Friday Five: The Big To-Do

Lucky for me that Kathrynzj at RevGalBlogPals posted her Friday Five nice and early, as the weather may at last be a little more cooperative with us Census Bureau canvassers today. Fortunately I got one or two things checked off a to-do list on the rainy days. Anyway, Kathryn says:

"Greetings from the land of the Big To-Do!It seems like every year I enter into the summer with a growing list of HUGE projects/events/trips that seem to have a permanent place on the 'to do' list.This year I have a huge move pending so that takes up an entire list all on its own, but it doesn't take a big event like that for me to make plans bigger than my summer can hold!How about you?Is this the third summer in a row you have made a pledge involving your garage and actually getting a car into it?Did you once again miss the registration deadline for the continuing education event of your dreams ?Are you starting to think you couldn't even find the tents, let alone get it together to pull off a camping trip?Here is your chance to get it out into the open and OWN your Big To-Do! Who knows? Maybe making the list will help you move the Big To-Do to the Big Ta-Da!

1) What home fix-it project is on your Big To-Do?

Inspired by my friend The CEO, who spent part of our beach week choosing a new paint color for the beach house interior, I'd like to paint a room in some color other than white! Probably the dining room/sunroom (they are one and the same) -- it needs it, and also it has less furniture than most of the other rooms so it will be an easier project. I'm thinking a pale yellow.

2) What event (fun or work) is on your Big To-Do?

Finishing our work with the address canvassing for the Census Bureau is certainly on there, and I also have a paid genealogy project to work on. For fun? Onkel Hankie Pants is in two plays this summer, and I'll be attending those; meeting my new twin grandnieces is also on the agenda.

3) What trip is on your Big To-Do?

Even though I do this every year, our annual trip to West Denmark Family Camp in Wisconsin is a big item on my agenda. This year will be extra-special as Cordeliaknits and her partner will be there, Sisterfilms and some friends will be singing and playing one of the evenings, and (great trepidation here), I'm assisting Sisterfilms with the children's crafts on the first day of camp. My major part is to read the stories, she's coming up with the crafts but I will help out during that portion of the two-hour crafts time as well. The photos accompanying this post are from past Family Camps. They illustrate singing, skits, and sitting under the trees -- three of the many fun activities we do, interspersed with morning coffee, noon dinner, afternoon coffee, supper, and evening coffee. There's also folk dancing, talks and discussions, and of course crafts.

4) What do you wish was on someone ELSE's (partner, family member, celebrity, etc...) Big To-Do?

I'm wishing for Cordeliaknits to find a call, preferably in a more progressive state than California -- say Iowa or, even better, one of the New England states.

5) Getting inspired? What may end this summer having moved from the Big To-Do to the Big Ta-da?

Well, #s 2 and 3 will certainly get done. I just remembered a further house project for which summer is a good time: completing the sorting, repairing and shelving of a number of books down in the nice cool basement (and also some in the not-as-cool guest room and library on the second floor -- but then, that room gets nice breezes off the river.)

By request: Vreneli, the lyrics

An anonymous commenter caught up with my Friday Five on Summer Camp from a few weeks ago and wants the words to Vreneli. I, too, was surprised at the non-presence of this song, which I've been singing for 53 years now, on the Internet, as far as lyrics went. Here's the lyric that we sing at Family Camp, to the best of my memory, and it's pretty much the same as I remember from Brownies:

VRENELI

O Vreneli, my pretty one, pray tell me where's your home?
"My home it is in Switzerland, 'tis made of wood and stone,
My home it is in Switzerland, 'tis made of wood and stone."
Chorus: Yo ho ho, tra la la la,
Yo ho ho, tra la la la,
Yo ho ho, tra la la la,
Yo ho ho, tra la la la,
Yo ho ho, tra la la la,
Yo ho ho, tra la la la,
Yo ho ho, tra la la la,
Yo ho ho!
O Vreneli, my pretty one, pray tell me where's your heart?
"O that, kind sir, I gave away, but still I feel it smart,
O that, kind sir, I gave away, but still I feel it smart."
(Chorus)
O Vreneli, my pretty one, pray tell me where's your head?
"My head I also gave away, it's with my heart," she said;
"My head I also gave away, it's with my heart," she said.
(Chorus)

Those are all the verses I know. If anyone has more or very different ones, let me know!

