a walk through the neighborhood

before our friends left for their home in ann arbor, michigan, we took a walk through the neighborhood to the east side, where they used to live.

in front of the acting school on bank street . . 

and  at st. mark's in the bowery, an episcopal church across the street from the music school chanda used to attend. they used to play here all the time . . here's a day from 2011, and here's a day from 2012.

the churchyard has a new plaque commemorating the early plays of sam shepard . .

and a new tulip poplar planted in remembrance . . it was my first time noticing this as it only went in last year.

we then walked to the public library four blocks south . . 

lucia and the girls enjoyed catching up with theo, who had been their librarian since they did circle story time with her years ago.

it was such a fun visit. maybe we'll get to see them in ann arbor one day.

the travelers return

our friends returned this afternoon from their trip to greece. we enjoyed hearing about their adventures over a delicious lunch of cold cuts from our local butcher and fresh watermelon and incredibly juicy and sweet oranges and grapefruit (the latter two managed to be squeezed past customs from athens). tsameret attended a three week isadora duncan dance workshop at the isadora duncan center in athens (lucia helped with making tunics and documenting the weeks as photographer). they slept in a very nice hostel within walking distance of the center. they said it was incredibly hot during the day, but wonderfully cool at night (california weather). there was no air conditioning, so they moved up to the roof of the hostel for sleeping at night. lucia said she didn't know how workshop participants managed to dance through the heat of the day. even though there were fans blowing in the studio room, and the center building itself was made of cool stones, it felt very warm. they got to the beach several times, attended a greek tragedy in an outdoor theatre, visited many museums (and of course, the acropolis), and even heard yo yo ma play! at the end of the workshop was a showing of the exercises and dances they worked on for the three weeks, which i was able to view on lucia's computer. what a fun and educational time! you can see our visit to the cloisters when they passed through on their way to greece, here.

at the cloisters with lucia and tsameret

 our friends have been visiting from ann arbor, michigan. they are on their way to athens for an isadora duncan dance workshop and fly out of jfk this evening. they arrived early tuesday morning (after traveling all night on the bus from ann arbor!) and have been enjoying visiting old haunts and old friends as they lived in the east village up until about six years ago. korrina, morgana and chanda have babysat for them at various times in the past . . when all the girls were younger . . and chanda, greg and i visited them in pittsburgh (before their move to michigan) when on our way to san francisco in 2017 (you can see that post here).

 we always like to bring our sandwiches and then have tea and pound cake . . however we had to settle on chocolate chip cookies today as they no longer stock pound cake . . i might have to begin bringing that too, now, and just get the tea.

 we had egg salad sandwiches on black bread and sprouted onion/dill bagels. the little sparrows were very busy begging for crumbs.

 a plant in the medieval herb garden . . 

 st. jerome in his study, crafted in brussels in 1520.

lucia really enjoyed this visit and i'm glad i made sure we got there.

saying good-bye to morgana . . their plane took off at 11 pm this evening. they have a long flight ahead of them, with a transfer in london.

day one on the lincoln highway to pittsburgh, pennsylvania

 chanda kept looking for farmers' markets along the way. we found one that landed us on route 30, which i came to find out from our friend lucia, was once the lincoln highway which began in times square, nyc, and ended in lincoln park, san francisco, our destination! how serendipitous to stumble onto it! see the mountains in the distance? we ended up driving over them! it was our first steep grade of which many were to come. the lincoln highway was one of the first transcontinental highways and was conceived in 1912 by indiana entrepreneur carl g. fisher and dedicated in october of 1913. it originally went through thirteen states: new york, new jersey, pennsylvania, ohio, indiana, illinois, iowa, nebraska, wyoming, colorado, utah, nevada and california. its first recorded length was in 1913 at 3, 389 miles.

 chocolate covered espresso beans from trader joe's which became a much necessary pick-us-up as the drives lengthened into late afternoon.

 so our first destination was our friends' home in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. i've never visited pittsburgh before, and i was surprised at how pretty it was. and also, how hilly! our friends live in a lovely old house on a tree lined street, within walking distance of their waldorf school.

the school is in an old church building. morgana came in december to give an isadora duncan dance workshop. it was nice to see where she had taught.

 the grounds have some beautiful old trees, and a vegetable garden that the children care for.

 we appreciated that randy made sure we saw pittsburgh from mount washington. it was such an amazing view with the monongahela river in the foreground, eventually converging with the allegheny river and the ohio river a little further northwest.

