apples from the green market . .

september

the golden-rod is yellow;

the corn is turning brown;

the trees in apple orchards

with fruit are bending down.

the gentian's bluest fringes

are curling in the sun;

in dusty pods the milkweed

its hidden silk has spun.

the sedges flaunt their harvest,

in every meadow nook;

and asters by the brook-side

make asters in the brook,

from dewy lanes at morning

the grapes' sweet odors rise;

at noon the roads all flutter

with yellow butterflies.

by all these lovely tokens

september days are here,

with summer's best of weather,

and autumn's best of cheer.

but none of all this beauty

which floods the earth and air

is unto me the secret

which makes september fair.

't is a thing which i remember;

to name it thrills me yet;

one day of one september

i never can forget.

by hilaire belloc (1870-1953)

last few days in london

 delicious coffees from the shop across the street from their airbnb (monocle).

scandanavian breakfast at the monocle (a radio station, a magazine, and also a "lifestyle" company).

 

 tea at cafe concerto . .

a selfie with a london bus . . 

another coffee from the monocle . . i think they went there often . . !

a selfie in front of buckingham palace . . 

 morgana was excited to visit liberty of london. our local craft store carries their fabric and morgana was happy to browse their shelves.

i'm not sure what she intends to sew with this, but it's very pretty.

on the last minute they got tickets to the royal ballet's alice for saturday night. morgana says it's her favorite ballet and she was incredibly happy to be at the theatre, even though it was standing room.

last minute changes to the program . .

michaelmas

we celebrate michaelmas each year by preparing a harvest loaf and telling a story which i found years ago in the book all year round.

 we set out sugar and salt, currants, an egg yolk, sesame seeds, and the warm milk and sugar that is mixed with yeast.

after reading the story together, chanda kneaded the bread and set it in a clean, oiled bowl to rise for about forty minutes. then she punched it down and kneaded one more time. it sat until dinnertime, when i baked it for an hour. we had it with a butternut squash/apple soup (the same one our friend sacha made when we visited her and her family in brooklyn about two weeks ago).

the harvest loaf story talks about having courage to face the dragon, and sharing meals with family and friends to warm our hearts and face the coming cold and dark of winter.

 it's now dark again at night when we sit down to dinner at 7:30 pm. i miss the summer sun . .

but i prefer the cool crisp autumn nights to any heat or humidity that sometimes creeps in. i like the rhythm of the autumn holidays, and it's sometimes difficult when the weather changes so drastically and puts one off balance.

at the cloisters museum

 chanda and i always like to visit the cloisters museum in the fall, before the cafe closes (which occurs in october).

 it was such a beautiful day for the visit, as the humidity finally went down, and the air was cool.

topiary . . 

 sedum flowers, autumn joy . .

lovely lavender . .

 dahlia flowers: happy single juliet . . 

 as a companion to happy single romeo!

 i think the cloisters museum is one of my favorite places. it's a haven amidst the bustle of the city.

 view of the hudson river . . 

 pomegranates . .

 we sat in the bonnefont cloister cafe and had pound cake and earl grey tea (after having egg salad and cucumber which we had brought in), and talked a little with morgana on whatsapp.

the garden tour was at 1 pm with jessie as the tour guide for today, and she was incredibly erudite and energetic. she also allowed us to taste the herbs in the trie cloister garden.

sorrel, which was deliciously sweet . .

lovage, which was celery-like, but thinner . .

 and the fennel seeds which were drying on the topmost branches of the fennel plant! we simply plucked them off and nibbled on them. i put a few in my pocket for later in the day.

the bearded iris plant, which was used as a purple dye for the thread in tapestries. however, it didn't hold its color as well as weld, woad and madder . . 

which you can observe here in the unicorn tapestry. the plant directly in the center is an orchid, symbolizing virility, and the purple would have indicated royalty, which ties in with the overall meaning of the unicorn tapestries (the capture of the young groom by the maiden who is then contained in marriage in a fenced circular garden with pomegranates raining down from above, symbolizing fertility, and the dianthus and iris plants at his feet, symbolizing female virginity and male sexuality, according to the met museum guides).

 sketching the single garnet dahlia . . 

earthenware floor tile from the alhambra, granada, andalusia, spain (impressed and glazed). it's stamped with the heraldic device of the nasrid kings, whose islamic empire ruled in granada from 1238 to 1492. the shield has a white heraldic band with their motto in arabic, "there is no conqueror but God." it was much more difficult to draw than i realized.

