Great week Jan 3-6, and Night Hike reports from some students

Jan 3-6 was a great week. We didn't hear any owls, but we did hear Red Tail make some owl calls during the night hike.

Here are some student quotes:

"Cool air prickling my skin as I slowly put one foot in front of the other, which made a leaf-crunching sound.... Trees that were surrounding me looked as if they were encouraging me to go farther and farther.... An occasional bird tweet seemed like a song with notes softly prancing in the air. The moon's bright light was only partly blocked out by the trees, [accompanying] me the whole long way through the calm, alive forest...." - Tree Frog (Guadalupe School)

"I was scared at first, for this was my first night hike, but soon I wanted to go on another hike just like this.... We also learned about the moon phases. I learned a lot of things in only ONE night. This experience changed my life." - River (Guadalupe School)

who also shares this picture:

And another student:

"... we stopped at an open spot on the trail ad we had a 'Thank-you' circle.  Red Tail taught us about moon phases, solar eclipses, and lunar eclipses.... We looked at the stars and we found Cassiopeia and we used it to find the North star or Polaris.... I learned what fractoluminescence means [light emitted from the breaking of a crystal]."  - Squirrel (Guadalupe School)

Finally we have a nice picture from another student:

- Gray Squirrel (Guadalupe School)

Thanks for being your wonderful selves, kids! Keep being amazing in every way! Let me know all the things you're doing to help each other and the world.

-Red Tail.

Creek Hike

A field class hiked up Todd Creek.  It's still pretty dry up here this year - not much rain yet. 

Wow, a family of raccoons!

These raccoons were hanging out beside the road at our Cupertino site.  My entire hiking group got to see them on the first afternoon at Walden West!

Here's a video of the same:

The Bounty of the Walden West Garden

I picked all this stuff from the Walden West garden today!  (Not the bread, though!)  It's pretty amazing to think we could almost live on this stuff... ok, well almost.

Clockwise from lower left:  Strawberries, figs, (some unknown green and purple leaf), chard (the leafy vegetable with red stalk), (arrugula?), Asian pears, apples, pomegranates, eggplant, and lemon cucumbers (round and yellow, center).

PS- Happy Mole Day!  (10/23, as in 6.022x10^23)

Cool piece of wood with moss and lichen

The moss is dark green, and right now it looks like little leaves that are rolled up tight.  The lichen is more of a gray-green color, near the moss.  Moss is a plant, and lichen is (usually) part fungus and part algae (algae is basically a plant).  The fungus and the algae share resources together: the fungus makes the structure, while the algae does photosynthesis and shares glucose with the fungus.  What a brilliant arrangement!

Night Hike Drawing by student "Mountain Lion"

I really love this drawing, so I asked Mountain Lion for permission to share it with you. Thanks for a great week, kids!

Night Hike poem by Lavender

Silent trees sway in the night
Owls hoot calling prey
Rhodopsin comes as rods start to help
Red Tail's head glistens away *
Heavy feet like stones thunder down
Small newts slowly move toward rocks and bushes
The moon shines on smooth rocks
Panda yawns behind and keeps up his strength
Snow in front and Butterfly behind me
I stuff my frosty hands into my pockets and take a nice, deep breath.
We stomp back to camp yawning and tired, still thinking about the colorful wintermints.

* [Editor's Note: Red Tail's head often disappears during this hike, and the moon reflecting off of his hair combined with the disappearance creates the effect of "glistening away."]