Tender Tracks Thurs. Day 50

March 30, 2018
Waxing Moon
Lake Alpine

Avaline & Owen were absent today.

This day was filled with Summer Sun, even though it is JUST Spring.  We put the sunscreen on, and our happy feet went dancing upon the earth as we watched, throughout the day, new life all around us!   Even the Guardian/Poison Oak People. Yes, we call them people because, even though they have not two legs, eyes, arms and such, they are indeed living beings with a purpose and sensations that  they feel when kindness or harshness comes their way.  ( And, according to a great deal of “scientific” research, this is completely true!!!)

We thought that coming here we would go back to see how the Ca. Newt egg sacks were doing but…..when we got there, what did we see?  The lake was FULLL!!!!!  And, the spillway was open with water rushing in. So, they are filling it up. But, what happened to the newt sacks? Are the new baby newts ok?  These and more questions were asked. We could not find any answers by looking towards all the places we found them yet, instead what we FINALLY found, were the TURTLES!!! Yes, I have been wanting to take the children to the spots where the turtles go since day one and now that the waters are back, so are the turtles.  In one place, right in the area where we park there were 35 turtles on one log, by Ruby’s count.

We had our story and finished the Spring tale of the Country Bunny who wanted to be an Easter Rabbit, finished our circle, added something new to circle and then finished it up.  What we added new was that each day one child will be the Mallet ringer of the Singing Bowl. When they no longer hear the bell ringing, at all, then THEY are the ones to raise the mallet to let us know circle time is over.   There is ease with this in knowing that each one of them gets a turn.

From there we packed up and made our way to the place that I have been wanting to take them.  As we walked up we wondered if we would be able to go across the spillway the way we did in the past.  Well, it was covered with water and that would have been tricky if indeed we were to go there.  However, we were going to the left and not the right.  So, down a hill we went.  Puma, Austen and Vita went a running down and went one way to where I wanted us to go. Devin followed them and Ruby and I went the other way. WOW, we all wound up at the same place!!!  Yet, as the children went running around the bend the turtles, being so sensitively aware, POPPED right into the water and all we could see of them were their little heads bobbing up and down.
After they explored a little bit we all sat, in a straight line, looking at the water, and ate our lunch.  Sitting like that we could watch the turtles, one by one or two by two, pppuuuullll themselves up onto the log.
One by one as the children finished eating they all just laid back and enjoyed the delight in the warm weather and we laid there taking in the expanse of the sky and the Fisher Kings swooping about.

Then,  all manner of explorations and discoveries began, starting with throwing rocks in the water. Austen found a “surfboard” like the one Puma found last week. Then he, Puma and Vita found big long sticks.  They spent a long time throwing this board across the water and then, with their long sticks trying to get it to their side.  I, at times, began to splash the water in a way that made the board go to the other side.  Actually, they found the long sticks after that and liked that way better.

While the three of them were doing that, Devin was doing something very similar right nearby with his own stick as he was fishing things out of the water.  There was some awareness with regard to proximity of people and where is the best place to thrown rocks.

A little butterfly began flying around the children and one by one it landed on each person’s head!!  What fun that was!!!  However, it you didn’t stand still or move very slowly, it would fly away.

When it was time to go and almost back to the bus it seemed that Vita and Devin were convinced that one stick they had was their very own.  Since no amicable choice could be made for them I chose to put it in a special place on the land so that they could find it and play with it when they returned with their parents. That soothed the upset.  Earlier, as they were walking up the trail, all of them used the stick to go up the hill. They put their legs over it and walked up.  There needed some adjustment due to their different heights.  So, Devin went in the front, then Vita and then Austen. Oh yes, Puma was just climbing up the hill with me.