more over grown yet still, the Frogs were singing and we could hear them, turtles were on logs, Damsel flyes and Dragon flies were all over and this place was magickal in it’s own very uniqe and wondeful way.

I set up circle and they all came for snack.  I changed the story I was going to tell in order to tell them the story about why Bull Frog lives in the water and sounds the way it does.  They listened and listened and then the Bull Frogs sang and sang. After the story I taught them a water song and we then sang man of our other songs with great joy.
There is a concrete water flow type of area there and they discovered that and had a great time going up and down and up and down it.  There were spots to sit and see if one could see frogs. Some of the children did. There were lot’s of Tule plants which I cut down for fishing poles.  Later on I made boats for about half the group and a bigger one for all of them.  The big one they all gathered a lot of plant matter and put in there with well wishes.  They then blew and blew to send it off. Well, it didn’t go very far because there was not much wind.  They were sad that the boat wasn’t going any where so I suggested that we call upon Brother/Sister wind to come and blow and, sure enough, THEY DID!  The wind came, they looked up and, the boat blew further along in the lake. YEAH!!!
When Davey got his boat it turned out he wanted to put it in the water but when it went to far out to get he was very sad.
We found some beautiful Yerba Buena that has a wonderful fragrance to it.  There was much excitement about the different colored Dragon flies and all the different bird sounds that we heard.  They all kept getting busy and involved with one thing after the next and it was a joy to see and be apart of.