For Your listening pleasure

Here is a video of Sisterfilms singing "Hobo's Lullaby," a cappella at Family Camp. It is preceded by a bit of her philosophy on singing. Don't worry about the odd sight at the beginning of the video, I adjusted my camera quite soon.

Friday Five: Summer Camp

Mother Laura at RevGalBlogPals writes:

We're settling into our new new apartment, and after a lifetime at Montessori Katie is having a fantastic summer at YMCA day camp. Meanwhile, Nicholas is packing up for a week at Camp Julian, shared by the Episcopal dioceses of Los Angeles and San Diego. His lists of supplies and rules--except for the ropes course available to the teenagers and the ban on IPODs and cell phones--bring back memories of my own happy times weeks at Y camp Ta Ta Pochon, funded by selling countless cases of butter toffee peanuts. So, in celebration of summer, please share your own memories and preferences about camp.

1. Did you go to sleep away camp, or day camp, as a child? Wish you could? Or sometimes wish you hadn't?
I only went to Brownie Day Camp, somewhere near Wiesbaden, Germany. It was quite enjoyable. My college roommate's tales of camp with color wars, etc. didn't really make me envious. My childhood summers were deliciously unregimented!

2. How about camping out? Dream vacation, nightmare, or somewhere in between?
Somewhere in between -- I enjoyed it when I was a bit younger. And when we had a pop-up camper it wasn't too bad. I'm getting a little achy for sleeping on the ground. Actually, as I write this, Onkel Hankie Pants and Rusty have gone camping in our woods. I assume they are having a good time as they've been gone two nights, one of which had some rain. It's a nice activity for the boys!

3. Have you ever worked as a camp counselor, or been to a camp for your denomination for either work or pleasure?
Never been a camp counselor. It would definitely not be my thing. However, I've spent many enjoyable weekends at Pilgrim Point, the Minnesota camp of the UCC, at Women's Retreats. (Do not imagine a lot of silence and prayer, though those do occur.) I hope to attend something at Pilgrim Lodge, the Maine UCC camp, sometime soon. (Yes, we are all about the Pilgrims, not so much about the Puritans.)
And, I've just returned from West Denmark Family Camp, which I'll be posting about later today or tomorrow, with pictures and video.

4. Most dramatic memory of camp, or camping out?
One Memorial Day weekend we went to a state park near Grand Rapids, MN, and OHP and I rented a rowboat and went out on the lake. All was well until we were just about at the dock and we capsized. (In fewer than three feet of water.) Unfortunately, I had my camera with me and turned on. (Old school, not digital.) Shortly afterward, as we were drying out at the campsite, the camera started hissing and smoking!! I still don't know why getting the battery wet would cause this; or if it would apply to digital cameras; but be forewarned!

5. What is your favorite camp song or songs? Bonus points if you link to a recording or video.
Here's the first camp song I remember, from the Brownie Day Camp. My leader was Swiss, married to a Norwegian-born US Navy officer. So of course she taught us this song; and we also sing it at WDFamily Camp, out of The World of Song.


The second video is from West Denmark Family Camp 2008. One of the campers had arranged some of our favorite songs for band instruments, and put together a volunteer band. It's a rather odd assortment of instruments, and also, as I was holding the camera, the mic picked up rather more of my voice than I (or you) would prefer, but here it is anyway.

Family Camp

Family Camp was lots of fun. Make your plans now to attend next year, or start your own!
We stayed at Our Urban Cabin (it's in town, but here is the view from the deck -- OK, it's not Photoshopped, but it is a very carefully framed picture:
). And here is a picture of the birch trees in the yard:



