monday afternoon

 

our neighbor was having some very loud construction going on today. we brought the kittens into the living room with us as it was happening directly over the room we keep them in. it was quite loud and in the pic above finn is hiding from it in his little house. 

pluto playing with finn before it began . . 

and here andy is running around with his toy carrot which he was quite possessive about . . 

you can hear him growling as finn teases him . . 

lunch during the construction noise . . chanda mixed up her weeks for when she was supposed to get a covid test for school (students report to a particular building for the test and then it clears in a day or two), and was locked out of in-person classes for two days. while the construction was going on, she worked at the table in the living room.

getting some  help from finn . . 

little andy hid under the bed and came out when i called him for a photo.

pluto hid under the chair.

to the willows

 chanda and i took a bike ride this morning (after seeing korrina off to work at the yarn store). we haven't done this as part of our week since . . september! which is when we ran into the 9/11 memorial. i can't believe we haven't been here since. time goes too fast with a teenager.

our destination today was the willows with a stop to admire lady liberty . . 

and the boats passing by. it was very warm in the sun but the breeze felt nice and cool.

in the distance you can see the verrazano.

finally . . the willows . . one of them was gone. it had been doing poorly since sandy, and they must have decided to take it down this winter or early spring as it was still here in the fall.

we had a picnic lunch of "mary's gone crackers" and egg salad with pickles. then chanda began her christmas knitting gift, a shrug from quince and company in beautiful brown chickadee yarn, and i worked on my canyonlands shawl with sea silk yarn while we listened to nicholas nickleby (still!!! but we keep plugging away) on my phone via the audibles app (so 21st century!). actually, i made her wait until several of the napping workers on their lunch break left. i didn't want to disturb the quiet of the willows circle. then there was only one sleeping woman remaining . . .  (she looked like nothing would wake her) so i finally turned it on.

chanda's ballet classes have ended for the year so i'm unsure of what motivated us to finally leave, except that she wanted to do some math and i was planning on visiting my friend janet who is working on costuming another show and is in dire need of sewing help. whatever it was, we packed up and rode past the yachts and sailboats. 

there were several beautiful ones docked today. 

this was our favorite. isn't she lovely? she had ventura written on her bow. i instantly thought of eva and california. eva is home now, but ventura, california is a place i passed often when i went to school in santa barbara (where eva visited). my uncle and aunt also kept a boat in oxnard for a few years. ventura, oxnard and santa barbara are all lovely places to live.

i took a picture of chanda in front of this yacht for a specific reason. can you guess? do you see what is sitting on the very top of the yacht? a  helicopter! . . just in case you have a heart attack from all the rich food you're eating on board and need to get to a hospital fast, or just in case you need to make a quick getaway because you are actually james bond and le chiffre or scaramanga or jaws are after you . . 

back home again . . chanda and i made a soup she had picked out from the giada cookbook i have . . 

fresh pea soup with fennel and lettuce . . 

from her feel good food book. we sautéed shallots, fennel and lettuce with butter and added chicken broth, water and fresh peas. then i blended everything with an immersion blender.

but i forgot to take a picture of the final outcome as i was at a coop meeting until almost 8 pm! the meeting was with prospective board members and residents of my complex. there are actually no new candidates as everyone knows what a difficult and thankless job it is. the board had to defend several decisions it made this past year that do not sit well with my neighbors (myself included). as you can see, the meeting was outside in our courtyard and it became so heated and loud that chanda took pictures out of dismay and curiosity!

even neighbors from the building next door came out onto their balconies to see what the fuss was all about! 

when i finally came back upstairs i was happy to see that chanda had set the table and dinner was all ready. we ate while i regaled her with a few tales from down below, and then we got ready for bed and watched star wars, episode v . . well part of it. we'll have to see the end another night. it got too late.

the children's garden on palm sunday

the children's garden has never been so beautiful. we planted many many narcissus minimus bulbs and they are all up and in bloom. i love walking by and seeing their sunny faces.

chanda and i read a spring poem this morning, after which we visited st. luke in the fields and caught the end of their palm sunday service.

a spring song 

(author unknown)

see the yellow catkins cover

all the slender willows over;

and on the mossy banks so green

starlike primroses are seen;

and their clustering leaves below

white and purple violets grow.

hark, the little lambs are bleating

and the cawing rooks are meeting

in the elms, a noisy crowd;

and all birds are singing loud.

there, the first white butterfly

in the sun goes flitting by.

a cold spring morning

i was out early this morning with several neighbors to meet with our complex's landscaper. we're in discussions for a new tree at one of our "pocket" gardens. so far we'll transplant a crepe myrtle from another section and see how it does. there are several of us who would really like to get a weeping cherry for this area.

