Week One: Done

Week One of summer camp has receded into memory, although with the help of photos and this blog, I'll remember it a little more accurately than if my brain was left to its own devices.

Nothing surpassed the highlight of Monday's Bobcat sighting, but the week went as planned. One of my counselors was my old neighbor (she moved before I did, but in a strange coincidence, Willow's mom and family moved this week, and they now live around a block away from her). She did a fine job as a counselor. It's great watching kids grow up and take on new challenges.

As I like to do, I took my group up to Lake Ranch Reservoir in the middle of the week. The water level is actually a bit higher than I remember it being this time last year. We found a couple of garter snakes and the usual assortment of coots and ducks. Oh, and some tiny toads. And a skink.

It has been another unusually dry year, and I suppose it's only a matter of time before we stop prefacing the word "dry" with the word "unusual". There was some worry that the dry conditions would increase yellowjacket and rattlesnake encounters, but other than yellowjackets trying to reestablish a nest in the amphitheater area, it was a pretty quiet week on those fronts. I only found two rattlesnakes, which compared to some weeks, hardly registers on my snake radar.

Today, I'm doing a reptile party in Los Altos and Jeanine is making balloon creatures in front of a movie theater (for the opening of Monsters University). We have such hard jobs.