singing and songwriting

how lucky am i? let me tell you. i'm still here in the beautiful adirondacks. i'm doing some work today for a client. however, while i sit here and code and work on images i have a view of the lake from my spot in the loft of the lodge. and all the kids are here right now, in their morning program. this weeks program is music, poetry and songwriting. the camp brought in some amazing musicians to teach and i get to listen to their incredible music while i work. it's cool to be me today.

i cant blog... i'm too busy making bracelets.

thunderstorms, power outages, cornrows, painting portraits, joe&forrest, bats, only three more weeks of camp...

so a week ago there was a huge storm here. it started in the afternoon, which was pretty cool. i was in the art shop down on the lake. the view was spectacular. and... the power went out. our camp is pretty remote, and the power didn't come back on till late that night. not too much of an emergency, but no power also means no water for us. our water is pumped up from the lake (and filtered, etc.) so without the power it basically just stays in the lake. we had a couple of cases of bottled water though.

also, it was friday, which is the night the kids have a dance. we had to do that the old fashioned way with flashlights on the disco ball, and a battery powered boom box. i think it added to the fun. it was impressive just how dark it was. it usually is at night, we have some trail lights here and there that dont go out till about 1am, and their absence was noticeable. many nights i notice that the moon reflecting on the lake is far brighter than the trail lights. it lights up camp with a cool glow.

during my last big staff meeting, jon ferguson put cornrows in my hair. he is one of my favorite people here. very sweet guy. he's our youngest counselor but already one of the best! he and i hang out with the kitchen crew together a lot. helping get ready for meals, chatting and snacking on cookie dough. he's also my hero when we get the kiln firing started late in the day. he's always willing to hike down to the art shop at 1 in the morning to turn up the kiln dials, a task which i dread for some reason. he taught me to knit properly last week too. i already knew how to "knit" but had never gotten around to adding "purl" to that. so now i am making a whole new bunch of scarves. and nobody has better hair than fergie.

i've been doing a little bit of painting lately. we have an evening program here called "wish night" where all the campers (and staff if they'd like to) can write down a wish on a piece of paper. the papers are then handed out to other people to grant the wishes. one of our counselors wished for a portrait. i did one pretty quick, spent a few hours sketching, and a few more coloring it with watercolors. it reminded me how much i actually like to paint. i'm rusty, but its still fun.

every week come saturday morning there is a whole lot of crying going on. yes.... saturday is the day that regrettably, some campers must part ways with unirondack. usually it is the campers leaving their camp friends who are doing all the crying. they start well before breakfast, and mope about till the rides arrive. its sad. i have loved a lot of the campers we've had, however yesterday was the first time i really wanted to cry when campers left. that is because yesterday i had to say goodbye to joe and forrest (or jorrest) and jessie. the three of them have kept my art shop (and all of camp) quite lively. joe and forrest are usually about three seconds shy of getting into trouble. they remind me of a child size version of my uncle gary in fact. jessie doesn't usually get into trouble, but it is clear the gears are always turning with that one. he's one to watch for certain. i wish they could have stayed all summer. as it was they were here for multiple sessions, but it just wasn't long enough. :(

i've had a bat in the art shop. i'm not sure if its always the same bat, or if he's bringing his friends to use the pottery wheel. either way, every time a bat is spotted, we have to evacuate the art room. even though there aren't any documented cases of rabid bats int he area, precautions must be taken. did you know that a bat can bite you without you even feeling it? who'd have guessed.

i can hardly believe there are only three weeks of camp left. its seems impossible that the summer has gone so quickly. i love it here. right now, we have high school age campers. they are here for 2 weeks. after that we have one week of family camp. i may stick around to help out with some maintenance at the end of the season.

there are still lots of wonderful things happening in the art shop. we silkscreen, and paint, and play with clay (because EVERYONE loves clay), there's a lot of sewing, we're working on a tile mosiac. lots of jewelry making. yay art!

i'm also noticing a lot of new and different wildlife coming around to hang out. there seems to suddenly be a bunch of orange butterflies about. im not sure if they hatched from cacoons, or flew here, but they're great. i also have been seeing and hearing a flock of geese. they are my art shop neighbors. they sound crazy in the morning, but then again, so do the kids.