 

 the daffodils in our tree pit gardens are slowly coming up. the landscaper has been adding new soil to all the garden areas. it's been especially needed since sandy dumped so much salt water in many of them . . and also because so many were just landfill and never cared for.

spring arrives

 

king winter

 king winter sat in his hall one day,

and he said to himself, said he,

"i must admit i've had some fun,

i've chilled the earth and cooled the sun,

and not a flower or a tree

but wishes that my reign were done.

as long as time and tide shall run,

i'll go on making everyone

as cold as cold can be.

 

there came a knock at the outer door;

"who's there?" king winter cried;

"open your palace gates," said spring,

"for you can reign no more as king,

no longer here abide;

this message from the sun i bring,

 'the trees are green, the birds do sing;

the hills with joy are echoing;

so pray, sir--step outside!'"

the robin

the robin is the fairies' page;

they keep him neatly dressed

for country service or for town

in dapper livery of brown

and little scarlet vest.

on busy errands all day long

he hurries to and fro

with watchful eyes and nimble wings

there are not very many things,

the robin doesn't know.

and he can tell you, if he will,

the latest fairy news:

the quaint adventures of the king,

and whom the queen is visiting,

and where she gets her shoes.

and lately, when the fairy court

invited me to tea,

he stood behind the royal chair

and here, i solemnly declare,

when he discovered i was there,

that robin winked at me.

walking jack, latin and medieval castles

 chanda took some pics of me walking jack today. 

 the snow keeps piling up.

working on her latin . . stellãs saepe specto . . i often watch the stars.

and the beginning of her castle drawing . . castle walls were eight to twelve feet thick, and filled with rubble, a mixture of stones and mortar, between thinner walls of carefully fitted and layered stones. my favorite part has been learning about the garderobes, or the toilets. each castle was equipped with a few small rooms along narrow passages and lit by an arrow loop or tiny window. some extended out over the face of the wall; others were along the inner wall with a long way down to the cesspit, which of course would need to be periodically cleaned out. and what about the toilets that leaned out over the castle wall? were these open to the outside and dependent upon the rain for clean up? i'm also assuming that the ladies had their own garderobe . . 

my next favorite part of the book, or movie, has to do with  the "murder hole." if invaders made it past the drawbridge, a portcullis and inner gate could both be dropped, or slid shut; thus trapping the unwelcome guests beneath a trapdoor in the ceiling from which the castle soldiers could drop burning pitch on top of them.

installing the heat pump

today workers came to prepare our wall for a heat pump/air conditioner. our apartment complex is installing them for free. since we do not have an air conditioner, we felt this was an all win situation. (i priced them during the summer - they are quite expensive!)

jack was moved into morgana and chanda's room where he got to listen to morgana practicing her guitar.

chanda worked at the table in the living room until they started drilling . .

and then we ran for the bedrooms on the north side of the building . .

and took refuge with korrina who was watching the third harry potter movie.

jack slept through it all . .

we now have a new sleeve in the wall. tomorrow the pump will be put in.

"stone bee"

 greg and i were on morton street at 10 am this morning for what morgana called a "stone bee." she got the name from sturbridge. when it was time for new englanders to clear the land of stones, they would have a stone bee and everyone from the community would participate. all would help haul stones until the afternoon, when the women would leave the heaviest stones to the men and set out the food. most of these stones were used to make fences.

 our coop complex had rubble left over from when the buildings were put up in the 1970's . . the rubble had been left underneath the cement steps leading up to the front doors. we cleared about ten areas this morning. we had to climb over the metal railings to get inside the garden area.

you can see how the steps hang over the garden area in this pic.

 everything was hauled into the wheeled metal container you can see in the top picture. 

we did not have enough containers and threw many extras into a neighbor's dumpster! this is not exactly . . legal . . ! (why are we finally doing this after so many years? because we finally hired a wonderful landscaper who is trying to enrich our soil and create a garden for us, and for that end we needed to clear under the steps . . )

watching the snow fall . .

 snow and rain had been predicted for wednesday and thursday . . but it came today. the buds were buried, but i suppose they'll hang in there. it was all very pretty. i love the snow, and wouldn't mind having it stay around just a little longer . . but this was almost all gone by late this evening . . washed away by the rain!

pics from a grey wednesday