Arts, Environment and the Child: Walking the Wheel of the Seasons

week 2

1/21/06

week 2

1/21/06

Seminar II bldg

week 3

1/25/06

Cold and a bit wet, we got out tools, Heather brought a ton!, and we weeded a lot of dandelion and ranunculus. We had some young kids join us (whose parent's were in a class in the Longhouse). That worked out pretty well. We could see where directives were definitely needed - like the tools are for the plants and the ground, not hammering rocks. More and more people showed up to garden or get the lay of the land. Ben and I shared the garden with them and what we thought we would like to see happen next. Heather agreed to make a to-do list and send it out via email.

At last it was the day of the Lunar New Year Celebration! The morning was more academic. We (the AEC class) lead a lively seminar with other folks - thirteen groups in all.

The afternoon was filled with delights for all the senses -singing poetry, dancing, karate, calligraphy, more dancing, music. I wouldn't have missed it for the world - and oh yes, I personally enjoyed the jewellry and silks we could purchase. I applaud all the work and skill that went into yet another wonderful celebration

Heather, Joe and I worked at the Longhouse garden today. Mainly to get plants out of the way to be able to see the sidewalk again. The fallen leaves were too heavy in amongst the ferns, so we swept those out, trimmed and pruned way-ward branches, dead fronds and then got really cold. We talked with Zim, who was there cleaning up paths with her charming daughter. We came up with some substantial, do-able projects for the garden next time someone comes to work there.....Joe was able to saw/dig up a large branch that had fallen in the way of the wetlands.

But here's what we see needing to be done next:

1. Clean up more of the debris that has collected down in the wetlands, including big pieces of wood that are obstructing.

2.Dig up &/or transplant a small cedar that has sprung up in the middle of the wetland.

3. Really want to get rid of some of the Alders, even though they may just come back again and again.

4. Make a platform at a right angle in the wetlands to serve as a bridge and a place of contemplation.

5. The Colt'sfoot has spread like fire and should be removed while it is young and tender - to maintain original site of where we want Colt'sfoot.

6..Go down entire stream bed and cut back all the dead grass. New shoots are emerging and would look sooooo much nicer with a cleaning up.

7. Area by Willow still wants a bridge, not everyone agrees on this one though......

8. Find out about the crates along the west side of the Longhouse, can this be cleaned up, cleared away?

9. That compost area!!! Actually Zim says two sides are ready to use and could be put out. Then we need to rebuild the current compost pile - thereby doing the necessary turning in order to move it over a bit. We could just use 4x4's and have chicken wire, making two piles, one for adding and turning, and one for cooling the good stuff.

10. When the weather dries out we need to get the burn pile burned!

There are tons more things to do, but 10 is quite enough to list for now................

A lot of this is what Heather and I discussed at dinner together. That and the library archive work to be done - photo album, box of cd's, the plant monographs that both Marja and Zim told me about.

My first activity was to choose four kids to act out a story I read to them first. just choosing the four kids caused anxiety in the group, felt uncomfortable with that after I did it - I thought intially it would make little or no difference to the little tikes, since I had no previous experience with choosing 4 out of six. It became apparent quickly when I chose the first 4 in front of me. These darling little children had to have a promise of future plans and a special hug from me to cement the promise. As a mother, I want to cater to all the wants- why couldn't I have 6 kids instead of 4?

Well we got beyond all that after many hugs and promises to do something at a later time. It was fascinating to see the different personalities come to the fore when it was time to pick characters - who was going to play who. For the most part it was all quite fine till one, no two girls thought they should be the littlest billy goat gruff. We worked it out quite diplomatically, the two girls got to be the baby billy goat gruff at the same time.

Later that morning we had an interesting 'discipline' issue.............

There is a young man named Jack, who is 6 years old and seems to have a lot and I do mean a lot of difficulties with boundaries. I happen to know this boy since he was born and have seen the lack of boundaries at times with him. So his classroom behavior was no surprise to me. What was a surprise to me was Wendy's reaction to a very physical, combatical episode in the class room. She had Jack sit in her chair in the front of the class and listen to what the kids (her carefully instructed directions) tell them what they felt when "Jack did this or that" It was a real eye opener. He had difficulty at first just giving the straight feedback of "what he heard". But eventually it seemed to flow. I think the rest of the class felt really empowered by this. Wendy assured him that he does all kinds of things really well and she totally loves him, so she was not referring to those things. But to the negative behavior and what could the kids do and she herself to help avoid the varied problems.................

Seemed like a positive way to handle very undesirable behavior, but it makes me wonder, how did Jack feel????

What an absolutely gorgeous day. I think this may have been one of my all time favorite field trips! The weather was beautiful for walking around the park (I took my older brother with me) and shooting photos. Then to go inside the museum. A bit of heaven that. If I had been by myself, I think I would have spent even more time there. The atmosphere alone was enough to soothe the savage beast. Or in my case to uplift my ever sad spirits.

The gift shop was enticingly placed just before the opening to the gallery. Beautiful books, calligraphy tools, art, etc., etc.

Then as I walked in the gallery I was washed over with a feeling of ancient peace and exquisite beauty. I soaked up each and every piece of art. There were different techniques I wanted to know more about. The placards did tell alot. I learned about colophons - which I think Hirsh was trying to get at when we had our painting class this last week where we would write a line of something, then others would add to it. Having had the lecture on the art and calligraphy beforehand was wonderful. To be able to see for myself the entire painting of the Orchid Pavilion Gathering was mesmerizing.

I took in each and every brush stroke and awed at the simplicity and complexity of each painting and the stories that went along with them.

We snuck a few non-flash photos, I must admit. But I was so entranced with how many simple forms were used together to make one tree - I long to use such simplicity to create something of such magnificence. The thing about paintings of other cultures though, is you have to live the culture, you can't just look at it and mimic it. It doesn't have the same feeling at all.

Dean (my brother) and I wondered together why some paintings were so brown and hard to distinguish. I attributed it to style and of course age. But we had to admit our favorites were on lighter backgrounds. And some silks were lovlier than others.

The calligraphy on the paintings & on fans lead us into a long discussion about how many mistakes might have been made before the final art was produced.

It does look flawless and like it flowed out of the artist's hand with no effort or mistake at all. I told him about the piece we looked at in class that had been copied and re-copied WITH the mistakes in it.

I went through quickly a second time just to really let the feeling sink in. Took a few notes in my journal. Then I had to buy a few postcards, a book on Chinese calligraphy called Fragrance of the Past, and a pretty box with calligraphy on it - it was a pillow.

The paintings were usually of a simple subject matter, a simple life, but always peaceful. Did not see a lot of poverty and peasantry that is often associated with chinese and Japanese culture. I love to compare the two diverse cultures through more than paintings and calligraphy. Old movies, stories, fables, novels and non-fiction offer us so much to the insights of such different, ancient cultures.

This seems to be the place I spend most of my time now. I worked on uploading photos and scanning drawings and then trying to get them to the web page. The words would go over, after some effort, but the pictures still are not there.....................

Am going to Computer Center at school to meet with Beth Stinson, who has helped a fellow classmate with the same problem and has invited me to come and get help walking through it..........

I have been fighting a computer virus for the last two days,it is so stressful. Also, all photo work for the Winter Garden project, that was there after hours of hard bumps in the road. Now the photos are gone from the Dreamweaver software AND the web.