Palo Alto Tender Tracks Wednesday Oct. 17, 2012

Wunderlich Park
Waxing Crescent Moon
Day 7

The day was not too hot and not too cold but just right when we went under the covering of the Redwood Trees at this beautiful place, Wunderlich.   At circle time I told a story with a turtle shell as the music.  And for snack we got to peel our apples with the apple peeler.   They all helped with cranking the apple peeler.  It wasn’t until lunch that we realized what Davey was wanting to share with us at snack, he had an apple that looked like it had been peeled with an apple peeler too for lunch!!  No wonder he was so skilled at cranking this peeler machine!!!
Right when we got to Wunderlich we saw this beautiful horse named Colour.  It’s owner said that it was very tame and asked if any of the children would like to pet it.  Half were in FULL delight over this so the owner and the horse calmly walked over while we had the children line up in a row for their turn.  Harper however was NOT interested in this and I stayed back with her.  Juliet wanted to keep her company so she stayed with me too.  Then Jasper stayed with me and finally Misha.  The five of us stayed together and watched this magnificent horse from afar while the others had varying ways of how they petted this large being.  Duncan just went in Mindy’s arms and she petted it for him but he was still very close to the horse.
We finally moved on and took turns using the bathroom.  While some were using the bathroom we scoured the ground nearby and under the Walnut and Bay trees for Walnuts and Bay nuts on the ground.  Usually, in years past, we were able to gather many many walnuts but alas, this is not a good year for this.
After this little adventure we made our way down the trail where we found lot’s of horse scat and a great trail to run on.  They were to find where the trail meets the refrigerator part of the trail. There is a place there where the temperature drops quite a few degrees and it really feels like you are entering into a refrigerator. Sure enough they found it/felt it!!! and into the dark woods we went.  Just up the hill a bit more and,and,  THERE we found  the perfect place to settle in eat lunch and begin to play.
In this place is a great Redwood stump that you can jump in and have such a good time and, they did.  When it seemed like a change needed to take place I went wandering off down a trail and invited some to join me and so, down the big slope Harper and Julian went. Julian was so careful and considerate with showing Harper how to get down this hill and then Davey came ruuuuunnnnninnnng down with great ease.  At the bottom we explored this dry creek bed with rocks all around to play and paint with. Misha then came and he and Julian wanted to look into this big stump to see what was inside so I lifted them up.  Then one by one all but two came and  Mindy followed up  with Zara and Sirena.  Sirena began to have a hard time and it seemed best to leave Mindy and Audrey there with the children and I go back to the two that were left in the stump, Jasper and Duncan.  These two were so very funny as they jumped in and out of this beautiful Redwood stump/nest. Duncan was a dinosaur and Jasper was a Dinosaur catcher! In and out in and out.  Each one of them made it through certain challenges of the day ending with joy and accomplishment and grand explorations and expansions of connections to Earth and Sky were made.  They all had fun running back down the trail to get back to our Ganesh and her are a few words that Audrey sent me about the day:

On wednesday we got to pet Colours, then saw him and his riding
partner go off on the trails.  On the way back to the bus we had to pause our
“animal race” to let 2 horses pass us (we didn’t want to scare them),
and we were delayed a bit because Mishka wanted to stop and look at a
white horse in the stables.
Julian noticed the “really big” Redwood tree, and then shared his water with the tree so
that next time we visited, it would be even bigger!