marshmallows and ravioli

 

the beautiful banner from san is currently between the bookcases . . though i might move it eventually to one of the windows.

the bakery where we usually buy a packet of marshmallows to have with hot chocolate at the holiday time has only been selling them individually. i finally bought three the other day for us.

so good!

and . . it's been so spring-like that the ice cream truck has been parking by the playground and singing its song.

we had one of my favorite dinners this evening: cheese and spinach raviolis from rafetto's with sautéed baby spinach and garlic.

a bit of snow

 

 we finally had a little snowfall. it was very pretty in the early morning, but i didn't get out until later in the day when it had started disappearing and the streets and sidewalks were already clear.

 

 

do you see the little slipper of a moon through the tree branches?
 

i spent a good part of the afternoon trying to clean out the vacuum cleaner so the brush would rotate again. greg helped me take it apart and i was shocked at the amount of dust and hair that had accumulated in hidden areas.

 

figaro was a little curious . .

 

screwing everything back together . . hopefully it helps!

 

this is figaro's first time taking over the comfy reading chair. it used to be jack's special spot, then madeline's . . and then greg finally claimed it . . will figaro give him a run for his money?

 

our evening hot chocolate with the dwindling christmas cookies.

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morgan is back in london and had whatsapp texted at 4 am that they had landed and the flight went well.

sunday morning poem, daffodils and dessert

wind

the wind was a care-free soul

that broke the chains of earth,

and strode for a moment across the land

with the wild halloo of his mirth.

he little cared that he ripped up trees,

that houses fell at his hand,

that his step broke calm on the breast of seas,

that his feet stirred clouds of sand.

but when he had had his little joke,

had shouted and laughed and sung,

when the trees were scarred, their branches broke,

and their foliage aching hung,

he crept to his cave with a stealthy tread,

with rain-filled eyes and low-bowed head.

by gwendolyn bennett (1902-1981)

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greg and i took a walk today to porto rico imports to get coffee before church this morning. it felt good to be out early when the sidewalks are quiet (though washington square was actually rather busy). it went up to 60, though the morning was cooler at 41 degrees. i spotted this cute little french bulldog outside the coffee store while taking a photo of the daffodils.

we had a book club meeting today at 4 pm and shared about what memoirs that we've read that have been meaningful or inspiring. i could smell the chicken cooking in the oven near the end of the call. i'm glad i had prepared it and not waited to pull something together at the last minute. above is a hot chocolate we decided to have for dessert as we had marshmallows from the little girl chanda meets after school on wednesdays. she had made them with her mom last week. they were good! i have actually no idea what goes into a marshmallow. i read ingredients on everything i buy, so it's funny that i have no idea . . i know there's sugar . . but what gives it that soft billowy texture? i'll have to make a batch one day.

babysitting and hot chocolate

 

it was a busy day today, with babysitting aurélien in the morning while kendall sat with her car, and then running errands to bed, bath and beyond, trader joe's and the container store (picking up water filter refills and a few christmas gifts and christmas chocolate and panettone).

 

in the late afternoon, janet walked with me to soho for more medicine for atlas (they're putting him on a different de-wormer medication), and we stopped at burdick's for hot chocolate . . (so delicious!)

i was tired when i returned home . . i'm not used to so much walking during these covid days!

thursday

the light was beautiful today, especially as it was reflected off the freedom tower when i was walking downtown to meet friends for hot chocolate at burdick's. 

it glistened turquoise, pink, pale purple . . 

and steel blue grey in the late afternoon. i had been in chelsea doing holiday shopping errands, and then after dropping two bags off at home, i walked to soho.

the young ones were in ellen's dance class while the moms and i had peppermint mochas and hot chocolate. we all felt festive as holiday decorations are up everywhere and everyone seems to be in a lighter frame of mind.

walking home the empire state building looked pretty lit up with white and red lights (the red is difficult to see in this photo).

at home i made a dinner that was almost completely orange . . maybe next week i'll make salmon with carrots and sweet potatoes, rather than chicken.

i had stopped at trader joe's on the way home to pick up a panettone for $4.99 . . we've never had it before and i wanted to give it a try . . the verdict is that it's very good, just a tad sweeter than the sophia brand we've had in the past.

election day and hot chocolate

 tuesday was an election day for us. actually, we have early voting now and could have cast our ballots beginning october 26th, but chanda, korrina and i opted to vote on tuesday. i always enjoy it as korrina comes over to visit before voting at our polling place, which is right across the street.

