early morning travels . .

 morgana was up early to catch the train to munich . . 

 she was on her way for a visit with her austrian family . .

 it was a quiet morning!

 it was also very early . . 6 am? she says she was very sleepy.

 french or german countryside passing by outside . .  .

a visit to brooklyn

 chanda and i rode the b train out to brooklyn today to have breakfast with korrina.

 

 first things first: pics of her latest yarn creation, waiting for rain.

 the lace pattern is knit in short rows within the garter stitch. the yarn is verdant gryphon's bugga in the colorway, "hudson valley." (she used to work for the yarn company on broadway, and they always carried this yarn.)

 her latest seedlings: watercress, radishes, chive, wildflowers, lettuce, cosmos, basil, thyme and rosemary.

 and most important of all . . mr. king of the castle, hoban washburne, known as wash (who knocked down the catmint she was growing for him when trying to catch a moth that had flown in).

 his very cute food bowl . . 

he's such a nut. he's also quite heavy. it's nice to pick up such a solid cat. of course he didn't let me hold him for very long, though he didn't scratch, just wiggled and jumped out of my arms.

 i think chanda is trying to steal something that belongs to korrina, though i can't remember what.

 korrina made her own sour dough starter and baked a bread on monday. it looked delicious and the crust came out perfectly brown and crusty.

 on our way to milk and honey for breakfast. her neighborhood is just bursting in green.

roses were in bloom . . 

 korrina chose avocado on toast . . 

 chanda had eggs and salmon . . 

 and i had eggs with avocado and corn tortillas.

 it was nice to be able to sit outside.

 passing more roses on our way to the flatbush food coop to get lavender castile soap and cheese and baguette. our plan was to visit the argyle yarn store and then have lunch with my friend jeanette. chanda headed back home for her history class. i really love korrina's food coop. the prices are so much better than in manhattan. grapes at my local health food store are $7.99/pound. at her food coop they were $3.99/pound, and they were incredibly sweet and delicious.

 
 we've talked for a few years about visiting this yarn store together, so it was nice to finally be here.

the really exciting part was seeing the quince and co yarn, an online company which just began selling skeins in local stores.

we both decided to buy linen yarn for summer camisole tops. she chose the sparrow line (which i used for my summer scarf), and i chose the kestrel line, which i didn't think i would like as much since it's a tape yarn. however, i really liked a particular colorway and a particular pattern, so i thought i would give it a try.

walking along sixteenth street to the walkover to visit my friend jeanette.

i've driven on the prospect expressway below so many times that it was exciting to be walking across.

it was also exciting to have jeanette and tony finally meet korrina. we had the nicest afternoon together out on their patio. sitting outside in the spring air is rejuvenating and a balm to winter blues. thankfully, the temperature reached 70 and the rain clouds stayed away.

tony has been busy fixing up the garden. he's not sure what the plant is on the right (a leftover from the prior owners), but he planted the nasturium on the left.

we finally said good-bye around four as tony had a student arriving for a piano lesson. jeanette walked korrina and i out and showed us a few of her favorite streets in the neighborhood. korrina headed home on the bus and i picked up an earl grey tea for the subway ride home.

i got off at broadway lafayette and walked home along bleecker street. above is a photo of the fabulous picasso sculpure in the courtyard of the i. m. pei apartment buildings (part of nyu's university village) in the heart of greenwich village.

rainy day monday

the weather has been very changeable and not as sunny for us as it usually is in the spring. friday night i went to bed with it at 81 degrees, and i woke saturday morning to 61. today it was in the low 60's all day and it poured off and on. (sunday was warm in the sun, but very chilly when we left the morgan library at 5:30 pm. even greg felt cold.)

 an interesting plant in the courtyard with leaves twice as large as my hand . . 

doing laundry .  .

a little bit more of paris

 here are a few more photos of the small town outside of paris that morgana is staying at with her friend.

 her walk to the train station  . . 

to catch the train for school.

emily at the morgan

greg and i walked to the pierpont morgan library today to see the emily dickinson exhibit.

on the way we passed the nepal day parade marching south along madison avenue.

you never know what street fair or parade you'll run into now that it's spring.

they were all having a good time and the music was fun.

i had never been to the morgan library before, though greg had. it was exciting to see the gutenberg bible and all the beautiful old books in the library. the dickinson exhibit was in a small room on the second floor. we both really enjoyed it and found it informative. i loved seeing her papers and comparing her writing from when she was a young girl to her adult self. above is a fascicle (books of her poetry that she sewed together) containing her poem i heard a fly buzz.

(sorry for the shadows!) she often had several words that she was considering in a poem, so she would put small cross marks to their left, indicating they were all possibilities.

she led a reclusive life when she was older, but her young self attended schools and parties, concerts and lectures. she corresponded with friends and family prolifically, and she wrote approximately 1,800 poems! she also had auburn hair, which you can see in this portrait of her with her brother austin, and sister lavinia, painted by otis allen bullard in 1840 when she was nine years old. the exhibit also had a lock of her hair, and the famous daguerreotype which is the only known picture of her young adult self.