in the country continued . .

 morgana skyped one afternoon with austria. chanda and i enjoyed hearing a bit of her conversation: 

 here the table is set for a big lunch with the minervinis and nana and nonno.

 getting out to the lake . . 

 it felt so wonderful to swim!

 ballet poses!

 my turn for a ballet pose . . 

 she's not to be outdone . . !

 my sister has blueberry bushes and they were so sweet this year. they didn't stay long in the bowl.

 we visited the consignment store with nana . . one of her favorite excursions.

 it's good there is a comfortable chair for nonno!

 the owner (on the left) has known nana for years, and she has a soft spot for nonno as he reminds her of her own dear dad who passed away several years ago.

 a frozen yogurt stop . . 

 we visited the hillstead house and museum in farmington.

 theodate pope riddle's parents had amassed an amazing collection of impressionist and american painters. they were beautiful to see, as was the house!

afterwards, we had a delicious dinner and then stopped in glastonbury at a chocolate store where we bought chocolate covered pretzels and chocolate dipped orange peel. so good!

in the country . .

veniero's with clyde et al . .

we came home from the summer intensive recital and fell asleep . . until it was time to meet our friends at veniero's . . (though we did fix a quick dinner of home fries and fried eggs and bacon) . . 

chocolate and lemon sorbetto with decaf coffee . . 

clyde with his extra large slice of italian cheesecake and an iced mocha with chocolate ice cream.

half the crew will return to their adirondack camp, and half will stay for another few weeks, so we will get to see some of them again before they return to california (i think clyde has passed out from sugar overload . . )

last day of the summer ballet intensive

the ballet intensive is finally winding down. today was the last day and the dancers and their guests all traipsed out to astoria, queens, for the recital.

chanda and her friend did one last picture in the abt studios before leaving.

class photo . .

since she borrowed my phone for the day, she could take pics and movies . . here they are leaving the studios for the trip uptown.

out of the tunnel and into queens . .

at frank sinatra high school in the tony bennet theatre . . a beautiful performing space!

the friends she made at the intensive were from mexico, italy and argentina. a few of them were students of the abt school.

they danced george balanchine's theme and variations, which he created for abt in 1947 and set to tchaikovsky's suite no. 3 for orchestra in g major, opus 55. in this video, i think you can see her friend virginia from the photo above dance the solo part . . i'm not sure where c is in this pic. i think she's front row stage left so you can't see her until she runs out from the side with her partner.


in this video chanda enters first from stage left, crosses to center and then goes back to stage left with her partner (for a few seconds they're a little cut off) .  . . both m and c think i'm being ridiculous trying to pinpoint her in these incredibly blurry movies . .

they danced in simple costume tutus and black leotards . .

with her friends, moises and vicky, from mexico and argentina.

i can't believe that it's been five weeks and that it's over! it's bittersweet . . her friend is flying back to cordoba now and is probably very happy to be going home, but their instagram messages are all a bit melancholy and endearing with heartfelt thank yous and miss yous . .

back home again in the neighborhood.