movies and lab reports and dance rehearsal

morgana has been wanting to watch harry potter and the goblet of fire, so that's what we did this morning, while chanda sat in their room and listened to the sorcerer's stone. jack was happy. he loves watching movies. well, i guess he really just likes hanging out with us. he's not difficult to please.

korrina worked on her lab report today. i don't know what this one was about. all i know is that it called for boiling some red cabbage.

jack worked hard chewing on his bone. it's quite tiring. he had to take a rest.

morgana worked on her group dance for ellen's class. she's been having trouble remembering her friend's choreography (they never get time to work on it in class), so her friend taped it and emailed it.

morgana was able to play it along with the music ellen had sent, and work on it in the small space by the computer.

for dinner this evening i felt like having ricotta cheese, so i mixed it with some swiss chard i had, melted butter and peas.

grey days

i felt really tired today. chanda and i stayed home and watched harry potter and the sorcerer's stone, while

greg and morgana went out to a dance recital for m's friend amelia.

i made a giada recipe, penne with almond sauce.

home again

we're back from our visit east. we had beautiful weather . . sunny days, snowy days, stormy days . . .

friday storm day

it's a beautiful stormy day today. the wind is wild outside and the trees are waving every which way. we were supposed to drive home today, but it was so rainy we decided we would leave early tomorrow morning instead. morgana was supposed to be back for her dance class with ellen robbins', but ellen canceled it. so there is no reason to rush. chanda has repertory and orchestra at third street tomorrow morning, so we'll get up at five and leave at six. what to do today? play games with nana. first up was parcheesi, then dominoes, and then cards. nonno joined us after dinner for a round of "may i."

we also drove out to the beach . . hotel beach. the surf was like a pot of boiling water.

thursday dinner and nana's hassock

after dinner, nonno regaled us with stories from his navy days and his childhood (like how he went into the "know how to swim" line when joining the navy, but he had never swum a stroke in his life . . and then had to jump off a 10 foot diving board!!)

we had the most delicious codfish for dinner, and with nana's special mustard sauce too . . it was so good. it's usually our good friday dinner, but i guess nana felt like having it tonight too!

nana said she had a whole bunch of things in her hassock that she thought we might like (she's been cleaning out drawers and closets and . . hassocks!) yeah, nana! the junk from your hassock is now in my apartment!!! junk? well, i feel very justified in calling it that . . some of these items from nana's hassock have been around since i was a child!!!! like the gauzy material that was used to wrap up the candied almonds from my sister's wedding!!!! (i was fourteen at the time). you can see it on the bed below morgana's left hand. it is now in a bag in my apartment! morgana and chanda felt so sure they can use it for something! ay yi yi!!! will i bring it out when m and c have children and say, here sweeties, i'm sure you can make a pretty veil for one of your dollies with this pretty gauze from my sister's wedding (and then i'll cackle very squeakily hee hee hee).

thursday outing

today we drove to one of our favorite libraries: the amagansett free library. they used to be housed in the tiniest building, and finally raised enough money to rebuild a year or two ago. now they have two floors and a very cozy children's section. (i don't know where they got the bear from, but it's great!) we spent a few hours and found a nice old book by noel streatfeild called the magic summer. it was a very exciting find. we had never heard of this one. we like finding libraries that still have the old editions. we were sad not to find a book at the montauk library called i skate by margaret faulkner. we take it out and read it every winter. the librarian had pulled it to sell at their book fair. boo hoo. francine at amagansett has found it for us at one of the long island branches and will hold it until we return to the east end. she's so sweet.

we visited the bird sanctuary in east hampton. so many ducks making such a ruckus!! and then these three geese came out of the bushes with their necks outstretched and honking vociferously and making right towards us as we sat on the benches getting ready to sketch the duck mayhem. i ran away! back into the car! geese can be scary sometimes! of course they just wanted food. people like to feed them. a little girl with her mom and grandmom drove up and gave them bread, but i still stayed in the car and sketched from a safe distance!

these are the three geese that acted so belligerently towards us. the two on the right are chinese geese, and the one on the left is an embden. we were laughing so hard because we felt like the embden was imitating the chinese and trying to be one of them. we were also laughing because it was just so funny to be running from these seemingly crazed creatures who were honking and stalking us.

