sunday poem

overlooked

i turned the pages of my book,

with nervous haste and heedless care,

i searched impatiently to find

some favorite verses written there.

at last upon the book's first page

i found the lines for which i sought,

but in my haste, had overlooked

and suddenly there came this thought,

how oft for some much-needed thing

we ask the father o'er and o'er,

when, lo! by simple faith and trust

we find the blessing at our door.

by olivia ward bush-banks (1869 - 1944)

walking home through the nightlife

at 6 pm this evening i went out to meet kendall and aurélien who were driving back from upstate. fortunately, a parking space opened up just across the street from their apartment building, so unloading and taking things upstairs was relatively easy. i fed the little one while kendall brought everything up, and then we sat and talked for a little bit before i went home to make dinner. while we were talking, the nightlife noises wafted in through her windows from the street below. she has two busy restaurants on her block. when i walked out, i was struck by the chatter of the diners and the clink of all the tableware . . we can't stay away from each other, and flock together for warmth and community. we just can't help ourselves!

it was really such a beautiful night . . not too cold and not too hot . .

i walked a little out of my way to hear this group on the corner of jane street . . so many musicians are out of work that we now have a group serenading us on almost every corner at night. i'm not sure if the restaurants have hired them or if they are dependent on the tips of the diners.

 

 

 

this little one just keeps growing inch by inch, day by day. his teeth are beginning to come in now; he's chewing on his fingers and beginning to drool up a storm . .

saturday's vegetables

the greens from this morning: two kinds of mustard greens, tokyo bekana cabbage, collards (huge!) and dill.

friday

 

 pluto kept me company as i made calls at the computer today. after mailing the "get out the vote" letters, i still felt restless and decided i needed to do some "get out the vote" phone calls.

 

logged in and waiting for a call . . i've been surprised at how polite everyone has been, probably because it's through sierra club's calling list, and most everyone would like to see a transition to renewable resources. i had one very nice caller who talked up a storm about how crazy our current president is and how we need to get him out. that was very reassuring. the dialogue sierra club promotes is making sure people are registered and know where their polling place is if they're voting in person, or that they've received their absentee ballot.

 

dinner tonight was kale soup with potatoes, carrots, peppers and onions. everything was from muddy farm, from the green market on saturday (their bunches of kale have been huge!)

i caught up with some old posts from last thursday, sunday, tuesday, and last night.

an online dance performance and the debate

my cousin's friend was dancing at keene state college in a special collaboration with several musician friends. i was able to watch some of it before the debate began.

her friend is the one in the yellow top with the white shoes and white shorts . . 

all the dancers were rather amazing!

my sister and i made plans to watch the debate and play bingo. we thought we might be able to lessen the pain of it all, if we had something fun to focus on. it began with a bang with plenty of covid references, but then slowed down and was a bit frustrating as there weren't any squares for "the wall," or for "criminals, murderers or bad people" as my sister wrote me (we kept up a running commentary via email).

my sister's bingo sheet . . 

and her filled bingo sheet with a line of "bingo!" i was able to fill a line diagonally. 

 

it wasn't a great night . . which was what i expected, but at least biden gave a decent address at the end (the moderator's last question was for the candidates to present the speech they would give at their inauguration to those voters who did not vote for them):

"I will say, ‘I’m the American president. I represent all of you whether you voted for me or against me. And I'm going to make sure that you’re represented. I’m going to give you hope. We're going to move. We're going to choose science over fiction. We're going to choose hope over fear. We're going to choose to move forward because we have enormous opportunities, enormous opportunities to make things better.  We can grow this economy. We can deal with a systemic racism. At the same time, we can make sure that our economy is being run, and moved, and motivated by clean energy, creating millions of new jobs. And that's the fact, that's what we're going to do. And I'm going to say, as I said at the beginning, what is on the ballot here is the character of this country. Decency. Honor. Respect. Treating people with dignity. Making sure that everyone has an even chance. Now, I'm going to make sure you get that. You haven't been getting it the last four years."

 

actually, reading it now, it was good . . these are good things to say to us. (i found the full debate transcript on usa today's website).

afternoon tea

 

i couldn't resist buying a sour cream coffee cake from the apple farm on saturday. i had the last piece today with a cup of green tea.

the biography of katharine cornell i purchased from alabaster books on sunday. 

sunday's walk through the neighborhood

 

after church service and breakfast, greg and i went out for a walk, he had a particular destination in mind: strand bookstore. (do you see the tiny figure to his right-over his left shoulder, in front of the white wood panels?)

 

hello batman . . 

do you see the figure of ruth bader ginsberg in the top right window?

the piano man of washington square has an instagram account (howdidyougetthepianohere) and had recently announced that he was playing again in the park . . it was fun to see him.

greg is looking at the building on the right, which is the first place we worked when we moved here in the mid '80's. it used to be scholastic books, but scholastic moved a number of years ago to a few blocks south in soho.

and looking at dance teacher mary anthony's building which has been beneath scaffolding ever since we first began going to her place to rehearse - ten years now?!

i think she was on the sixth floor . . i have photos of her apartment/studio from when chanda had a rehearsal which you can see here.

 

we also looked for faces on the facades of the buildings, as suggested by robert arthur king, the author of faces in stone,  during the lecture i listened to via streaming on the national arts club website last tuesday. we did see several, but they were so high up that my camera couldn't capture them adequately.

waiting to enter our destination where greg was picking up a book about bookstores, titled book row.

and in front of alabaster books, just a block away from strand on fourth avenue, and a few doors down from where my grandfather had his tavern in 1911, where i found a book about actress katherine cornell.

walking along ninth street . .

and peeking through the fence at jefferson market garden . . 

 

closer to home now and passing our veterinarian's office . .

we had fish for dinner that i had bought at the green market yesterday, fillet of sole, which i had never had before, and it was delicious. also, i usually never buy flowers from the flower stand as they are usually quite pricey, but these beautiful sunflowers, and the ones below which are sitting on the piano, were only $8 . .

the woman at the market suggested i add pennies to the vase of water, as the copper helps them to hold their heads up. i had never heard of this before, but it seems to be working. also, these are a hybrid that she called the "highlighter" sunflowers, as the color is similar to a yellow highlighter pen.

i also finished my "get out the vote" letters written with the sierra club (i did a few letter writing sessions with them via zoom). they were supposed to be mailed yesterday, but i needed to pick up more envelopes. i'll put them in the mailbox by the post office tomorrow morning.

sunday morning poem

 

 

the soul of the sunflower

 

the warm sun kissed the

earth

to consecrate thy birth,

and from his close

embrace

thy radiant face

sprang into sight,

a blossoming delight. 

by sarah orne jewett (1849 - 1909)