HAPPY HALLOWEEN, HVC!!! Skeleton here, with your campy update!! Just kidding, it’s me, Hummingbird! I bet you didn’t recognize me in my costume! You know, Stanley the llama and I were chit-chatting this morning on our walk along Tom’s Trail to count how many orange leaves we could find (we lost track after a billion and three). I was feeling sorta blue that we never celebrate Halloween with campers…. how fun would it be if we could all dress up here on camp and eat candy and play wacky games!! But my woolen friend reminded me that we do that stuff every day at camp!! CAMP IS JUST LIKE HALLOWEEN!!! Okay, I know it’s not really Halloween, but Stanley and I have concocted a pretty convincing theory. Hear me out.

Almost every day at camp is an opportunity to dress up in a silly costume. Of course we have the obviously costumed evening programs, like the Play and Musical, but the fun doesn’t end there! Who doesn’t love dressing up as an octopus for the occasional Under the Sea Dance?! Or any themed dance for that matter– octopus at the Old Town Rodeo? Heck yeah! And what we wouldn’t give to wear our regal Medieval Lazy Day costumes out in the real world every day! Lest we forget our plant-tastic Wheel of Misfortune, or our out-of-this-world OTHER Wheel of Misfortune! And of course there’s all the covering ourselves in paint that we do, whether as Oompa Loompas for an evening program, or as dedicated Fair Day fair-goers gettin’ our face paint on! Every day is costume day in the Valley!

And besides the costumes, of course there’s the CANDY! From our Candy Crush candy hunt to Candy Chemistry, to just plain old eatin’ candy in the cabin with pals, camp is hardly a break from the Halloween candy craze! Imagine if Halloween happened at camp, and we only got 10 pounds of candy ONCE a year!!! Heavens forbid!!!

Therefore, CAMP = HALLOWEEN!! Get it??

Stanley really helped me see how camp and Halloween really do go together, even if we can’t go Trick-or-Treating as a cabin. If you’re missing all the summery-costumey fun, or if you need some last minute inspiration, check out pictures of some dress up highlights from this summer!!

Trick or treat**
Hummingbird

**ALWAYS treat!!!

Howdy doody, HVC!! Hummingbird here! The days are getting shorter up here in the Valley and I can feel a chilly breeze ruffling my wee feathers as the winds a’blowin’ from the top of Tipi Hill all the way down to the shores of Ledge Pond and over to the Brumby arenas!

Although we can’t hear the sound of hundreds of children’s laughter these days, the Valley is far from silent! Never a dull moment here, Peter and the Crew are working on several projects around camp! Let’s take a look!

Carmi, Elise, Celie, and Luke the Dog built a new H Dock for the lake, and spent an afternoon installing it together! Luke helped out with some of the ruff work!!!! (hehehehe get it?? Ruff?? He’s a dog!!!)

Meanwhile up at Brumby our crew has been hard at work maintaining the trail and fixing up the road!! I don’t think any of our horsies would say neighhhh to that! (HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!)

Speaking of smelly things we wouldn’t say neigh to, check out what’s going on at the Barn! Our crew is doing the important doodie (I am slapping my birdie knee!) of spiffing up the bathrooms! It’s a little stinky now but we’ll all be thanking the toilet heavens come summertime when 300+ people use those rooms daily!

That’s what’s up here! All of this hard work is set against the backdrop of brilliant Autumn colors! Check out pictures of the beautiful scenery up here these days, golly it sure is idyllic! A bird could fly one lap around this camp and count over 100 different colors…. well… only if a bird had human retinas with adequate cones to interpret all the colors it saw…. alas, a bird can still appreciate the Fall 🙂

Be thankful for your retinas this season!

Humming the tune of Autumn in New England (that’s my version of Autumn in New York by Ella Fitzgerald, but it’s all about MAINE!!),
Hummingbird 🙂

Ps: tune in for a special Halloweeny blog post in a few weeks!

Boo!

Did I scare ya?? 🙂

 

Greetings, friends! Hummingbird here, and boy oh boy has it been a while since we last spoke! Since the summer came to a close, things have been quite a bit quieter in the Valley. The temperature has begun its gradual dip into that crisp fall feel, the leaves are slowly yellowing as they rustle in the breeze, and camp road is untrafficked during the day save for the occasional llama walk. Quite the contrast to our bustling summer!

But for a few folks, summer continued on juuuuuuust a bit longer into the fall with our Alumni Reunion at the end of September! Former campers, counselors, program directors, and their relatives descended on the Valley singing camp songs and practicing their swimming strokes for a weekend of the Princess Pat, Chris and Lillian’s cooking, and (of course) llamas!!

Participants enjoyed a contra dance Friday night followed by a Saturday full of classes that included the Ropes Course, yoga/meditation, swimming at the lake (FUNNER!!), basketball, arts and crafts, and glass beads! And in the afternoon, THERE WAS A MINI FAIR DAY!! Saturday evening after the LOBSTER BANQUET, folks gathered at the base of Tipi Hill to walk together in a reflective silence up to the Pinegrove, where friends of all generations shared stories and songs from camp through the years! Some songs have withstood the test of time, like the Princess Pat and Ayo Bo Diddly Bop, while others still hadn’t graced Pinegrove’s ears in decades! From 70s-era counselors to this very summer’s campers, there were songs for everyone, and a fire to keep us warm well into the night!

After a beautiful morning of more swimming and ropes on Sunday, folks gathered for another flawless Chris and Lillian meal and reluctantly drove back up Camp Road and into the real world…. Parting from the Valley is SUCH sweet sorrow!

I suppose we must admit now that summer really is over 🙁 although if I close my birdie eyes and think hard, I can still feel the glow of that Pinegrove fire on my feathers! I’ll carry it with me as autumn continues to ~fall~ (hehehe get it??)

Keep checking back here for more updates throughout the off season, and enjoy pictures below of the beautiful reunion weekend!

I’m off to the lake…. Stanley the llama dared me to dip my wings in the cold, cold water!

Brrrr,
Hummingbird