the sunday after epiphany

 today is the last day that we can drop the tree off at washington square park to be mulched . .

so i took several last pics of it before taking all the ornaments off and packing them away for another year.

 i woke this morning craving an "italian" breakfast. for me that means good espresso with a lemon peel, and a hard roll. when i traveled through europe in my early twenties, the italian pensiones that i stayed at always left a hard dry roll for the guests to eat in the morning, often accompanied by choice of espresso or hot chocolate. looking back on it now, i sometimes wonder if that is what they really enjoyed in the morning, or only what amused them to leave for the american guests who wouldn't know any better.

 chanda chose to have a soft boiled egg and oatcakes . . 

 the coffee i used is the christmas blend sent by san and family . .

 a fairy ornament received by one of the girls on a long ago christmas . . 

 my wooden pig ornament received by me on a very long ago christmas, and which once fell off the tree into melting snow on our lawn when the tree was put out to perish somewhere . . my mom found it squashed into the mud by our backyard gate one afternoon a week or so later.

 my favorite frog ballerina . . 

 the tree was so fat that it popped needles as we squeezed it through all the doors and down the stairwell . . sweeping up four floors afterwards is always a challenge.

 this little hot dog doggy peed on our tree!

the tree mulching machine was not even in the park! it was one of the first years that i couldn't see the tree go through and turn into wood chips. i'm always very suspicious of things in my hometown . . there's lots of shady deals going on all the time (no, i do not trust our mayor), so i wonder if any of these trees were even mulched. i just have to hope . .

 the park certainly looked pretty dressed in white . . 

 notice the guy on the left feeding the pigeons?

the silver gate is part of ai weiwei's good fences make good neighbors public art work. i like the article on it in the architect's newspaper which you can read here.