A play, a wedding, Frogs and toads. crafts and games and costumes galore.
It’s week nine in the woods and creativity is peaking. Raven camp started this week and Hilary and JJ organized a camp full of creativity culminating in a play for the whole camp. The Forest Explorers had a wedding, Forest Archers were creeping around the woods in between practicing archery and Color Foragers created beautiful dyed fabric from different forest materials. These are just some of the highlights from the week.
The play, created by Ravens camp, involved the interaction of many mystical and animal forces in the forest. The play opened describing the conflict between these various groups. The witch was fighting the pirate. The fox and the panther were battling. Mystical creatures such as the fairies and a unicorn were watching this conflict with great concern. Finally, JJ the werewolf arrived in the forest and all the creatures forgot their conflicts and listened exclusively to the werewolf. JJ led the creatures and mysticals in dancing and merry making. All conflict in the forest faded away and all the creatures got along again. All the mysticals breathed a sigh of relief and when death arrived, there was no work to be done.
JJ gives campers the mark of the Raven so they can go on a scouting mission. Photo: Ben Bookout
A camper uses the coal burning method to begin to create his spoon in Advanced Wildcrafting. Photo: Ben Bookout
Forest Explorers made best friends with a grand old red oak named Alfredo. One camper in particular felt very strongly toward this tree and they decided to get married. The wedding was announced through the camp and other camps arrived bearing gifts for the couple. The ceremony carried a beautiful message about how humans can love nature and how we can connect with trees in a special way. Afterward there was a dance party and the camp played Alfredo says, as the tree directed the camp in having fun.
The Forest Archers were a difficult camp to catch up to because they were always camouflaged in the woods. Once in a while I would see them creeping close to other camps testing their abilities of stealth in the forest. They also became a bush. This tarp cover was used to resemble a bush. The group would slowly creep into other camps and swallow other campers into this bush. Most impressive was the amount of camouflage the group wore. They became almost imperceptible in the woods.
Color Foragers created the most beautiful fabrics from goldenrod flowers, hickory bark and leaves. The group started with the goldenrod and gathered a good amount of the flowers which they boiled for a couple hours. They created a brilliant yellow dye and they created many pieces of yellow fabric, wool and yarn. Then the group moved to creating red with hickory bark. They followed the same method of gathering and boiling the bark. The result was a soft hue of red and again many pieces were dyed and hung to dry. Finally, the group used the same method to make green. They created a cloth with all three colors as an example. After all the fabrics had been dyed, each camper proceeded to make things with the materials. Small bags, embroidery and stuffed animals were just some of the creations being made in camp on the last day.
Some other activities in camp this week included Future Primitive going to the cliffs and hunting crawdads and creating toad hotels. Forest Village played in the creek and used vegetable peelers to whittle and carve sticks. Advanced wildcrafting made spoons using the coal burning method. They also made baskets from pine bark. Growing Wild heard special songs and stories from the staff and got to play with a Ukulele. Another big highlight was the discovery of a snake eating a frog. There was a lot of concern for the frog and campers got to see how difficult it is for a snake to swallow a frog.
Forest Archers prepare for another scouting mission by applying their camoflauge. Photo: Ben Bookout
A camper shows off his embroidery project in Color Foragers camp. Photo: Ben Bookout
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