So Long Water Maple, It Was Good To Know You

 It seems everyone but me was caught by Covid. Here we are, thank the Lord, on the other side.  

Last year, when we were all stranded at home, I called the tree guy because I was worried about the big maple in my yard. I wonder how old she is.  I had already had her trimmed a long time back when Hurricane Ike and then a winter ice storm did some damage. 

 Anyway, the tree guy came and trimmed a couple of branches and told me she was fine.  I was glad. I imagine she's shaded this ol' house for over a hundred years.  She's been decorated, picnicked and storied under and made our porch the place to be when the heat elsewhere was overwhelming. 

We had a pop-up storm Thursday evening. I had already been out just to check on what was happening and it wasn't much, so went on back to bed.  Before I fell asleep I heard a big whomp.  I thought, "Surely that wasn't a tree."  I mean when you lose a whole tree in one fell swoop, the crack is loud and clear.  Still, I knew it was something. Back out and there she lay, across the yard and several flower beds. 

  So, I am a tree hugger and while I am all kinds of grateful to the Good Lord that it  missed the house and  my new AC unit by a hair, I still hated to see her go. So as we slowly started packing her off today, I shed a few tears. Drummer Boy came to help. It is so hot, and Handy Man is still in recovery from the virus, so it will take a few days. I also picked a lot of lichen to use to make dye. Lots of her will go right back into the ground round and about. 

Life after School

 Well, I've done a few things beside get back into the groove of teaching this month.

I headed across the river with Annabelle and Emmeline, for their first Shakespeare in the Park experience. It was fun and they enjoyed it.  A few yummy munchies and some sparkling juice. 

School's beginning is really more exhausting each year. That might be because kids seems to have a harder time attending each and every year I teach. I was blessed with a fabulous instructional assistant this year, for part of M- Th. What a great help!  She's Mom to some of my favorite former students.

So, with her able to cover for me, I did something I've never, ever done before. I took a day and a half off to meet Rae and family at  Lake Michigan.  It started off on a difficult foot when my too oldest gramerlings had a run in with a horsefly and then a tree.  I hurried home to fix and grab a couple of things they enjoyed and had to check things out before I could feel good about leaving. Thankfully, minimal damage done to them. So off we went. 

It was so very beachy, but instead of collecting shells, we collected all kind of cool rocks. Our cabin was straight down a sand dune, 90 steps. 

Fortunately, there was much wild stuff to look at going up and down, including these adorable sunshine face mushrooms.

We went to a local botanical garden. It had the best children's garden with this cute playhouse.  When we walked around back, Michael noticed a bee hive entrance, so around they went and in and found a bee observatory. So cool. 

This burdock was kind of fascinating.  It looked so prickly, but it wasn't sharp, but did stick to you like velcro. 

We then ventured down the road to a neat educational center, where the boys could observe the work of beavers.

Ahhh, I'll take this classroom please. 

 They had a special program there sponsored by Brown Faces for Green Spaces. The Izzak Walton Foundation (never heard of it), have volunteers who go around and give kids the opportunity to experience archery, water conservation education, etc.  Everyone enjoyed the lesson. 

As I need to tell no one, this Covid thing is enough to drive one mad. I returned on Monday to a classroom of snotty, coughing kids and returned home Monday evening with a husband with the same symptoms. Rae and family striken the same.   Though we've been vaccinated, I started all my root medicine, just in case. Being as I was completely surrounded, I've been expecting symptoms at any time. Just headachy so far, which could be caused by a host of things. 

I continue to enjoy the garden and sharing bouquets.

Back to the Marker Board

 The first three days down of third grade.  This is the biggest class I've had since this guy was in my room. He's off to college for his sophomore year.

I have the blessing of a wonderful instructional assistant for a time, four days a week.  The kidlets are sugar smacks, but there are 22 of them and only one of me, so before closing time rolls around, I am whupped. I hope to start walking in the mornings next week, as it ain't happening after school.  Making a trip around the garden with a hose is about the best I can do in the evenings.

I took an online class for art teachers this summer.  My friend Gardener E, who has helped with art for so many years, has been out of the classroom due to Covid.  I had hoped she could return this year, and it might be that she can, but right now there is an uptick in cases of the Delta variant and the news for us changes everyday. Another dear friend has clay on offer, so hopefully we'll be able to get to that this year. 

Thank the Lord, I can still keep the desks together.  There is no where to put 22 desks spread apart in this room 

So, back to art. One of the projects was gathering various materials to create "wishing sticks."  This artist, Meri Cherry, used embroidery hoops.  That would have been a little pricey, so I cut cardboard boxes into various size boards.  I sat out a set of warm acrylics and another of cool colors.  I asked my assistant to talk about what is meant by one third.  Then they chose three colors and painted their board.  Next, we went for a walk outside to find sturdy sticks, no bigger than our finger.  This "one third" and "as big as"  are still challenging concepts in third grade.   Next we picked a yarn to weave on our board.  Another biggie in third grade is tying various knots.  I do a lot of projects like weaving, sewing, knitting and now wish stick making that requires knot tying.  I told the kids that we would all have to get this skill down, because if not, we'd never get very far with 22 of them and only one of me.  Some already knew how to tie the thread to their stick, others got it fairly quickly, while a few struggled. In the end, everyone was tying knots and feeling proud of themselves. 

Whilst I had my big girl gramerlings, after camp, I had them go through all my charms, beads and buttons and organize them.  Along with feathers, wooden sticks, and crosses, the kids had a lot of choice about their wish sticks. 

In addition, I noticed a new book on the library page, about a fiber artist, Judith Scott called Unbound.

Oh my word, what a sweet, heartbreaking story.  I also read Wishes, about a refugee family. 

So, they were off, creating their sticks and wishes. 

I learn so much just observing during this type of process art.  If you look in my door, it might appear to be playing, but to me, it is a chance to watch how they work, think and solve problems- very telling. 

So after that hard work, we ended the day in our favorite place, the creek!