sunday bike ride

i made my mom's pancakes for breakfast this morning. it has been awhile since we had them. i think it's really my favorite breakfast to have - just flour, milk and eggs, and then we roll them up with jam (red raspberry this morning), maple syrup and butter . . and also fresh strawberries. greg and i then went for a bike ride . . it was such a beautiful day and i just wanted to feel the breeze by the river. the trees along the bike path form a beautiful canopy lately, and the flowers along the path were so fragrant. the sun was very warm, but the air was cool. we rode all the way down to the battery. there's been construction for the flood mitagation and they have been building up the land with ramps, but some areas have re-opened. 

the fountain by castle clinton (it was a fort from 1808-1811) . .  

the couple sitting next to us on the bench was having their caricature drawn. the woman sitting with the sketch pad on her lap (to the right of greg's face) worked part of the time, and then her partner took her place and finished the drawing. i thought that was interesting.

the water just glistened today (in the distance is the statue of liberty).

then suddenly we were at "the willows." the girls and i would ride our bikes here when homeschooling. we would read and work on whatever knitting project we currently had. sadly, the two willow trees are no longer here. they slowly died off after being inundated with sea water during hurricane sandy. i was glad to see that a lovely birch tree (seen on the right) had been planted in a willow's place.

(here's a 2009 willow visit . . greg is with us here, as it was labor day weekend . . korrina isn't. she was often off at a ballet class or a stage managing gig, a group homeschooling class, or just with her friends, which is probably the case here since it was a holiday.)

looking southwest toward the statue and ellis island.

we next passed a favorite monument - the mother cabrini statue . . 

"maria francesca cabrini, mother frances xavier cabrini, 1850-1917, italian american who dedicated her life to helping children and the needy in new york and around the world."

and then it was time to pick up a citibike for greg and head back home (i had my bike with me).

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morgan called when we returned and sent a photo of the current craft project: a child's size quilt is being sewn with leftover charity shop fabric and liberty fabric (from the wedding napkin favors). i love the jumble of colorful prints.

we watched an episode from the new ted lasso season . . 

(cricket is eyeing my italian cookies that were supposed to be for adam, but since the car broke down we never made it out to the house for him to have any. by the way, the car has been fixed - the mechanic replaced a "sensor" and it is now running very well!)

another day, another tow

 

c'est la vie . . 

september 11

 i alternated between watching the buglisi table of silence dance this morning (streaming from lincoln center), and the reading of the names (streaming from the memorial; read these stories from the gothamist to hear from people remembering their experiences from that time - i found them very moving and wise) before going out to meet deychen at chanda's work (where she's a barista). it was good to see deychen and hear about her august performances this summer in two shakespeare plays in vermont. she's excited because in december a play she worked on in the spring is being produced again at the public theatre. i'll have to go and see it now (greg and chanda were able to go in the spring when it was performing uptown). she'll also be doing some get out the vote work in october. she is also now part of the food coop! (and owes a shift, as does chanda! greg and i were encouraging chanda to call her and sign up for a shift together.)

i walked over to jefferson market with her and then headed east to veniero's to get rainbow and chocolate dipped jam filled cookies to take to adam this weekend. i put some aside for chanda also. she doesn't like the double chocolate mint cookies i made because i put walnuts in them. she and adam are not fans of nuts in cookies, cakes and muffins. morgan made a plum cake sans cinnamon as a facial allergy was acting up. i haven't seen the prune plums yet at my green market. i think i need to be a little more observant this coming week as it's prime time for them and they should be prevalent.

photos morgan sent . . 

looks delicious . . 

and my cookies (we've been playing may i this week and so far i've been in the lead!).

birds, cats and scones

 

morgan and harley were up in the lake district on vacation with harley's mum, brother, sister-in-law and adorable nephew, dougie. they sent this photo of a pretty european robin who let morgan get so close. 

they were at a very pretty cafe that had a lot of sweet birds flitting around (looking for scone crumbs probably!)

the delicious blackcurrant scone!

these photos are actually from wednesday, august 25, when i was traveling to connecticut. this past weekend we spent a quiet time (far from the crowds, as it was the memorial day weekend) at home and on wednesday my italian class began again! it was exciting to be back with everyone and i've made a better effort to remember everyone's name, as they were all knowledgeable in that regard.

here's a photo i took today of zuzu acting like the queen of sheba which i sent to my sister . . 

she sent this of toby who likes to go in and out of their window (her favorite pastime is sleeping in the windowbox) . .

till tomorrow . . 

train ride to new london

 

i took the amtrak train to connecticut to see my sister on wednesday and greg joined us yesterday. i'll post more about it soon. it was a fun train ride and the scenery was particularly beautiful as we grew closer to new london and came along the coast by old saybrook.

leaving penn station . . 

long island sound would be beyond the trees in the distance . . 

crossing the connecticut river . . 

coming into new london . .

pulling into the station . . after deboarding, we had to wait for the train to leave before we could cross the tracks to enter the station house.

the station was . . fancy! 

and even had a nice cafe with a barista in vintage cap and vest . . 

outside was a fountain in the shape of moby's tail . . 

i walked to the side of the building to get a photo of the tracks i had to cross (all passengers waited on the other side of those train track signals). the brick building you see to the right is the ferry terminal for fishers island. the cross sound ferries are out of the picture on the left.

the white cylinders you see are part of the large posts (i think the bottom half) for the wind turbines that have been sunk into the sea by block island.

l

here's one of the large cross sound ferries loading cars for the trip across. i've taken this ferry quite a number of times.

kathy and warren picked me up in front of the train station. it was such a fun trip, and different. it was the first time taking the train to new london for me . . and i was looking forward to visiting with them in connecticut.

i'll write more about days by the lake soon!

cats in the way (and lunch with greg)

 

sometimes it's hard to get any work done . . if zuzu isn't knocking my hand holding the pen, then cricket is continually jumping onto my lap and turning in circles: looking at me and then looking at what i'm trying to do. he can't sit still.

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(greg worked from home today and we went together to have lunch at kawa.)

the rest of the weekend

 

it's late now on monday night . . here's a peek at the rest of the weekend (we arrived late saturday night) . . 

swimming and floating and a picnic at the bay on sunday . . 

diinner at our favorite place, followed by a game of yahtzee and ice cream for dessert . . (adam had an event he was working at) . . 

(korrina was happy to roll a yahtzee)

(chanda was unhappy about not rolling a yahtzee, and greg was happy to roll a yahtzee, but was unable to use it as he had taken a zero in that category . . !)

i love hearing the crickets and nighttime insects . . 

this morning was another day of swimming at the bay . . 

last year around the exact same time in august, i also drew a view of the bay . . i guess i can draw this view over and over and never tire of it!

home again . . (dropping korrina off first)