string stravaganza, orchestra concert and mark o'connor!

chanda had a string stravaganza today with her music school. it was a special concert in that the students presented violinist and fiddler mark o'connor's new music program, which has just been published. above, the cellists are rehearsing.

our friend zoe is the cellist i'm trying to film, just to the right of the little girl in the red and white striped dress. (morgana plays this on the guitar . . in my life . . it's one of my favorite songs.)

during the concert i was rather amused with the parents' and their cell phone cameras . . and me with my camera. i'm sure i looked much the same!

i could have taken ten more pictures like this, but i restrained myself.

chanda is in the white shirt and red headband, just to the left of little maya in her red sweater with a white headband.

this is a traditional piece they're playing, called el rancho grande.

fiddler mark o'connor . .



who is amazing!! you can view jim watkins' full piece that aired on channel 11 here.

chanda and i had two hours before she needed to be at the school for her orchestra concert. we ate our fried egg sandwiches, that greg had made for us before we left in the morning, upstairs on the third floor. then we walked a block to veniero's italian cafe.

chanda had a lobster tail (she always has a lobster tail) and i had a miniature cannoli.

(mom, will you please stop taking pictures . . )

preparing for the concert . .

the stands are so tall, you can hardly see the performers . . or the performers are so short . . .

i tend to sit in the back . . chanda is the short one in the center of the photo, with the red headband.

this piece is called noble dance, and was composed by sean o'loughlin.

interview with egyptian feminist writer and activist Nawal El-Saadawi

i've been very moved by the events happening in tahrir square in egypt this past week. i pray it continues to stay positive, and the people will have their elections and their freedom. i found this link on muslim hippie's blog. click on it to read about her experiences in cairo, before and after the demonstrations.

outdoor hour challenge #5 pine trees and winter wednesdays #5 evergreens

we walked a block to the hudson river park to observe pine trees today. the pines grow in an area that little children like to use as a sledding run when it snows.

 the trees we observed grow next to chanda's favorite climbing tree. the climbing tree is a pine and is the same kind as the second tree we drew. 

 through our observations we concluded that the tree on the left is an eastern white pine, and the tree on the right (along with the one behind it which you really can't see in this picture) is a parry pinyon. (the parry pine is native to california . . i don't know why the gardeners decided to plant it here. i suppose just because they thought it was pretty . . or hardy . . ) 

 

the eastern white pine has beautiful white branches and twigs with dark scars. 

 chanda's eastern white pine drawing. her description says it all. our fingers froze as we tried to draw!

 

it's needles are three to five inches long. 

 

morgana's journal entry for the white pine's needles and cone. there weren't many cones. we didn't see any hanging on the tree, not even at the top. we found this one nestled in the crook of a branch. 

 

now this is where i got confused. most eastern white pines have long vertical ridges along their trunks, or large rectangular blocks. maybe this tree is a teenager . . kind of in between the young smooth bark, and the ridged rectangular blocked bark. 

 

in this picture the bark looks very smooth.

 

this is the parry pinyon. you can see how it's branches grow in whorls round the tree, making it easy for a little girl to climb.

  my journal entry . .

 

the parry pine's needles are one to two inches long. 

 chanda's parry pinecone and needle drawing. the shape of the needle cluster reminded her of the fan-shaped gingko.

 

the parry pine usually has needles in clusters of four. however, they can also have three or five, which is exactly what we found . . needles growing in clusters of three, four and five!

 

here is an old needle cluster of four.

 

the bark is grey and smooth . . indicating that the tree is rather young. 

 

in the few pictures that i found online of the parry pine, it tends to look like a big overgrown bush. 

 we took our samples of needles and cones home to draw.

 

it was much more comfortable recording our observations inside where it was warm and our fingers weren't freezing.

 

we used several books for information. one of them was anne ophelia dowden's the blossom on the bough. the other was discover nature in winter, and also anna comstock's the handbook of nature study.

lunch with korrina

korrina had a busy day. she ran out to atlantic center in brooklyn to stop at target and get duct tape for a workshop she's doing with her friend at a unitarian universalist youth conference in plainfield, new jersey this weekend. then she ran uptown to teach her knitting class. then she came home to get her sleeping bag and clothing bag for the conference and then finally off to meet friends at penn station.

we got to sit down with her for a minute while she ate her sandwich and m and c worked on their math and botany.

i made the scarf she's wearing. it's one of knitpicks' stockpot scarves made with butterfly kisses and sock yarn and cotton crayon yarn. she made the hat she's wearing with lionbrand's merino superwash. the pattern is katushika's wurm which we found on ravelry.

xena likes to see what's going on in the hallway. have a great time!

mary POPpins!

it's two for one broadway ticket week and chanda and i took advantage of it to see mary poppins!

it's playing at the new amsterdam theatre which is one of the most beautiful theatres i have ever seen!

(yes, the bathroom!)

it was a magical evening. it was one of the most wonderful shows we've ever seen. we laughed. we cried. we stood and cheered and clapped at the end, and we both wanted to see it all over again. we enjoyed ourselves immensely. it was an "experience" as my brother-in-law says, just like the lion king.

ice in the city

today was a very drippy, and slippery day.