happy may day!

 

greg and i ate dinner out again tonight, at a place kendall recommended. i think it's only been open a few months. it's ukrainian and their food is delicious. i had a green borsch soup (with chicken, potato, hard boiled egg and kale) and greg had perogies (we brought some home for chanda also), and we shared a beet salad. i'm looking forward to trying some of their other salads and soups.

afterwards, we stopped by to feed minerva since the rest of her family are out of town for a few days.

may day

i ran a few errands today, one of which was taking a tiara and black character skirt to chanda's old ballet teacher at joffrey. it was nice to see her and we enjoyed catching up on each other's children and her students who studied with chanda.

chanda is giving treats to the cats. for dinner tonight i defrosted a tuna steak i had in the freezer which we ate with leftover scallops, sautéed spinach with garlic, and potatoes from muddy farm. right now i hear sirens wailing in the distance. we continue calling and emailing and the students continue protesting. 

flying poem

like a woman

hanging her laundry on the clothesline,

i hang my words

on the lines of my page.

heavy, frightened words,

spread fear in my room.

they shrink

when exposed to the sun

of the reading eye.

my words

dry up.

the next day,

my brother, tired of

gazing at those fainting letters,

throws the book 

in the drawer.

the sun sets behind

the eyelid.

the words in the drawer

swelter and stew in their sweat.

my little niece smells them.

she opens the drawer.

the words fly out.

the poem is free.

it lands in nests of migratory birds.

they sing it to the passing clouds.

by mosab abu toha, pp. 23-24, things you may find hidden in my ear (2022)

may day poem

here's a branch of snowy may,

a branch the fairies gave me.

who would like to dance today,

with a branch the fairies gave me.

 dance away, dance away,

holding high the branch of may.

may day

song: on may morning

now the bright morning star, day's harbinger,

comes dancing from the east, and leads with her

the flow'ry may, who from her green lap throws

the yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.

hail, bounteous may, thou dost inspire

mirth and youth and warm desire!

woods and goves are of they dressing,

hill and dale doth boast thy blessing.

thus, we salute thee with our early song,

and welcome thee, and wish thee long.

by john milton (1608 - 1674)

----

some pics from england and paris:

 donkeys in the countryside . . 

 filming with jenny on the trail . .

 morgan at work . . 

 jam from sainbury's . .

easter treats

sweet zara on patrol . . 

 victoria in her new mask . . 

a tulip along the seine . .

----

(rose photo and all paris photos by victoria; all u.k. photos by morgana)

on the east side on may day

i took the bus uptown along first avenue to meet korrina in front of the japan society where she has her japanese language class. it was an extra fun trip because it took me past the united nations. it's very rare that i go by here.

tourists waiting to pass through security . . 

 the secretariat building

the general assembly building, which also houses the delegates' dining room (which is exempt from city and state sales tax on the meals, as it sits on what is considered international territory).

korrina in front of the japan society.

we walked through tudor city, which sits on a little hill next to the un, and has beautiful views of the canyons.

it's a pretty neighborhood, similar to gramercy park and washington heights.

chanda had found a little cafe for us to try, but since it was a bit too little . . 

we decided to take the bus downtown for japanese food, which korrina was looking forward to having.

korrina made a cross-stitch bookmark for a certain someone's birthday . . i think she made the card too . .

walking by tompkins square park . . 

we ended up having a really good lunch at sharaku on stuyvesant street, which had a special until 4 pm.

my tempura came with soup and salad, plus three california rolls, brown rice and green tea.

 i think this was beef yakiniku.

it felt so wonderful to stroll through the east village on such a beautiful day.

we said good-bye at third avenue and she walked uptown to see brian and i walked to whole foods to pick out a special pacifica perfume scent morgana had requested for a birthday gift.

it feels strange to have warm weather again . . especially such warm warm weather! we've jumped from coats to t-shirts.

feelin' groovy on may day

hermione had her stitches taken out yesterday morning, and this morning she finally had the collar taken off. she's back to her old tricks and feeling fine now (like, not letting me make the bed because she could stay snuggled in it all day). (she has also started an extensive cleaning of her entire self; i suppose it was long overdue.)

may day on may third

i usually never buy lilacs as they're expensive, and i used to get armfuls of them for free from the colonel who lived on our block when i was ten. however, i'm not ten anymore and the colonel has been gone for years . . so . . i finally broke down and bought some lilacs yesterday. they smell so wonderful and look so beautiful.

 this is my april sock . . only one sock . . and now i've put it aside while i work on this:

another sock on size 1 needles (the april sock was on size 5). the yarn is by gregoria fibers, an indie dyer located in barcelona, spain. i'm hoping to finish it within the week so i can mail it to a certain someone . . hmmm . .

 on monday, may first, chanda and i went fabric shopping with a stop at the manhattan mall across from penn station as she wanted to try on sneakers. she settled on a pair of black converse and also picked up another black cotton sweat shirt from aeropostale (she lost the first one a year ago by leaving it at joffrey's long island city studio . . hopefully she has this one a bit longer). 

 we stopped at macy's to use the bathroom, and conveniently chose to use the one on the seventh floor by the pinkberry shop.

 here we're finally on 39th street in the fabric district (between eighth and seventh avenues) in front of one of our favorite stores: weaver's. she chose two yards of grey silk for the group modern dance piece titled fog. a third yard of a slightly darker shade was chosen from the store next door, amin's fabrics.

the days have been very warm and humid with intermittant sunshine.

dinner last night was fresh sole fish with cole slaw and steamed kabocha squash with angelica kitchen's tahini parsley dressing (i bought their cookbook years ago when greg and i first moved to the city).

and i made chanda watch disney's brighty of the grand canyon with me. it was one of my favorite books to read with the girls when they were little; brighty of the grand canyon, by marguerite henry.

a rainy may day

it was a very pretty rainy day today. greg and i were out early to take care of minerva who was her sweet self . . as long as we didn't pet her too much. 

she likes her space but is always happy to see us.

 chanda visited the sakura matsuri festival with our friend deychen at the brooklyn botanic garden . . the lilacs were in bloom also,

along with the azaleas and tulips.

visiting the bonsai . . 

and under the cherry blossoms.

 greg went to visit the whitney museum . . 

and i went home to work on this knitting project which has sat dormant for two years. miraculously i was able to figure out where i was and am now knitting on clue four. it's a "follow your arrow" knit-a-long project from knitwear designer ysolda teague. korrina and i began it several years ago. i don't think she finished hers either, though she did finish a similar follow your arrow project last year.

morgana sent pictures of her and her austrian family in venice. they're camping on the outskirts and yesterday they visited the fishing island of burano (where the women do a lot of lace work also, i wonder if she saw that).

 san marco in the distance . . 

maybe everyone has their own boat!

chanda and i walked to the michael's craft store when she got back from the cherry blossom festival. i wanted to pick out beads for another knitting project i'm starting with my friend janet. as we came back out of the store we noticed several fire trucks hurling by with their sirens blaring. we looked north up sixth avenue to see so many flashing red lights and sirens that it was a bit scary, especially when we looked up and saw a great black cloud of smoke beginning to unfurl above us to the northeast. chanda was worried that it was the restaurant eataly as they have so many big ovens, but we came to find out when we got home that it was a church on twenty fifth street, saint sava's. here is the new york times article. it's very sad and it was such a beautiful serbian orthodox historic church. only a few hours before it's parishioners had been celebrating easter. thankfully, everyone had left and no one was hurt in the blaze.