by day the blue will pale down into white where it touches the white of the land, after sunset it has a new circumference-orange, melting upwards into tenderest purple. but the core of blue persists, and so it is by night. then the stars hang like lamps from the immense vault. the distance between the vault and them is as nothing to the distance behind them, and that farther distance, though beyond colour, last freed itself from blue. -e.m. forster (a passage to india)
greg had the first dose of his pfizer vaccine today and i accompanied him to the javits center. no photos or videos were allowed so this is the first pic i took after we left the main area. we were amazed at the vastness of the place, and also impressed with the set-up. it was a very organized and smooth visit, with cordoned off lanes and arrows upon the floor showing you where to go, and workers and national guards personnel making sure you didn't get confused. (i have an appointment in may.)
chanda and emily made matzoh ball soup for dinner this evening and it came out so well . . so delicious. i really enjoyed it.
last week i discovered that i had never posted about greg's and my day spent on the boat with my nephew in florida during our trip last october. you can see it here. i'll try and post the rest of that trip soon, also.
ha ha . . that wasn't last october - last october is part of the pandemic limbo - it was october of 2019.
on the spur of the moment, greg and i decided to have an early morning bike ride.
we rode to chambers street and looked out over the river. we stopped at a place we don't usually stop at, and were treated to a plaque with information about frederick douglass. it was at this approximate location that he landed on the shores of new york on september 4, 1838 . . one hundred eighty three years ago . .
it was actually rather cold this morning. i had dressed in only a sweater and a down vest and no gloves (which greg was smart enough to wear). my hands felt frozen and numb on the ride home, and i also had trouble with the citibike gear. it was stuck on the hardest to pedal, and after climbing the stairs into the apartment, i felt physically exhausted. i think i'm very out of shape, and need to ride more often.
we also had a family zoom call today. it was short as korrina was out with friends for her day off, and morgan was traveling and unable to phone in. greg was fooling around and zooming from his computer while chanda and i were on her computer.
another batch of letters went out to arizona . .
i made a roast chicken this evening, with carrots and potatoes; which i haven't done in a while . .
do you see the heart shaped potato, next to the carrots on the plate? (from our local farmer at the green market - muddy farms.)
and to celebrate earth day this morning (which was actually thursday), the first unitarian choir sang ombra mai fu (largo from xerxes, an opening aria from an opera by handel):
we also sang blue boat home again, like we did last year . . here's the author of this version, peter mayer, singing for last year's earth day. (the tune is a hymn passed along through the years - known in the christian church as alleluia, sing to jesus, written by william dix around 1885).
though below me, i feel no motion,
standing on these mountains and plains.
far away from the rolling ocean,
still my dry land heart can say,
i've been sailing all my life now,
never harbor or port have i known.
the wide universe is the ocean i travel,
and the earth is my blue boat home.
sun, my sail and moon, my rudder,
as i ply the starry sea.
leaning over the edge in wonder,
casting questions into the deep.
drifting here with my ship's companions,
all we kindred pilgrim souls.
making our way by the lights of the heavens,
in our beautiful blue boat home.
i give thanks to the waves upholding me,
hail the great winds urging me on.
greet the infinite sea before me,
sing the sky my sailor's song.
i was born upon the fathoms,
never harbor or port have i known.
the wide universe is the ocean i travel
and the earth is my blue boat home.
greg and i took a walk to merriweather cafe afterwards . . passing all the redbud trees which are now bloooming . .
we both ordered the "big brekkie" which we took home to eat . . (that's chanda and co-worker chris behind those masks)
the beaver believers documentary was reshown this evening . . i watched it again and chanda joined in also. they had a trivia game at the beginning which was fun, and i thought we did rather well.
last night i casted on for a knitted pillow cover using the grace pattern by denise bayron. she's hosting a knit-a-long which will meet again next friday - so this is what the large skein of yarn in this photo is for. i picked up this skein of bernat baby blanket from michael's craft store yesterday. (i had a nice walk to strand books to pick up a copy of laudato si, and then up to broadway and 25th street to pop into rizzoli's to check on a specific italian cookbook - just looking -, and then crosstown to michael's.) this morning was the usual walk to the green market for me, and then coffee and pie while listening to a creative knitter's zoom meeting.
