A Bear for James

Yes, we went back to Yosemite again this weekend -- this makes three times in three weeks!  This time we visited an area called Wawona where there is an old hotel, a small history museum, and a collection of old cabins and other buildings hauled in from other parts of the park.  I thought that maybe I'd like to take my 4th graders there next year, but it's a bit too far and also simply can't compete with the breathtaking wonder of Yosemite Valley.  However, I really enjoyed poking around the old buildings; peering through wavy-glassed panes of glass into dimly-lit interiors.  I love that kind of stuff.

Bruce has been keeping his eye out for a special teddy bear to get grandbaby James.  Being a bear of sorts himself, Bruce apparently had quite the long mental checklist of qualities that the right bear for James had to possess.  Until yesterday, no bear has been able to meet all of his exacting qualifications.  And then {trumpet fanfare!} he saw a promising prospect in a bin with other bears in the museum gift shop.  While I was over in the book section (pretending not to know him), Bruce thoroughly interviewed the bear.  He must have liked what he heard, because the bear made it to...

... the all-important sandwich test.  The bear passed with flying colors! 

The bear was immediately paid for and we triumphantly set off for an official photo shoot in front of Half Dome.



Mr. Bear Sends Greetings to James

While we were posing the bear on the wall and taking pictures, a tour bus pulled over and a stream of tourists trooped out.  Not one of them gave us more than a passing glance as they filed by.  Either the beauty of the view so completely captivated them that they never even noticed that two adults were taking pictures of a stuffed bear (entirely likely), or else they'd been in California long enough to accept this as business-as-usual for these parts (also entirely likely). 

The bear will be boxed up and shipped off with love to Maryland next week.  We hope you like him, James!

Haiku

Such a week.  Such a week.  Such a week.  I'm still dazed by the rapidity of it -- I hardly sat down.  I hardly slept.  Always running, running, running.  This is such a crazy pace -- such a crazy way to live.  School has been squarely center stage.  I eat my lunch on the run; always moving, moving moving.  I bring my work home with me every night and feel guilty for walking around the pond instead of grading spelling tests.  I also went to the dentist on Wednesday and had my permanent crown put in.  I've been on drugs for pain ever since.  It's been an intense, hectic week.  However...

...I taught my students how to write haiku poetry and introduced them to the great Japanese poet, Basho.  The assignment was to write haiku about impressions of Yosemite.  Today we wrote our final drafts in pen and then painted watercolor illustrations.  As a refresher; haiku are three-line poems of 5, 7 and 5 syllables.  They are usually about nature, invoke a season and an emotion.  Here are some of my 4th graders' poems:

Yosemite Falls
Sound of mom shushing baby
It makes me feel calm.

I hear the trees move
Some people can hear nature
I am one who can.

Trees whisper to me
Over in Yosemite
They speak so softly.

Yosemite cliffs
There are rocks that are huge
Their name is granite.

Black crow as dark as
Black bear on a summer day
But not dark inside.

Like a skyscraper
Watching Yosemite's Valley
These giants are boss!

Glistening in the sun
The fresh snow looks like sugar
Now deer's tracks I seek. 

Ancient silent grass
Quicksilver rabbit running
Whish! Silence again.

How happy I am
The trees are so colorful
a fall wonderland.

Waterfall crashing
On and on the waterfalls
Amazing to me!

I do love the trees
That grow near the river blue
So cold and clear too.

Mounds of leaves from trees
Brown, red, yellow  -- none the same
Winter air is near.


OK, sometimes I'm so incredibly pleased and proud to be a teacher that I could dance across the room with joy.  Some of these poems were written by children who would be pegged as the absolute least poetic candidates on the planet.  And I get to look them in the eye and say, "Oh my goodness, sweetheart, you have the soul of a poet!"  Then I have the supreme pleasure of seeing the look of mixed happiness and confusion on the faces of these young people who had no idea that they had the words and voice to move mountains.  That's pretty cool. 

