HAS IT REALLY BEEN ALMOST A WEEK SINCE I LAST WROTE?!

... YES IT HAS. THIS OBVIOUSLY WARRANTS CAPS LOCK. HOW COULD I BE SO NEGLECTFUL?!

You know what? Instead of telling you how, I'll illustrate it. With PHOTOGRAPHS! Oh, and I'll also stop typing in all capitals. Probably.






If there's one word that will forever remind me of this tour (other than the givens of, you know, "fruit" and "tree"), it's undoubtedly "mulch." I think I have moved more mulch in the past week and some change than I have in the rest of my life .... combined. Now, that's not to say that I'm not having a fantastic time -- or that there aren't plenty of other elements involved in this fabulous tour -- just that ... I've moved a lot of mulch. A LOT. And collectively, we are munching through mulch like it's our job. Which is great because, erm, I guess it sort of is.

Today provided me with some fantastic children and some phenomenal energy. Despite heavy traffic slowing us in the morning (and a fun little detour when we realized we had taken - whoops! - a wrong turn), we arrived at our destination on time and embarked upon the day with gusto. The school of choice was Will Rogers Elementary in Ventura (quite a drive from LA), and the children in question were incredibly engaged 2nd and 3rd graders. Some of my favorite moments from the day include a girl requesting that we name the tree we were caring for "Running Mustache" (we of course did), making a mulch train with my excited (choo-chooing) children, and teaching the young ones a favorite of mine - the timeless, ever-appropriate banana dance.

"Banana dance?" You say. Don't worry -- I'll teach you next time I see you. Promise.

We're pulling longer days than ever, but I'm enjoying them, and as a crewmember said to me recently, "when you're occupied, you don't have time to be preoccupied." So... there's that. My head is full of trees and compost, fish hydrolosate and mulchmulchmulch. By Saturday, we'll be in the bay, where our program is slightly different, and I'll be switching to performance mode - helping put together the show we'll be presenting to the schools there. The Bay area bit also includes sign making, which I love, so that promises to be a beautiful adventure all of its own.

In short? All is well, and we mulch... er, carry ... on.

'Til next time (it'll be less than a week, I swear!),
Nasiiiiii