dog walking, bookstores, dinner out and a documentary

walked sweet milly today . . 

waiting for her treat . . 

and then i went to peruse the books at mcnally jackson . . 

i was interested in looking at this book as i heard the author speak in an interview with brian lehrer on the radio. she quotes a line from a walt whitman poem as an opening to the essays, but doesn't include the full poem. maybe they couldn't get the rights to it? i'm not sure why this bothers me!

anyway, greg met me and we decided to try the georgian restaurant i walk by all the time on bedford street. 

i chose a salad that was described as having walnuts, but i didn't see any. the server said they were ground into the dressing . . which is a part of the cuisine of this area . . but this bothered me too. i don't think i was in the best of moods today! (i complained about these walnuts all the way home too.)

walking home . . 

chanda and i watched the last episode of the green planet . . 

wednesday recommendations

 i watched the documentary the seeds of vandana shiva this evening. it was very good and has a very important message about the need to take care of the health of our soil on this planet, the planet itself and of ourselves, each one of us . .  especially small farmers. you can access it at this link, and you can see a longer two minute trailer here.

saving seeds! (with sarvodayainstitute.org and navdanya.org)

 

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from dear world, a syrian girl's story of war and plea for peace (bana alabed), her mother writes:

 

"also, because we had some savings, we were lucky enough to be able to cope with the hardships of war in a way some other families could not. we were able to buy a generator and solar panels, and to stockpile food. with these things, we felt like we could hunker down and weather the storm until things got better.

but always, always the bombs would come again, and they would be even worse than before. the fear and despair would come crashing back even worse than before too, because we dared allow ourselves to believe it would be better this time, that the war would eventually end. it reminded us that our hope was a fragile as the first blooms of jasmine in our garden, and as easily crushed." (from page 57)

"we will always miss syria.every day you still ask when we can go home. i hope that day will come, that we will see a country that is rebuilt and a people reborn. that may be a long time from now, though. maybe you will have given me grandchildren by then. i will tell them stories about the war and how brave their mother was, how you never gave up and how you made it your mission to help people. how you spread a message of hope and peace." (page 199)

 

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and at the playground today . . 

 

it was such a beautiful day with a cool breeze and low humidity . . 

tuesday evening walk and a documentary

mama and papa goose and their goslings . .

watching one of my favorite documentaries: the cat rescuers of brooklyn.

sunday poem and celebrating earth day

near the end of april

near the end of april

on the verge of may -

and o my heart, the woods were dusk

at the close of day.

half a word was spoken

out of half a dream,

and God looked in my soul and saw

a dawn rise and gleam.

near the end of april

twenty mays have met,

and half a word and half a dream

remember and forget.

by william stanley braithwaite (1878-1962)

 

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zoom church begins with this song each week . .  

 

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.

a grey, chilly day

i sat with aurélien while kendall moved the car this afternoon. we sang and danced to black is beautiful, which made him very happy.

afterward i met marisa and we walked to the library where i returned a movie . . 

we stopped at merriweather on the way back, amd chanda made us a matcha latte and mocha . .

dinner was hakurei turnips, mustard mizuna and italian sausage . . 

and i watched a  documentary about eleanor roosevelt, streamed via cnn and the new york historical society.

the full harvest moon was very beautiful tonight . .

a rainstorm and a movie day

 we had a heavy rainstorm today . . 

(if you stay with it long enough, you'll hear the thunder) . .

 chanda and i watched a documentary that i found in the library about baia, an ancient roman city in italy that is now underwater and which was a popular destination during the emporer nero's time. it's called nero's sunken city and you can currently watch it on pbs. i'm not sure how long they will keep it up for. what's funny was that just a few days after we watched it, an instagram user whom i follow, did a little film about it on her youtube page. she and her husband and friends, who live in positano, did a day trip to baia to snorkel over the ruins. you can see her little film about their excursion here.

chanda and i worked on our knitting projects while we watched. my project is titled "birds of a feather" and the pattern can be found in laine magazine, issue 2 (spring/summer 2017) (yarn is chelsea luxe merino and mohair), and chanda's project is a summer top from quince and co, titled "pippa," with quince and co's linen yarn.

a car excursion, movie documentaries and one of my knitting projects

 greg and i drove across the new tappen zee bridge this morning to meet up with several of his work friends for a hike and a brunch.

 that's south nyack in the distance.

 it started out as a very hazy day, but thankfully cleared up for our drive into harriman park and lake sebago.

 we didn't go on the extensive hike his friends went on, as he's been having trouble with plantar fasciitis in his left foot. lately, he's been icing it and doing special foot exercises. i hope it  doesn't give him too much trouble in london.

this is the town of sloatsburg's public library. it's in a lovely old building, and as we were leaving i was going to ask the librarian a few questions about it, but two police officers came in at the same time and started questioning them about someone who was either missing, or a suspect in a crime . . i'm guessing. i felt like i was in a tv show there for a moment or two . . 

it looks like it was once a church . . 

it was the book sale sign that really got us to stop, but the sale collection was not very exciting, unfortunately.

 these documentaries are wonderful! eva recommended the st. peter doc, which chanda and i are in the middle of (it's so fun listening to david suchet!), and i just happened to come across tchaikovsky in my library while looking for st. peter.

 my current knitting . . (one of several) . . line weight purl soho merino wool yarn . . 

for their confetti scarf, a simple garter stitch scarf whose pattern can be found on their website.

i was going to use their cream/pink/yellow colors that they did for their sample, but they were no longer in stock, so i had fun picking out new ones. 

and here's the la bien aimée mohair yarn (in the colorway "yellow brick road") that i added to give it a little "pop."