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."]

She Crosses the Water and Thunder Spirit

I told this story to my group today for the first time. This is where I learned it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2Wny29iybw

I highly recommend the full length movie Dreamkeeper. It contains many great Native American myths, and the encompassing modern story in the movie is about living a life of integrity and compassion.

Enjoy!
Red Tail.

The Night Hike was the Coolest Thing Ever!

In the night hike, I heard a mourning dove and saw many star constellations. Red Tail showed us how to find north. One way is to find Cassiopeia, then look at its middle 3 stars, those stars point toward Polaris, the north star. Another way is to find the Big Dipper. It points toward Polaris too!

Red Tail also told us about rods and cones. Hawks have cones which makes them see color. Owls have rods that make their vision into night vision. Rods have rhodopsin, and cones see color. Another thing was that Red Tail gave us these crystals that glow when you break them with your molar teeth.

That was the best hike ever. Oh, and in the night hike we saw a meteorite. Red Tail told us that the meteors falling were pushing against the air making friction. That's why meteors never made it to land, they burn out in the atmosphere!

By Tempest