at 1 pm greg and i were out the door for a visit to the whitney museum (you make appointments these days for museum visits). we had listened to a lecture about their new exhibit of julie mehretu's work a few weeks ago.
her work is extremely intricate, overwhelmingly intricate . . she works often with large canvases upon which she will sketch architectural renderings of cities over which she will paint or draw with beautiful fine lines. many of her pieces also include photographs of social justice situations - civil war - (the detention facilities in texas, refugee camps, fires in california and myanmar, etc), over which she paints with dark blues, browns, greys and black, and then tiny pinprints of brighter colors. afterwards, she seals the paint in with a coat of acrylic, giving the canvas a smooth, shiny and plastic finish. her work prompts profound thought and feeling.
afterwards, we walked up to the eighth floor to see the exhibit of the photographer dawoud bey, which i loved (he comes on the heels of the kamoinge workshop, which we just saw in november).
and then to the museum's outside deck . .
and then to fed ex so i could make a copy of the pillow pattern i'm working on, and then back home via abingdon square . .
never underestimate the keen eyes of the neighborhood dogs . .
we woke to cold weather (36 degrees) and news of snow north of us. this photo shows how the day felt, but my other photos of tulips and green trees belie the reality. i had made plans to meet sacha (we haven't seen each other since fall of 2019 because of covid) at moustache, a restaurant on bedford street. i pulled on long johns since i know how cold it can get sitting at an outside cafe table.
moustache's food is so good . . i had moussaka and sacha had spinach pie, both of which we shared. (it was also very windy, and gusts would sporadically blow through, shaking the awning and plywood panels!)
we had baklava and coffee for dessert . . we had so much to get caught up on and talked nonstop.
(london update: morgan took a train to see jenny who has been at her family's house outside of london . . we're glad they're in a safe place and able to breathe calmly after the scary events of last night).
after walking sacha to the train and saying good-bye, i stopped by father demo square. i was struck by how disparate the scene felt to me. i was so cold, and the trees so green and they are two things that normally do not go together in springtime nyc!
looking east on grove street towards buvette, a cafe which is always busy.
still on grove street, looking west towards hudson street and the corner which i turned left at for the health food store.
this evening's best friends event was simply a friendly get together where we shared personal photos and movies from when the soho center was open (it's currently getting ready to re-open) and of our own pets. several attendees remembered when pluto was in the kitten clinic at the center and were happy to see him again.
it's been volunteer appreciation week with best friends, so meetings have been scheduled for each evening. i missed the vegetarian cooking lesson monday evening, but joined them for the documentary the champions yesterday evening. it was fun to watch with the volunteer and staff group. many have been to the best friends sanctuary in utah, and one person had met a few of the victory dogs when there. it's an inspiring movie, though sad to hear how people abuse dogs by forcing/training them to fight. the movie focuses on the rehabilitation of the rescued animals, and the love surrounding the families and the center who have welcomed these dogs into their homes. i highly recommend watching it. it's $3.99 to rent. there is no violence in the film (they don't show the dogs fighting), but they do show a bit of the compound from which the dogs were rescued (along with the dogs being evacuated from that space), and that might be frightening for younger children. you can decide if it's right for your family by watching the trailer.
this evening's zoom event was salsa and charleston dancing, which was a lot of fun, and then i joined greg for a meeting of our coop about selling a garage the coop owns, and other matters. this was amusing also as not all of us handle zoom very well and many kept forgetting to unmute themselves when speaking.
i then wrote out more letters with the sierra club while having dinner with greg, and chanda joined us when she came in.
around 10 pm, morgan called us with the frightening story that someone had punched a hole in their kitchen window, crawled through, collapsed on one of the chairs saying that the police was after him, and then ran out the front door. jenny was away, as was the upstairs neighbor. the second neighbor didn't answer his phone, and neither did two friends - it was 3 am in the morning there. we all stayed on the phone together and chanda helped talk morgan through getting dressed to go out for a walk to the precinct. when morgan opened the front door, there were the police with the young person who had broken in, along with the person's guardian, who took responsibility for the broken window and promised to have it fixed. the police took down a report and morgan went with them to the precinct to stay until the sun comes up (and received a welcome cup of tea, too). this is all very crazy.
