painting the house

greg and i spent a significant amount of time this week scraping, sanding, and painting the back of the house. there's still a lot that needs to be done. one section has some mold on it and will need to be cleaned with bleach before being repainted. one section we left untouched as it still looked good and the paint wasn't peeling. the back is much easier to work on than the front, as it has less surface area and is broken up with windows and sliding glass doors. 

painting break

greg and i visited gin beach this evening after scraping and painting all day. the water was cold and invigorating! greg doesn't like swimming when it's so cold, but i love it.

beach day

out there somewhere is korrina . . 

we drove to sag harbor in the morning and walked around town . . in the afternoon we had lunch at nana's and then spent the rest of the day at ditch.

korrina in her purple sweatshirt from ferry beach . .

traveling east

 greg, korrina and i loaded up the car, picked up some food and coffee from west 11th street cafe, and headed out to long island . . 

 the verrazano . .

 green market finds from vicki's veggies in amagansett . . 

 fresh mint and apricot water . . 

dinner: fresh squash and tomatoes with angel hair pasta.

cats and kids

lounging on the bookcase . .

singing in bordeaux . .

lounging on the piano . .

swimming and sunbathing in bordeaux . .

 sleeping with her stuffed animal on the royal chair . .

 picnic in richmond park . .

 awake and alert and ready for trouble . .

ballerina friends . . (roommate caitlin is on the right) . .

poems, peaches, pickles and ballerinas

 i sent chanda a poem for a sunday morning about summertime by robert louis stevenson, but there's also a nice summer poem about sunflowers from the book a journey through time in verse and rhyme by heather thomas. these sunflower pictures are from my friend marisa's garden in vermont several years ago. she always grows the most beautiful sunflowers.

sunflowers

by heather thomas

sunflowers in the summer growing,

growing up towards the light;

light and warmth which draws them upwards,

upwards striving in their might.

mighty golden heads with seeds there,

seeds to sleep in winter's ground;

heads which turn from dawn till sunset

following the sun's path round.

 

summer sun

by robert louis stevenson

great is the sun, and wide he goes
through empty heaven with repose;
and in the blue and glowing days
more thick than rain he showers his rays.

though closer still the blinds we pull
to keep the shady parlour cool,
yet he will find a chink or two
to slip his golden fingers through.

the dusty attic spider-clad
he, through the keyhole, maketh glad;
and through the broken edge of tiles
into the laddered hay-loft smiles.

meantime his golden face around
he bares to all the garden ground,
and sheds a warm and glittering look
among the ivy’s inmost nook.

above the hills, along the blue,
round the bright air with footing true,
to please the child, to paint the rose,
the gardener of the world, he goes.

 the peaches korrina picked out yesterday from the green market were juicy and sweet. sometimes it's a gamble with peaches, but these were good. they're local peaches from upstate new york.

 we also bought some pickling cucumbers. korrina made bread and butter pickles from a recipe she saw at the farmer's market. after slicing the kirby cukes, she soaked them in kosher salt, then rinsed them.

 here's she figuring the measurements for cutting down the recipe. 

 she combined brown sugar, cider vinegar, white vinegar, celery seeds, mustard seeds and a little pinch of ground tumeric.

 she made a syrup and then packed it down into the jars with the cucumbers.

 i followed the nourishing traditions recipe in my book: i combined a tablespoon of whey, a tablespoon of sea salt, a tablespoon of dill and one clove of sliced garlic with the cucumbers in a mason jar filled with water. the jar will sit on the counter for three days, after which i'll put it in the frig for about two more days before eating them. korrina's pickles sat out on the counter for an hour, and then the jars were transferred to the frig for about two days . . and then she'll try them. 

here are some photos from chanda!

 she's very pleased with her ballet classes, but not at all as pleased with the food. in fact, she's been downright miserable about the food, unfortunately.

 however, it is very pretty where she's staying. 

 summer ballerinas . .

and two pics from their visit into richmond town, which she said had a lot of lovely shops, and a unitarian church:

the perseid and delta aquarids meteor showers

late july and early august brings the perseid meteor shower to the northern hemisphere. this shower occurs every year when earth crosses the orbital path of comet swift-tuttle. debris from this comet litters the comet's orbit, and you can probably start seeing meteors now if you live in a dark area. we're not into the heavier part of it until the first week of august, which is a good time to begin watching so as to catch glimpses before the largest full moon of the year on august 10th. according to the earthsky website, the wee hours before dawn are when the most meteors streak across the sky. though, they also say that if you watch in the early evening you might catch what is called an earthgrazer, a long, slow and colorful meteor that travels horizontally across the sky. they say to give yourself a good hour for observing, as the meteors come in spurts with lulls in between. why is it called the perseid meteor shower? because if you trace all the meteors backward, they seem to come from the constellation perseus, who is the son of zeus and the maiden danae, from when zeus visited her in a shower of gold. you can read earthsky's full article here.

during this same time, the delta aquarid shower can be seen from the southern hemisphere. this meteor shower traces back to aquarius the water bearer, with it's radiant point nearly aligning with the star skat, or delta aquarii. if you are watching the sky in the northern hemisphere and you see meteors arcing from the northeast or high in the north, they are from the perseid shower, but if you see them arcing from the south, from aquarius the water bearer, then you are seeing the delta aquarids. (you can read about the delta aquarids here.)

(the above photo is from thursday's sunset.)

cafe dinner

my friend kendall and i ate outside at a neighborhood cafe this evening . . good food and conversation and a fun time watching the neighbors parade by.

the weather and pics from bordeaux

we've had a few days of very steamy weather, but the rest of the time it's been beautiful, with breezes blowing off the river. last night it got so cool that we needed a blanket.

i've been making way too much food for just the three of us. last night i made a quinoa and beet salad, but there's still kale salad leftover from three nights ago!

 here's a pic of korrina and greg skyping with chanda. i'm only adding this photo years later. chanda was very homesick at richmond, so i didn't post about it much. however, she worked hard and managed to stick it out. she felt much better when she was able to stay with ryan and san.

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here are some pics from morgana in bordeaux:

 she says she plays guitar all day . . practicing on her own and with a chamber group. then in the evening they have concerts that often don't end until 11:30. she's up again by 7 or 7:30 the next morning. 

notes from richmond

 the royal ballet school's richmond campus is very beautiful.

 there are so many deer!

 

 these are photos chanda took of their outing in the park. the school building is in the distance.

 heading back in . .

 posing by the front gates.

one of her meals . . she's been complaining about the food . . 

there's a lack of whole grains and the meat doesn't seem too fresh, but at least there's enough greens.

her room which she shares with caitlin, who is from the states also.

cat photos from the garden . . 

perhaps these are the school's cats? the caretaker's cats?

 and a beautiful rose . . 

which she sketched into her nature book . .

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(i see i finally got around to posting this in october . . this particular post was put up years later when i was looking for a photo in the 2014 file, and decided to fill in the gaps for these dates.)