from london

morgan sent a video from london. greg says its the station near sloan street and the saatchi gallery.

summer solstice day

while chanda worked on her card for her ballet teacher, i walked downtown to the burdick store for chcoolates (and treated myself to a burdick mocha coffee to go).

 we met at the christopher street station . . 

to take the train uptown . . 

 we came down the ramp at columbus circle to the sound of classical music drifting through the tunnel . . 

 

 the new underground market which i hadn't seen before . . 

chanda is saying there's no time for photos! 

the carriage horses and their drivers are off to work in beautiful central park . .

trying to keep up . .

i love these old stairs . . but you have to be careful, especially coming down them as the final set has a wider gap in between steps and it can set you off balance.  in some old buildings, the steps are worn and uneven . . and slippery (as chanda well knows!).

 upstairs in the studio lobby . .

waiting for the lesson to begin . . 

working on adagio with her private teacher, charla.

tour jetés . .

charla's corrections are very precise and not always easy to execute

 
 turns . .

this wonderful lady has taught her so much and been such a source of encouragement, along with miss irene, who was once charla's student when she was chanda's age.

afterwards, i hopped on the crosstown bus along 57th street to have lunch with korrina, and to pick up our farm vegetables.

greek salad . . 

 on my way home now . . which will take me seemingly forever as i stop at various places along the way . . 

 the kiamie arcade building on 27th street (beautiful columns!) . . 

the sing for hope crew was celebrating the summer solstice in madison square park. they had an impromptu songfest with the random nyc residents and tourists . . 

i love watching the artists work on their cityscapes in the street!

my mom used to take painting lessons with our local school district when i was growing up. the adult classes were either a small fee, or free. her brushes and oil paints are still in a case in the basement of the house on long island (which is currently rented out for another year).

i treated myself to an affogato at the eataly market . . 

the gelato line . . 

here i'm walking west along 23rd street and passing several people watching the world cup . .

on a tv in a window display . . i think argentina was playing.

water towers . . 

a favorite selfie spot on 25th street . .

this week the linden trees have been in bloom and i've been exclaiming about it to greg and chanda constantly. 

you'll be walking along a smelly nyc sidewalk and then . . pow! . . you get a wiff of sweet linden flowers. i love it.

a magnolia blossom in our apartment complex's courtyard . . 

it's a southern magnolia and some winters we think it won't make it . . but so far it's hanging on.

solstice sunset over abingdon square.

greg and i had black truffle ravioli that i brought back from the eataly market, along with sautéed mushrooms from the veggie box, and then i walked with janet to see a photography exhibit on 20th street that had its opening this evening. one of her costumes was included in the display (the "birdman"). afterwards, greg and i checked in on minerva before heading home.

afternoon museum visit

 we visited the met breuer museum today to see the special edvard munch exhibit with my sister and brother-in-law. this particular exhibit actually had been at san francisco's modern art museum during the summer when we were there, but we never went as we were so busy with other touristy attractions, and it was expensive. my nephew had seen it there and had highly recommended it, so i always felt a little sad that we hadn't been. however, chanda discovered that it was coming to the met breuer, and that it would be happening while her aunt and uncle were here for the show, so all of us were excited for the visit. it was also my sister and brother-in-law's first time seeing this new addition to the met museum (which used to be the whitney).

the exhibit had a lithograph rendition of his famous scream painting, borrowed from moma. i was intrigued by his writing in german on the bottom right: ich fühlte das grosse geschrei dürch die natur (i felt the great scream in nature -- though he uses dürch die, through the -- which brings a different feeling for me than in). it's a journal entry from a few years prior in which he had recorded an experience he had while walking along a road in his hometown of oslo (at the time called kristiania).

 self-portrait by the window

the night wanderer (munch often couldn't sleep at night).

 

portrait sent to my nephew and to warren's norwegian cousins as proof that they made it to the munch exhibit. 

 we also enjoyed seeing the charles simonds exhibit dwellings, which was installed in 1981 when the museum was still the whitney. simonds work is fascinating and whimsical. he began in the 1970's in soho and on the lower east side, by creating small settlements that reflected an imaginary civilization of little people. he constructed these settlements in the brick niches of crumbling buildings, and in vacant lots, gutters and window ledges. i'd love to find more of these in the neighborhood, but i wonder if they are gone, or just well hidden, because i've never come across one on my own. supposedly, he has created hundreds of these constructions all around the world in shanghai, paris, berlin, dublin, chicago and houston.

 he used clay, sand, sticks, stones, wood, plaster, cloth and chicken wire.

across the street, on the second story window ledge on the left, are two clay house clusters of a similar settlement, which is part of this exhibit. you can read more about charles simonds on his website here.

and now back to an outside portrait i took of everyone indicating the museum we were at . .

morgana trying to take a photo of dirty snow. i think she thought that her austrian family wouldn't believe how dirty it really was . . quite understandable!

of course everyone was hungry afterwards . . so on the way to the subway station we stopped for bagels . .

 with different cream cheese spreads: vegetable, scallions, salmon . . 

 and then underground . . 

 fellow subway riders taking a selfie with the train coming into the station . . 

morgana took one of us on the train . . 

drummers at 14th street waiting for the l train . . 

 sunday night packing . . 

and word game.