sunday morning with chanda

chanda and i had a quiet morning before everyone came home from their visits . . . the weather has been beautiful, sunny and warm. hmm. i like the sunny part . . but i wouldn't mind a bit more typical winter weather.

we had eggs and toast this morning, and a yummy key lime cheesecake tart from magnolia bakery. when morgana got home she said the interview at sturbridge went very well and she's incredibly excited about the program. she'll know later on in the week if she was accepted. in the afternoon i went out to a yoga class at integral yoga. getting myself there is always difficult for me . . but of course it is so worth it. i went last sunday, also. it's a great class, and i always walk out feeling like a new person.

string stravaganza

chanda was up at 7 am getting ready for third street's string stravaganza. the usual de rigueur for this event is black and white, with a splash of red.

the string stravaganza is held twice a year, in january and june, at st. mark's church in the bowery, new york city's second oldest church. it's beautiful inside, and i always love being here for the string stravaganzas.

when chanda first started performing in these events, korrina always had a saturday morning dance class and couldn't attend. today i asked if she would come along, since morgana and greg were on their way to sturbridge (my usual companions) and her dance class is now friday evenings.

usually chanda is hidden by fellow students. today she was hidden by a music stand.

hmmmm, maybe she should look just a tad more interested in what her fellow students are playing?

six years ago chanda was this little and stood in the twinkler line. they are just too cute!

third street has been a wonderful musical community for us, and i always find the string stravaganzas very moving. i can't believe that chanda has progressed to that last row on the stage. it means she will soon begin classes for the philharmonia prep orchestra, and will no longer be a part of the stravaganzas. her final stravaganza will be in june. we will still have friends playing here, though. olivia is the very tall young lady all the way in the back to the left with her curly red hair tied up in a high pony tail. her teacher this year had them play mozart's "tabletop duet." i have a short excerpt of it on a movie. korrina took the time before the concert started to show me how to use my movie camera. however, i have (so far) been unsuccessful at uploading it onto the blog. how beneficial it would be if i read some instruction booklets! well, something to look forward to.

afterwards, chanda went to sinfonia orchestra practice and korrina joined me to listen after we picked up coffee from the open pantry on second avenue, one of my favorite mom and pop coffee/deli stores.

jason and the golden fleece and korrina cooks dinner

morgana worked in her main lesson book this morning.

she wanted to include the argonautica by apollonious rhodius in it's original greek. however, that is difficult to find on the internet. this is from r. c. seaton's translation (and i believe he changed the greek also).

just a little bit of sisterly love?

my dad sent an article about the tuskegee airmen, whose story has now been made into a movie called red tails, produced by george lucas.

in the afternoon chanda and i went downtown for her ballet class. the sun was glinting gold off of the buildings in midtown. chanda allowed me one shot (she did not want to be late and we were cutting it close) . . much room for improvement here! i still haven't watched my "how to" cannon rebet t3 movie . . sad.

when we returned home, morgana was in the shower and korrina was busy in the kitchen.

she made fusilli with fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella.

everyone said it was delicious, but i think i enjoyed it the most . .

colds and achiness and sore throats

last night i went to bed with a terrible cold and achiness. i was a little better this morning . . but now morgana has a sore throat and is not feeling very well. we normally go ice skating on friday mornings, but morgana will have to stay home. she has an interview in sturbridge village saturday afternoon for their summer intern program. she and greg are supposed to drive up saturday morning. they'll go right to sturbridge and then stay with my sister for saturday night.

it was a grey, rainy day, and morgana broke three dishes! (i think this breaking of pottery and glass is catching!) she and chanda worked on math and latin and italian. after having soup, morgana went to ballet, but came right home rather than going to chorus. (sigh) she probably shouldn't have gone because she felt worse when she got home . . , while she was gone, and before her own chorus class, chanda practiced the song she's doing with her repertory group for the string stravaganza at third street music school saturday morning.

last night they sang along with an italian tape from the library. they were remembering some of the italian songs their teacher marta taught them several years ago.

one of them is about an elephant swinging on a spider web:

un elefante si dondolava
sopra il filo di una ragnatela
e ritenendo la cosa interessante
andò a chiamare un altro elefante.

due elefanti si dondolavano
sopra il filo di una ragnatela
e ritenendo la cosa interessante
andarono a chiamare un altro elefante . .

in english:

an elephant stood on the web of a spider.
she felt it was strong, it couldn't be tighter.
along came her friend. She called to invite her.
two elephants stood on the web of a spider.

two elephants stood on the web of a spider.
they felt it was strong, it couldn't be tighter.
along came their friend. They called to invite her.
three elephants stood on the web of a spider.

three elephants...
etc....