morgana and chanda, after seeing the little girl feed the geese, turned into brave souls and ventured from the metal chariot to throw a handful of crumbs down (we had just bought a loaf of bread from waldbaums . . at least it was whole grain!). chanda did it so quickly i couldn't get a picture . . you had to keep throwing the bread to keep them away from you!

and this is my american bittersweet vine in the winter. you can see it in the fall here. the bush grows in a small beach turnout, just before town, on the old montauk highway.

wednesday dessert

we made chocolate chip cookies on monday, and we've been enjoying them since. kathy and warren took a bag with them for the ferry ride, and nana has been happy to have them with her tea each day.

morgana and i like to have them with a glass of milk.

jack and nana

our favorite yarn store

it was nice to see nora again. nora is the owner of our favorite yarn store. she'll be having a "new opening" party on march 19th which we hope we can attend . . but i have a feeling there will be some necessary rehearsals that will be difficult to miss. chanda bought three skeins of charcoal heather lamb's pride superwash in worsted for a sweater that she would like to make. i bought two skeins of rowan kidsilk haze for a shawl i plan to knit for the duncan fundraiser that is supposed to happen in april. korrina bought a skein of varigated yarn that she plans to use for a shawl. it was a fun visit!

ice on south lake

aunt kathy and uncle warren left for home this morning. after saying good-bye we drove to south lake to see what there was to see!

it was beautiful, with a layer of ice on the water that rippled with the gentle lake waves.

i suppose she's trying to skate here, but she could be dancing . .

i love the winter colors.

they were excited to be able to walk on the ice around the reeds. usually they have to take the boat to this part of the lake (last picture on this link) . .

sun pictures on wednesday

today was another beautiful sunny day. m and c decided to make a few sun pictures.

they chose jack's favorite spot to sit with their pictures . . (jack moves around the house from sun spot to sun spot. . )

they went outside and collected pinecones, pine branches, arborvitae branches, and sea grass. the paper turns a lovely deep blue. we'll have to find a some nice frames . .

la belle stelle

la bella luna . . at around 8 am the morning after our star gazing.
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we read a little from the chapter about constellations in our book discover nature in winter, and we read a lot from h. a. rey's book find the constellations. the latter is very direct and simple and really helped us find orion's belt, the pleiades, the twins castor and pollux, the big dipper and the great bear, the little dipper and polaris, cassiopeia . . and sirius! i think sirius was somehow our favorite star. maybe because it was so bright, and it's the dog star. i guess we can relate to big dogs. it was exciting to look up and pick out the shining pictures and think of the stories behind them . . i miss the stars in the city . . and i'm a little amused and dismayed that i've never really "seen" the constellations in all my life until now. yes, i've been to the planetarium . . but it isn't the same as looking up at the sky at night! and i have looked at the sky at night (after all, i have been on plenty of camp outs!), but i just never made the connection. i feel a little like helen keller when she finally felt the running water over her hands and connected it with the word, water. it was that way for me when i finally looked up at the twinkling lights and connected orion, sirius, castor, pollux . . sometimes it really takes learning with children to open one's eyes . .

checking out the surfers

after saying good-bye to korrina at the station, we met kathy and warren at ditch to see the surfers.

kathy had her binonculars with her that she had gotten years ago from a small catalog company that i once worked for . . just around the corner on west 11th street. i think they're still the best, and i would like to get a pair!

the surfers wore wet suits from top to toe. it was cold out there!

we also had a nice walk along the cliff . . everything was so pretty with a layer of white . .

chanda had fun running along all the paths . .

when we got home we played a few rounds of dominoes . .

we also had lunch and tea . .

taking korrina to the train

we went to the station again today . .

korrina took the train home. she has a knitting class to teach tomorrow morning.

we always miss her when she goes . . but i don't think she misses us quite as much! which is good . .

monday evening

kathy and warren arrived in the evening. we had more spinach ziti and apple pie, and biscotti.

and played the piano . .

monday afternoon

after traipsing through the snow, chanda settled down with her sisters to read.

jack thought he'd get some exercise, and chew on his bone. meanwhile, greg packed. he returned earlier to get back to the salt mines on tuesday . .

and then it was time to make lunch . .

we had nana's split pea soup . .

and took greg to the station.

we also took a walk along the beach in the snow . .

and then warmed up with hot chocolate and tea at naturally good . . montauk's health food store.