Saturday, September 29, 2018

michaelmas

michaël, angel bright,
flaming sword is guidng,
sing a song of twinkling stars
as they sparkle in the night.
michaël, angel bright
flaming sword is guiding.

----

story of the harvest loaf from all year round, by ann druitt . . (i have the full story here) . .

 
i gathered the ingredients for our harvest loaf this morning . .

and chanda kneaded it into a loaf before running off to her dance class and rehearsal.

earth who gave to us this food,
sun who made it ripe and good,
dearest earth and stars and sun,
joy and love for all you've done.

----

and in honor of yarndale, here's a pic of me with my yarndale bag (from san!) from last december when we were on our way to the homeschooling craft fair:

Sunday, September 23, 2018

poetry and hermione


spirit of freedom, thou dost love the sea

spirit of freedom, thou dost love the sea,
trackless and storm-tost ocean wild and free,
faint symbol of thine own eternity.
the seagulls wheel and soar and fearless roam,
the storm petrel dashes through the foam;
the mighty billows heave, the tempests roar,
the diapason thunders shake the shore
and chant the song of freedom evermore.

by henry nehemiah dodge, 1899


----

our dear little cat hermione died on friday. greg and i took her to our vet to be put to sleep. she had a large cancerous growth that was slowly (or, really, rather quickly) consuming her body and we felt that she was suffering. of course that friday when we took her in, she was more alert and i worry that she wasn't ready to go. however, on thursday when we were trying to make the decision, korrina and chanda concurred that she seemed in pain and really wasn't doing well. there were times during the past week that we would come into chanda's room where she was lying and she would meow pitifully, and her eyes were tearing, and she had difficulty walking, though she still had a small appetite. it's very difficult making these decisions. i went through the same concerns with our bulldog jack when he died. i found this site online which was helpful (pet euthanisa vs. natural death), and somewhere in the article they wrote that no matter what you do, you will always wonder if it was the right thing.

i took this pic of her on september 4th. it was the last healthy looking photo that i took. i remember thinking that she was sitting so well (the growth was on her bottom and she often avoided sitting and would usually lie down) and that maybe she was getting better. i guess it was just a good day for her.

i'm  always amazed at how much i miss my pets.

Saturday, September 22, 2018

autumn equinox


autumn

yellow the bracken,
golden the sheaves,
rosy the apples,
crimson the leaves;
mist on the hillside,
clouds grey and white.
autumn, good morning!
summer, good night!

(traditional)


ginger gold apples from larchmont orchards, elmer, new jersey; found in this thursday's fresh food box. these are the first apples we've had since may (we always enjoy taking an apple break when the strawberries and blueberries come into season, as we live on them all winter long).

this is also the first morning since . . probably june, that we've had grits as it has been much too hot all summer long.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

saying good-bye

i met korrina in the rotunda at bellevue hospital to pick up our vegetable boxes together, and then we walked home to see hermione (she was off from work today).

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

a rainstorm and a movie day

 we had a heavy rainstorm today . . 



(if you stay with it long enough, you'll hear the thunder) . .

 chanda and i watched a documentary that i found in the library about baia, an ancient roman city in italy that is now underwater and which was a popular destination during the emporer nero's time. it's called nero's sunken city and you can currently watch it on pbs. i'm not sure how long they will keep it up for. what's funny was that just a few days after we watched it, an instagram user whom i follow, did a little film about it on her youtube page. she and her husband and friends, who live in positano, did a day trip to baia to snorkel over the ruins. you can see her little film about their excursion here.

chanda and i worked on our knitting projects while we watched. my project is titled "birds of a feather" and the pattern can be found in laine magazine, issue 2 (spring/summer 2017) (yarn is chelsea luxe merino and mohair), and chanda's project is a summer top from quince and co, titled "pippa," with quince and co's linen yarn.

Thursday, September 13, 2018

cousin maria visitis nana

 my cousin maria from arizona was in boston for a work conference, and so drove south to my sister's to have a visit with my mom.

 she has four grandchildren now, and always comes with photos to share.

 
 this one is of her youngest grandchild, philip, in his baptismal gown which our grandmother josephine made maria when maria was a baby. actually, it might have been made for grandma's own children: maria's mother and my father and their two sisters. i think our cousin joanne fixed it up for philip and maria and her husband, tom, flew to salzburg with it for the baptism. morgana visited philip and his dad, maria's son michael, in march, which was before the baptism in may. you can see that post here.

 all of us with mom . .

 my sister put together a delicious dinner that we had in the assisted living's private dining room for residents and their guests. she had soft foods that my mom could eat (my mom has lost her top teeth) which consisted of manicotti, soft italian bread (i took off the crust to make it easier), and antipasta with soft olives and mozzarella cheese and cut up ham and salami slices. one of the more difficult things to eat these days for my mom are bits of salad like arugula. it's easier for her to eat small bits of cucumber. she still has some teeth on the side of her mouth, top and bottom. it's not easy getting old!