we both planned to add a bit more to our sketches. perhaps we'll have time on sunday.

 at 2:30 it was time to head back home for a dance class and some apartment work. our complex is getting new intercoms, and we were scheduled for the installation at 3:30.

coming home from somewhere at 8:05 pm

 i can't remember what we're coming back from here. we're walking along the east side of greenwich, just north of perry . . 

 chanda's bag is small and doesn't have much in it at all . . 

greg doesn't even seem to have a backpack . . did we have dinner at sushi on hudson? otto's tacos?

an autumn heat wave

it's been so hot. it's such a funny way for autumn to begin. even greg, who usually never minds the heat, has been complaining. the only saving grace is that the humidity is low. 

we've had a lethargic sunday. quiet. droopy. it went up to 94 degrees today . . 94 fahrenheit . . 34 celsius.

our sunday poem celebrating autumn was a bit odd . . i just didn't have the heart to read a traditional one. it just wasn't fitting. the poem that follows is from the library of congress' poetry email list that i subscribe to (poetry 180):

the bat

by day the bat is cousin to the mouse.

he likes the attic of an aging house.

his fingers make a hat about his head.

his pulse beat is so slow we think him dead.

 he loops in crazy figures half the night

among the trees that face the corner light.

but when he brushes up against a screen,

we are afraid of what our eyes have seen:

for something is amiss or out of place

when mice with wings can wear a human face.

by theodore roethke

with sami on the narrowboat

 morgana has been enjoying showing sami around london, and showing her what life is like on the narrowboat. (they did not take showers as it uses up too much water. they waited to get to their airbnb, which they just moved to.)

 she said they enjoyed a delicious breakfast this morning, while listening to the geese, loons and ducks splashing about and making quite a loud ruckus.

reeds along the path . . 

sunset on the canal . .

happy new year . . !

 we were invited to brian's family's rosh hashanah celebration where we dipped apple slices in honey in hope of a sweet year ahead. it was quite a feast with turkey, a brisket, potato cakes and cinnamon carrots. the desserts were amazing, also, with two different chocolate cakes, italian cookies and chocolate halvah.

 heading home on the george washington bridge . . 

admiring the night blooming moonflowers . . (well i was! even if they weren't!)

summer met visit

until january 15th, there is a special rodin exhibition . . 

 pygmalion and galatea, modeled 1889, carved 1908-9, marble.

rodin has pygmalion resemble himself, stocky and bearded.

an edward steichen photograph of auguste rodin. rodin's monument to victor hugo is lit behind his profile. the photographer visited the artist in his studio for several weeks in 1901, during which this composition was made. rodin thought steichen was the greatest photographer of his time and that his photographs showed the true soul in rodin's sculpture's, helping the american people to understand the passion and strength of his work.

a woman admiring jules bastien-lepage's joan of arc (1879), one of our favorite paintings in the museum. bastien-lepage befriended rodin when the sculptor was starting out in the 1880's, and rodin designed the painter's memorial after he died at age 36 of cancer, depicting him with his paintbrush and palette (which you can see here).

there was a special exhibit of native american art from the collection of eugene and clare thaw from the fenimore art museum in cooperstown, new york. this basket was woven by scees bryant possock, from the washoe nation, lake tahoe, nevada, 1904. the materials used were willow, western redbud and bracken fern root. the thaws began collecting indigenous american art in santa fe in 1987, choosing to approach the artifacts (they used the term material culture) as fine art with the same standards they used for their other collections.

sketching in the asian wing . . 

 this is one of two six panel folding screens, ink, color, and gold on paper, titled flowers and birds of the four seasons.

 it was made by kano sanboku, late 17th century (edo period, 1615-1868). this kingfisher is from the screen which depicts autumn and winter. the plain style of the screens, with very little color, reflects the style of kano sansetsu (1590-1651), a master of the kano school's kyoto branch, who was one of sanboku's teachers.

also from the edo period: a hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, done by the artist meiso, who they think was a japanese monk. in east asian art, a tiger depicted in a bamboo grove symbolizes a peaceful and harmonious society, with strong leadership and a just government.

having tea on the balcony before heading home . .

adding to the museum sketch in the book which i finished just before our trip to cape cod. actually, it still needs two stiff pages to keep it from bending, along with a clasp.