father's day

 

(dinner at hamburger america)

walking home on the longest day . . 

summer solstice

 

from blossoms

from blossoms comes

this brown paper bag of peaches

we bought from the boy

at the bend in the road where we turned toward

signs painted Peaches.

from laden boughs, from hands,

from sweet fellowship in the bins,

comes nectar at the roadside, succulent

peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,

comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,

to carry within us an orchard, to eat

not only the skin, but the shade,

not only the sugar, but the days, to hold

the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into

the round jubilance of peach.

there are days we live

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to 

impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

by li-young lee (born 1957)

solstice morning

the sun will be at its most northern part of our sky today at 4:50 pm. it's the earliest in 228 years, since 1796 (you can read more at the earthsky website). the sun is shining and it's supposed to go up to 91 today. here's a solstice poem by shailja patel i found on poets.org:

solstice re-pot

more than the obvious metaphor

of depth for roots to fully extend

of leaves elevated to eat blue light

of fingers smooshing generative dirt

it's when i hear myself sing to you

crassula ovata, as i upheave you

croon ballads as i displace you

shawl melody around earthquake

as if to say to your bright fat leaves

nothing is promised, sweet green girl

i know the terror of unhoming

dance this one with me

shailja patel, 2024

more of tuesday . .

this afternoon around 2:45 our friends arrived from michigan. they had driven to monroe, new york and stayed with a friend there before hopping the commuter train into the city. tomorrow they fly out of jfk for switzerland and germany to see family for three weeks. we last saw them three years ago when they flew to greece for a special isadora duncan workshop. they rested for a little while and then went for a walk in the old neighborhood. chanda met me after work and we walked together to the east village to meet everyone for dinner at veselka.

it was a little chilly outside (it was raining) so we opted to eat inside but the din from everyone talking was a bit loud. lucia and i managed to adjust, however, and were somehow able to block out the others and just hear our own table (greg was there too).

i had a delicious cabbage stuffed with mushrooms and rice with a mushroom gravy, along with sauerkraut. i ate one and let chanda take the second home for her dinner tomorrow evening (one was very filling). 

waiting to start walking home . . but saying good-bye to chanda who will head east instead of west.

a beautiful cloudy sky . . 

we walked home pass stonewall . . sunday will be 53 years since the uprising on june 28th. here's a link to the park service's fifth anniversary celebration of the national monument. 

it was a nice walk back with lucia, the girls, greg and i. we walked along west fourth street to charles street and it was fun to reminisce about homeschooling days in the city together . . going to the parks and meeting for birthday parties and attending nourishing traditions workshops and picking up our dairy order at the natural gourmet cooking school where annemarie colbin had taught . . back at the apartment we had ginger tea together, read a little and before going to sleep someone wished me a happy summer solstice. i think it was greg. happy solstice!

a solstice bike ride, ice cream with ellen & morgana in nice

we had a wonderful ride on the bikes this morning. it felt good to feel the salty sea wind on my face, and it was a relief to check on the bikes and the bike pump which we keep in the bike room. we hadn't been in the room since . . last summer i think! surprisingly, they weren't very dusty.

sipping on a raspberry lemonade cooler from le pain quotidian. when we were out, i forgot it was the solstice. usually i come prepared with a poem to read, but i've been so distracted with thinking about this pending cross-country trip . . 

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at 1:15 pm we made it out of the house to meet ellen for goat milk ice cream at victory garden on carmine street. the victory garden people have rented out their space to a soup cafe and they keep their ice cream cart on the sidewalk (they're concentrating on wholesale orders to local supermarkets). we first had some soup which was highly recommended by the victory garden ice cream cart sellers, (i had coconut chicken) and they were right. the soup was delicious. the ice cream was too (though chanda misses their soft serve). i had chocolate rosemary and mexican vanilla. 

 our friend amelia, who also studied with ellen, made her a bracelet for each of the dances she created that she does with her students each year.

 towel dance, waterstudy, secret service, extra genre, rainforest, piecework, ode, swatch . .

 the rainforest bracelet . . 

 walk around vermeer . . (it's in my labels list . . i don't think i have korrina's tech, but korrina takes part in morgana's tech as she once played vermeer and filled in during the rehearsal - she was stage managing for ellen during morgana's tech).

 discussing what ellen should do next year as she only has two dancers in her oldest teen group (remember, nine students graduated in chanda's class . . ) and her five year old class is very small.

one of the nicest pics i've taken of ellen . . it's only taken fourteen years . .

(afterwards, i visited my friends jeanette and tony who are getting ready to leave for italy on june 29th with their daughter radha. they'll first visit jeanette's apartment in florence where she needs to take care of some italian paperwork, and then they'll head to ospedaletti - not far from nice - where morgana hopes to join them for a few days before they leave on september 1st.)

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and finally, coming in on this post is morgana, as she sent a bunch of photos from nice:

 it looks like camille showed up!

 ready for sunbathers . . 

 a correspondance still-life . .

 provençal architecture and palm trees . .

a pic of a yarn store for me!

 dinner: squid fettucini, steamed zucchini and veal (i thought it was chicken) and carrots with fresh rosemary . . 

 victoria at work on the beach . .

portrait of morgana by victoria.

solstice monday: twelfth night and midsummer madness

 our peonies are . . aging . . 

solstice breakfast: salmon and capers and fresh dill . .

 it was such a busy day. chanda left early to rehearse for her twelfth night performance while morgana and i got ready to have our friends over for lunch. korrina stopped by also and picked up two books about hiking and driving scenic roads upstate.

 this book listed common wildflowers and also favorite ice cream shops. good combination! she's very excited because she has a week's paid vacation coming up and is planning a fun road trip.

 lunch with our friends . . 

 we made anzac biscuits from our around the world cookbook (a recipe from australia).

 we miss have these two here in the city with us. chanda used to go over and read and knit with them every other week. they're eleven now and had lots of stories to tell us about their waldorf school friends and the books they've been reading and how they got their ears pierced.

 after we said good-bye it was time to get ready to go to uptown for the play performance. 

it was held in our friends' courtyard. 

play preparations. morgana has the script under her arm and i think she followed along in case someone needed a line.

they were a little worried since a few days ago they were still struggling, but today they were superb.

 the audience is ready.

 olivia with cesario (viola) and maria, who also played count orsino. olivia would don a trench coat and become antonio, friend to sebastian, viola's brother.

 malvolio in his yellow stockings and crossed gaiters (who also became sebastian with a different jacket). sir toby belch slinks behind malvolio with mischievous intent.

viola as cesario trying to defend herself from antonio's accusations.

poor viola . . being manhandled by sir toby belch who wants her to fight with the adorable sir andrew (played by the real life little sister of sir toby).

in act iii, scene iv, when viola as cesario claims not to know of the love sworn to olivia by her brother sebastian, olivia exclaims: "why, this is midsummer madness!" yes! what a perfect night to have performed this play on!

 fini! brava . . and what a relief . . 

 for all the drama i've heard about trying to memorize lines and trying to find a performance space and trying to find time when everyone could meet, they did a great job. we all enjoyed the performance and it looked like they were having a great time too. (it's been two years since they diid macbeth.)

we had a really nice potluck get together afterwards, but greg was very tired and happy to come home. we walked home beneath the light of an incredibly full and beautiful strawberry moon.