Sunday, August 28, 2011

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Tonight's picture was taken in August of 2007 on Roosevelt Island. We typically walked the Island on the weekend regardless of the weather. This particular part of the Island is unique, because it is the only beachy portion. Near to this beach portion is where I planted Forget Me Not seeds on Mattie's birthday this year. Mattie loved the Lightning McQueen umbrella that you see in this picture and every time I see that umbrella in the closet it reminds me of our walks together.

Quote of the day: There are three needs of the griever: To find the words for the loss, to say the words aloud and to know that these words have been heard. ~ Victoria Alexander

Fortunately for us, Hurricane Irene was very uneventful. Peter spent part of the morning reorganizing our plants and rehanging our American Flag on our balcony. However, as many of my readers know, Peter walks Roosevelt Island every weekend. This morning was no different! He brought the camera to the Island and at 7am, he was taking all kinds of pictures of the Hurricane damage there. As you can see trees fell all over the place, and one directly on the boardwalk.  

What I love about this picture is in the midst of all the leaves and trees that had fallen from the storm, this one beautiful yellow flower was untouched. Somehow it seems very symbolic and I am happy Peter took a picture of it.

On Friday when Peter came home from work, he surprised me with summer squash that his colleague at work brought in for him. Amy grows these incredible squash in her garden and they are huge. About 3 pounds each, and she gave us about 10 of them. So this morning when I heard my friend Tanja was sick, I decided to make her soup out of some of the squash. It was a good morning project and Peter and I enjoyed working on this together. Ironically my friend Tina and I have been chatting about squash for two days now since she too got several from a friend. However, Tina's squash make mine look minuscule. Each of her squash are about 6 pounds! Any case, we have been exchanging idea on how to cook up these wonderful vegetables. Between the two of us, we have all sorts of ideas. The soup turned out quite nicely and in the end it felt nice to do something for a friend.

Last night as the wind was blowing, two of our plants fell down. So we brought them inside. As Peter was carrying them in, I was in shock. I received these two plants as a gift from my friends Christine and Ellen. They gave them to me right after Mattie died. They were tiny plants two years ago... maybe up to my knees! Now look at them!!! I just can't get over how they have grown (they look bigger when inside rather than outside on my balcony). Christine jokes with me often about my green thumb, I don't know what to say other than they do mark the passing of time for me.








We had a social afternoon of visiting with Tanja, Tina, and then Ann. At Tina's house, she was making homemade jam with her mother-in-law. Peter's mother taught both Peter and I how to make jams and jar them, but I haven't done it in a long time. So today brought back memories! We fortunately arrived at Tina's at the right time, because we were able to taste the freshly cooked treat!


This afternoon, we went back to Roosevelt Island and walked around. The park service cleaned up all the debris, so it did not look like it had when Peter was there at 7am. Any case, along our journey we saw several blue tailed skink. Mattie loved these lizards and therefore I felt the need to snap a picture.

I end tonight's blog with a picture of one of the huge zucchini that Tina gave me. This was one of the smallest ones she received. I love how Peter gave this zucchini perspective by including a pen in the photo. Needless to say, I am becoming an expert this week in cooking squash!