Cello Camp thoughts

The Toronto Music Garden



There are lots of music camps available to kids and a smaller number for adults. I have taught at, been the director of and/or attended so many in my life that I have entirely lost count. In my old city, for some years now, I have been running an in-house "Cello Camp" for my (kid) students only, and some years for their siblings, as well, at the farmhouse, in a semi rural setting, of one long time student family.
I don't really miss it now that I have moved. The last few years were quite chaotic, mostly due to the extremely unstructured nature of the family hosting the camp. The kids had a GREAT time, but it was really getting to be way too much for me physically and emotionally as well, oddly. For some years it was a real ...high...almost for me. But it gradually became less so. Beware going into therapy on a long term basis- it really does change your life: what once seemed fun, a sort of manic high in fact, meaning the unstructured, boundary-less-ness of it all, in the end killed my enjoyment of it. And, I never made any money doing it- the numbers were too small and since I never cut corners with the quality of the music part of the program, it was very very expensive to mount. All in all I was glad when I knew it was my last year.
Now, in the new city, for some mysterious demographic reason, I am teaching quite a few adult students (as well as kids) and quite liking it. So, I decided to have a camp for them! The overhead costs will be almost nil - no craft supplies to buy or lifeguards to hire and there should be no discipline issues, either! Or over-involved parents! And I don't need to hire a second teacher!
So! We will have private lessons, plus a two hour group class each day and COOL extra curricular activities: The Toronto Music Garden as a field trip-- designed by Yo Yo Ma (have a look at http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/noflash/visarts/musicgarden.php ; sailing on Lake Ontario- one student has a 30 something foot sailboat; busking cello fiddle tunes on the town pier; and a closing BBQ and swim at another student's place. Planning will be minimal and I will actually make some money. AND have some adult-ey fun-not that I don't adore "my kids" as in students, but this is a change. The adults are so appreciative and work so hard.
I will still be teaching a week at the local large music camp, too, just in case life gets too easy. But I don't have to plan or run that one: just turn up and teach. All in all, it looks like a nice July, since I have the other two weeks off.
So tonight I spent about eight hours designing a brochure, which is totally superfluous as seven people are already signed up. But it is fun to play on the computer like that, This is the only way I can learn anything on the computer: by trial and error and trying this and that. And the brochure looks pretty good. I wish I had a colour photocopier..........NO NO stop her.......
It was a fun, absorbing evening's activity. The only trouble is, it is, erm, 5:08 AM and I am still wide awake. Luckily tomorrow is Saturday. I see naps in my immediate future..........Now I am thinking about a camp t- shirt..........LOL
TIME FOR BED!

Back from the trip...

It was very tiring to cram six months of contact into four days with a cross country trip on either end as well. I went straight into teaching the very next day. Another time I should leave a buffer day. I was SO TIRED after four lessons that I felt sicker and sicker and then I went upstairs and abruptly threw up -QUITE unusual for me- so I cancelled the rest of that day. It is 5 days now and I am feeling more myself. We had a dress rehearsal and two symphony concerts on the week-end though so it is not a time of year that one can relax.

The children are so lovely- I am so sad to keep leaving them- they love it when we come but we aren't a part of these little lives in any real, lasting way, I fear.
This needs more thought than I am giving it here. I miss then so viscerally that it makes me weep.......

Camera Phobic Daisy

Poor Daisy! She is our second dog-we have had Frankie since May 1997, when he was about four months old. When we decided to move from our old city- where John still works-he commutes twice a week and stays over there two nights, working here at home one day-anyway, we had the naive idea that if we had two dogs, one would stay in the new place with me and the other would commute with him. Well, of course, they both stay here-even Frankie, the ultimate zen dog would find the commuting life stressful. He is 9 plus years old as well.
Anyway, on January 15 2005, we drove to Detroit and adopted Daisy -we found her on line on Pet-finder. She was advertised as a lab/chow cross, very good with all other dogs but they didn't know how she would be with cats or children.
She lay absolutely still for the hours-long drive home in the car, came into the house and kissed one of the cats on the nose (!)- the two cats are very dog savvy-and that was that- they, all four of them, cats Sophie and Kokor, and the dogs, all pal around, sleep together, groom each other- it is the peaceable kingdom, really.
And, Daisy is GREAT with little kids- she likes to come into the studio and get petted and fussed over by the students and the siblings waiting for them- rolls on her back, kisses them , the whole thing. So THAT is ok.
But dogs? (Other dogs besides Frankie, that is, who she adores?) Well, she tolerates Pippa, our second daughter's dog fairly well, despite the fact that once Pippa bit her when Daisy wanted to check out Pippa's empty food bowl. And Hudson, the lab, who we often meet in the little park in front of our house....
But she HATES all other dogs-we think that perhaps now that she finally has her own pack-she was a stray on the cold Detroit streets, remember-that she feels that she MUST defend us. We have had a lot of trouble with this- the two vet bills that we paid for the schnauzer up the way, even though that dog was illegally off leash both times, the (high) cost of an animal behaviorist who was a total waste of money- not his fault, really. Daisy is her own self, and despite all his suggestions, continues to act like, well, Daisy. So in the end, we have all adjusted to the situation- Daisy stays on leash ALL the time except at the off leash dog park, which is huge , in a conservation area with miles of trails and open fields and woods. But there she wears a muzzle.

