a walk in the park

we met our friends by central park this morning.

it was an incredibly grey and brown day . . 

but also incredibly beautiful . . the air and the trees felt so clear and different since it's the fifth day of christmas and we were all in a holiday mood.

coffee was the order of the day. we had gotten ours at joe on columbus avenue, but our friends bought theirs at the le pain kiosk in the park.

sweet nutmeg . .

chanda fed the birds some of the crumbs from her muffin. they were all very plump from eating everyone's pastries!

she was having a lot of fun . .

(passing by the alice in wonderland statue)

and morgan was having a lot of fun walking the dog.

heading south on fifth avenue, past the zoo.

morgan and i said good-bye to our friends at 59th street. they walked home westward, chanda went home via the subway, and we decided to see some of the holiday windows. (olga had left earlier for a lunch date in westchester.)

bergdorf goodman's colorful windows.

we walked downtown past sak's fifth avenue's windows (which were very sweet with drawings by school children which they then expanded) and over to madison avenue to escape some of the crowds. we walked all the way home, passing through madison park to 23rd street and stopping at trader joe's for groceries (including three boxes of savory parmesan pastries, frozen shrimp and sparkling cider for new year's treats).

we also stopped at the donut pub for boston cream donuts. i shared mine with greg. my favorite donut is actually a chocolate cream filled one, but it's rare they have that one.

we also had a lovely package from san and family awaiting us (such pretty wrapping!) 

the best grocery bag (it has wonderfully wide straps which makes it so much easier carrying everything home) and special holiday coffee.

and a special book with inspiring and philosophical words of alpaca wisdom. thank you so much, san, it was a festive fifth day of christmas afternoon.

our dinner of holiday leftovers . . 

and dessert with tea and a card game (with chanda's new cards).

figaro has the funniest sleeping positions . . 

(the suits were different shakespeare characters)

sunday's adventure

aurélien came over sunday to meet the kittens.

he had fun seeing the photos i took on my camera . . 

he found the kittens very exciting and was quite vocal in his delight. they found him a little intimidating, but he was unconcerned about their hesitancy and crawled happily around the living room investigating everything . . very much like the kittens!

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at 2 pm greg and i began our biking adventure uptown to the migrant kitchen's "housewarming" on the upper east side in yorkville. it was to begin at 3 pm and we biked cross town to first avenue, and then up the bike path to 74th street.

 

to celebrate the opening of their first brick and mortar store, they passed out free lamb empanadas, humus with vegetables and chips and a grilled chicken sandwich (korrina's contribution: citrus and herb marinated chicken on a savory bun with watercress, avocado, house-pickled cucumber and garlic whip). everything was incredibly delicious! seriously! the food was so good . . i can't wait to go back. they were also handing out cucumber mint lemonade and coffee. since it was halloween the entire neighborhood was out and everyone was enjoying the fare. it was two hours of eating and talking with friends and local folks while more food kept coming out of the kitchen to replace the quickly disappearing plates on the table.

 

the little girl was the daughter of one of the cooks and she was so helpful and smart.

 

(the local police officer checking out the good food)

i had texted our friends ron and andy to meet us as i knew they would love the food and the fun. it was such a great time. we were also able to meet josh's mom since she lives just one block away from the new space.

oh . . and there were cookies too! 

 

these two little ones were happy about that.

 

we received a tour of the kitchen . .
 

it was very compact. it's amazing at how much can be accomplished in a small nyc space!

discussing how the commercial rents had come down which made it possible to open a store.

the happy company . . 

 

and then it was time to say good-bye and head home . . 

we walked west with ron and andy towards central park and passed so many families dressed up in costume. it honestly felt like the whole city was dressed up.

stopping for a photo in front of several halloween decorations that ron liked . . 

 i find this photo of me so funny because i think i'm starting to look more and more like my dad.

(photo by ron)

the sun was beginning to set. we walked downtown to 43rd street and over to tenth avenue where we said good night to our friends and hopped on two citibikes and rode along tenth to our neighborhood. we had difficulty finding empty bike docks and had to search around for awhile. it was like trying to find a parking spot, but we finally succeeded and i was so happy to fall into bed (after feeding the animals of course).

(it was such a fun day.)