Tender Tracks Thurs. Day 54

April 12, 2018
Waning Crescent Moon
Lake Lagunitas

Owen absent

A sweet and explorative day.  When we arrived the children went to put their packs in our sunny spot but alas, another group was there. Avaline, the “scout”, came running back to Ruby and me to let us know and wondering what to do. After setting our stuff temporarily in one other sunny spot, the first group moved on and we moved back to our regular circle time area.

There we had a little circle in which Trilly Truly and Trippy Troppy shared with me a short tale to share about tracking and how to find stories.  We were guided to go look in the woods for 4 cards that had pictures on them of animals we see at the Lakes.  But, there were 5 children!  Four did indeed find the picture cards camouflaged in the woods and the 5th child, Vita, was to become our guide/leader on the adventure of the day to find what the real animals from the pictures.  These were: a Woodpecker, a Turtle, a Turkey Vulture and a Ca. Newt.

“Vita, what direction should we go to find these friends that live here and find some stories?” I asked.  She pointed N, N/W and off we went.  We tracked scat and water and learned about what a stride is via very large footprints.  FYI a stride is the distance in step from one foot the other. Example: you would measure a stride from the heel of one foot, say Left, to the heel of the Right foot.  Puma and Austen really had to stretch to fit into this stride track that we found. Austen stretched so far he fell and then said, “See, this is MY stride.”  I laughed, and he got up.  Vita, without hesitation, said, it’s a man’s track. And, it certainly looked that way.

Each time we got to a crossroads in the path she would look about, look up and then decide which direction.  She took us to a place we went a few weeks or more ago. It is like the dump of the area.  Weeks before there was a huge pile of wood, bikes, and leftover this and that. When we got there it was GONE and all that was left were ashes. Much quiery about how that happened.
They just ran all over the place finding what was and was not there from our last experience.

We looked about for any of the birds and if they were there and then, I heard it, the Woodpeckers! Right where we found them last time, hanging out in a large snag/dead standing tree.   I went over and laid down leaning up against my backpack to look up at them. Ruby came over and did the same.  And then, Vita, Avaline and Devin. They only stayed for a bit. Austen came over with a find, burnt up bicycle parts. Puma came over with some other treasure too.  We looked at these things, we quietly watched the Woodpeckers and imitated their body movements.

Then, off to the wild adventures behind us. They were climbing on this fallen down very large tree and finding grand treasures there too!  We were in a magical land of the Lost and Found, I am pretty sure and then, it was time to go somewhere else.  As we were leaving the Turkey Vultures were above us soaring and then soaring towards Lake Lagunitas. What was THEIR story????? Where were they going?

“Vita, where do we go to find the turtles and newts???” I asked.  “And, everyone is getting hungry.  Will you find a place for us?”  And so, she guided us to a spot she said, “We haven’t been here in a long time.”  She and Avaline went ahead of us. They went right through the big marshy area of open space, I went around because my boots could not keep my feet warm and dry if I went through there.  They, however, were VERY happy to muck right through!! 🙂
They then led us up to our Sunny Spot Magick trough Hill.  The others were quite behind us gathering and exploring. They did find us though as we let out a bird call. Ruby too went around and the others followed the girl’s footsteps. and then, there we were, at one of our favorite spots and they went right to exploring, again.  🙂

They were hungry though and it was getting on in time so, out came the lunches, in went the food and then, “Where are the turtles and newts???” I made them a map and guided them to find the turtles a different way than we had ever gone before with this intention. Vita was ON IT!  She remembered the directions of the map AND, held the map the whole time referring to it often. She guided everyone to the place of THE TURTLES. But wait a minute, where were they???? Ruby came up, peeked around the corner and THERE THEY WERE! well at least three of them.  We all took out our binoculars ( our own two hands) and either used them as binoculars or telescopes.  Have us show you how to do this, and sure enough, there were three turtles.  We then ran down the long path way and looked down to where we had circle and, there was something new there!  A “picnic blanket” with no one on it.  We kept going until we got back to the steps and made our way to where they KNEW! where the newts were.  Devin needed a change of clothes so he and Ruby went to the bus for that and the rest of us explored the Newts and their world.

When back in the bus I told a short story of our adventure because that is what Trilly Truly and TRippy Troopy were hoping that we would find. So, we found stories and unexpected adventures as we allowed ourselves to follow the natural movement and rhythm of the day. I told them a small tale of their day, we gave our thank you’s and off we went home, singing and playing games all the way back.