tea and studio time

 breakfast with our delicious harvest bread . . 

 chanda had a private lesson with her ballet teacher in the morning and then i met her for studio time to begin work on ellen's family matters performance piece. she's cleaning up her solo from the spring for a late january show. ellen rents the theatre every year for a special showcase.

she re-worked a middle section that she wasn't happy about and which she'll show ellen on sunday.

it was grey and cool and rainy. we were glad to come home for tea and . . more harvest bread.

(i posted about our return flight home on monday, september 26th . . finally . . )

michaelmas

this morning chanda mixed the ingredients for the michaelmas bread as morgana read the story and then we baked it this afternoon after her dance class.

a michaelmas poem

the autumn wind blows open the gate,

o michael, you, you we await.

we follow you, show us the way.

with joy we greet the autumn day,

good morning, good morning

and i wonder who is this michael? and i hear the wind sing:

michael, god's great knight,

strong and pure and shining bright.

i'll be a knight of michael, too,

and polish my crown to a golden hue.

ask the gnomes the iron to mine,

iron from the stars, from the earth, so fine,

to bring to the blacksmith, who with his might

will make me a sword, so strong, so bright.

and we follow the falling stars to the mountain cave where the gnomes are working.

and the gnomes say:

with fire and stone, we work with a will

with our strength and our skill.

the iron we soften and then we bend

into hammers, swords, and nails to mend.

dear gnomes, may i have some iron?

are  you noble? oh, yes.

are you good? oh, yes.

and do you hear the singing of the stars? oh yes.

then you may have some iron.

thank you little gnomes, in your crystal homes.

oh, bring me a galloping horse to ride,

a crown on y head, the iron by my side.

off to the blacksmith we must go.

galloping, galloping, off we go.

dear blacksmith, will you make me a sword?

of course for,

i am a blacksmith, strong and true, best of work i always do.

all day long my hammers go, slinging, clanging, changing so,

a rickety, tickety, tickety, tick,

a rickety, tickety, tickety, tick.

thank you kind blacksmith, for your might.

i will use it for the right,

not for some silly quarrel or fight,

but to drive away evil, i will try

and protect those who are weaker than i.

oh bring me a galloping horse for to ride,

a crown on my head, my sword by my side,

for it's off to the castle we will go.

galloping, galloping, here we go.

the knights came together and proclaimed: no fear here!

michael, be my guide and stand by my side.

and they know that michael was always ready to help.

michael, god's great knight,

strong and pure and shining bright.

from waldorf homeschoolers

wednesday dinner

chicken soup . . morgana, chanda and i caught colds during our trip to florida. all i've been craving is chicken soup. the broth feels very nourishing. i think it's been helping because my cough is not as bad as yesterday.

it feels so good to be home. 

flying home

 chanda took these beautiful pics of the flight home. 

 i truly find it very unnerving and surreal to be flying through the air. i handled it much better when i was younger. here she took a pic of another plane flying alongside of us.

 coming in along the coast of new jersey . . 

 this is the bridge crossing highlands reach and leading out to gateway national recreation area.

 sandy hook, part of the gateway national recreation area.

 and now coney island, with the verrazano bridge in the distance, beneath the tip of the wing.

happy to be home! (we took the air train from the terminal to long term parking where we had left the car).

beach patrol

sunset

rollin' with the homies . .

florida

a tour of the draken

today we met at the harbor for a tour of the viking ship draken harald hårfagre.

 the weather was once again warm and humid but the light was beautiful for our walk downtown. 

 we scheduled a late tour so that chanda could join us after her show.

 we met her with korrina and brian who went to see the her this afternoon. they said it was a great performance and korrina was pleased that chanda came out so often with the other "witch apprentices" and it wasn't just a few moments in only one part of the ballet. francis made good use of them throughout and gave them some nice choreography.

and then it was on to the draken . . 

the sides are all of oak, but the mast is one big douglas fir tree from scotland. the original spruce mast split and i don't remember the story as to how that happened. it's possible a member of my sleeping family does, but i'll have to wait to add that info. 

i really found the mast very impressive in a way that's difficult to see in a photograph. it was just so tall and i couldn't imagine having to take it down as they did for the new york canal locks. it was even hard to imagine a tree so big, and straight! wayne, our guide, said that it was a concentrated search to find the perfect tree.

they have two sails. the one in the photo above is made of silk. their second is made of canvas. 

 they have beautiful engravings throughout . . 

the ship was named for harald hårfagre, a king who unified norway into one kingdom. i believe draken means dragon, and it was built in the town of haugesund, in western norway with the expertise of their boat building tradition, information from their norse literature, archeological finds and old sailing records.

 beneath our feet is the bottom of the ship where the stored various ropes that they weren't using. the planks simply pull up.

 to the right of korrina, behind the pole, is the capstan that they use to wind their ropes. they put a pole through and turn together.

 you can see the tar on the ropes. they constantly oil them to keep them in good shape. one of wayne's main points was that the crew is constantly working to keep the ship oiled and clean.

 here he is showing us the windlass, used to wind rope and haul up the anchor. (their cooking area is on the left behind the woman who is bending over. their cook uses propane, but the vikings would have eaten dried fish and meats).

 the magnetic compass is on the right and the satellite compass is on the left. the vikings would have used the stars and a sunstone (the mariner's sextant wasn't invented until the 1700's) to help determine latitude and keep them on the course they wanted.

they also might have had crows on board the ship. when they needed to find land they would release the crows who would fly in the direction of the nearest island. the draken has two "crows" on board: hugin . . . 

and mun (mun looks real here!).

in this picture you can see their sleeping tent: the second orange canvas to the right of greg. it has about thirty bunks (not sure of that number), but if a crew member wanted to sleep on deck that was permitted. i guess it can get a little stuffy in the tent, though another crew member said that one of the  difficulties of sailing across was the cold and the wet and that he was happy to sleep in the tent. i think they said six days was the longest they were at sea in one stretch. among the sea animals and birds they saw were orcas and puffins and lots of icebergs.

it was a really fun family field trip.

we then said good night to korrina and brian so that we could all go home and get ready for our trip to florida tomorrow.

chanda has her beautiful rose flowers from korrina and brian.

a pic brian took at the theatre.

late blooming roses along the river walk . . 

a type of black eyed susan?

echinacea . .

 sunset . . 

and the roses at home . . settled in their vase.