a book party!

on the last minute chanda went with her friends to the book release for harry potter and the cursed child. it began at 8 pm at books of wonder on 18th street. they got there about 8:30 and had to wait in line to get a number which allowed them to wait in another line at 11:30 to receive their books at midnight (!).

as you can see, the store was bedecked with all sorts of potter paraphernalia: roadsigns,

posters,

 hagrid and dumbledore and . . 

owls! the tackapausha nature preserve brought their rescued owls in for the evening. tackapausha is located on long island and is a preserve i used to go to with my mom when i was growing up. it was great to hear they were there.

chanda said the owls were beautiful and the handlers informative and very nice.

even though it was so crowded, the owls were very calm.

our friend gaël with an eagle owl.

one of the handlers with a barn owl.

this adorable little fellow is a screech owl.

chanda, gaël and gabriel. i made sure to request this picture!

waiting in the owls, oops! i mean aisles and reading books. there were also magicians they enjoyed watching. chanda filmed some of them while gabriel and gaël informed her how each trick was done; natch. 

one of the magic tricks . . 

finally, it was time to fall into line according to one's number to receive the long awaited sequel to harry potter and the deathly hallows.

cinema verité . . 

voila! of course she's already started it and i'm sure she'll finish it today or tomorrow (i'm writing this the day after the release party).

this week

monday was the first day of chanda's waldorf coop class. i volunteered to prepare lunch that day, and it must have knocked me out as i was sick for the rest of the week.

 however, i felt fine on monday and enjoyed sitting by the window and knitting after lunch was cleared.

 it's a very pretty kitchen to sit in (the class is held in a friend's apartment uptown) . . 

 morgana came today to help me prepare lunch (and to see the class) and it was good she did, as i can never get this gas stove to work properly.

 homemade mugs . . 

during this first seven week block they'll study american history.

the first lesson was about the iroquois people . . i remember learning about them in my elementary and middle school days and morgana just returned from what was once seneca country . . the most western land of the six nations. when i was a young girl my parents often enjoyed taking me on drives through this area and i remember seeing long beautiful country roads winding past streams and farmhouses, log cabins and old woods and farms.

and then on tuesday chanda wrote up her final translation of virgil's sweet spring . .

 and also worked on her math . . along with the cosmic calculator workbook, she's been listening to lessons on khan academy.

 it's funny to have morgana working alongside again . . morgana is usually quite meticulous about the writing board she uses. here she found a piece of jelly stuck on the one she was writing which was probably a leftover from one of chanda's past snacks. of course there was no proof that it was chanda's snack from whence the jelly came . . 

 lunch today was homemade cream cheese from yogurt (i used the whey to make pickles) with cucumber and parsley on black bread.

 violin practice . . 

 around 4:30 i managed to crawl off the bed to my friend's house for a craft fair meeting. my friend enticed me by making ginger honey lemon tea . . 

 i actually nibbled on dark chocolate with roasted garlic on top!

 and some delicious organic grapes.

 we usually discuss half a million craft ideas . . but today we discussed only eight: paper globes, cinnamon sticks with bows, candles with cut-out wax designs, gift tag printing, clementine clove balls, acorn people, picture frames made out of branches and small clothes pin clips, and wet soap felting.

that evening after ballet class (7 pm), chanda met morgana and they walked to eighteenth street . .

 to books of wonder . . 

to meet the author brian selznick who has a new book out called the marvels. (our friend camille went along also).

(the book has now been put away for christmas).

they're big fans and we have two other books of his which happen to be historical novels, wonderstruck and the invention of hugo cabret (which was made into the movie hugo by martin scorsese). 

here he's telling them that they both have very ancient and strong names. 

 yesterday, thursday, i felt a bit stronger but still had a pounding headache when i bent down too far or came up too quickly after reaching for things . . strange. 

 korrina and i visited hudson cafe in the late afternoon . .

 to sit and talk and knit together . . then she ran off to her knitting group at la casita in brooklyn which she hadn't visited in months (having been too busy working every thursday).

 it's been so warm . . 

 every day it's sunny and clear . . new yorkers are appreciative but also very ready for cooler fall weather . . 

dinner last night was broccoli rabe (greg's favorite) with bionaturae's gluten free pasta.

meeting a movie star

chanda and i walked to books of wonder today, to get a birthday gift for her friend. we arrived around 3:30 and i looked around the store wondering why so many people were there. it must be a book signing, i thought, but i wonder who? "who" turned out to be julie andrews, and chanda was excited. she was at the store to promote a new children's book she co-wrote with her daughter. we bought the book and chanda received number 70, so we waited around for her group to be called. it went rather quickly. she said both ms. andrews and her daughter were very nice and asked her name, age and if she lived nearby. it was all very organized and chanda said she didn't even hand the book to ms. andrews. a man took it from her, opened it to the correct page and placed it in front of her to sign. the fans that were there were dressed up in spring and summer dresses and nice pants. many were very emotional and excited to be meeting her. one of the organizers found it all very moving, "i love fans!" he exclaimed to me as he hurried by for the 10th time between the exit, the cash register, and the table where the authors sat. yes! and they sold many many books that day!

here's my pysanky egg . .

and these are the bracelets morgana and chanda made for the twins they babysit, tsamaret and moriah. it was their birthday last week and the bracelets were wrapped today to be dropped off on morgana's way to her guitar lesson.

the boxes are cute . . we found them in a toy store on 91st street on the upper east side near their ballet rehearsals.

these are the books we've been reading about ukraine to go along with our pysanky work. ukraine has been divided many many times by austria-hungary, the ottoman empire, russia, and even poland. they finally achieved independence in 1991. they are the largest country in europe!

pancakes, pink hyacinth and babysitting

we made pancakes this morning from a mix i actually bought online! i've bought cutting boards and a glass teapot from the natural lifestyle website (natural-lifestyle.com) and a few weeks ago i decided i would try their pancake mix and porridge mix. the pancakes were very good (with butter and maple syrup) and are a gluten-free combination of corn, barley and brown rice flours. cinnamon and lemon rind give it a nice flavor. i have barley flour sitting on my counter, so i'll probably try putting it together myself one day. it was actually not easy finding barley flour. my coop doesn't have it on the shelf. and i tried grinding it in my blender . . ha! no. doesn't work. i need a flour mill. hmmm. i can't even remember where i found this barley flour. but i do know that i had to try several health food stores before it showed up.

the hyacinth in the courtyard is looking so beautiful . .

morgana babysat this afternoon and chanda and i joined her for the latter part of her time with them. chanda is reading to oona and morgana is talking to celéne while eating some soup that i brought her.

(sigh) two year olds are so adorable, and oona, her five year old sister, is a delight.

chanda is reading a book about a cat . . no a chihuahua . . about a cat who thinks he's a chihuahua. something like that. i'll have to read it myself one day.



afterwards, morgana took them to meet up with their mama before she went to ballet class, and chanda and i went to third street for chanda's chorus class (after dropping books off at the library). we had chicken and potatoes and green beans for dinner. it was a nice warm dinner for a very cool day. it was 20 degrees cooler than yesterday. chanda and i shivered on the way home in our sweaters. it was wonderful!