the rest of friday

chanda worked on her math today before running off to ballet class . .

and korrina came by for her package from her yarn swap and we sat on stools in the kitchen and ate sopressata and provolone and like the walrus and the carpenter we talked of many things, "of shoes and ships and sealing-wax, of cabbages and kings, and why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings."

toe shoes on a windowsill

i often wake up and find toe shoes sitting around in what i think are the oddest places . . like opening my curtains in the morning to find them yawning at me on the windowsill. i suppose, like all of us, they like a change of scenery and a little morning sunshine.

it's very cold this morning: 10 degrees, real feel supposedly minus 3. greg donned his long underwear for the walk to the train station. tomorrow it goes into the upper 20's again, low 30's, which it has been consistently for the past few weeks. the sun is out, which makes it feel warmer, and i even heard a cardinal this morning. they must know that spring is just around the corner (one of my favorite frog and toad stories). chanda and her ballet classmates have been cheered by the light still shining through their school's studio windows at 5:30 pm.

sharing cultures

 solveig and haakon found one of our favorite bookstores on their walk around the neighborhood today and bought several books for their granddaughters. 

 solveig's journal from norway . . 

outside of chocolate bar. they took the subway to the airtrain/jfk this evening, and are now on their way home. we had a wonderful time visiting together. they're my brother-in-law's family and i stayed with solveig's sister in oslo years ago when i was traveling through europe.

 while they had gone for a walk to see washington square park, chanda and morgana finished up their castle reports, and worked on math and latin.

wednesday at the rink

 today was our last wednesday for ice skating as the rink closes march 2nd. m and c were supposed to have a lesson with their friends, but the teacher was still out sick with the flu. it was a fun morning anyway; being cold and snowy we skated round and round in the midst of snowflakes. 

 i thought it might be nice to have lunch with greg since i missed the last lunch date when korrina had the flu, but he had too many meetings so we went home instead. it was just as well as jack needed to be walked, some laundry needed to be done, the apartment needed more straightening, and the girls had instrument practice and medieval history reading to do.

on the way home we picked up groceries from integral for dinner this evening. our norwegian friends are back in town for one more night before flying out of jfk. we walked home through a new coating of snow. it's been a pretty winter.

greg met our friends at penn station and we had a late dinner of yellow lentil soup with sauteed spinach and chicken. morgana followed her friend camille's recipe for marzipan. she ground a bunch of almonds in the food processor, adding powdered sugar and a little rosewater. they were very good and we enjoyed them with tea and coffee.

snow pile

i've actually been surprised these past few days to notice that the snow piles along the sidewalks have diminished to almost nothing . . until chanda and i passed this monstrosity on west 11th street. maybe all the piles ran over and jumped en masse; a last showdown for the sun and the sanitation workers who've been waging the fight against them.

medieval history, subway poetry and celebrating greg's birthday

father demo square looking north towards sixth avenue. it was a pretty walk home for me from downtown where i left chanda for her dance class.

subway poetry by chase twichell:

to the reader: twilight

whenever i look

out at the snowy

mountains at this hour

and speak directly

into the ear of the sky.

it's you i'm thinking of.

you're like the spirits

the children invent

to inhabit the stuffed horse

and the doll.

i don't know who hears me.

i don't know who speaks

when the horse speaks.

lost in pointe magazine . .

chanda's castle drawing . . 

morgana's castle drawing . .

greg's birthday gifts . . 

we finally celebrated his birthday today with ravioli and broccoli with garlic (he had been away for the actual day).

morgana made peanut butter ice cream, and i picked up a cheesecake from rocco's.

heart underwear . . !

i had an extra stitch on my "follow your arrow" shawl and korrina came to my rescue and fixed it. i'm back on track again.

spring thaw

it's been a bit warmer which has allowed the snow to slowly disappear.

it was surprising to finally see the soil in the children's garden. it's been hidden by a layer of snow for so long, gradually growing more and more speckled with soot and dust as the days went by.

chanda was off to meet morgana and deychen to go uptown for a macbeth rehearsal. greg and i had a fun time dealing with laundry.

back in the city

 greg was supposed to return home last night, but his flight was cancelled due to heavy fog at jfk. luckily, he was able to find a flight for early this morning. he came home just as chanda and i were walking to third street, so i saw him when i got back at 1:30. then we walked back east with morgana as she had a chamber rehearsal, and we picked up the dog food at the whiskers pet store on 9th street.

