in connecticut

morgana had off from the restaurant today, so we hopped in the car and drove to connecticut. my poor sister has been battling gypsy moth caterpillars. they've eaten all the leaves on the oak trees and discarded all their little brown pellet droppings all over her driveway and back deck. when you stand outside, the caterpillars fall from the tops of the trees and crawl along the deck railing. it's very unpleasant. she says it's an improvement from when they were crawling along the window screens.

 making lemonade.

 enjoying the eventide . . 

 here is an after dinner tea flower that morgana brought back from thailand. you add hot water and the corn flower and jasmine leaves slowly unfold.

we also had fudges popsicles from whole foods that my mom requested (morgana and i had taken her there for lunch). 

 special painted coconut bowls from thailand; gifts for my sister and i.

 candies that she saw being made in the bangkok mall. 

 they piece together the design and then stretch it very thin and cut it into small cylinders.

it was a wonderful dinner together.

solstice monday: twelfth night and midsummer madness

 our peonies are . . aging . . 

solstice breakfast: salmon and capers and fresh dill . .

 it was such a busy day. chanda left early to rehearse for her twelfth night performance while morgana and i got ready to have our friends over for lunch. korrina stopped by also and picked up two books about hiking and driving scenic roads upstate.

 this book listed common wildflowers and also favorite ice cream shops. good combination! she's very excited because she has a week's paid vacation coming up and is planning a fun road trip.

 lunch with our friends . . 

 we made anzac biscuits from our around the world cookbook (a recipe from australia).

 we miss have these two here in the city with us. chanda used to go over and read and knit with them every other week. they're eleven now and had lots of stories to tell us about their waldorf school friends and the books they've been reading and how they got their ears pierced.

 after we said good-bye it was time to get ready to go to uptown for the play performance. 

it was held in our friends' courtyard. 

play preparations. morgana has the script under her arm and i think she followed along in case someone needed a line.

they were a little worried since a few days ago they were still struggling, but today they were superb.

 the audience is ready.

 olivia with cesario (viola) and maria, who also played count orsino. olivia would don a trench coat and become antonio, friend to sebastian, viola's brother.

 malvolio in his yellow stockings and crossed gaiters (who also became sebastian with a different jacket). sir toby belch slinks behind malvolio with mischievous intent.

viola as cesario trying to defend herself from antonio's accusations.

poor viola . . being manhandled by sir toby belch who wants her to fight with the adorable sir andrew (played by the real life little sister of sir toby).

in act iii, scene iv, when viola as cesario claims not to know of the love sworn to olivia by her brother sebastian, olivia exclaims: "why, this is midsummer madness!" yes! what a perfect night to have performed this play on!

 fini! brava . . and what a relief . . 

 for all the drama i've heard about trying to memorize lines and trying to find a performance space and trying to find time when everyone could meet, they did a great job. we all enjoyed the performance and it looked like they were having a great time too. (it's been two years since they diid macbeth.)

we had a really nice potluck get together afterwards, but greg was very tired and happy to come home. we walked home beneath the light of an incredibly full and beautiful strawberry moon.

sunday afternoon and father's day dinner

 chanda and i got a ride to the east village with ellen, her modern dance teacher, who had been in our neighborhood in the early morning for a visit to the whitney museum (a special exhibit viewing time for members only). we were meeting our friends lucia, tsameret and moriah who were in town from pittsburgh and who were having a trampoline gym class with their friend and teacher, rudy. rudy has been teaching nyc homeschoolers for about . . . thirty years. i remember seeing a gym class when korrina was three or four years old as it was held in the same space as a nychea meeting (which a friend had invited me to). today the class was at the international school on second street, just east of second avenue, right next to an old graveyard that is kept up so beautifully.

 and i neglected to get a picture of chanda with our friends for which i had purposely brought my camera! instead, here are pics from one of our favorite yarn stores: downtown yarns on avenue A.

 we talked with lettie and kathy (rita, the owner wasn't there today) and picked out some cotton yarn to make a ballet t-shirt, one of teva durham's patterns which my friend janet gave me in a book called loop-d-loop knitting.

 galler yarns, inca-eco organic cotton, made in peru.

 shibui twig, made in japan from linen, recycled silk and wool.

 at home, greg went through boxes of family documents that he's had in the closet.

 pictures, birth and death certificates . . 

 my mother-in-law and sister-in-law in 1984. he was working on his genealogical charts.

chanda studied her lines today and went to a twelfth night rehearsal. she's working on the play with several friends (she's playing viola) and they'll perform it in a friend's courtyard monday night.

 father's day dinner: homemade pesto pasta with salad and fresh zucchini from the farmer's market.

 and sorbet and gelato . . 

it was a late meal as we were waiting for the young people to get back . . though greg would have eaten much sooner . . morgana had been babysitting in new jersey and chanda and deychen's rehearsal went late.

poem for a sunday morning

oft have i seen at some cathedral door

a laborer, pausing in the dust and heat,

lay down his burden, and with reverent feet

enter and cross himself, and on the floor

kneel to repeat his paternoster o'er;

far off the noises of the world retreat;

the loud vociferations of the street

become an undistinguishable roar.

so, as i enter here from day to day

and leave my burden at this minster gate,

kneeling in prayer and not ashamed to pray,

the tumult of the time disconsolate

to inarticulate murmurs dies away,

while the eternal ages watch and wait.

sonnet i, from divine commedia, by henry wadsworth longfellow

after the green market

 greg and i ran into marlene and chanda in front of HB. the acting class had ended and they were waiting for morgana to return from her rock climbing session at chelsea piers. 

they were on their way to starbucks.

a cement bag in debris in thailand.

 and made up into a bag.

berries and coffee and off to see marlene

we've all been enjoying summer berries.

 morgana went with chanda this morning to see her acting teacher marlene. 

 chanda will stay for the class but morgana will go rock climbing at the gym until she meets her teacher for coffee.

the bag she has is one made from cement sacks in thailand. 

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now i'm off to the green market and then greg and i will attempt to clear some junk out of the second bedroom . . i also posted about morgana's first day on the job here.