Full Moon over Frogpond

This evening Bruce and I were surprised by the full moon sailing grandly up through the trees when we took an evening walk around the pond.  It was glorious and huge...but, obviously, not anything near as large as the moon in this picture.  The wonder of Photoshop!  Bruce had fun playing with images of the moon he took that evening by enlarging it and then overlaying it onto a daytime picture of the house and pond.  Wouldn't it be great if the moon rose up one evening and really was this size?  Imagine how bright the night would be. 

Our So-Called Front Yard

This was the view through the front door this weekend.  The ducks have inexplicably taken to lolling around the front step for the greater part of the day.  The two African geese (now named Pyramus and Thisbe) no longer need to be kenneled up and are free to roam about the place.  They go down to the pond (which is where they sleep), but still seem more comfortable hanging out up here by the house.

And then there are the "wild" turkeys.  There are several large bands of them living around us in the dry grass and brush -- hens and their almost-adult broods.  They mince in to stuff themselves at the grain pan we daily fill with cracked corn.  If we come outside when they're there, they'll quickly melt away into the undergrowth -- but not with any sort of panic or great fear.  The ducks, geese and chickens accept them as part of the Frogpond fowl.

The reality is that we don't actually have a front yard:  instead, our door opens up to an expansive bird buffet, with our satisfied diners contentedly relaxing, strolling about (this aids the digestion), and quacking, gobbling and honking amongst themselves.

And that {long-suffering sigh} is as it should be.  It's the Frogpond way.

Field Trip Day

I think that the week has finally caught up to me -- I've come down with a head cold that has me moving in dreamy and congested slow motion.  Yesterday wasn't too bad, but by today I've lost any ambition to do much of anything (that stack of papers that needs correcting is just sort of sitting there).

Here are some more pictures of our field trip to Yosemite, although I can't include any with my students in them.

Bruce went on ahead and took this one of the valley just after the first tunnel.  It's absolute iconic Yosemite...  No matter how many times I've seen this, the view never fails to have me catch my breath.

Shangri-La...

Our bus arrives.

The other 4th grade teacher and myself leaving the gift shop (note the big blue bag that I'm carrying.  I do my bit to jump start our economy)

   We saw these incredibly tame deer in Yosemite Meadow.  They completely ignored us as they grazed by the wooden boardwalk we were on.  This fawn was adorable.

Amazingly,  last week's rain got Yosemite Falls flowing again.  I never expected to see water coming down in October.


Bruce and I intend to go back to another part of the park called Wawona in the next few weeks.  Yosemite is so fantastic -- how is it that we don't come more often???

We're Back!



Made it there and made it back -- whoo!  All went well.  The weather was chilly in the morning, but warmed up and the children were ecstatic to see the dusting of snow alongside the road and on the mountain crests.  A few of the chaperons got a bit lost for a time (note to self: next time actually pass out the stack of  maps), but not too badly.  Deer strolled and squirrels scampered around the students, much to their delight.  The students dutifully brought their Writer's Notebooks and spent time writing journal entries about their impressions. The museum was a hit, as was the Miwok village.  Everyone (including myself) spent money in the gift shop.  Naturally, the mountains stretching up to the sky amazed and awed everyone.  I was pleased that the children were able to name so many of the features and topics we'd studied: Half Dome, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, the Merced River, John Muir, glaciers, and on and on.  And, much to my relief, although a few children turned a little green during the worst of the winding roads, no one threw up.  A good day.

I'll post some of Bruce's pix tomorrow. 

And now it's off to a hot shower and then to bed.  It's been a long day. 

Hi Ho, Hi Ho -- Off to Yosemite!

Today's the day.  In two hours I'll be on a yellow school bus with forty 4th graders, the other teacher, and one very patient bus driver.  We'll be followed by 20 chaperones following in cars.  We're prepared with boxes of snacks (in case the bus breaks down along the way), an assortment of zip-lock plastic bags (in case anyone gets carsick), and maps, directions, park rules, phone numbers, pencils, cameras, lunches, first aid kits, and on and on and on.  We may as well be packed for an expedition to outer space.

