monday and tuesday

 chanda finally visited the matcha cafe with me today. we both had the peaches and cream iced matcha drink.

and yesterday korrina came over for lunch.

moving the car

i drove chanda up to her dance class at steps today. the car had to be moved anyway. i waited for her at maison kayser and then picked up a few things from fairway, which is where she met me after class. it was fun to be shopping there again. i treated her to a sandwich and tart from maison kayser to have in the car on the way home.

 here's our special eggplant dish that we had on thursday.

korrina selfies

 here are some pics from korrina of her and wash just hanging out at home in broolyn . . 

our neighbor victoria . .

 greg and i went over to our neighbor victoria's apartment this afternoon around 4. she invited us over for tea and greg helped her with some computer problems she was having. you can see alfred, her dachshund, keeping an eye on things in the pic above.

 she has an old portable hard drive on which she has some photos she would like to get off. but we're unsure of how to get them off as there is a loose wire.

 alfred . . who is really a dear. on the left are sheets of her photo shoot with morgana in nice. they were fun to see.

 green tea . . .

a lemon tart from le pain quotidian.

she re-did her kitchen and i really love it. i'd like to re-do ours one of these days. i like the light beneath the counter and the stone floor tiles. also, her refrigerator is narrower than mine, and much less bulky looking.

victoria currently has an exhibition of several of her photos at the local chase bank.

 the one she's hanging here is one of my favorites: you can do what you please, 2011

at the new york botanical garden

while i was in san francisco, i received notices in my email from the new york botanical garden about their new exhibit of dale chihuly sculptures. greg and i decided to visit this morning. between 9 and 10 am on saturday mornings, visitors can enter free of charge (there's also plenty of parking that early in the morning on the street outside of the garden grounds). we ran the last hundred feet to the entrance kiosk, as it was five or four minutes to ten, and i knew they would charge us if we arrived a minute over.

above is sol del citrón, 2014, blown glass and steel.

novelist jacqueline woodson, whose book another brooklyn i just read, selected poems from hundreds of submissions from tri-state area school children, grades k-12, inspired by chihuly's work:

sol del citrón

 

sol

spirals like the way dance makes my hips move left and right

overjoy people's faces with the vibrant colors, allusions

loops like the way natural hair does in its natural state bouncy and coily 

del

dazzles you with brightness that may blind your eyes in a snap of a hand

exquisite like the sparkles sparkling on a disco ball

luxurious for everyone to enjoy going beyond what they can imagine

citrón

curves like the way a worm slithers back into its habitat

injects you with freedom into a new world like chihuly

ties all the pieces together to make it unique

rams all the ideas, differences in your mind that it suddenly goes "poof"

ongoing into my brain was first a little thing that wasn't possible

now it's a large scale glass curling sculpture.

sol del citrón

by essence sanders

eighth grade

harlem academy

new york, new york

 

 red reeds on logs, blown glass and logs, 2016

 sapphire star

beautiful sea urchin

sea urchin, sea urchin

that spiny sea urchin

you're made out of glass

you live in the sea.

you are as blue as the water,

so stay with me.

by sophia pietrzak

kindergarten

katonah elementary school

katonah, new york

 nikko fir tree from japan

 blown glass balls in a rowboat

 entering the rose garden . .

we also walked through the old growth forest (the largest uncut expanse of new york's original wooded landscape), and the herb garden. but always the highlight for me at the nybg are the ornamental conifers . . spruce trees, cedar trees . . even a few redwoods. they're all enormous and beautiful.

beautiful cornwall

 morgana has been in cornwall with my cousin and her family.

 my cousin handling some last minute work emergencies.

 morgana on the train with them to cornwall.

 posing behind a huge rosemary plant in a friend's garden.

 her delicious fish dinner . . 

 they took a friend's boat sailing one day . . 

and another day they visited mount saint michael, which has been owned by the st. aubyn family since 1650.

a selfie after climbing around and around to arrive at the entrance of the castle on mount saint michael. morgana stayed with her cousin/aunt every step of the way and they had a fun time talking together and experiencing the beautiful sea and the mount.

 cobblestones on mount saint michael . . 

 inside the mount . . 

 fencing equipment . . 

 a view from the mount . . as they were leaving the castle, a couple was coming in from the pathway. my cousin said she recognized this couple as the aubyn family owners from the portraits she had just seen in the hall! i think that was exciting.

 and another view of beautiful cornwall . . 

relaxing in a friend's garden . .

 a picnic in the garden . .

sardines?

 an english bulldog she saw on the train . . 

 back in london . . rowing on the narrowboat . . 

and the best picture yet of the interior of the narrowboat (taken by my cousin).

partial solar eclipse

 my friend, janet, invited me onto her roof to watch the partial solar eclipse today. she had the special eclipse glasses i've heard so much about, and i was amazed at how well they worked. you could look directly into the sun and watch the event very clearly! chanda had greg and i looking in seven eleven stores last night when coming home from the shakespeare performance, but they were all sold out of glasses.

 the day did get a bit dark, but not like if it had been a full eclipse.

 janet and her youngest . . 

 we had a delicious snack of peanut butter on sprouted grain bread and tea . .

 it was an incredibly pleasant afternoon. i'm so glad she called. chanda had gone over to her friend's house who lives in the east village with janet's son gabriel. how fortunate to have good friends with roof gardens!

 her apples and raspberries were especially tasty this year.

a serious pic with clyde, who came over for dinner as he's heading back to california tomorrow. we'll miss him and sunny CA (and those delicious avocadoes!).