monday morning

 i'm finding our fascination with eating baked goods interesting. there are so many variations on cookies: gluten free, dairy free, sugar free, vegan, paleo, etc . . i always enjoy some kind of baked goodie in the morning with a cup of tea. lately, i've been having a small glass of carrot juice first.

 these are the mushrooms i picked out at the green market on saturday. we ate them for dinner that night. they're called golden oyster mushrooms and are native to eastern russia, northern china and japan. in eastern russian they're one of the most popular of the wild edible mushrooms and are called il'mak.

oh, and the buckwheat honey! we've all been enjoying it . .

friday pics

 we planted wheat berries, barley berries and spelt berries on friday morning.

 the sun has not come out once since we planted them. this happened to us last year and we must have watered them too much as they turned moldy.

 we're studying hildegard of bingen now. i'm waiting for a cd of her music from the library. i hope it doesn't take too long to arrive. instead, we listened to gregorian chants.

 the weather has been warmer, but it still looks quite gloomy out.

 but i guess someone was having a good day, or just wanted to spread good cheer.

the church of st. luke in the fields . . they had had scaffolding up for a long time as they repaired the bell tower. it's nice to have it clear again.

sunday's poem, costume shop news, and a studio rehearsal

 chanda's poem for this morning:

pussy willow

by marian douglass

the brook is brimmed with melting snow,

the maple sap is running

and on the highest elm a crow

his coal black wings is sunning.

a close, green bud, the mayflower lies

upon its mossy pillow;

and sweet and low the south wind blows,

and through the brown fields calling goes,

"come, pussy! pussy willow!

within your close, brown wrapper sir;

come out and show your silver fur;

come, pussy! pussy willow!

soon red will bud the maple trees,

the bluebirds will be singing,

and yellow tassels in the breeze

be from the poplars swinging;

and rosy will the mayflower lie

upon it's mossy pillow;

"but you must come the first of all, --

come, pussy!" is the south wind's call, --

"come, pussy! pussy willow!

a fairy gift to children dear,

the downy firstling of the year, --

come, pussy! pussy willow!"

we were at the mary anthony studio today for a dance rehearsal. 

they danced and i fell asleep . . after filming these. . .

 we helped janet sew again today. i've been going every day since wednesday. greg fixed the computer so i can put up the photos from those days. for some reason the mac wasn't connecting to the wireless and i wasn't able to get online. he had to actually, physically, connect a wire from the computer to the modem. fancy that.

 the actors all have a myriad of costume changes . . 

 morgana has four or five costume changes as sally, and on days when she's not sally, her character has about three.

 back at home, morgana decided to bake peanut butter cookies. they came out very good, but we'll try adding some butter next time. she's been experimenting with different recipes using almond flour and honey instead of wheat flour and sugar.

 they were easy to work with . . 

 it was time to work on the hair doo tonight. i cut off eight inches which she's sending to locks of love.

voila! a hair doo from 1937.

saturday morning

i was out early this morning to visit the green market (i first walked with chanda past jefferson market to stop at the bank . . . ). since we've not been eating wheat, i've been craving more local greens and fruit. i picked up eggs, turnips, shitake and golden mushrooms (grown by the farmer's son in a cave), apples, raw and aged goat cheese, and buckwheat honey. it wasn't cheap, but i no longer buy any packaged foods, and morgana must make up her own snacks to take along when she goes from dance class to babysitting to me and my girl rehearsal. i have to say that it feels really good to be supporting so many local farmers and less of the big corporations! my amish farmer and the city's green markets are truly a blessing. just now i've been sitting in paradis having a baked egg and coffee and knitting (and feeling like i'm in the movie amelie which i've been watching sporadically these past few days). . . and getting ready to go to third street to listen to orchestra rehearsal. my saturdays are very enjoyable. povero greg . . i wonder how he and his crew are faring with their phone and computer move? i haven't heard.

connection?

i haven't been able to post these past few days as the computer hasn't been connecting with the internet. we tested morgana's laptop and that is working, so it seems to be a problem with the mac. i couldn't get today's photos to upload either.

we spent the morning reading about hildegard of bingen and planting wheatberries. then morgana ran off to a tap class (preparing for her dancing in me and my girl) and i went with chanda to an eye doctor appointment. in the evening there was a guitar concert at third street. morgana's teacher played with several of his friends: a flutist and a double bass player. the last piece they played was four sephardic songs by joaquin rodrigo and it was incredibly beautiful. i've never seen the double bass played so . . . passionately! maybe when i can connect better with the internet i can find a link on youtube to a movie of them playing together. 

now it's time to get some sleep, but greg will be going back into work at midnight. he's resting now (as is jack). phone lines and computer set-ups are being moved around as time life is preparing to consolidate and rent out spare floors. it's been very hectic for him. we feel like we haven't seen him in weeks!

last night we made chocolate truffles with cocoa powder, coconut oil, ghee, honey and chopped up walnuts. i just ate two with my chamomile tea . . i could eat the whole tray if i let myself . . but i won't!

other thursday work

 chanda worked with her multi-linked cubes on cube numbers in the cosmic calculator math workbook.

 i baked sunflower/sesame seed crackers.

 the seeds get ground up in the food processor with fresh garlic, seasalt and water. the difficulty is rolling them out, but it's not too bad if you roll the seed dough between parchment paper.

dinner was kale with tahini dressing, butternut squash pureed with butter, sea salt and pepper, fresh avocado and baked chicken.

more work in the costume shop

 since janet hosts a waldorf/steiner coop (they're presently studying ancient greece), the costume shop was moved upstairs. this is actually my favorite room, as i love how she painted the walls a golden yellow.

 the dressing room . . 

 fitting one of the actors . . 

 the warm red brick complements the golden wall color . . 

 what sustains the workers? rosebud tea, almonds, and dates.

a few examples of janet's pottery work next to her antique store teapot.

costume shop visit

unbelievably, me and my girl moves into the theatre in less than a week!! thus, it was time to lend a hand in janet's costume shop.

the red dress on the right will actually be made to fit both deychen and morgana . . i think it's the only dress they are sharing . . 

an outfit for one of the aristocrats . . 

combing through the racks to see what needs to be hemmed . . 

the window stars feel especially bright on cloudy days . . 

it was fun to see many of the same books from the library about ancient greece that we had out last year.

gabriel's work . . i think he has very nice handwriting.

his map of ancient greece . . 

and yet another book about the ancient greeks; this one is by isaac asimov, whom janet and i are great fans of. i was not aware that he had written this book. i think i'll have to read it.

chanda met me here after ballet and hemmed a pair of pants before we headed home.

magnolia buds and peanut butter muffins

 though we woke to 28 degrees outside, the intrepid magnolia buds are showing their faces. 

 they're in for a cold evening as the storm growing in the east heads this way with some wet snow. i'm sure my mom isn't very happy about this new development. she's very ready for spring and warmer weather.

 our friends visited yesterday for lunch, so we spent part of the morning straightening up and i redid the nature table to reflect spring. i put king winter away, but maybe that was a bit brash.

maybe i'll stick a little snow back on . .

 waiting for some green to appear . . 

morgana and i have been craving sweets and baked goods. she made peanut butter muffins yesterday (coconut flour, eggs, honey, a little baking soda, vinegar, vanilla extract and coconut oil). i'm not a peanut butter fan, but i've been enjoying these. the plate they're sitting on was my grandmother's. i brought it back from my mom's after our last visit. there's no marking on the back saying where it was made. i like the robin, which, according to my mom, is why my grandmother probably bought it.