grey easter day

it's a grey easter evening driving along the southern state parkway back to manhattan, back to the cats, back to an early monday morning guys and dolls load-in for korrina. this morning the sun shone in through the montauk community church's stained glass window scene of the beach at ditch with the hoodoo cliffs in the background. one of the songs we sang this morning was "lord of the dance" which took me back in time to the folk services of my youth, and which took my sister back to the time she visited the canterbury shaker village. the tune, "simple gifts," is by joseph brackett, part of the shaker community in 1848. (aaron copland popularized the melody when he used it for the score of martha graham's ballet appalachian spring). in 1963 english songwriter sydney carter took the tune and put it to new words, and it's this version of "lord of the dance" which is now included in the presbyterian church hymnal. the shakers never danced to "lord of the dance," but they did dance to "simple gifts."

dyeing easter eggs

we used blueberries  raspberries, curry (i had meant to grab the tumeric from home) and onion skins. morgana also wrapped a few in nylon with leaves pressed inside. some we boiled in the dyes, some we just soaked for an hour or more. everyone is at the beach now. i'm resting with a terrible cold. kathy took nana to put flowers on aunt evie's grave, and greg is on the train almost pulling into the station . .

 

tea in amagansett

we visited the amagansett free library yesterday and found lots of great old books. i sat and read in the window seat downstairs in the setting sun while they hunted the shelves. then we had tea at the american chutney company across the street by the gazebo. morgana enjoyed telling us a little about charles and emma darwin. for dinner we made fresh flounder that we had picked up from stuart's fish store.

at ditch

we drove out to montauk thursday, making a few stops along the way . . . (at leske's bakery in bay ridge and king kullen in bridgehampton). yesterday we visited south lake and ditch. the air is cool, the sea deep blue and calm.

spring is here

 it's been 48 degrees in the afternoon and the cats have been staring out at the birds.

morgana has been working on her greek timeline with books, encyclopedias, and the internet.

she made a cake today from a giada recipe that used a packaged cake mix (dr. oetker's) mixed with marscapone and chocolate powder ganache.

everywhere the flowers are beautiful. these are covering the inner lawn of abingdon square park.

visiting eataly on a wednesday

 they waited for a free table while i stayed on line to get the gelato.

 

 pistachio gelato . . 

 

 incredibly creamy gelato . . 

we continued to be amused by everyone attempting to enter the locked door to the left of morgana . . which was pointed out to them by the prior table occupants: a couple eating gelato after shopping.

crow . . or . . bird

next to madison square park at broadway and fifth avenue . . 

why a rose?

why nails . . ? just wondering . .

the costume shop

early this morning, carol and i helped sew feathers onto fans at the guys and dolls costume shop.

 my fingers were very sore afterwards.

 big jule's costume . . love the tie!

 janet has been hunting these clothes down at all the salvation army and thrift stores. she did another run today at housing works in brooklyn.

she has three casts to outfit . . a few performers are sharing a costume, but most have their own since everyone is such a different size.

an outfit for our friend deychen who is playing sarah, who janet says looks good in anything she puts on her which she finds amazing.

long island city

we took the 7 train to long island city today to visit our friends. we had never been before, and it's only twenty minutes away. i believe the structure on the left in the photo above is part of gantry plaza state park, and is an old transfer bridge that was used to load and unload rail car floats.

it's fun coming off the train and being in a totally different neighborhood. long island city is the first stop off the 7 train before it comes out of the tunnel and begins its picturesque journey to sunnyside and flushing. along with the F, it's one of my favorite nyc train rides.

our friends live in one of the big steel and glass apartment buildings (on the old pepsi cola factory site) that have been springing up along the waterfront, where factories and bakeries once predominated. we loved the quiet of the streets and the small houses that dotted the way to the river.

someone's little pooch watched us go by in one of the newer buildings.

we loved seeing out friends, of course, but we also loved seeing their grandmother's sister's spinning wheel which they brought home with them from austria. (robyn, i believe you and reina have a mutual sunnyside connection . . when i find out the name, i'll post it here -- it's angelica, ruby and max's mom).

anika is five and is a whiz at spinning, at least compared to me she is.

setting the bobbin . .

what did i tell you? such confidence only a five year old can have.

they are using yarn they carded themselves with their new drumcarder.

we also had a concert.

on the way home i couldn't resist stopping for a hot chocolate. with the warm weather just around the corner, i felt i had to take advantage of the cold day.

the nourished kitchen meal was delicious. we had peas with mint and cream, roasted turnips with parsley and butter, chicken thighs with onions and garlic. morgana has developed several allergies this past year and a half, and i think i'd like to ease her into a GAPS diet for awhile, to see if she can regain a more healthy digestive tract. this isn't exclusive gaps, but it's a step towards.

ballet performance

the dance space before the concert . . it was at the ailey studios on ninth avenue and 55th street, on the fifth floor.

the concert utilized two studios that are normally divided with a slider. the audience sat in one studio, and the dancers performed in the other. it was wonderful having live musicians: two violinists, a cellist, and pianist.

 

after the performance . . if the choreographer ever puts her piece up on youtube, i'll put in the link.

afterwards, i ran downtown to la mama to see if i could catch my friend kendall's clown show . . she was entirely sold out and sadly i was turned away . . i originally had a ticket for friday, but never made it down after chanda's tech rehearsal. walking back home i couldn't resist a picture of this tree in the above photo . . it's beautiful, isn't it? i haven't figured out yet what it could be, though i feel that the shape of it's branches should tell me . .

i had money in my pocket from not being able to buy a ticket to the show! i passed by patisserie claude and picked up a plum tart . . just couldn't help myself.

palm sunday

i've been meaning to post for awhile now, but haven't had a moment, or have been too tired, to do so. last weekend morgana had three ballet performances, and this weekend chanda has two, so we've been busy with rehearsal, tech and dress. i actually have a bunch of past posts to put up, but have wanted to bring everything up to date at once . . and, thus, nothing has gone up(!) chanda and i went to our local church's procession of the palms this morning. they always begin palm sunday by walking into church ringing bells and handing out palms and singing all glory laud and honor by theodulph of orleans, one of my favorite hymns. now chanda is at an acting class (a make-up since her teacher missed last week), morgana is still at a sleepover, and korrina is still in bed recuperating from her last guys and dolls rehearsal. they're in their final days of rehearsing before tech begins, and it seems that tempers are getting a little short, perhaps. as stage manager, korrina is often the referee between the director and everyone else, and finds herself in the position of peace maker and diplomat extraordinaire. now i need to put together a black bean soup in the crock pot before running off to meet chanda and head uptown for her two o'clock dance call. the soup is a recipe from nourished kitchen, the first i've made from the subscribed meal plans, and i'm looking forward to trying it.