ice cream date

 

morgana and i finally had our annual summer ice cream date with ellen today. we met her at 12:30 at chobani for soup and simit bagel sandwiches, and then walked to the new morgenstern's at houston and la guardia. ellen mentioned that one of her favorite flavors was burnt honey vanilla, which is what i had the last time i was here with ron and andy.

 

 i added chocolate to it, for a double decker cone. on our way to morgenstern's we passed the national geographic art gallery on west broadway which ellen took us into, and which had large, beautiful photos of lions, elephants, giraffes and vast vistas of africa. i'd love to take kathy and warren one day. ellen also shared a painting in another gallery of a copy of vermeer's girl with a pearl earring as painted at an angle on small discs so that one has to move to the side to view it fully.

september

 to autumn

season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

   close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

conspiring with him how to load and bless

   with fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

to bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

   and fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

      to swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

   with a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

and still more, later flowers for the bees,

until they think warm days will never cease,

      for summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

 

who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

   sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

   thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

   drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

      spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:

and sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

   steady thy laden head across a brook;

   or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

      thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

 

where are the songs of spring? ay, where are they?

   think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—

while barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

   and touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

   among the river sallows, borne aloft

      or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

and full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

   hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

   the red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

      and gathering swallows twitter in the skies. 

by john keats (1795 - 1821)

visiting connecticut with morgana

morgana and i drove up to connecticut to visit with my sister and brother-in-law. we decided to go to the hartford atheneum, where i hadn't been in many years and which morgana may have visited as a child, but had no memory of it.

 the wadsworth atheneum was named after daniel wadsworth, and was built in 1842 on the site of the wadsworth family home, whose personal collection of art contributed to the museum's first opening. the building also housed the hartford public library and the connecticut historical society, thus the word "athenuem" in its official title. as a public institution, it has hosted theatre and dance performances, and even sponsored the immigration of george balanchine in 1933 (whose first american ballet, serenade, was performed at the museum's avery theatre in 1934).

warren is standing in front of a painting by richard anuszkiewicz, (titled summer sunset reds), whose work i recognized from my visit in july at the whitney with my friend jeanette.

and guess whose work this is! sol lewitt! . . (remember? from mass moca in august.)

warren told us a story of a time when he had dinner here at the museum, in one of its rooms with all the paintings on the walls. he said it was amazing to eat amongst such artwork. i wish i had thought to take a photo of the room in which he ate. maybe next time i go . . !

yayoi kusama's pumpkin, painted bronze made in 2018.

the days, by thomas wilmer dewing (1884)

a turtle plate and bat plate: pottery, made in detroit in, about, 1905.

the lawrence tree, (a ponderosa pine) by georgia o'keeffe, painted when she spent a summer in 1929 at the new mexico home of d. h. lawrence (where she moved to, finally, in 1949).

isamu noguchi's bell child (unglazed seto white stoneware) 1950. it's modeled after the prehistoric tomb figurines haniwa, which i think one also sees in the studio ghibli movies (many of hayao miyazaki's films).

more sol lewitt . .

here we're in a maritime exhibit we particularly wanted to see (sailing on the sound) as it had a painting we all liked by julius leblanc steward, titled on the yacht namouna, venice, 1890.

afterwards, we drove home through wethersfield and stopped for ice cream at a place morgana remembered stopping at in the past.

it was too cold for me to have ice cream . . i had a cup of peppermint tea instead.

it was such a fun time, and we had fun remembering our last visit together (which you can see here).

the first church of christ in wethersfield, which has a beautiful bell choir we saw in 2017.

and this is a very blurry picture of the house that inspired elizabeth george speare's the witch of blackbird pond.

----

we came home today after boating on the lake in the morning. it was a beautiful day in the sunshine; morgana kayaked, kathy steered the long board, and warren and i paddled the canoe.

breakfast and cleaning house

sunday breakfast this morning was fried eggs, coffee with cream, orange juice and turkey sausage from the abingdon green market yesterday. we also read a poem about san francisco.

pluto always manages to knock down the tea towel i like to hang on the stove handle.

 it was also a cleaning day. morgana is always so good about helping us pare down the old things that have accumulated over the years. the funny thing is that for all the times we pare down, we still seem to have so much stuff!

deciding to look glum like chanda . .

 korrina used to make these beautiful hair ornaments for herself and as gifts for friends who danced ballet . .

and this lovely case was woven by tessa, a childhood friend of chanda's and morgana's. i let all three items go. they were very worn and i felt they couldn't be passed on to someone anymore. it's always surprising to me how physical objects can elicit so much sadness in me.

cat sitting minerva and lunch with marlene

 i went out early this morning to check on my friend kendall's cat minerva.

kendall had left the "feliway" plugged in so minerva was a little more relaxed. sometimes she can attack one's feet which is a bit disconcerting.

 morgana and i also met our friend, marlene, for lunch today at hudson hound.

 marlene teaches acting at the hb studio and taught morgana and chanda for many years. i met her in front of the studio and saw a few of her latest students: five very tall young men who tower over her! she says it's a fun class this year.

chanda got off from work in time to come say hello before we left the restaurant.

breakfast and cats, a new job and a home-brew tasting

it was so nice to have breakfast with morgana this morning, who's home to get a student visa before starting school in october.

we had scrambled eggs and chicken apple sausages, oat cakes and lemon curd.

before i post all the kitten pics, here's dear pluto lounging on the bed.

korrina had the day off and stopped by to see the kittens. we've been keeping them in morgana's room (after they pooped all over chanda's rug). we kept them confined for a few days, but they've now mastered the art of jumping over our room dividers. we keep the bedroom door closed, at least. we haven't integrated them with pluto yet, as they've been on medication for a cold (runny eyes).

 korrina with finn . .

little fir, on the left, and fallon.
 

 fir and fallon look so much alike that it's difficult for me to tell them apart at just a glance. fir is a little smaller and fallon has a chubby belly; fallon's facial hair coloring is slightly darker than fir's; fir is female and fallon is male.

korrina's selfie with finn.

 after hanging out with the kittens all morning, we visited chanda at her new job. she's working at a cafe called merriweather, and really loves her co-workers and boss, who is from australia.

 her boss's name is peter, and he came out to greet us and to say how much they're enjoying having chanda be part of the team. (you can see the cafe's website here.)

 chanda made korrina and i a matcha latte and detox tonic (the latter was for me; it was incredibly refreshing for a warm day and was made up of apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, cayenne pepper, fresh ginger, cinnamon and honey and sparkling water).

 morgana popped in after seeing a friend and had a cappuccino.

 afterwards, korrina and i walked to the bus stop to head up to the japan society, where she is a member and attends japanese language classes. this evening they were having a special home-brew beer tasting event, which we had bought tickets for.


 riding crosstown on the new 14th street bus . .


 at the event . . we heard a lecture about the different breweries and how home-brewing became popular. It was due to a bill signed by president jimmy carter in 1978 that lifted restrictions on home-brewing set during prohibition fifty-six years ago. (you can read more about it here, it's very interesting).

 korrina tasting a matcha flavored beer . .

 it was a well attended event with over thirty brewers represented. i began the tasting by noting down the flavor resemblances on the papers they had given us for each beer, but soon gave up when i ran out of descriptive ideas. i normally love stouts, but found i didn't love the stout brewed with oysters, and preferred the lagers instead.

 we also ate a fair amount of edamame.

 walking home past the chyrsler building . .