 17 east 13th street which used to house a printing business started by archibald erskine, a carpenter from scotland, in 1911 (i found the information about it here). i think it's such a quaint looking building. 1911 is also the year my grandfather had his tavern on fourth avenue at 12th street. i'll have to post a picture of that another day.

greg was happy to be back in the big apple and getting a cup of joe at joe.

salmon for dinner

our guests from norway brought salmon for us, which we had this evening for dinner. it had a strong smoky flavor and we sauteed it with peppers, asparagus, garlic and a red onion. it was very good!

olympics week

 yesterday it snowed and rained and sleeted . . today it was sunny and cold.

morgana has been busy with guitar, acting and babysitting. chanda and i have been watching the olympics; particularly the figure skating. it's been a lot of fun, though not much else has been done: no schoolwork and not even any knitting.

a birthday morning

 greg flew to tampa, florida this afternoon so we gave him his birthday gift this morning. 

chanda and i found it at sturbridge . . 

for dinner the three of us had kale and sausage soup.

costume preparations

 morgana and chanda worked with their friend deychen on their costumes for macbeth this afternoon.

 they're making a simple black tunic . . 

the sewing machine is an old one from their dance teacher, ellen. it had been her mother's. we still have trouble threading the bobbin.

touring the town

korrina came by this morning to meet warren's norwegian family and shared lox and cream cheese and a bagel breakfast.

then she went to work . . and we did the town . . we walked everywhere but started out at the river park.

it was a cold day to tour the city . . 22 degrees . . but our norwegian family certainly didn't feel cold. i think it's much colder in their part of the world, though they said this winter has been rather warm for them.

it was a cold and crisp and blue day.

posing with subway station art . . 

riding the subway . . 

surrounded by ads for the history channels viking program . .

while sitting with some vikings ("you know," solveig said to me, "i don't know why everyone makes so much of them, they really weren't very nice.")

the guggenheim was first on the list. we took a peek inside and pictures outside. they were installing a new exhibit and the atrium was closed.

next was the MET where morgana posed with her artwork which was still up. that was fun.

passing through medieval times on our way to the american wing.

what grabs a norwegian's attention?

viking artifacts: the sword is forged with "intertwining rods of steel and iron;" the helmet is made from iron and copper and is of byzantine times. the spearhead is a mix of iron and silver with "a design of concentric circles unusual for this period."

my sister's favorite: the tiffany windows (view of oyster bay).

chatting at the temple of dendur.

chanda's favorite: a black cat xena-like bronze sculpture from 300 BC.

into the park . . 

where cross-country skiers abound . .

and where the birds are returning. it is the week of the great backyard bird count. i was excited to see this beautiful red cardinal.

and a female robin  . .

so many ducks and geese on the patch of lake that was not frozen . .

the sunshine made it feel that spring was not far away . .


everyone was out with their dogs and their children and their skateboards . . even the police officers were out with their horses.

we had lunch at one of our favorite diners where korrina, morgana, chanda and i used to go before attending the ballet, after korrina's class . . oh, only about ten years ago!

in front of the time life building . . do you see solveig?

admiring the wall murals in the GE building (formerly the RCA building) in rockefeller center.

i read in this article that the side murals are by british painter frank brangwyn, and that they depict man's search for eternal truth through the teachings of christ.

here they are discussing josep maria sert's american progress mural which replaced diego rivera's man at the crossroads when rivera wouldn't paint out an image of lenin (though he did offer to place lincoln on the other side . . ah, diego-we saw a beautiful exhibition of his "buon fresco" work at moma in 2012).

you can see lincoln in his black top hat resting his right hand on the shoulder of ralph waldo emerson.

standing around admiring the rink and the plaza . .

one of my sister's favorite places to visit is st. patrick's cathedral. chanda and i were excited to see that they had real candles.

we said a prayer at the alter of st. rose of lima . .

st. patrick's is under a major renovation.

eivind in front of the atlas statue.

finally, riding the bus towards home down fifth avenue . .

feeling very tired! we made hot chocolate and ate the last of the italian bakery cookies before they left for connecticut.