our girls are growing so fast. chanda and i miss having our friends in nyc, where chanda would take the girls out to play and also do handwork with them one day a week. (here's from 2013, and here's from 2012 with korrina.)

after enjoying the view from mount washington, we ate dinner at their local indian restaurant (which was delicious - i had chicken tandoori), and then walked out into a beautiful sunset.

we had a quiet walk back to the house.

catching up! they always have so much to talk about.

i chose to stay in tsameret's room. she said it was the prettiest, and while i didn't agree outloud, i agreed with her in my thoughts.

greg stayed in moriah's room and all three girls stayed in the living room together.

i enjoyed seeing their handwork from the past year which lucia happily displayed as only a contented mama could. they both made socks, work bags, and watercolor cards.

pics from pittsburgh

 morgana writes that the duncan workshop has been going very well. she and our friend lucia cut and sewed twenty two tunics and then dyed them in the classroom with the children. they look beautiful! the recital was this afternoon in the assembly hall. it was supposed to be in the morning, but school is often delayed when it is too cold in the morning for the children to wait outside for the school bus (we're not sure of how much below freezing that is).

 the waldorf school's beautifully decorated entry hall.

a stained class window in one of the hallways.

the assembly hall.

grey and bare

 it finally looks and feels like winter around here. chanda and i walked through union square this afternoon.

 we were out early to buy pointe shoes and to visit with friends who are moving to pennsylvania on friday.

 we visited the freed "chacott" store on 20th street, between broadway and park avenue south. it was right next door to teddy roosevelt's birthplace! i find this very amusing as they are two places i never knew existed, yet they are both within walking distance. she's very pleased with the pair we purchased. supposedly these are stiffer and won't soften as quickly. they are also a little more wide than her last pair. i don't think i really understand the details, however i do enjoy the conversations she has with the shoe fitters. the fitter always bad mouths the competitor's shoe. in this case she had her grishko's with her. when she pulled them out he exclaimed, "oh, i hate that shoe." when he left to bring out the shoes for her to try on, she leaned over and whispered to me that the grishko woman does the same. i didn't remember this, but then maybe i just wasn't paying enough attention.

afterwards, we had forty five minutes before we were to be at our friend's home. we decided to have something to eat . . cheese cake and pignoli cookies at veniero's. this really wasn't the best idea as we had only had an apricot brioche for breakfast, but it was delicious.

 then we met morgana at tsameret's and moriah's home.

 i was able to meet their cat, petey. tsameret played with the dear cat just like morgana used to play with madeline. she wildly waved his paws around in the air and shook his head back and forth while he just relaxed in her arms like a rag doll. meanwhile, morgana read from celebrations, by anabel and barnabas kindersley, one of our favorite books.

 we'll miss them. chanda especially i think. she had been going over every wednesday for two hours before ballet class to sit and read and knit with them. we gave them children just like me as a going away gift. it's another anabel and barnabas kindersley book, in association with unicef. they traveled all over the world interviewing and photographing families. it's a very special and interesting book and i have always wished they would publish another just like it. there are so many photos of children they don't include that they could easily put out a second.

at the water park

 it's been very hot at night, and i haven't been sleeping well. jack hasn't been sleeping well either. this morning the door buzzer went off at 8:30 am. i told whoever was on the other end that they probably wanted the upstairs family instead . . but then chanda came out of her room and yelled that it was tsamaret and moriah. i forgot completely that we were babysitting them today.

 we went to the water park where there isn't much shade.

 they ran through the sprinkler, but i went and sat down and made necessary phone calls to my mom and my sister . . my sister and i were glad to hear that my nephew is visiting them wednesday to thursday. it gives them something to look forward to and energy to pick up around the house (my dad is still feeling after affects from his radiation/chemo treatments). my nephew is bringing a friend of his and her huge dog (a labrador and great dane mix)! they'll like that. my mom loves dogs.

after an hour we were all ready to return to the apartment for a light lunch and a board game . . and then a movie (disney's robin hood).
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in the afternoon at 4:30, ellen stopped by and we took the box of masks for rainforest back to ralph lee's apartment across the way in westbeth. i was able to meet ralph's daugther deborah, who studied with ellen from five years old 'til she went to college at eighteen. she's a lovely young woman and is now creative director for the nonprofit literacy program litWorld.