friday night

waiting for their dinner . . 

 

i was at the center again today . . ridley was happier because jack was far away from his favorite perch so he could nap in peace, and fluffy had a new friend named sailor who was as good-natured as he.

our dinner . . salad, chicken and spaghetti squash with tomato sauce and parmesan.

 

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and we heard from lisa-lou . . she wrote that she was back in paris and was sitting on the steps of her favorite bridge, contemplating her exciting times in nyc and florida. in addition to seeing the turtles at the loggerhead marine life sanctuary, she went for a boat ride in the everglades and saw many more alligators (!).

cat shenanigans on election day

 

i put this photo up on my instagram page and labeled it "double trouble."

 

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korrina and chanda came over for breakfast after which we all visited our polling place (ps 3 this year)  . . 

where we ran into kendall on her way out.

chanda wasn't feeling well and worried that she had covid as her friend had tested positive for it just yesterday . . 

afterwards, i did some grocery shopping with chanda, morgan went to a dance reherasal, and korrina visited the wine store and then met chanda and i at the butcher shop.

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in the evening i visited with kendall and janine:

and with minerva as she went on her hallway rounds . . 

aurélien was feeling a little under the weather today also.

good night minerva.

treats

 morgan and i took the kittens for a check up at our local veterinarian. i was a little worried about cricket since he's been a bit picky about his food and much slower at eating than his sister. both of them have their adult teeth coming in, and cricket's gums are a little inflamed. afterwards, we stopped for ice cream at van leeuwen on west 10th street. i pass it all the time but rarely stop . . and they have such good ice cream! today i had honeycomb and chocolate, and morgan had pistachio and strawberry.

back at home cricket decided to climb up to the topmost shelf of the bookcase.

an autumn poem on sunday morning and lunch in queens

nothing gold can stay

nature's first green is gold,

her hardest hue to hold.

her early leaf's a flower;

but only so an hour.

then leaf subsides to leaf,

so eden sank to grief,

so dawn goes down to day

nothing gold can stay.

 

by robert frost (1874-1963) 

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we had several bins of korrina's books and momentos that we decided to bring out to her this afternoon. morgan came along and we had lunch at a local diner. it was a bit rainy, warm and humid.

morgan had a florentine omelette (spinach and feta cheese) with home fries and i had huevos a la mexicano (rice and beans and corn tortillas with scrambled eggs, cheese, onions, hot green peppers and tomato). the others had sausage, egg and cheese on a roll).

 

 

it was quite a grey day.

greg's favorite water vendor

 

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back at home morgan finished up the special pepper recipe lisa-lou had started. one day when she was here, she had bought five red peppers, shallots and olive oil. we roasted the peppers earlier this week and i peeled them all, and now morgan sliced them and layered them with the shallots, garlic and herbs . . varying each jar. they look delicious!

 

 

 

and here are the cats being very interested in what morgan is doing . .

 

what could be in the oven? something for them?
 

no, i don't think so, but, hopefully, morgan is putting food into their bowls now.

at the green market, rambunctious cats, and putting up a window curtain

composting . . 

secrets . . 

 

(brussel sprouts)

waiting in line at the dairy farmer stand . . (milk, yogurt, butter, cheese)

 

inspecting the green market produce . . 

cricket's furtive wish is to be a bat . . 

curtain installation . .

waiting for the refrigerator door to open . . 

all soul's day

man was made for joy and woe;

and when this we rightly know,

thro the world we safely go

. . joy and woe are woven fine

a clothing for the soul divine

under every grief and pine

runs a joy with silken twine . . 

from auguries of innocence

by william blake (1757-1827)

visitors

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and for dinner morgana made fried green tomatoes with cornmeal (a recipe i've always wanted to try, especially since we currently had several green tomatoes from our friends' garden in connecticut) and i sautéed flounder in butter, flour and herbs . . with leftover hakurei turnips. (lisa-lou left early this morning at 6 am for newark airport; greg accompanied her to new jersey transit at penn station so she had help with her suitcase. she texted a pretty photo of the beach as now she is in florida!)

halloween and the kittens

 

here's the pumpkin pie we made last night. i thought we'd have some before heading out, but that never happened. morgan and i planned on leaving about 9:30 to meet chanda by her school in order to pick up the cat carrier (with pluto out of the apartment i don't have many pet supplies around . . such as the cat carrier and a kitty litter scooper) (lisa-lou left after us to visit south street seaport) . .

 

so we left on time but managed to walk further than we intended and had to retrace our steps . . maybe we were just a wee bit excited?

destination . . 

josé and alice were at the cafe and helped us get the kittens into the carrier. josé kept checking fern to make sure we had the correct cat as there was a new one who looked very similar.

and scary the cat made sure all was well too . . (there were three cats named spooky, scary and skeleton).

they were very content and didn't meow through the whole walk home.

we acclimated slowly as suggested by the cafe staff, and settled in the bathroom with beds and water while they sniffed about.

 

but they were investigating the living room in no time . .

watching out for the vacuum cleaner . .

intrigued by the birds on the fire escape . . 

greeting chanda . . 

getting comfortable on the cat tree perch . .

and on the bed by the window . . 

nap time.

 

 

ready for halloween night . .
 

 

lisa-lou got stuck in traffic on the bus due to the halloween parade and then walked quite a ways looking for an open cross street to get past the crowd and so arrived late for dinner. it had also started to rain . . it was a tiring end to her visit, but also fun to see everyone in costume and to see the puppets along the parade route.

early tomorrow morning she flies south to florida for a relaxing beach visit with a friend. it's a well deserved rest after all the sightseeing she's been doing here.

 

it felt strange going to sleep with cats in the house . . 

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neighborhood halloween photos taken by morgan: