visiting with family

greg, korrina and i spent a few days at the beach with my cousin and her family. it was a very nice time with pleasant weather (humid, but not too hot) and wonderful swimming. we had delicious meals (steamers, prawns and lobster) and relaxing days at what i like to call "dog" beach.

a dog named teddy came to sit with me for a little while.

the first night's dinner . . 

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breakfast . . 

our second beach day . . 

my cousin treated us to a delicious lobster meal.

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we woke to a (much needed) very rainy tuesday.

daisy white chrysanthemums . . 

trying on the outfit for the wedding they will be attending at the new york botanic garden.

at work . . 

checking her email (after which we watched several jackson galaxy catdaddy videos).

time to say good-bye and head home . .

sunday morning poem

 river roads

let the crows go by hawking their caw and caw.

they have been swimming in midnights of coal mines somewhere.

let 'em hawk their caw and caw.

let the woodpecker drum and drum on a hickory stump.

he has been swimming in red and blue pools somewhere hundreds of years

and the blue has gone to his wings and the red has gone to his head.

let his head drum and drum.

let the dark pools hold the birds in a looking-glass.

and if the pool wishes, let it shiver to the blur of many wings, old swimmers from old places.

let the redwing streak a line of vermilion on the green wood lines.

and the mist along the river fix its purple in lines of a woman's shawl on lazy shoulders.

by carl sandburg (1878-1967)

cats and friends and mini golf

 

 after visiting the green market in the morning and having a chocolate croissant with tea, i went to the center for a cat care shift. it was the first time on a weekend and the cat rooms were already very clean, so i just played with the cats for over an hour and then posted photos of them on my instagram stories during the rest of the time. they all came out to play, including darla and ridley.

several families came in to meet cats in the other cat room and many people stopped by to watch darla and nala play with the balls and wands.

nala was ready for a nap afterwards . . 

 

back in her window position . . 

greg met me outside the center and we walked to pier 25 to play miniature golf with ron and andy. it was greg's first time playing. he never went with the girls and i when we would meet with clyde, alex and louie during past summers as he was at work.

greg and i each got a hole in one which is always exciting.

it was nice being out on the pier . . 

afterwards, we had dinner at bubbies (andy had a cobb salad, i had veggie chili, greg a pulled pork sandwich and ron a burger).

the best part, of course, was dessert . . i love their pies and their homemade vanilla ice cream. today i had peach (as there wasn't any blueberry, sadly) and then we walked home along hudson street. the weather has been so beautiful - in the low 80's with a cool breeze. the cicadas have been humming all august, and the crickets are now chirping at night in the cooler air.

friday afternoon

today was a big day for me as i received new eye glasses and had my first vision therapy session. it went very well and i'm feeling hopeful that i will be able to strengthen my eyes and perhaps not need such a strong eyeglass prescription. however, it will take time and discipline on my part to do the exercises regularly!

i was lost in thought on the walk home and then looked up to see this sweet pair.

dinner was simple: delicious egg salad with pickles and curry on einkorn bread (greg had a baguette) and steamed fresh summer zucchini (and leftover french fries from sunday's dinner with kathy and warren).

 

afterwards, i had fun watching a little of serena's match against ajla tomljanovic with greg.

lunch, tea and dinner

chanda stopped by after class and we had lunch together. 

after which i had dessert and tea with janet! (actually, she made a blueberry basil lemon drink inspired by what we had the other week at mah ze dahr cafe. it was very good . . and i brought raspberry and pistachio financiers from the cafe we went to last week. they were out of the tahini cookies we liked so much.) i then went to the library to return a book and to pick one up that was on hold.

a view from janet's upper floor.

and i made a soup from a recipe by ukranian cookbook author olia hercules - a simple chicken with vegetable soup, but the chicken was boiled separate to create a broth and then the vegetables were added after sautéing in a pan. it was very flavorful.

dog walking, shoe shopping and austrian barnyard fowl

a local dog walker taking her charges out for a walk.

i met chanda at prodigy coffee after her classes and after my doctor's appointment (a wellness check up - i've chosen a new primary care physician through our new health insurance plan through greg's work). we had made plans to visit the REI store - she wanted to see what was on sale and i was looking for hiking shoes.

she found a good rain jacket on sale to wear when riding her bike. i was able to try on several shoes to see which fit me best, but they didn't have my size in the ones i thought were good. i think i'll check the zappos website tonight.

afterwards, chanda headed out to brooklyn and i walked home past some city gardens . . 

tomatoes in a raised bed . . 

beautiful yellow flowers . . 

 

i've walked past this restaurant many times and today i thought it would be fun to have dinner there, especially since i knew greg was on his way home also, and not far away.
 

it specializes in pizza . .

keeping track of a rainstorm in pennsylvania that is heading east.

we first shared a caesar salad . .

we chose a marinara pie with fresh basil and ricotta and parmesan. the menu described the pizza style as being from detroit and it was really good. i love ricotta cheese.

heading home again with leftover pizza for tomorrow!

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pics from austria and a new bike

morgan is currently visiting in austria for a few days . . 

 

two delicious looking austrian meatballs . .

and a few very cute baby ducks . . 

(sigh) it's just so beautiful . . 

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meanwhile, chanda purchased a very nice used bike for herself as her bike was stolen a few weeks ago. we had new tires put on this afternoon as the ones it came with had no tread left.  she's very happy with it and was excited to ride it to her new classes at school today.

together we visited the cats she is taking care of while their family is away.

franklin is very friendly and always hungry.

 

on the other hand, orange tabby mert will not come down to the kitchen to eat. one time when i fed them i took his food upstairs so he would eat before i left.

 

of course mert doesn't eat as quickly as franklin and so franklin would eat his food when he walked away from his bowl, and thus if was difficult making sure he had enough. recently the family purchased the surefeed bowl which only allows mert to access his own food (via the chip between his shoulder blades which was placed there by the organization that rescued him). very clever!

both cats are so sweet and it's fun visiting them.