Now and Then

Now and then on The Electric Spectacle we will post a picture of a place on camp as it looks now and how it looked then. Enough said really. Here is the first, taken in the Camp Burgess Office yesterday and sometime in the 1960's (we think).

The View 8

Meet Rachel and her panorama of Triangle Pond. We managed to catch Rachel in a rare break from hiring the best Camp Hayward Summer staff since......... well, a long time ago. We don't know what the hat is all aboot. Right now Rachel has just started another semester of the Wellness Program that she runs with Donna, for girls from local schools. Rachel loves to travel and sample the local foods.

Happy National Clam Chowder Day

We don't know who designated National Clam Chowder day, but we're going to jump on that bandwagon. Hey every day is Clam Chowder Day on Cape Cod.
Here is a good recipe that serves 4, if you want to celebrate with us.

Ingredients:
* 3 slices bacon, diced
* 1 cup chopped onion
* 3 cups diced potatoes
* 1 bottle (8 ounces) clam juice
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper
* 14 ounces chopped clams
* 3 tablespoons flour
* 2 cups half-and-half
* 1 cup milk

Preparation:
Cook bacon until crisp in a Dutch oven or large, heavy saucpan. Remove bacon to paper towels with slotted spoon; drain. Add onion to bacon drippings; sauté until softened. Add potatoes and clam juice, salt, and pepper. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Remove from heat. Add minced clams with their liquid. Whisk flour into milk; add to chowder with half-and-half. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until clam chowder thickens and bubbles, or about 3 minutes.

Hayward Cabins Get Some Love

The Hayward cabins have been getting some care and love over the winter. Many of them have a nice new paint job and Maples, Pines and Oaks have some nice new windows. Have a look for yourself.

Web Albums

The link below will take you to the Camp Burgess & Hayward albums on Picasa. We just got the Ski & Snowboard pics up there. Soon we will have permanent links to our web albums in the side bar of the blog.
http://picasaweb.google.com/CampBurgessHayward/TeenSkiTrip2009?feat=directlink

More Ski Trip

Here are more photos from the February vacation Teen Ski and Snowboard Adventure. We run the trip every year, but it fills up fast so contact us in the fall to get a spot. This year 16 teens went to the White Mountains in New Hampshire from Monday to Friday. They packed in three days of powder, two nights of skating and a night of snow tubing. Here are some more photos, but check back tomorrow and we will get the rest onto a Flickr account for your perusal.

Camp Friend

A longtime friend of Camp, Jenn, called in for a chat today. Jenn is making a quick trip to Camp to escape the cold Montreal winter, and of course catch up with Camp friends. She is 32 weeks pregnant as you can see in the photo. She worked here for several years as boating director and an outdoor educator.
If you are anywhere near Spectacle Pond, call in for a chat, we'll take your picture and make you famous.

Actual Ski Trip Photos

Here we go, batch number one of the ski trip photos. The week went well except for some delays driving after they got 10 inches of powder dumped on them. Fortunately they got to reap the benefit of all that fresh stuff on the beautiful White Mountains in New Hampshire. We'll have some better ones up tomorrow, we were having some technical problems with memory cards today, so stay tuned.

A wee break from posting

Hey, just a quick note to let you know that we have not forgotten you. A bunch of us are out of town, and other people are resting up from the teen ski and snowboard trip. We'll get some pictures up on Monday so you can see how the week went. Until then!

Walkabout

Most Friday afternoons in the winter at Camp, we try and get all the staff together to do a project. Sometimes it ends up being things that need doing, like stuffing envelopes or cleaning out basements, but it is more fun doing it as a group. For a change last Friday we went on a walk around Burgess. The idea was mainly just to have a walk, but we also wanted to dream a little and talk about things that we could do to make this amazing place even more beautiful and fun.

Rally!

Gage & Akira lead the charge

I know this looks a little strange, but serious thinking was taking place.

The scary shed in the old orchard.

This saw one too many games of "Sink the Swiss"

Walks around Camp are no joke

Enjoying the winter view from the lodge.

Weekend Work

You might think that in the middle of winter here at Camp we spend our nights and weekends hanging out around a fire, all alone, waiting for people to start coming to Camp. Well you'd be right, except the all alone part. All through the winter we get groups coming down to spend the weekend enjoying Camp and hanging out around the fire. Last week we had a big group from one of the Boston area colleges here. We know that the pictures don't have any people in them (for privacy reasons) so you'll have to take our word on it.

The View 7

Silva has such a nice view of Triangle Pond that he brings his fancy camera to work just to take pictures of it. At the moment Silva is an interview machine and spends most days talking to potential summer staff superstars. Silva loves a game of football (soccer) and is a fan of English team Tottenham Hotspur, who play in London. He's also taking martial arts classes and is a hand-walking champion.

New Do

You may have noticed that "The Electric Spectacle" has a bit of a new "hair do." From now on this page, just like Camp, is going to change with the seasons. The new picture is of the sun setting over Pinkham Island and a frozen Spectacle Pond. Sorry for the messy page while we played around with it.

Crazy Ice

First the disclaimer - It is very dangerous to go out on frozen water unless you are with an adult who knows what they are doing. All of these photos were taken about five feet from the edge of Triangle, Lawrence and Spectacle Ponds where the water is only about a foot deep.

The ponds are starting to melt again, but here are some cool pictures of the crazy natural holes and gaps you could find walking around the ponds last week.

The "Ultimate" View 6

Meet Bruce and the "Ultimate" view at the Burgess office. Bruce enjoys 180 degree vistas (hence the three pictures) taking in the health center, Spectacle Pond, Basketball Court, the Purple Beech Trees and Triangle Pond. He is the custodian of the Bee Hive through the winter months (although they are not doing so well at the moment-more on that later). Bruce is busy right now making sure that a) We don't buy too many basketballs and have more than we have campers, and; b) That as many campers as possible get to enjoy the basketballs we do have. Basically he makes the big decisions, so he needs a nice view to keep him relaxed. Bruce is a great singer, so drag him along to your next campfire.

The View 5

Meet Jesse and his view. He does have a desk, but he's never really there and it does not have a view, so we thought this photo would be better. Jesse has been spending much of his time recently keeping camp clear of snow and enjoying the view while he's plowing. When he is not up all night plowing, he spends his days keeping camp in tip top condition. Jesse is a born and raised Cape Codder. He is a master painter and has a bit of a talent for woodworking.

Fresh Powdah with your Chowdah

Just like our friends in the UK, Camp just got a nice bit of fresh snow in the last day or two. It's a shame that there is no mountain on Cape Cod, because this stuff would be perfect for a bit of downhill fun.
Here is a picture out of the office yesterday mid-storm and one of Rafiki and Nala enjoying the fresh powdah this morning.

The View 4

Meet Carl and his magical view of the Health Center and the trash can. Because of the lack of vista he has had to decorate his view with some art, photos and the "Portrait of the Week". Previous luminaries have included The Queen, Sarah Palin, Barack Obama and this week Tina Fey as Sarah Palin.
Carl is currently busy hiring our Outdoor Education Gurus to work with our school groups and on the summer teen programs.
He is currently taking suggestions for next weeks "Portrait of the Week".

Iceball??

We realize that lots of the posts are a little "Burgess-Centric", so we thought we would get a photo of Hayward up here. Walking through Hayward on Sunday seeing the Basketball Court look like this, had us thinking of some of the awesome creative caps we could do. That's if it were not for things like broken legs, bruised hips and the fact that there is no nurse on camp right now. Some ideas are just best kept as ideas.