a smokey day

the smoke grew worse as evening came on. korrina took this photo and the video below while on her way home from work. 

i ran a bunch of errands again and also went to the dentist, and then we all spent the evening packing after having dinner.

zuzu . .

and wash . . 

time for some sleep . . 

heat and haze

 

i was out earlier than usual to walk milly as it was supposed to go up to the high 90's . . which it did - stopping at 98 degrees. but even though it was cooler at 10:30 in the morning (only 93), the air was terrible. the dewpoint and humidity were high and all the dust and debris from the local construction was just hanging in the air (double townhouse renovations and parking garages being converted into luxury apartments). my throat was sore from breathing it in. as the day progressed, the wildfire smoke moved in. 

daisies by the morton williams supermarket on la guardia place. i stopped in to see if they had a bottle brush that i could use for cleaning our flower vases. fortunately, they did.

peaceful wind chimes . . 

the light this evening was yellowish brown and heavy. i put the air on and chanda and the cats were much happier.

saturday

today was green market day . . and i managed to wake up without a feeling of impending doom, though i'm sure it will revisit periodically.

birthdays are coming up! i bought a bag of granny smith apples just to be prepared, and i had a cup of coffee at my favorite farm stand (our farmer, david, began offering it last saturday).

beautiful flowers at the flower stand, which i never buy because they are quite expensive and because my cats would try to eat them.

so the first thing i noticed when stepping out of the house today was that the air smelled like smoke. you could also see it in the air: a very fine haze. the google map app now has a wildfire indicator so i looked to see if there were fires around, and there were several in new jersey and in connecticut. the farmer at the apple stall said they had a fire last week that burned several acres on their farm. it is just too dry. we haven't had any rain and we usually have quite a bit at this time of year.

greg and i took the compost to the hudson river park and observed the haze over the river. 

i then went shopping at faicco's and the health food store for the ingredients spaghetti and meatballs. ron and andy are coming for dinner tomorrow night. we've been doing laundry and straightening up the apartment also.

i saw these two cute shoppers while looking for clementines in the produce section.

finally . . dinner at 8 pm after finishing all the chores . . leftover pasta salad and a "spider" steak from the butcher. max (the apprentice) said it was from the under leg and was similar to the very dark meat of a chicken leg. it was delicious.

respite

it felt good to see blue sky and clouds today. 

i walked to onstage dance wear at madison and 35th to pick up a pair of tan jazz shoes for morgan, passing many people in masks (me included). i also stopped at trader joe's for kidney beans, organic corn chips, and sour cream for tonight's dinner, red bean and quinoa chili.

a smoky day

here at home . . (where it smells smoky even with the windows closed) . .

downtown at greg's work, looking out over the south ferry . . 

and looking out over the harbor in red hook where josh works.

cricket doesn't care. he would just like lunch, please.

knitting, tea, wildfire and cat toys

i knitted at kendall's today while she's away as morgan was doing some filming with friends in the apartment . . 

then milly and i went for a walk past the friends' corner (tv show) where the tourists take pictures (you can see them on the corner behind her).

and then tea with janet at one of my favorite tea places where i hadn't been in ages . . 

we chose "oriental beauty grand," an oolong tea.

we were in the tea cafe from from 4:30 to 6:00 pm and during that time the smoke from the quebec fires blew in. i had no idea what it was, but janet knew as she's from british columbia and often experienced such fires growing up. it's just never blown so far south.

new "toys" for the cats: my veterinarian recommended puzzle feeders as they tend to gobble their food. it does slow them down and they seem to enjoy looking for the kibble. i have yet to try it with wet food. 

 

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here's a little wood fairy running around in the countryside . .