And yet, I still don't feel prepared.  Bruce will meet us up there and be the official photographer.  I'm relieved.  In case it isn't apparent (!), I'm just the tiniest bit wound up.

It's supposed to get up to the mid-50's today at Yosemite (last weekend it reached the high 70's!).  Yesterday it snowed a bit, so the children are hoping some of it remains for them today (some have never seen snow).

OK, unless I want to go up to Yosemite in my red bathrobe and fuzzy slippers, I'd best get myself dressed and off to school. 

First Rain

Hallelujah!  We had the first real rain of the season last night.  This is very early for us -- usually we don't see the first rain until after Thanksgiving.  I woke up during the night to the drip-drip-drip of water.  Such a wonderful sound!  I lay in bed and listened and my heart was happy.  This morning the scent of new-washed leaves was glorious and everything glowed now that the many layers of dust had been removed.  Green! 

Bruce was working from home today, so he was able to take pictures of the clouds blooming across the sky.

When I got home the sprinkles were starting up again.  Not surprisingly, our new African geese decided that this was the evening that they would finally trek down to the pond to check it out.  So, in the rain, we had to go down to convince them to come back up to the safety of the dog kennel where they've been living. 

We got them herded up fairly easily. They were dithering on the shore, afraid to actually get into the pond.  They've never actually swum in their lives.  I think that they were relieved to have us come down to bring them back up.

On a sad note, our ancient and beloved rooster, Sir Didimous, died.  I found him dead in the coop last evening.  I believe that he was 12 years old -- ancient for a chicken.  We're going to miss him.  He was always so gentle and protective with his hens.  As Bruce said, it's the end of a dynasty.

Please!!!

When gawking at the splendors of Yosemite last Saturday, I took my eyes away from the mountains for an instant and found this sign to add to my collection:

I'm assuming that quite a few tourists must concientiously dispose of their trash in this large metal box that looks a lot like a bear-proof dumpster.  I would think that if this was a problem, someone might think to put a big sign on it that said something like "ICE!" -- maybe with a discrete graphic of an ice cube for good measure (a lot of the park's visitors speak foreign languages).

Instead, it was obviously up to some long-suffering park employee who'd had it up to here cleaning out picnic leftovers from the ice chute to do something about the situation.  So he or she printed out this plea on their computer and taped it above the opening where the ice comes out.  The three exclamation marks following "Please" speak volumes.  Here's a close-up so you can see the smaller writing underneath.  One senses the implied "you moron" that they longed to add at the end.

Saturday at Yosemite

Yosemite Meadow

This was me all day long; looking, looking, looking.  Up!  Yosemite was, as always, stunningly, serenely, and achingly beautiful.  The weather was perfect -- warm, but with enough of a breeze to keep things fresh and interesting.  It was a Saturday, so there were a lot of people, but it wasn't too bad.  I enjoyed catching snatches of French, German, Swedish and other languages that I couldn't place.  People come from all over the planet to experience this amazing place. 



The Merced River







Yosemite Falls (what's left of them by late summer)



North Dome



We ate our little picnic, visited the museum and then took the shuttle bus up to the end of the valley.

The morning was clear as a bell, but by afternoon the first clouds of the cold front were sailing in.  They moved quickly across the sky, carried forward by very high winds.



By the time we left, puffy clouds were strewn across the sky.  On the the winding road home, the sun had set and they had turned orange, pink and yellow and glowed like stained glass.  This sunset was so stunning that it caused a bit of a traffic hazard.  We had to slow way down because of multiple cars suddenly veering across the oncoming lane of traffic in order to pull over in the turnouts.   People were wandering across and even in the road, oblivious to the traffic as they gazed at the colors streaming across the sky. 





We didn't stop, but this is a quick snap (through a dirty windshield and with a traffic sign in the way) of what caused everyone to take a second look. I was strangely proud to see that so many humans were mesmerized by the beauty of the sky.