Tender Tracks Thurs. Day 10

Oct 13, 2016
Waxing Moon
Lake Lagunitas

Archer came but alas, his other school had a full break out of pinworms and, after discussion with Mom, it seemed best to keep him home until that all got cleared up. They are truly so contagious. So, off he went though it was sad to see him leave.
The day was a day to look at the sky and observe the clouds as the weather report was so very strong for rain for the entire weekend. The clouds were puffy, and wavy and then turned into a blanket of gray with virtually no blue in sight. The air was very comfortable though and light jackets for the most part were all that were needed accept for under the trees at lunch when the wind picked up just a bit.

We set up circle in one of our secondary places that last years Tender Trackers know about and were delighted to revisit. At this place there is a large horse trough that all the children LOVE to play with. They make magick potions and such. On this day they all were playing together at this trough and putting all manner of wonders in it. Eddie, Isabella, and Skylar were very involved in playing on the horse bars too and making a home in the trees. Jake and Kuba wound up rebuilding a fairy house that was knocked down, Jesse, Kai and Ruby were gathering wood but in truth, these are only a few snap shots of all the different play configurations. They were all mingling in and out of all of these things and playing together. It was so very fun to start gathering wood and slowly, one by one or two by two they would come in and start gathering as well. Next week we need a lot of wood for fires so we can boil water for our dye vats for our Halloween capes! The stories have been guiding them towards this end as well as sharing about gathering wood, going to creeks to find rocks for painting and finding plant material for dying things. We played and gathered in this area until it was clear that moving along was a good thing and, it was 11:45, close to lunch. We found our way on the other side of the Bon Tempe Lake area, set up lunch circle under the trees and ate. Michelle and I got very excited because we saw a Hawk swoop over the water with what appeared to be a pigeon. Jesse came running over with us to see but he actually didn’t see anything he said. After lunch time we made it over to the Madrone trees where we were hoping the Madrone berries would be ripe enough to harvest but, they were not quite ready yet. Next week? After the rains?

Here we settled in and there was gathering of stones, wood, tinder, and discovering that a couple of the Madrone trees were great bouncy trees!
There were social changes today that at times were hard for some of them. Ruby was REALLY into Jake today because he was willing “to be nice” and Ruby loved that. Jake liked being her friend though it seemed, for the first time this year, that Jesse felt like a third wheel as her attention was directed mostly towards Jake. Skylar came in with a bit of the north wind mood and some arose due to this for Isabella and Eddie. They were together most of the day however with joy and ease. Kai therefore was not with his beloved friend Isabella yet he wound up playing with Kuba and Jesse and even Jake so in the end that was great expansion of his “social circle.” Kuba, though he loves being with the adults, was off playing and building with Jake and Kai and after lunch the girls.

Michelle today introduced to the children giving thanks and welcoming to the plant people and areas that we visit by way of offering corn meal, a very old and traditional way of giving an offering of gratitude.
The children immediately took the pinch of cornmeal and went to where they wanted in the Madrone grove to offer their thanks and place their cornmeal where they felt drawn.

Back in the bus we went. We still don’t have a grease board to draw our day so I drew a picture on a piece of paper and we shared about all the wonders we saw and experienced during the day.