the avenue of trees

back in august (we knitted while waiting for hurricane irene) and september, morgana, chanda, janet and i were busy knitting squares for robyn love's project in south korea called the avenue of trees. she recently made a wonderful movie about it and you can find it on her blog here.

tuesday night while greg shops

greg went grocery shopping this evening at the food coop. korrina got ready for her acting class (she made this hat from blue sky alpaca bulky that she got for christmas one year), and chanda finished up her work which she didn't do while i was at the salad party (ahem).

she also worked on her pointe exercises. i have no idea if this was a special exercise she was doing, or just some step she was fooling with because she does things like that. (i sometimes worry about this because you're supposed to be so careful with pointe shoes, but her feet seem to be made of rubber). jack is vacuuming the floor which is superfluous since i keep it incredibly clean, because if he eats the smallest crumb he gets the runs.

after finally getting most of the groceries away, jack was all excited and couldn't stop "talking." of course i shut him up with a biscuit. funny how he does that. he's got me trained quite well.

a salad party

my friend, carol, thought it would be nice to get together to share salad recipes. we met this afternoon at janet's. all the lovely dishes you see on the table were made by janet, and they showcased the different salads beautifully.

janet made a kale salad with almonds and sesame seeds and a vinaigrette dressing (apple cider vinegar, sesame oil, olive oil and braggs aminos). the salad on the right is my baby spinach salad with clementines and toasted walnuts and a honey mustard balsamic vinegar dressing (with an olive oil base). carol put together two salads. one was sliced raw beets with a dollop of creme fraiche and a drizzle of walnut oil. the other was raw zucchini spirals with avocado slices and grapefruit segments and a vinegar and olive oil dressing.

carol also made a dessert! she dehydrated coconut and almonds with some dates and a little maple syrup. ohhhh. they were good.

it was a nice afternoon . . quiet and peaceful. carol's daughter is now 13, my youngest is 12, and janet's youngest is 8. though i feel certain worries have intensified, overall, life is a bit more quiescent than when they were all little.

monday morning read

i bought this book many years ago in spring valley. it's stamped on the inside front cover with "green meadow waldorf school." it must have been in their library. it has sat on our bookshelf for quite a number of years! i finally pulled it off the other day. this morning we sat in bed to read and couldn't put it down. what a fun book! during the beginning of world war ii, children in northern norway attempt to transfer gold bullion from their sleds to a waiting ship docked in the fjord which would take the gold out of the country. the author weaves an exciting tale of adventure while showing some of the frightening aspects of war, and how one can rise to the occasion to be brave while recognizing that the enemy is just as human as one's self. we read longer than we should have . . and had to hurry over some other chores, but it was a great morning.

for dinner i managed to put together pasta e fagioli con cavolo (pasta and beans with kale). i finished it before chanda and i left for her dance class, and picked up a whole wheat italian bread from food emporium to go with it. right now i have a sour dough bread rising. the warmer weather is good only for making my bread rise! otherwise, i'd be happier with colder weather. i find the up and down temperatures a bit disconcerting. right now i have a bit of a cold, so i should go and get some sleep.

making blueberry crumble

chanda likes to cook from the redwall cookbook she borrowed from the library. this morning she made blueberry crumble for tonight's dessert. she used frozen blueberries, rolled oats, walnuts and brown sugar.

she also made a custard sauce to go over it. this was a little more difficult, and we consulted a few youtube movies for support! we had never made a custard sauce before.

we decided to add a little cornstarch to help thicken it up!

ready for the oven . .

i also added a little arrowroot to the blueberries. since they were thawed from a frozen package, they were incredibly soupy in the pie plate. hmmm . . i may have added a little too much arrowroot . . but it was still delicious . .

. . especially with the custard sauce.

we also had chicken, butternut squash, potatoes and arugula salad.

saturday snow day

it was a cold night, and we woke to a beautiful white world. i love snow days. chanda and i go out to third street on saturday mornings, so we dressed warm today. unbelievably, this was the first day we pulled out our snow boots. well, i guess we needed them in october for the freak snow storm we had then, but we hadn't used them since. unusual for this time of year.

we were the first ones out into the courtyard this morning.

i dropped chanda off at acting class after third street music school. i came home to a chess game between morgana and greg.

it was just a cozy afternoon.

at 3 pm the girls went with their friends camille and deychen to see hugo . . for the fourth time? but it was camille's and deychen's first time seeing the movie. they went with the free passes we received when we saw tintin. the projector had trouble that day, and they gave us free passes to compensate.

what's for dinner? another giada recipe! giada's carbonara with fresh asparagus, basil and a fried egg on top (and an arugula salad with lemon juice and sea salt).