someone gets a new chair

two very cozy cats on a sunday morning . . 

greg and i helped kendall load up the car and get minerva (the cat) and aurélien situated within so she could drive upstate for two weeks. (aurélien's preschool is finished for the summer break.) we gave her the tripp trapp chair the girls used when young and aurélien is very excited to have it. he looks so big sitting in it!

 

morgana, ron and andy on the millennium bridge. they went on a tour of the globe theatre friday morning and walked across the bridge to st. paul's.

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i also worked on my knitting project (a test knit for lotta lothgren of elk market yarn who lives in sweden) while listening to robert reich's class on wealth and poverty.

a bike ride and a dance performance

i biked downtown to see korrina using greg's citibike key as two of our personal bikes have flat tires.

she already had her apron on and was set to start her work day. they've been packing up as her company is moving to the time out space in dumbo (down under the manhattan bridge overpass) tomorrow for a few months until their new space in queens is completed. i think that's the way i understood it to be . . or maybe they'll be in dumbo for more than a few months. it sounds like a good space since it's right by the brooklyn river park, with a bunch of other eateries and a lot of foot traffic from local residents. greg and i look forward to visiting it . . we can just ride our bikes over the brooklyn bridge and voila.

i couldn't resist riding along the river path on the way home even though it was crowded with joggers and pedestrians . . 

it was so busy with children's baseball teams on ball fields and on park grass, yoga groups, work out dance groups, people walking their dogs, people pushing their babies in strollers, families at the playgrounds, bikers and joggers, musicians and dancers. people can't get enough of being outside and being together.

 

roses are blooming everywhere and they are so fragrant.

at 4 pm chanda and i headed to new york lives arts for ellen's dances by very young choreographers. somehow in the midst of covid she and a few of her students got it together for a performance, and new york live arts graciously offered dates for the event. we all had to show our vaccination cards, have our temperature checked, sit appropriately well distanced, and wear our masks. it was very well organized, everyone was happy and excited for the show and to see good friends dancing again. i was tempted to take a few photos but didn't as i know ellen doesn't like that at all. she had a class graduating and since they were doing two shows (today and tomorrow) she let them talk about her for this show and take a snippet of her hair (she'll do the same for them tomorrow-usually the class has only one performance as nine other classes perform over the weekend-this year there are only two classes). it was a fun and emotionally touching event. we gave ellen some sunflowers that i had bought at the green market and said hello to several friends. i'm glad we got to go.

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kendall sent a few pics from upstate. minerva has been allowing aurélien to pet her and he's been learning how to do so without disturbing her. it's very sweet.

he's also been helping mama plant the herbs this year.

it's also very hot and humid now. i think it went up to 90 today. 

i posted our beach visit from may 10th and from this past week - here and here, and i posted about the two visits i made to the new floating island park here and here, and a visit to see korrina in queens here. there's some other posts sprinkled betwixt too.

bringing home little aurélien

on saturday afternoon, at 12:30 pm, i drove out to astoria (after getting a coffee at chanda's cafe) to pick up kendall's friend leah for a drive to kendall's little cottage upstate. we made ourselves at home when we arrived and cooked a dinner for ourselves and for kendall for when she finally returned from the hospital at 10:45 that night. the good news was that little aurélien would be discharged from the hospital at noon on sunday, the next day.

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sunday afternoon, 12:54 pm:

 welcoming the little one to bird cottage . . 

 what do you think of all this fuss, minerva?

 

 

 

 breakfast the next morning . . the plan was to have leah drive my car home monday afternoon, as she had work to get back to, and kendall and i would take our time getting back to the city tuesday morning in kendall's car.

 minerva and aurélien napping together . . 

 keeping a log of aurélien's feedings . .

 trying on the stretchy baby sling . . 

 tuesday morning's outfit for the homeward journey to nyc . . 

 good bye bird cottage, until another week or two . . when your little family from the city returns for cool country evening air, bird songs, and the summer breeze in the tree tops.

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i had fun driving kendall's volkswagon car home. she, aurélien and minerva were cozy in the back seat, and we made good time getting back . . 

 welcome to the big apple, litte one.

 it's not easy being a furry big sister. povera minerva . . baby's cries are very loud and shrill. it's a lot to get used to, but i think they will become devoted pals.

 it would have been a difficult transition without chanda. she saved a parking spot and helped bring up all the bags.

thanks so much, chanda!

the country life

greg and i drove two hours upstate to see our friend kendall in her new house that she's had for about two years now. the house is named after it's prior owner, dr. bird.

 

 it was so peaceful lying in the heat, listening to the woodpecker hammering in the maple tree and the leaves stirring in the light breeze, the chipmunks chirping busily (sometimes angrily) and the fly buzzing around my head.

 dinner was so good: grass fed beef burgers mixed with onions and parsley, roasted corn on the cob, roasted zucchini, garlic snapes and onions, and an heirloom tomato salad with goat cheese and fresh basil.

 morning walk . .

we saw this fellow sitting on top of a neighbor's mailbox . .

 
good-bye until next time.