One thing we have not made any progress with though, is her unbelievably strong phobia about cameras. The sight of one , the click of the shutter- the flash of course- and she heads for the farthest point in the house. When we go to her she is shaking like a leaf- all over, the way some dogs act in thunderstorms-herself included, but the camera is worse. Yesterday I wanted to take some pics of the house to take on our up-coming trip. When, clicking away, I reached the farthest bathroom, there she was. Guiltily, I took her picture- we have so few of her due to the camera phobia-put away the camera and gave her many treats and lots of love etc- it took many minutes for her to settle down, still.


Here she is, in the bathtub. This may be one of the only pictures we ever get of her!

Going to Seattle, Hooray!

Malia, Kai, and the Zamboni, October, 2005, in CA






Thursday the 13th of April, 2006, we leave for Seattle to visit "the kids" and grandbabies until Tuesday the 18th. I am getting so excited! I last saw the kids in mid October- Malia was not yet walking or speaking much. Now she runs around and the other day (she is 17 months) she said "Dat boy all done wing!" when the kid on the next swing slid down and ran off. She has this Oh! So! Cute! little raspy voice to go with her big blue eyes and goldy-red curly hair.

Gramma here has been on a mad shopping spree- a pirate mega blox set for Kai, a crown and pink feather boa and magic wand for the dress-up box; lots of little plastic animals for Malia, bubbles, cute china plates-real ones, not doll sized- with loooong-eared bunnies that say "I'm all ears"; eggcups to match.....big velour daisies..plastic chicks that lay candy eggs...tiny stuffed bunnies two inches high...a little stuffed dog dressed in bunny ears and bunny feet and a cat with a ducky hat and ducky feet ....

Too much candy truth to tell, BUT! a dozen Kinder eggs for the deprived Americans! Jenn's favourite Laura Secord chocolate bars (6) and one of those huge decadent cream eggs with a "yolk" in the middle...peeps...chocolate rabbits and carrots...

Jenn asked me to get her some warm slippers and flannelette PJ bottoms for around the house; she is chilly and her feet are freezing in the Seattle rainy season after all those years in California. I gave her 1 pair of pj's at Christmas and she basically wears them all week, washes them and goes on wearing them. I went a bit overboard here- it was end of season clearance on this kind of this stuff so she should be cozy for years to come. I bought one pair of slippers and then another day I saw some I liked better so now she has two pair and, I think, 7 PJ bottoms, (heh!)

Mentioning the trip to various cello Moms produced a big bag of 18 month to 2-T sized hand-me-down-girl clothes for Malia that are gorgeous. And a 12-18 month bathing suit which was proving impossible to track down. This time we are staying at a hotel, 10 minutes from their house, near the Space Needle ,which Kai is longing to go to. We hope to do the harbour boat tour as well and the aquarium, and Pike's Market and the original Starbucks! We are booked at a hotel with an indoor pool so that is a fun way that we can spend some relaxed hanging out time with the kids, as we all like to swim. I am also doing the whole Easter bunny basket thing since we will be there on Easter Day. I have had such fun putting it together! One vital item in seventeen-month-old little girl Malia's basket is her very own Zamboni.....

One time last spring, when the kids were still in Davis (California), where they were for 5 and a half years, Jenn read Kai a book about a Zamboni and he got all obsessed for awhile and really wanted one. Try buying a matchbox Zamboni in the summer in California...or in Canada, it turned out, strangely. So I looked around for months it seemed and in the fall I finally found one at Zellers. This was sent in the mail and then when I was there a while later, Kai and I made a hockey game on the linoleum floor and "cleaned" the ice a lot. This was several months ago now. Well, even though the kids have a MILLION toys, a lot of them wooden, and Waldorf and all kinds of age appropriate stuff for both of them , Malia has decided emphatically that one toy that she REALLY NEEDS to play with is this $2.98 Zamboni (whenever Kai is playing with it, of course!)so all is sometimes Zamboni strife and tears and so Grandma must be a Grandma and get Malia her OWN Zamboni. Grandma, however, now can't remember where she ended up getting the vital item, having looked so many places at the time, but after devoting a ridiculous amount of time musing on this, I DID go to the right place and bought 3 (THREE) Zambonis, which were all they had left. Apparently, one never knows when one might need a Zamboni in this life !