happy halloween

 

 poem for hallowe'en

hallowe'en lanterns swinging soft and slow,

hallowe'en lanterns filled with candle glow

gently shining candles, cupped in caves of rosy snow.

vegetable faces in a flickering fire

shimmer on the darkness sway and pause awhile,

on each brow a brightness and a star behind each smile. 

 

anonymous 

 

 ----

 

chanda was working today . . she and her co-workers dressed up in several costumes a customer brought by.

for dinner we had soup made with a smoked ham hock, collard greens, kidney beans and pototoes . . along with a homemade pumpkin pie. i don't think i've made a pie since last holiday season . .

and the second full moon of the month was looking particularly beautiful outside our window tonight. 

janet sent me a little movie of it from her roof top:

 good night!

a time for kindness

this was our governor's "deep breath moment" in tonight's email update:

 

 

the website for the movie is here, with how to get involved via volunteering, and how to have supportive conversations within our communities.

early voting

 

i was out early this morning to watch aurélien while kendall sat with her car (street cleaning day). the little one may not look too happy at this moment, but we were having fun. he smiles so easily and enjoys having me sing to him. he's also beginning to hold up his back when i place him on my stomach, propped against my knees. he's getting wonderfully sturdy and chubby.

this is the first presidential election that has had early voting . . all states are different in regard to when early voting begins. for new york state, it began last weekend and ends sunday. monday is off, and then tuesday is election day. there have been lines at most of the polling places every day this week . . except for today! it's been pouring and i was sopping wet by the time i met up with chanda and we walked over (after babysitting duty).

our early site was at st. anthony of padua . . we were ushered immediately into their large basement, set with so many tables and with so many helpful poll workers. even though there wasn't a line, the workers were in true nyc mode and the pace was fast! no lollygagging about! everyone was friendly, however, with lots of smiles being shared and a sense of the enormity of the situation hovering overall. we had a nice conversation with a worker while waiting to slip our election sheets into the computer. i shared that it was chanda's first presidential election, and she shared that it was her son's also (who voted via absentee ballot). many of the voters made sure to thank the poll workers for the service they're doing during this covid time.

here's the photo korrina sent me yesterday . . she had visited the same polling place before going to work.

all done and ready to meet ellen (she lives right across the street so we met her for brunch . . )

 

we actually ate indoors! i made sure to wipe everything down with a wipe that i carry around on me these days . . though i saw the servers clean the tables very thoroughly . . there also was only one other table with customers that was a good fifteen feet from us (and they left a little bit after we sat down), and there was air circulation from the servers going outside every few minutes.

chanda and i had oat milk cappucinos and ellen had a latte . . i think the main difference was the glass they served the latte in!

ellen was telling us about her visit to the audubon society in greenwich, ct, and about finding a philharmonic concert on youtube that her dad had performed in with leonard bernstein from january 31, 1960.  you can see that here, or just watch below.

 

he comes on at 1:27 and is all the way to the left of leonard bernstein (he has dark hair and a wide forehead). you can also watch igor stravinsky conduct his firebird suite at 40:09.

i couldn't finish all of it (!) and brought the rest home for tomorrow.

walking home . . i was such a wet mess by this time . . and was really looking forward to taking a hot shower and curling up with a book or my knitting . . 

the trees are so beautiful now . . 

i was glad i had cash on me when passing by raffetto's . . i was able to buy ravioli (roasted red pepper with mozzarella and basil) and a tomato/basil sauce . . so good!

there and back again

 

driving over the brooklyn bridge late sunday morning . . 

 

there were a lot of barges in the narrows. i've never seen so many at once before.

we made a rest stop in wantagh, as we sometimes do, and had to go to kwong ming to use their bathroom as the starbucks we usually patronize was closed, though workers were milling about. we wondered if they had closed because one of the staff had covid.

obligatory egg and spring rolls (greg had egg, and i spring).

we also stopped at the king kullen in bridgehampton for some groceries, though i brought quite a few with us this time. i bought salmon, as the fishmonger at our green market never has that, as it's not local. it was nice to have again, along with fresh mustard greens.

 

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monday . . 

 

without pluto around, yarn can live on the floor.

 

our lunchtime walk at hotel beach . . 

my dad used to work at this hotel, as an "after retirement" job. he did handyman work . . i think he enjoyed it because every day was different and he could assess what needed to be done.

 

back at the house and later in the afternoon, greg caught one of the roving turkeys (there's been a large group of them lately) prancing about on the deck railing!

 

it was really such a pretty grey and rainy day . .

 

i guess we had a big dinner . . chicken thighs with rice, some weird greens which i actually didn't like (greg ate them all), cheese and crackers and a can of refried beans . . just because it was in the pantry and i figured we should eat what was around.

 

----

 

tuesday: another beautifully grey, rainy day . .

i looked out the window in the morning to see several neighborhood deer relaxing very comfortably in the yard . .

my "turnip . . " i bought this on saturday thinking it was a turnip! i was rather surprised to cut into it monday night, and find a brilliant pink center. it was a watermelon radish. i sliced it for tuesday's dinner, and sprinkled it with some sea salt.

tuesday night sunset photos . . 

my favorite meal of the visit: tuna (frozen steaks my cousin had left), small red potatoes boiled and then fried in butter with parsley (as my mom would do - very german i believe) and cole slaw from the local deli (i love cole slaw).

 ----

 

wednesday: i cleaned and gathered all our things together for the drive home . .

i actually did most of the laundry on monday . .

 

i've been moving slowly on this moving forward wrap . .

 

i suppose all the days were grey and rainy . . i didn't mind it though, it seemed very fitting.

more yarn, happy to be living on the floor . . 

winding yarn for the next knitting project . .

breezy blue . .

and on the road after greg finished work . .

with a stop at hampton chutney for a masala deluxe dosa with peanut chutney . . it was a long drive home with lots of traffic. there were five accidents, with a detour! we were glad to finally be back and were happy to have our snack after unloading and finding a parking spot and carrying everything upstairs . .