 they're discussing a photograph of my dad when he was about two years old that my mom has hanging in her room. i'll try and remember to take a close up of it next time i'm in connecticut.

 picking out clothes for my mom for the next day when we'll take her to the dentist (oral surgeon) to discuss extracting the roots of the teeth that fell out.




 we weren't sure what this was all about . .

 nighttime reading material . . the carlos acosta book was very good, and it's been made into a movie.

 the next evening, after the dentist visit, we took mom out for dinner at a neighborhood restaurant. 

 it was a fun night . . 

and mom did very well with eating. she had meatballs and antipasta with us, and even italian bread without the crust again. for the time being we won't do any extractions, but we won't be getting her dentures either. neither dentist thought she was in a position to take care of them properly. both had experience with dentures getting lost at assisted living residences and nursing homes, and since she has memory loss, they thought she would forget that she can't bite into hard foods, like apples, which could cause problems. as long as she can be served soft foods, all should be well.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

red roses and cooking experiments

roses from the weekend's show . .


plum cake made with plums from last thursday's vegetable box . .

and salsa verde, made with tomatillos from the same box. i had never made this before. i roasted the tomatillos with an onion, garlic and a hot green pepper (no seeds, so it wasn't spicy), and added lime juice, cilantro and some sea salt after pureeing the cooked veggies. we had it with melted cheddar cheese on a corn tortilla for dinner last night.

Monday, September 10, 2018

strange tea

janet and i had tea at a new place on west fourth street: bao. the earl grey tea was very good, as was the bun. however, i found both a little strange as the tea was supposed to be sweetened and flavored with honey and lemon, but it only tasted like sugar, and the bun was black . . to be fair it was called a lava bun . . but i'm not a big fan of food coloring and that's the only thing it could have been colored with. inside was a sweet custard which i enjoyed (and, yes, it was orangy yellow, as if it was lava--i should have taken a pic of that . . ) very artistic!

Sunday, September 9, 2018

performance weekend

 chanda had two shows this weekend for km/dance music. i went to the saturday night show (pic above) and the sunday afternoon . .

 
with victoria and greg . . here we are heading to the theatre . .

 a backstage pic from her director . .

 heading home on sunday after the show . . 

 
 sunday night dinner: beet salad with spring mix and goat cheese, and leftover sausage and kale soup.

 here's korrina's selfie of the day: she was happy that it was, once again, sweater weather!

poem for a rainy sunday morning


the rainy day

the day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
it rains and the wind is never weary;
the vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
but at every gust the dead leaves fall,
and the day is dark and dreary.

my life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
it rains and the wind is never weary;
my thoughts still cling to the mouldering past,
but the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
and the days are dark and dreary.

be still, sad heart, and cease repining;
behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
thy fate is the common fate of all,
into each life some rain must fall,
some days must be dark and dreary.

by henry wadsworth longfellow (1807-1882)

Friday, September 7, 2018

breakfast and dinner with victoria

breakfast this morning was a kefir mango smoothie. chanda's has coconut flakes sprinkled on top.

our neighbor victoria has been back in town. she came over for dinner tonight and regaled us with stories about paris and shooting her film at a chateau just outside of orleans, france. she loved the people she worked with and really had a great time.

Thursday, September 6, 2018

coffee with korrina

 it was a warm day and a warm walk to bellevue hospital to get the vegetables and meet up with korrina. the air conditioning at little river cafe is always ice cold so i brought a sweater with me today, and my knitting (taproot magazine's summer rain shawl).

 korrina's shisui grows and grows . . 

tomatillos today . . i've never made tomatillo salsa before.

Wednesday, September 5, 2018

election day

 today was election day for me as since i'm going to be away for the actual event, i filled out an absentee ballot at the board of elections and voted a week early. i took the photo above when we were walking back uptown again, as i love seeing the empire state bulding's spire poking above all the other buildings as i walk around the city.

 i made sure to wear my "i voted" sticker . . which had a motif of the subway system on it.

 i enticed chanda to accompany me with the treat of stopping at the little owl cafe on our way home. it's in the "friends" building, and is a restaurant we've been wanting to visit for awhile now.

 this is strawberry rhubarb crumble with vanilla whipped cream. it was incredibly delicious.

i walk by here often on my way to soho, and it had been quiet last summer and all winter without the crowds of tourists we saw today. i was surprised that it was busy again, but chanda says that netflix is showing the friends tv show episodes again, so it's once again a popular place to visit.


i'll have to take a pic from the outside next time i go by.