and it's spring

the daffodils are finally blooming at st. luke in the fields.

over the city noises of car engines, people talking and that machine hum, is a robin tweeting . . or singing . . or talking . . (however it appears to you).

i think the official moment for us was 5:01 am yesterday morning. happy spring.

vernal equinox

 purple crocuses are mute 

witnesses to the mockingbird's morning song

to the sun.

spring!

yesterday was the vernal equinox, and today was a snow day. More specifically, it was another nor'easter. we've had one each week for four weeks. this week's storm was called toby.

 here's toby hiding beneath my car during last week's storm (winter storm skylar).

 it was dark enough this morning for a candle during breakfast.

chanda worked on her mathematical thinking coursera class before running of to a ballet lesson at steps with a new teacher she had never taken with before: daniel catanach. she said his combinations were quick and fun and challenging.

spring equinox

 it was a very grey first day of spring . .

with lots of sooty snow still lying about.

alternate side parking was not suspended for tomorrow, so nighttime saw greg and i outside attempting to extricate the car from a lot of ice.

a person doesn't need to haul the snow away, you just need to break it up so you can drive the car over it!

on the way back upstairs, greg rolled up a big box of craft items that used to belong to grandma boo, musa iona piper, greg's great grandmother and chanda iona's namesake. greg's cousin wrote a few months ago asking chanda if she and her sisters would like their great great grandma's crafting supplies. it'll be interesting to open the box with her and korrina.

 london seems to have been just as grey for the first day of spring. this pic is taken outside of pineapple dance studios where chanda went for a class with teacher roland price who once danced with the royal ballet. a friend of her's had just been there last week for a class with him while she was passing through town.

a pretty neighorhood photo, but i'm not sure what type of tree this is.

kensington palace.

i love this pic of morgana with her friend molly.

 they also visited the orangery for tea today.

 such a pretty place. i love the light from the long windows on the left.

beautiful afternoon

the sun came out and dried up all the snow . . . 

my mom and i visited my dad and then had dinner at whole foods . . delicious chicken soup which she really enjoyed and then homemade root beer floats. we bought a bottle of maine root beer and two small haagen dazs coffee ice cream cups and mixed it all at the table. clever, eh?

funny kind of spring morning

spring equinox and palm sunday

chanda went to church with her aunt and uncle while greg and i visited with my mom.

mom felt a bit under the weather so she took it easy today and stayed inside and rested. 

lunch with greg before visiting my dad . .

it's been a grey first day of spring and it's supposed to snow tonight. it snowed last year for the equinox also.

poo poo the dragon! i never heard of poo poo before. i think i missed out on reading some fun children's stories. 

the book was published in the 70's. i could tell. i opened the book and said, greg, this book is from our childhood.

a cozy book nook at the hospital. 

while sitting with my dad i was able to finish my sock. i just need to sew up the toe.

covering the budding daffodils to protect them from the mean snow that is predicted to fall tonight.

my sister likes blue things . .

first day of spring

(at cafe grumpy)

(at an archery class in ozone park in queens)

just a lovely first day of spring!!

vernal equinox

in celebration of the first day of spring, we decided to go on a bike ride this morning. i made scones and hard boiled eggs to take with us, along with hibiscus tea and clementines.

i don't think we had been biking since summertime.

once again, we were searching for pansies (i had a print out of the pansy pages from anna botsford comstock's handbook of nature study). instead we found "campanula portenschlagiana," or hoffman's blue, or dalmation bellflower.

it's a good ground cover plant and blooms profusely.

i believe they can keep many of their green leaves through the winter. the older leaves are coarser; the younger ones more smooth and lighter in color.

morgana's entry . .

chanda's entry . .

we read about the hyacinth . .

from this book which my friend carol gave me about a year ago.

we also observed the buds beginning on the purple plum tree chanda studied last year. i hope to get out in the next week to sketch the buds on the trees we were observing. we have the fall sketches, but not spring and summer.