cooking school studies, monday geometry and german homework

 korrina has been busy studying for an exam this week and also writing a paper, while working at the restaurant and the yarn store. unfortunately, all the activities have been taking a toll and she has a bad cold and feels very run down. she's been drinking a lot of echinacea tea, garlic tea and vegetable soups. hopefully it will all help and she'll start to feel better soon.

 "olive vine," or orange lentil soup with yogurt and sauteed baby spinach with garlic. we first had this soup at a middle eastern restaurant here in the village called "moustache," and then had a similar soup when we moved to brooklyn from a place called "olive vine" (where we would often go when the girls were little). ever since it's been our "olive vine" soup.

 i stayed home in the morning to work on my craft that i'll be hosting at our homeschooling craft fair. in the afternoon i met chanda at a cafe near her modern dance class.

today in her monday geometry class they talked about fibonacci numbers and worked some more on their five pointed star. 

 morgana sent pictures of the advent wreath her austrian mom (manu) made. she used a straw wreath as a base and wrapped different evergreen branches around it with wire. eva makes a wreath like this also. i could i guess .  . i just have to buy the evergreens. i can't go into my yard and pick them like everyone else! the other consideration is that our table is quite small, and the wreath can't be too big. 

 morgana received her box finally! she's happy to have the yarn and simple hat pattern korrina sent as she's tired (she says) of making pencil cases.

working on her german homework . .

monday's work and tuesday's teashop

in class today they reviewed their last week's lesson about the rose window and st. john the divine. they then discussed the different styles of architecture in the medieval period, focusing on romanesque characteristics and how it transformed into gothic (i.e. rounded arches changing into the pointed gothic style). they then talked about the pentacle, how it holds within it the five pointed star, and is a symbol of the elements of earth, water, fire, air and spirit. she is also supposed to practice constructing a perpendicular bisector to a line so as to know how to divide a circle into 4, 5 and 8 parts, and to inscribe a square, pentagram and octagon.

 katie has a window in her kitchen in front of which i enjoy sitting . .

 on tuesday i went shopping for household items for the senior housing apartment my mom and dad are moving into near my sister. i picked up a bright yellow garbage pail (the apartment is very dark and my mom has requested yellow objects to brighten things up), dish drain, baking pans, an electric can opener, a sponge mop and shelf liner paper. i then attempted to carry all of this home and of course failed miserably. luckily, greg came to the rescue with the car. he took everything back and i joined my friend for tea at a new tea shop she found on eighth street. they had silver needle tea which they served in glass pots and special handmade pottery cups. they have a buzzer for the steeping time (six minutes for the silver needle).

 the cookies were good, but we weren't as crazy about the cake. i think it was a little too sweet for us.

 the shop is called matsunosuke, and was founded by a chef named akiko hirano, who has several cafes in japan. it supposedly has only been open for two weeks, and will only last for four more months.

 

 it's right next to the new yogurt shop chanda likes to visit, where fresh yogurt is made each day in the back kitchen.

turning twenty one

 we celebrated korrina's twenty first birthday this morning . . 

 skyping with morgana . . 

 morgana remembers the birthday song we sing every year . . i usually change the lyrics each time as i never remember them exactly.

 batman sheets!

 greg ran off to work and we talked with morgana until it was time for her to go and teach her dance class.

 holding madeline up to say good-bye . . 

 and then i read aloud a little . . 

 while chanda continued to work on her rose window.

 around 1:30 i went with chanda to gaynor minden on 16th street. i looked at the children's leotards and she was there for a fitting. she received another free leotard! she owes another fitting for it.

 it's such a pretty boutique in a beautiful old building.

 here's one of their sketches they have in the bathroom (the rooms are so warm from the steam heat).

 in the evening korrina and i had a quiet dinner together at eataly. we shared a pasta dish (bucatini with eggplant and tomato sauce) and antipasta (cheese and salami), and a glass of wine for each of us since she's twenty one now.

 it's very cold again, though i hear it's supposed to warm up over the weekend.

 in front of the art display on the bottom floor of the flat iron building.

well, two birthdays down, thanksgiving and a homeschooling craft fair to go, and the christmas decorations are up in the local park. even though this time of year always feels hectic and chaotic to me, i enjoy it. now to try and get to sleep before midnight.

st. john the divine

 we visited the cathedral of st. john the divine today with the waldorf group class, an episcopal church on the upper west side. it's cornerstone was laid on st. john's day, december 27th, 1892. the design competition was won by george heins and christopher grant lafarge, who envisioned a romanesque - byzantine style church (seen today inside in the crossing, apse and seven chapels, each dedicated to a different immigrant group reflecting the times it was begun: spain, italy, france, the eastern mediterranean, britain, germany and scandinavia). in 1911 ralph adams cram became the architect and he constructed the nave in the gothic revival style, maintaining true gothic integrity by using only granite stone structure, and no steel or iron skeleton. today the building remains unfinished.

discussing the transept which was never completed.

 gothic arches in one of the seven side chapels.

 the stained glass windows are incredibly beautiful and were done in the original medieval technique, using sand and metal ash. the design and composition are also medieval, but the figures are contemporary, having been installed between 1920 to 1950.

 wednesdays and saturdays you can take a vertical tour, climbing up 124 feet along spiral staircases to the top, culminating in a terrific view of manhattan. i haven't done this but it think it would be fun.

 the church has a renowned textile conservation lab, and they alternate the tapestries that are on view.

 here svetlana is discussing the pilgrim's pavement, running from west to east. the side medallions depict important moments in anglican  history, as well as key pilgrimage sites. the central medallions depict miracles performed by jesus. this medallion commemorates the loaves and fishes story, when jesus fed the multitude at bethsaida.

 discussing the rose window and the four fold symmetry which reaches towards eight and sixteen directions.

 svetlana described the geometric design that shapes the rose window, and reveals the central circle in which the figure of jesus resides. the connections between circle, square and octagon symbolize heaven, earth and the mediation between them. you can read about this, here, in an essay by michael schneider titled, the geometry of the west rose window of the cathedral of st. john the divine.

everyone then sat down facing the rose window and began their geometric drawings, which they continued working on back in the apartment.

 the beginning drawing at the cathedral: inscribing a square and finding it's horizontal and vertical bisectors and it's diagonals which divide the circle into eight equally spaced points.

 heading back outside . . 

 to view the front portal created by stone carver simon verity.

 in true medieval tradition, local merchants and neighbors served as models for the figures. he also designed the heads and eyes to follow and greet you as you walk up the steps to the door. the figure svetlana is pointing at in the center is st. john the divine with paper and quill. above him sits jesus.

 the right (south) bell tower was begun, but never completed . . the left (north) bell tower was never begun.

 the church is built on morningside heights, one of the highest areas of manhattan, and in all aspects of it's design, it seeks to uplift, and raise the visitor towards heaven. 

 back at the apartment we had lunch followed by a small celebration for chanda's birthday.

 we had moon cookies baked with butter, honey, ground almonds and flour, as chanda means "moon" in punjabi and she was named for the half moon that shown through the window upon us when she was born.

svetlana requested a story from chanda and i from when she was small, as it is her belief that this is how we learn about and accept one another. so i talked about the moon and when she was born and chanda shared about xena and how she slept next to her with her head on chanda's pillow. svetlana then mentioned how important it can be to know someone from your childhood, and how different it is for her here in the states where no one knows her from that time of her life.

 after the class i went downtown with chanda and we sat in billy's bakery and i read from the fifth harry potter book (while she worked on her rose window drawing) until her modern dance class began.