blooming and painting

morgana painted a card for her friend sami. greg is driving them to howard beach this evening for sami's 16th birthday party at an italian restaurant on the water.

in the park

 central park is getting very green.

in the courtyard

chugging along . .

 the dances are growing . . little by little . . 

the happiness spot

 

 life is good when you can find the happiness spot.

cards and concerts

 my artist cards. morgana made them both. i love her use of lace. i've been looking for a picture frame to put them up in the bathroom, along with the ones morgana chose.

i wasn't told who made this one! i think it was a joint effort between camille, yves and francesca. 

today we took the m14a bus with our friend camille to the lower east side for a paul taylor youth company concert. our friend amelia was in it. they worked on a paul taylor piece called excerpts from air. they were really good, and i always enjoy paul taylor's choreography. we also saw the martha graham youth company perform marches made in 1934. they performed it well and the piece was interesting and moving to watch. (we walked home and had chicken and pork buns in chinatown and then ran into the happiness spot!)

saturday afternoon workshop

my friend hosted an artist trading card workshop.

i decided to go because i knew morgana would enjoy it. i thought it would be nice to talk with friends, but i did not expect to enjoy making the cards . . but i did! now i can't wait until the next workshop.

our friend has a massive assortment of plain paper, textured paper, magazine cut-outs, and stamps!

look at all those stamps . . and supposedly this pile is only a fraction of what she has. 

my friend's story about the cards is that there was an artist in switzerland who liked to have friends get together to make 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 art cards. the only rule was the size. they would then trade them. oh . . i think there is more to the story she told but i have forgotten the details. i think it's interesting how international they have become.

we were busy for several hours.

afterwards, and before trading them, we had sushi together, and a salad.

this was one of my favorite cards. when it came time to trade, i held back and let others pick first. i came to regret that. i love the cards i came away with (morgana made two of them), but i think i could have been a bit more feisty to get the one above.

the bottom right card was made by morgana, and is in addition to the two i took home. yes. she made quite a lot of cards. i see this is not a bad thing, as you can then pick the same amount from the assortment to take home with you.

my three cards.

another two i really liked.

many of us were very prolific and made seven to ten cards!

taking pictures . . 

making comments . . 

decisions, decisions . . 

luckily, we were all able to negotiate and share and there weren't any fist fights.

fantasia at lincoln center

 we were at lincoln center at 11 am today for another new york philharmonic rehearsal. this time it was for fantasia. the orchestra played several pieces while an animated story was displayed on a large screen. when they played firebird, i forgot all about the animation and watched the orchestra. they played so beautifully. it was very moving for me. philip mann conducted, and he turned out to be friends with our friends olga and sven. the children went backstage to meet him afterwards.

 a school group waiting to leave . . 

on the way back home . . morgana misses her fencing class for these morning concerts, and then returns for a quick lunch and three hours of work in the HB office.

guitar recital

 chanda picked cherry blossoms to grace our table . . 

and morgana had a guitar recital this evening . .

grumpy! and a studio rehearsal

 grumpy! coffee! (from around the corner on 19th street).

it was another morning studio rehearsal.

 morgana hands off an apple and an orange to her friend amelia in amelia's solo dance.

after working with amelia, morgana and chanda worked on their solos . .

and morgana practiced her walkover which she is including in her piece.

cherry blossoms and "le grand c"

 the cherry blossoms are out, making bank street a beautiful place.

 we had a field trip today to the new vic theatre on 42nd street. today we saw le grand c, performed by company XY founded in 2005 by abdel senhadji and mahmoud louertani to exhibit acrobatic ensemble work that "reflects the personalities and creativity of each performer." they didn't disappoint. it was truly a remarkable show. they began in the dark in silence which created an interesting meditation with the audience. the children in the theatre were five to seven year olds, and their exclamations served as music to the different acrobatic pieces. when they did have music, it was so enchanting that i felt like i was in a magical dream.



many of the shows at the new vic are loud and obnoxious in their spectacle, le grand c was joyful without shocking my senses, and profound in it's sensitivity. we loved it. morgana said she had never seen a company work so well together. it was like being in one of her acting classes, and that was special for her.

the weather was so beautiful that we walked home.

and i made a sour dough bread!!!

beginning the week . .

it was still cool this morning . . we didn't want to get out of bed, and i even put on the heat!!! maybe that's why we had cinnamon toast and soft boiled eggs for breakfast. it felt comforting.

morgana is still working on that greek timeline . . chanda is working on vedic math.

all of a sudden there is an abundance of bleeding hearts in the courtyard garden.

and the red tulips are up and almost ready to open.

roof garden

my friend janet has been working in her garden on the roof of her house.

she has two beautiful apple trees, and one plum tree.

with such a cold winter, her kale and collards are delicious this spring!

ummm . . a blackberry bush . . i think!

studying the plum blossoms . . 

other people's roof gardens intrigue me . . wouldn't it be fun to hop from roof to roof and explore? i remember pool hopping in my suburban neighborhood when i was a teenager on sleepy humid summer days . .