My favorite part of family camp is the singing, which we do twice a day for about 45 minutes each time, with a song leader. This year we had one set of song leader/pianist for the first and last days, and one song leader/pianist (she does it all!) for the middle day. Their strengths and general aspect are different, but we had a great time singing with both. I believe they are both cousins of Onkel Hankie Pants, albeit on different sides of his mother's family. I didn't take any pictures at singing, because I was too busy juggling the book and songsheets and just enjoying it. Regular people (who aren't musicians and don't have particularly good voices) don't get to sing enough, in my opinion. Two or three hymns each week at church are about it for most of us, bar singing along with recorded music or in the shower. Onkel Hankie Pants says that in his childhood, a church meeting which in most churches would start with a prayer, began with a song instead. I think that's a great idea (and song is prayer, anyway, at least sometimes.)
My next favorite part is seeing all the children. It was the 31st annual camp, so I'm now seeing the children of people I first knew as children. Since there are lots of Danes there, even most of the brown-haired people seem to have blond children of varying shades, but one young cousin has married a man with slightly darker skin and hair and has two gorgeous little boys who take after him. All the kids, whether they are close cousins who see each other often or completely unrelated, seem to get along well and join in the annual Nisse Hunt with great gusto. (Maybe Sisterknits will tell about the Nisse Hunts, past and present, when her computer gets better).
The organic farmers who "moonlight" as our cooks for the past few years did as great a job as usual, despite a lingering drought which has affected their production and the fact that they were hosting one of the Live Earth concerts at their farm the following weekend!
The three days (plus an opening evening) of Family Camp are just right for me. It's hard to be with people constantly from 8:45 am to 9:30 or 10 at night (plus an hour or so each way with the nearest and dearest) -- at least that's true for this INFP. Now I'm excited about next year's camp. Sisterknits is on the committee, so I know it will be good.

Hot Town, Summer in the City (Friday Five)

This Friday Five courtesy of RevGalBlogPals:



1. Favorite summer food(s) and beverage(s)
Just about anything from a charcoal grill -- which I don't get much of lately because Onkel H has been stonewalling about buying a new grill since we moved.
The food at West Denmark Family Camp, which is often not necessarily summery, but nearly always good (especially in recent years). Especially if we get rødgrød med fløde!

2. Song that "says" summer to you. (Need not be about summer explicitly.)
Songs from the summers of 1966 and 1967 -- Summer in the City by the Lovin' Spoonful, Red Rubber Ball, Bus Stop (Under My Umbrella), The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha, and of course, all of Sgt. Pepper. Oh yeah -- "If you go to San Francisco, Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair!"
And -- my father used to sing "In the Good Old Summertime" to me and I thought it was written especially for me. Here is a picture of us fishing, at Pine Harbor, Georgia, when Daddy was stationed at Camp (now Fort) Stewart.

3. A childhood summer memory
Brownie Day Camp in Wiesbaden, Germany. Our leader, if I recall this correctly, was a Swiss woman married to a Norwegian who was in (I'm assuming) the U.S. Navy. The perfect person from whom to learn "Vreneli". Sit-upons, s'mores, the whole Brownie experience, happening "im Walde". (By the way, I could not find a suitable link for "Vreneli" in the Internet! Not even on Mudcat's Digitrad of folk lyrics! But if you can get hold of a Girl Scout songbook such as The Ditty Bag, or a copy of World of Song, you will see it there.)

4. An adult summer memory
Again it's West Denmark Family Camp, which has been a part of my summers for 30 years now. When the children were small, the freedom of knowing they were playing on the swings or in the sandbox, with numerous relatives and friends around to look out for them if I stepped away. As they grew older, sharing the crafts we made, singing and dancing together, and for some years now enjoying their thoughtful contributions to the discussions. I wish everyone could go to something like this.

5. Describe a wonderful summer day you'd like to have in the near future. (weather, location, activities)
I'll be heading for Minneapolis and West Denmark next Tuesday, so I expect to have some! I'd like to be able to bring some Maine weather along though, as Minneapolis tends to be quite hot and humid this time of year. But the location and activities aren't as important for me as being with my children, other family, and old friends, and I know all those things will happen.

Optional: Does your place of worship do anything differently in the summer? (Fewer services, casual dress, etc.)
Well, the choirs stopped singing two weeks ago, and I think this past Sunday may have been the end of the handbell choir for the summer. There may be some visiting musicians, and I especially enjoy the times when we have a hymnsing with people calling out their favorites (although I'm always too shy!)