We enjoyed a beautiful, windswept day at Reeds Brook this week.
Caitlin Thurell and Sylan contemplated the location and movement of the giant ice floe since been last week. They noticed the stream crossing would be much more difficult this time. The water was incredibly high, and the rain had melted every bit of ice or dislodged them from the banks and washed them down he river to the sea.
Last week, Birch and Juniper noticed how slippery the ice was in the tiny stream that trickles by our campsite. They had to carefully balance to keep their footing! This week they found a different stream, swollen and quick running and used stepping stones to hop, skip and jump with ease.
Gil, Curtis, Juniper, and Birch were all together down by that little stream. One said “let’s turn this rock over and see if there’s any worms!” and found a tiny beautiful snail shell.
A favorite activity today was jump-stomping in the mud. Caitlin H. asked Mikey to carry a long 2×6 fo camp, and he did it by himself. Then, we placed it as a bridge across the mud pit to our fireplace. He made a perfect bridge for Juniper and Birch, and they ran back and forth along it from one side to the other.
Many kids helped out with the fire today, and many of them are learning the difference between green and dry wood. Caitlin let them try, knowing it would be a challenge given last night’s rain. The first time, the fire didn’t catch. Then, they started over with very fine cedar twigs. They also used a larger cedar branch that Caitlin carved into shavings, because it was dry on the inside. They didn’t even use birch bark! With all that dry cedar, Clover struck the match, and the fire kindled into life quickly.
Levi and Gil spent much time exploring. Birch and Juniper wanted to keep up. The two older ones jumped across a gully stream. Birch and Juniper reached it and looked everywhere. They tried to get around, but there were brambles! Then Gil and Levi showed them a narrow place, so both of them could jump across. 
Gil, Teaghan, and Levi explored a lot, and discovered new areas today. They went up the little stream and into a deep dark cedar forest, where they found banks of clay and a massive spruce root ball big enough to hide behind. They explored the apple woods, with grasses and young oaks and rose and hawthorne.
Teaghan and Clover and Jason and Caitlin T found the long, dangling flowers of alder newly bloomed. No leaves were on them yet, just twigs like in winter except for an abundant ornamentation of green and yellow chains of flowers.
The bird of the day was the cardinal, whose bright red-feathered presence was seen flying and perching right by our campsite.
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