 on the ballot were several judicial candidates, five ballot proposals and three public advocate candidates.

greg and i rescued some hot chocolate mix from his mom's house and brought it all the way home with us. i've been having it at night now that the weather is cool again, along with ginger snap cookies.

tonight was opening night for the clown show. i take care of one of the clown's babies in an office upstairs from the stage, along with another young baby and that baby's grandmother. we bring the little ones down for the end of the show. both babies are about three months old, born within one to two weeks of each other. they're both very sweet and have been content and happy so far. this evening it helped that the other baby's four year old sister was present. both babies enjoyed watching her color in her coloring book and traipse about the office.

lunch with greg and a walk through downtown

 at 11:30 am charlotte and i were at joffrey to meet chanda and take the train downtown with her to meet greg for lunch at his workplace. this is the view of new jersey and the hudson river from his cafeteria window.

it was taco tuesday and since we all love tacos, that's what we had. we had fun checking out the snack area (they have popcorn, m and m's, and pretzels, along with coffee and water) and the magazines. time inc. was recently taken over by meredith corporation (this is really a very sad state of affairs for the time people, unfortunately), so several magazines have been added to the magazine take home area: better homes and gardens, cooking light, martha stewart, rachael ray and family circle. i wouldn't have minded looking at a rachael ray magazine, but they weren't currently available.

 after an hour, greg went back to work and chanda went to her physical therapy appointment. charlotte and i walked across the bridge to the new park just south of the 9/11 memorial. i had been reading about this park and was happy to finally be able to see it. the sphere, which is the only artwork to survive the september 11th attacks, was finally put in place near the memorial for people to see. it had been in battery park all this time.

it's a bit dented, but still intact, which everyone finds, justifiably, surprising. there's a wonderful new york times article about it here.

 charlotte in front of the freedom tower . . 

 i was trying to get the entire tower in the photo with her . . she's the dark figure in the bottom right of the pic above.

 we then walked to the national museum of the american indian at 1 bowling green in the old alexander hamilton customs house, built in 1902 - 7 to "house the duty collection operations" for the port of new york. after going through security with several grim and burly security guards, and passing through the beautiful roman dome, we slipped through a side door to start perusing the artifacts . . we kind of started at the end of the exhibit . . above is a central caribbean tripod vessel from ad 800 - 1500. we found the feet on these vessels very interesting and surmised that they must have been easy to place in a fire for cooking and heating.

 a figure of a chiriqui woman carrying a child upon her back, probably with a roboso, similar to what i used for korrina, morgana, and chanda. i did purchase the girls' robosos from a woman who brought the material back from guatamala. this figure is from present day panama.

 i do wonder why the figure was made. did they place them on their windowsills like i do with the many figures i own? is this naive of me to think? perhaps they were placed in tombs for the same reason i place them on windowsills? for company? do i place my figures on the sills just because they look pretty? or because i actually do imbue them with an actual life force that comforts me during the day? i suppose i don't give them the same strength to help me reach the next plane of existence, but there is a certain anthropomorphic sensibility . . and that's probably why i can't get rid of all those stuffed animals in a bag in the back room . . sometimes i despise stuffed animals as much as i despise balloons . . 

enough of this . .

 these jars were very interesting to me as they were painted with a centipede design. they're also from the chiriqui province in panama.

 at this point i got very restless and wanted to investigate the entire exhibit to see how extensive it was . . we walked through many rooms to get to the beginning which emphasized the central and south american native nations. it's a wonderful exhibit . . however, we both ended up sitting on a bench in a corner and i fell asleep . . and i think charlotte did also. when we finally came to, we decided we needed a hot chocolate more than another round of artifact observations (the rooms were very warm and soporific!).

 we walked from the tip of manhattan, all the way up broadway to l. a. burdick on prince street in soho and rewarded ourselves with one milk hot chocolate and one dark hot chocolate.

 charlotte was inspired to pick out chocolates as a birthday gift for her sister back home.

it was a fun end to a busy day.

hot chocolate at burdick's

 i walked to bellevue to pick up my veggie box at 1:40 (it was cold and snowy), dropped it off at home and then went out to meet sacha and her children at burdick's on prince street for hot chocolate.

 charlotte joined us after her choreography class with ellen.

there was a book sale in the bellevue rotunda and they had children's books and adult books for very good prices. i picked up three books for these two: one about michaela de prince, one about the olympics and the different cities that have hosted the games, and the favorite: a time inc. 3D book about animals.