A Chicken Party, Plus Trailblazers

Here are some photos from Penelope's 7th birthday party. We initially thought of making party hats for the chickens, but figured they would just fall off. The bibs stayed on better, although the chickens were somewhat confused. I've since come to the conclusion that the only thing harder than putting a bib on a chicken is removing it afterward.

Mrs. Charles:

Henrietta:

Penelope:

After receiving her bib, Dot promptly vanished into the coop. Dash lived up to her name, rushing about as usual. Once birthday snacks were offered, the chickens converged for a feast of mealworms, raisins, and other tasty morsels.

My work week was fun and fast, our enjoyment aided and abetted by much cooler temperatures (including a few drops of rain on Thursday). This was the first of four weeks of our Trailblazers program. The program is a bit more structured than regular summer camp, and focuses more on science and natural history. For the most part, the campers range in age between 8 and 10 years old. We have the same four staff members as last year, which allowed us to quickly slip back into groove. We even had a few of the same campers.

Early in the week, Turkey Vultures were hanging out around camp. That's somewhat unusual.

The rattlesnake that I thought had abandoned the hole on the lower field after shedding was back with a couple of friends. I think I have inadvertently selected the local population for intelligence, removing all of the easily trapped snakes to distant locations so that the only ones remaining nearby are the individuals too wily to be caught. Now, from the looks of it, they're fixing to breed.

As an added bonus, here's a picture of me looking like a lunatic. Honey Badger, one of the mentor counselors for Trailblazers, has been capturing candid pictures of the staff for the last few weeks.

Also, here's an improv session at the pool, featuring drone flute and two staff radios (played by Meerkat and Sniffles) set to "error" mode. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), no recording exists. Summer camp is full of strange little moments like this.

Trailblazers weeks always end with contemplative solo hikes and a chance to reflect. This week, one of the kids, a camper named Jaguar, asked if I'd seen the movie "Inside Out". I replied that I had, and he responded by telling the group that this week helped form a core memory (which won't necessarily make sense to any readers who haven't seen the movie, but since I've seen it, I recognized it as a rather profound compliment). The kids in my group were great, although as always, there were a couple of them who always seemed to be doing the opposite of what they should have been doing. The most vivid example of this was the kid who, when warned about some overhanging poison oak, promptly reached up and grasped it. Actually, two different kids did this on separate days. Sigh.

This coming week, we add LIT (Leaders In Training) to the mix. These are 13-year-olds who will be acting as counselors for Trailblazers while under the tutelage of mentor counselors. Willow will be at camp as a regular summer camper. Next year she'll be an LIT. She's really growing up. This evening, she'll be going to see her favorite band, One Direction, with a friend. I'm happy for her, but I'm glad that someone else is taking her.