how are the lilacs?

the lilacs are starting to wilt, but i've really enjoyed having them. i've been amazed that the cats haven't bothered them very much. cricket and zuzu would try to nibble at the leaves and flowers in the morning before they were fed, but would stop when i distracted them. i'll have to buy lilacs more often!

the current spring time nature table . .

end of summer nature table

i had let the dusting go so it was time for a major overhaul of everything on the piano. 

thus, here's the "summer's almost gone" nature table scene . . 

the last piece of carpet was cleared from chanda's bedroom floor and the parquet received a final cleaning and polish.

and she connected her new desk.

the floor looks very nice, though now it's (of course) covered with desk, dresser, bed and additional bookshelves . . 

i'll have to post again when all is sorted and straightened.

we spoke with morgana today and i found out that the baby cardigan (seen here) will soon receive its buttons (i left them for morgan to sew on) and that a hat is taking shape. it should be on its way to the recipient in the next few weeks. we watched the fourth episode of only murders in the building (season one). (i'm really enjoying it . . and even purchased joji locatelli's pattern for the sweater mabel wears in the first episode. it just came out this week. exciting!)

i also enjoyed fortnum and mason's russian caravan tea (brought back by chanda) and turkish delight (from chanda and morgan). 

i think there was something else i wanted to write, but can't remember. i'll have to add it later. it's time to stop staring at the computer screen now . . it tires my eyes!

monday with marisa and tacos for dinner

 
spring nature table scene . . 

marisa and i were supposed to go for a walk this afternoon, but we ended up having tea instead at her apartment. it was nice to visit and talk endlessly . . she had a slab of korrina's favorite blue cheese and also some very hot pepperoncini! 

dinner tonight . . i stopped at chelsea market and picked up fish and shrimp tacos for us.

monday projects and cat photos

and work on the late christmas gift continues . .

 

zuzu found the latest nature table arrangement very interesting (completed yesterday by morgan).

 

tonight's dinner was fresh tuna steaks and sea scallops from saturday's green market fish stand.

morgan has been running around; getting in last minute visits with friends, chanda and the twins (and also packing).

update on henri and school orientation

i think i'll have some sour cream coffee cake with my butter this morning.

so . . hurricane henri ended up down grading to a tropical storm and also shifted further east and didn't come ashore on long island. instead it rumbled into rhode island and knocked out the power for many new englanders. there were also some flash floods, but it wasn't at all as bad as it could have been, thankfully.

zinnia and goldenrod from the green market . . 

chanda has been having several orientation zoom meetings with advisors and fellow students . . she has an in person event scheduled for september, and there is an online zoom event for parents around then also.

 

the living room was busy today . . 

pluto keeps an eye on things . . 

i was doing laundry, dusting, vacuuming and organizing today . . clearing things off the bunk bed in the second bedroom (it's been a catch-all for many items during covid) for morgan's visit (whose plane arrives tomorrow late afternoon).

wednesday

here are some spring table photos . . 

i've felt very tired these past few days, and today i had a headache . .

perhaps i go to bed too late . .

autumn decorations

 i think i need to add the bigger pumpkins now to our nature table. when i put this together a few weeks ago, it was still very warm so i only put out the smaller pumpkins and the princess in the forest postcard. since it still felt summery, i preferred having a summery card. however, the days are finally cooler now, and it would be nice to have a more autumnal looking card out.

 our donkey, a fawn and mr. gnome.

 my frog from brooklyn general store, which i bought a few years ago. oh! well, more than a few years ago . . try 2011!!

and here's our fall leaf mobile which we made with a callery pear leaf, a white oak leaf and an oak leaf. i realize that i've forgotten the names for two of the leaves we used: the maroon one and the one directly above it.

chanda would always take care of decorating our windows. she's not as interested these days, and there's no little ones to take over the job or to pester her to help.

now it's november

november is a spinner

spinning in the mist.

weaving such a lovely web

of gold and amethyst.

in among the shadows,

she spins 'til close of day,

then quietly she folds her hands,

and puts her work away.

one of our all souls' day photos: aunt evie relaxing on the deck out on montauk in the '90's.

wednesday spring chores

spring is here and today i finally composted the dying plants on my windowsill and replaced them with daffodils that i bought from abingdon deli yesterday. they look pretty and it feels good to have it done, as i've been thinking about it for weeks.

 greg was home today and i dragged him into the kitchen with me to troubleshoot the oven. guess what? the oven decided not to smell like burning plastic after all and i was able to bake a soda bread, which i'm very happy about.

 chanda worked on the computer with math (khan academy) italian (duolingo) and a lesson page for chemistry. she also practiced the violin today and played a piece from last year, which was something else that made me happy today.

 we also listened to eva ibbotson's dragonfly pool with the audible app on my iphone. i don't know how we got started on dragonfly pool when we should be listening to jane austen or sarah orne jewett as part of a literature curriculum, but i love this story and am determined to listen to the end (which should hopefully not take too long).

 we had tea and soda bread while listening . . 

 and chanda did her hair for ballet . . 

 and i worked on my portland pullover (which i would like to do a separate post about).

 i also put up the whitsun mobile . .

