school preparations

the nychea craft fair committee met this morning at cafe minerva . .

. . carol, janet and i . .

carol had all the ideas in a folder. she always comes up with the most loveliest craft ideas. so far we have: make a tin ornament, make a cloth/felt bird, decorate candles with beeswax, wet felt a wool ball, make a bookmark (weaving together different patterned papers), and "stained glass" shapes with tissue paper.

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sitting in the cafe this morning was incredibly pleasant. the door was open to a nice breeze, the sun was shining, and all was quiet outside on west fourth street.

at home, morgana, chanda and i tackled the "school" area. we cleared out old books and papers and made room for this year's work. above, they're taking a break and rolling beeswax candles from a kit discovered under a large pile of notebooks.

korrina got ready for one of her classes she's taking in the new school's continuing ed department. tonight was introduction to photography 1: technical foundation. last night was what's creative about the academic essay, and in two weeks she will begin costume design and history at parsons.

here is morgana's finished area with the postcards she picked to put up (the lower left is a schoolroom scene from old sturbridge village).

and this is chanda's area.

machiavelli and bleecker park's linden trees

korrina, camille and i took the train to columbus and 85th street. janet's friend has been putting together a restaurant since her old one closed in the west village a year of so ago. (it was called la focaccia, and can actually be seen as a setting in a few films that take place in manhattan). the new one she is opening is using several canvases painted especially for a restaurant venture she was supposed to do before la focaccia. the canvases are beautiful and depict medieval looking soldiers and horses. the name is to be machiavelli. we may do some work part-time in the morning for breakfast.

chanda and i ran several errands this afternoon to the post office and library. along our way we passed the linden trees in bleecker park. four of them went down in the storm. they were quite old, and i suppose they're more vulnerable to the high winds without any younger, more supple vegetation around them.

we got back a little late from our errands, so had a simple maranara sauce and zucchini sauteed with garlic and basil for dinner.

after the storm

morgana, chanda and i took a ride downtown to the weeping willow trees in battery park city. i think because the storm made landfall east of us, and lessened in strength as it came up the coast, not many trees were damaged. we were fortunate to be spared (this time around). (we did lose three old and beautiful linden trees in the park just east of us. they provided wonderful shade in the summer, and we'll miss them just because we love all our trees . . ). it was the most amazingly clear day. we all felt like we could see new jersey more clearly than we ever had before. governor's island seemed to be within reach of our fingertips . . so so close.

an enormous cruise ship (the norwegian gem), passed by.

they must have ridden out the storm in the harbor? the buildings seemed to gleam in the late afternoon light.

we actually did some sketches which i'll post later. here, chanda is reading her latest redwall book, taggerung, and morgana is working on one of the squares for avenue of trees.

it was a nice dinner together, albeit quite late!

while the storm was abating

it was just one of those days to go out on the fire escape . .

to pick impatiens again . .

for the windowsill even though they will die within 24 hours . .

to work on making arrows for the bow you made from the pine tree that fell during the winter . .

to let your mouse eat the cheese you plan to have for dinner . .

there's calm in your eye

i slept fitfully during the night. the wind in the trees sounded wild and ominous. it quieted down around 4:30 or 5 am, and i was able to sleep more soundly. by 8 am, greg and i were both up and ready to go for a walk. we had fed the animals, walked the dog, and were ready to see how the river was doing. as we walked over, police cars were asking people to leave the park. the river had just risen over the seawall. i think they worried it would just keep on coming. however, the heavy rain that was predicted (remember those 20 inches i read about saturday night) didn't seem to have fallen. thankfully. the wind had also lessened, thus allowing the water to recede. the storm drains along west street were then, also, able to drain and the corner street flooding went down.

since we had been asked to leave the park, we instead walked over to jane street as we had seen several police cars along the highway. there had been flooding there, similar to our blocks, but more widespread so west street was blocked off. however, it began receding so everything opened up again . . west street and the park. we called the girls and said they should come down for a walk.

the wind and the river were still a little wild . .

this area was completely submerged earlier. it was good the hurricane died down to a tropical storm. it could have been a lot worse.

there were about a hundred moon jellyfish washed up along the pavement.

now a quiet storm . .

last night the winds were coming from the southeast. now they are from the northwest which is the normal behavior for winds along bank street . . so all is back to normal.

and from the girls' bedroom window,

we could see the blue sky before the sun went back to sleep.

walking jack in a hurricane

thankfully, the winds and rain have quieted down now. it really howled all night. our mulberry trees look very weary, and it's branches hang disconsolately outside the living room window. but i think all branches are intact. jack had to be walked this morning, and since it was quieter, it wasn't half as bad as trying to walk him in a blizzard.

aahh, the necessary drying off . .

battening down the hatches

we took a walk this morning to see how everyone was getting ready for the storm, and to get a few essentials (eggs, milk, arugula, melon . . ).

the streets were quiet . . many places shuttered . .

. . curtains closed!

. . windows taped up . .

we walked along 8th avenue to 24th street. we planned to stop at whole foods, but they had closed at 9 am (it was 9:40). so we turned back south and walked homeward along 7th avenue. we stopped at westside market and picked up eggs and cheese, and waited in a line that during normal times does not occur at this store. we continued on to integral yoga, as they have the bulk peanut butter greg really likes.

they were closed. so sad. (so smart!)

we would have to stop at dagostino's. dagostino's was quite crowded, so we left greg with his peanut butter and took the other groceries home. i wanted to get things put away so we could take a walk by the river.

hudson river park . . please stay put, river . .

it was eerily calm . .

and the sky grey with misty looking clouds.

many buildings evacuated along west street . . i looked up and noticed some lights on in various apartments . . not everyone has left.

time for lunch . .

we've been following irene's progress on the national hurricane center site. i like their "discussions." they're very technical and factual and non-inflammatory. however, they can throw out a sentence or two that really causes you to think, oh no! for example: " NOTE THAT ESTIMATES OF STORM TOTAL RAINFALL HAVE BEEN INCREASED WITH THIS ADVISORY...TO 20 INCHES."


excuse me! that is NOT what i wanted to hear!
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my friend is on the 20th floor of her building and she's worried about wind . . i'm on the 4th floor and i'm worried about flooding. well, we all have our different concerns . . (hmmm, i wonder what the storm total rainfall was before they increased it . . i'll have to do some research . . )

after lunch, morgana and chanda worked on their squares while watching the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. (korrina is at a friend's house in new jersey).

i kept very busy today. i vacuumed the whole apartment, cleaned the bathroom, and cooked ratatouille (around the world cookbook), beet salad (feeding the whole family), and anzac cookies (around the world, again).

by this evening the tide was up and the pilings covered by the river . .

now the bands of rain are increasing in length and growing heavier. greg just took jack out for a walk. m and c are now listening to the last battle, while knitting their squares. everyone is waiting for me to make tea to have with the cookies. stay tuned!