running errands on a hot summer day

i met sacha at peace food today. reina was supposed to join us but she is still dealing with a frustrating rash on her face. we're hoping it goes completely away soon!

peace food has the best tumeric ginger latte . . made with oat milk. they're supposed to be closing by the end of july. since we're leaving soon for the wedding, i wanted to get in another visit. if they do close this downtown location, i'll have to visit the uptown one.

i did a lot of errands today and walking around (returning library books, stopping at the health food store in the east village, printing out two knitting patterns i'm supposed to be working on, purchasing packing tape for packaging up a pair of loafers i'm returning to the quince company . . etc. i was supposed to print out a letter that i always tape to the kitchen cabinet for our cat sitter, but somehow i missed sending it from my computer at home. i'll have to return tomorrow! so much for errand consolidation.) anyway . . i was too hot and tired to make dinner so we went to chelsea market for tacos. chanda and i were hoping for chicken tacos, but the line is always too long! we had fish tacos instead (which are just as good).

greg loves taking this "secret" passage to the fish taco place.

morning poem and sunday afternoon

 

daughter

i ask her to remember, 

not because i want to hear the story again,

but because i want to watch her face relive

the moment. that moment, her eyes sparkle with longing,

i can see how she flies from the tent

to a time when she leapt

through our farm in every direction with eyes closed,

only stopping at the fence, where our orange trees

embrace our neighbors' olive trees.

some fallen oranges would tell her to open her eyes,

to pick them up and put them in a plate on our doorstep,

where children returning from school

would stop to gulp some.

i love the smell of oranges best

when she remembers.

by mosab abu toha (born 1992)

from page 37, forest of noise, published 2024 

----

i walked to the vintage pop up store chanda and i had visited friday to pick up the striped pants i liked that were on sale. i'm glad i did. they're very comfortable and they're something other than blue jeans, which i tend to wear every day. i met greg by cooper union/astor place and we popped into the muji store to see how much their suitcases were - chanda needs one. i don't know why she doesn't have one. i guess she was using an old one of morgana's all these years . . or morgana took her's back to london. anyway, they were a little pricey so she'll probably go to tj maxx. greg had never been in muji before and was excited about their pens and notebooks; now he's a big fan. afterwards, we walked to chobani in soho for one of their yogurt specialities, but they've changed their menu so we had an iced chocolate at burdick instead . . not such a bad trade off . . then we stopped at pet bar for a large bag of kitty litter which greg had to put in the basket of a citibike to pedal it home . .

now, hopefully i'll get to sleep a little earlier than last night . . 

(dinner this evening . . fresh tuna sauteed with olive oil, cumin, paprika, sea salt and pepper - picked up from the lobster place as our fish vendor no longer sells on saturdays at the green market. we really miss them!)

biking, chinese food and dance practice

we rode our bikes uptown to see ron and andy today, and to order in from ollie's: broccoli with garlic sauce, shrimp and broccoli, vegetable spring rolls and cold sesame noodles. (morgan and harley had raved about it last time they visited.)

we also practiced the line dances for the wedding . . 

coffee, flowers and clothes shopping

 

chanda and i noticed two new friends with the black cat today when walking to abraço . . crows or ravens? ravens or crows?

hello fig tree . . we love you.

(i stopped at east village organic . . but they were out of chestnut honey. he said they would order it though!)

and now it's very late and i'm still up and about . . putting together dance music for the wedding. 

time for sleep . . 

cards and watermelon

 

i walked to soho today to check on a tailor shop . . (i'm thinking of having some pants hemmed).

getting ready for our last round of may i . . 

but we first have to get the watermelon ready . . 

and chanda wins! (she was very happy.)

summer wednesday

 

what is so interesting out on the river?

vestiges of sail 250 . . 

packing material from clothes i'm trying on . . . . 

send me to london!

trying on shirts with greg and the cats (with a cameo appearance from laura nyro)

wedding bell blues . . 

a tall ship tour

greg and i visited three tall ships this afternoon (in the misty rain which never let up). the first we toured was the u.s. coast guard eagle, second was oosterschelde out of rotterdam, and the third was the pride of baltimore ii.

the eagle was the largest to walk through. half the crew was busy in the galley and the other half were in their dress blues ready to answer questions. 

the eagle was originally a german training ship before and during world war ii and was afterwards taken by the u.s. as war reparations. she was commissioned into the u.s. coast guard as the eagle in may of 1946 and sailed from bremerhaven, germany to new london, connecticut (through a hurricane, so the story goes . . you can read more about it on wikipedia). the red, white and blue racing stripes were added to the hull when the ship was prepared to be a host ship in operation sail 1976.

the shaggy fringe on the standing rigging near where they come in contact with the sails are called baggywrinkle and are made from old lines, providing a softer wearing surface so the sails don't chafe.

finishing up in the galley . . 

i spoke with the young servicemember standing here how they hoist the sails. she said a leader calls heave, and the others call ho as they pull. her favorite part, she added, was to be up the mast, in the rigging. later, i thought to ask her what she needed to do in the rigging as the sails went up, but i couldn't find her. 

the information posters scattered about the ship mentioned that the servicemembers learned celestial navigation with a sextant. i always thought that would be interesting to learn.

heading down the gangplank for the next ship . .

the oosterschelde, which had been a cargo ship and is now a touring ship.

we actually have a similar painting at the house that my mom and dad bought many years ago . . 

okay, the last ship, the pride of baltimore ii . . she's indirectly named after a baltimore built topsail schooner chasseur which participated in the war of 1812, sailed by privateer thomas boyle.

you can read more about the pride of baltimore here.

heading home we passed two servicemembers from the eagle . . 

and you can't see it, but a misty rain was still wafting about . . 

you can see all three ships sailing in the parade in this video . . first would be oosterschelde, followed by eagle, and then the pride of baltimore.