  

and changed the nature table from king winter presiding over ice and snow . . 

to spring gnomes and shepherdesses and goose girls watching over their wooly and feathered friends. 

 dinner tonight was leftover shepherd's pie that chanda had made while i was away.

 and then we played clue!

and chanda won which she was very, very happy about (she also made us watch the movie inception about which i complained incessantly for being too violent but whose story was interesting).

poem for a sunday morning

the snow-storm 

by ralph waldo emerson

announced by all the trumpets of the sky,
arrives the snow; and, driving o'er the fields,
seems nowhere to alight; the whited air
hides hills and woods, the river, and the heaven,
and veils the farm-house at the garden's end.
the sled and traveller stopped, the courier's feet
delayed, all friends shut out, the housemates sit
around the radiant fireplace, enclosed
in a tumultuous privacy of storm.
come see the north wind's masonry.
out of an unseen quarry, evermore
furnished with tile, the fierce artificer
curves his white bastions with projected roof
round every windward stake or tree or door;
speeding, the myriad-handed, his wild work
so fanciful, so savage; nought cares he
for number or proportion. mockingly
on coop or kennel he hangs Parian wreaths;
a swan-like form invests the hidden thorn;
fills up the farmer's lane from wall to wall,
maugre the farmer's sighs; and at the gate
a tapering turret overtops the work.
and when his hours are numbered, and the world
is all his own, retiring as he were not,
leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
to mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
built in an age, the mad wind's night-work,
the frolic architecture of the snow.

even though we haven't had as much snow as last year, it has been consistently colder, with ice in the river. last year it thawed more often and the river stayed clear. this year there's not only ice in the river, but all the cars in the streets sit on sooty grey ice. nothing has melted. today it's supposed to snow again . . into tomorrow morning i think. if so, everything will once again look new and sparkling.

poem for a sunday

 we had pancakes this morning . . 

 along with our sunday poem which was robert burns' to a mouse: 

to a mouse 

on turning her up in her nest with the plough, november, 1785 

wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie, 
o, what a panic's in thy breastie! 
thou need na start awa sae hasty,
wi' bickering brattle! 
i wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
wi' murdering pattle!

i'm truly sorry man's dominion 
has broken nature's social union,
an' justifies that ill opinion
which makes thee startle
at me, thy poor, earth-born companion
an' fellow-mortal!

i doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
what then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
a daimen-icker in a thrave
's a sma' requet; 
i'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
an' never miss't!

thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin! 
its silly wa's the win's are strewin! 
an' naething, now, to big a new ane,
o' foggage green!
an' bleak december's win's ensuing,
baith snell an' keen!

thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste, 
an' weary Winter comin fast, 
an' cozie here, beneath the blast,
thou thought to dwell, 
till crash! the cruel coulter past
out thro' thy cell.

that wee bit heap o' leaves and stibble, 
has cost thee monie a weary nibble! 
now thou's turned out, for a' thy trouble,
but house or hald, 
to thole the winter's sleety dribble,
an' cranreuch cauld!

but mousie, thou art no thy lane, 
in proving foresight may be in vain: 
the best-laid schemes o' mice an' men
gang aft agley, 
an' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
for promis'd joy!

still thou are blest, compared wi' me! 
the present only toucheth thee:
but Och! i backward cast my e'e,
on prospects drear! 
an' forward, tho' I cannot see,
i guess an' fear!

discussing the line "of mice and men . . "

 chanda dusted off the piano and we fixed up our nature table.

 martinmas is almost upon us . . 

i've been wanting to do this for weeks so it felt good to finally accomplish it.

afterwards, i walked with chanda to her dance rehearsal at the mary anthony studio.

 mary's cat lounging on the divan . . 

oh! well, if you're going to take my picture . .

 so many mementoes . . mary anthony passed away just this year. she was 97 years old.

 in front of the desk is a picture of jose limon in the moor's pavane.

she only just retired from teaching last year. she was an amazing woman and you can read a little bit about her in a new york times article here (i like the photograph they include).

it was cold walking home this evening, so it was good to get back to a warm apartment. we had a nice dinner together of carrots, potatoes and a pork roast.