My family is spending the summer on Long Island with my in-laws. More so than the extra space, a pool, and close proximity to the beach, we are looking forward to our organic garden! The goal is to grow all, or at least a good amount of, our own herbs and vegetables. Lofty ambitions? Perhaps. But my husband, Tin, and my in-laws, Predrag and Andrea, are avid gardeners and really seem to know what they're doing. Tin gets most all of our seeds from rareseeds.com, a fantastic website specializing in heirloom seeds. Rareseeds also provides helpful tips for the novice gardener, which I find quite handy, as I have not gardened much, aside from the obscure rosemary plant. Oh, and how is little Lukas taking to gardening? Let's just say he's a natural:
We took our daughters skiing this
March break for the first time. Our friends the Wallisons had invited us
to their house in Snowmass, Colorado. Maud, who is four, was
going to do ski school. Philomena, who is two,
was still too young. In the week before leaving, we looked through old photos
of Daddy Claude in his first ski outfit, an example of pure 1970s French chic,
“made in Paris”
as the label says, by V-de-V. Helmet, goggles, buck teeth, big smile. Our
daughter Maud looks quite a lot like her daddy – more so with a helmet and
goggles on – and he couldn’t wait to see her in her gear.
I wasn’t sure how Maud would learn to ski, but I was certain it was
possible. In my day I have been knocked about by enough three-foot
critters in helmets snowplowing their way down the fall line like avenging
angels to know that very little children can indeed learn to ski. The ski
school/adventure zone at Snowmass, called the Treehouse,
had been heartily recommended to us. They would take care of everything, we
were told.
Word up. Day one, we got there, we registered, they outfitted Maud with skis
and boots (our kind neighbors the Baumanns lent us a helmet), and we booked
four days of ski school. We asked was the money refundable if, say, Maud hated
skiing? “Oh, yes,” said the lady at the desk. “We’re very flexible. You have to
be when you’re dealing with three and four year olds.” She told us they would
refund unused days, and that if we wanted to take Maud out at lunchtime, they
would refund the rest of the day. Day two, she started ski school. They taught
her how to slide her skis about, and in half an hour, they moved her up the Magic Carpet. By mid-morning, she was skiing.
I can’t say it was cheap. It was, I think $140/day including the rental and the
lift ticket, as well as instruction from 9:00
a.m.-3:00 p.m. Not cheap, but boy, was it effective! There were four students
to a teacher, and those teachers were so nice, I really mean so nice, that all
of the potential downers of skiing – fear, discomfort, separation
anxiety – evaporated. I saw one of Maud’s teachers, Robin, skiing with a
little boy in her arms for half an hour. The poor chap had fallen asleep,
exhausted after the day’s activities, and this awesome teacher held him like a
mama gorilla, while still leading her posse back to camp.
In the attached video you see Maud on her fourth day of ski school. Daddy is
proud. The video was taken by our dear friend Melissa, and it is she who shouts
out “Go Maud!” Go Maud, and go Treehouse at Snowmass!
