heading home

a beautiful, grey morning greeted us today.

my dad was up early to visit his friend in town and then to make us pancakes.

chanda and i headed out on the 11:18 train. the conductor didn't quite buy that she was 11 years old. he thought she looked 13. i pretended i was my friend whose children always looked much older for their age. (an 11 year old is 75 cents, a 12 year old is $18.75. how ridiculous is it that they don't have student or teen rates???)

only one other person got on the train with us. it was nice to stretch out on a four-seater.

chanda read a chapter about writing in edith hamilton's the greek way, and i worked on my liesl.

when we got off the train onto the downstairs platform at penn station, i realized it smelled the same as when my friends and i would come in for our saturday morning acting class at the american academy of dramatic art when we were 14 years old. that was thirty seven years ago. good? bad? just interesting? 

when we came up from the subway, chanda and i thought the red village brick buildings looked warm and pretty.

jack was on his chair when we came into the apartment. we didn't wake him, because i didn't want to have to walk him.

on montauk

 

to montauk

chanda and i took the lirr to southampton today to meet nana and nonno and drive them home after nonno had some tests done. it was a pretty day for traveling and we worked a little on ancient greek history. we read about how they hunted boar, harvested olives, almonds and walnuts, and cooked outside over open fires. chanda liked reading about how travelers to sparta found the local "black" broth horrible to eat. the author (imogene dawson) picked out appropriate quotes referencing food from homer, hesiod, euripides and others.

at myb

chanda and i went uptown with morgana today to her ballet rehearsal. we read and knitted until she finished and then stopped at whole foods for baby spinach to go into an omelette for dinner. greg made the omelette for us. he's the omelette king.

morning walk and a different myb perspective

 

greg, morgana, chanda and i went for an early morning walk on the high line today. it was grey and cold.

the witch hazel plant!

i'm not sure what plant this one is . .

the first crocuses . .

aromatic juniper . . 

and holly! there were at least six or eight large holly trees. i thought they were amazing.

winter dormant sea grasses.

at our favorite place on the high line . . by the church and schoolyard . .

at myb with chanda . . while morgana rehearsed for her ballet school's spring performance.

chanda is working on a grey sweater and knitting with lamb's pride superwash.

morgana et al on break. .

with her friend tessa . .

chanda and i having a treat at olympic flame diner!

a day off

leftover mousse . . for breakfast? well, we did have oatmeal first . .

we had a craft and movie day . .  we watched the lorax (and listened to morgana's stories about sturbridge and her visit with aunt kathy and uncle warren).

morgana worked on nana's afghan. these are the squares we have for her so far. i worked on my new liesl, and chanda worked on her grey sweater.

oh! a baci! and mandarin oranges . . i just don't want to say good-bye to holiday treats. however, we did give up snacks for lent, but . . not chocolate.

the wanderers return

chanda wrapped greg's present this evening, while i made dinner. i forgot i had it! i was lamenting how i had neglected to get him a gift when chanda reminded me that i had bought him a gift; i had even said that i had bought him the perfect gift.

morgana helped me get dinner on. i was running late as jack had an accident on the stairs when i went to walk him. his legs are weakening and it's difficult for him to go up and down now.

it was a simple recipe for tonight . . risotto with saffron.

grating the cheese . . 

sauteing the rice with onion . .

voila. saffron risotto with leftover stuffed shells.

happy birthday, greg!

oh yes . . i was also running late as i had trouble with the mousse . . the first batch seized up on me and i had to start over . . thankfully, it all worked out! (oh, and greg's present was neil young's autobiography).

president's day

ooohh . . it was a quiet and lazy day . . here you see the ingredients laid out for the latest recipe . . this time from a giada book.

meanwhile, chanda looked up the tale of troy in several encyclopedias . . 

hoping for some ideas on how to weave in all the events . .

i made shells stuffed with ricotta, turkey meat, basil and parsley. and since morgana wasn't home, we had a maranara sauce with it.

 

it was very good!