Another visit to Governor's Island

I’m having some surgery tomorrow. ( Don’t worry, it isn’t major.) I realized that I needed a bit of ocean time to keep me on an even keel before tomorrow’s events. I suppose if I were the sort of girl who had a house in the Hamptons I would have been there today. Since I don’t have a house in the Hamptons or Block Island I did the next best thing, or perhaps the even better thing, and my husband and I took the ferry to Governor's Island. We had gone last summer and it was beautiful.

One of the most extraordinary things about the island for me, aside from how beautiful it is, is that once people step off the ferry they all instantly become mellow, calm and polite. Visually they all look like the polyglot that is New York but as if they traded souls with, say, Iowans.

Today was no different. One of the things that’s lovely about the Island is that they shift around the attractions from year to year.

This year one new thing was an administration building that has been turned in to art studios. Seventeen different artists get a two month gig to work and exhibit in the building. I didn’t take photos of the work because the artists were mostly not around to ask permission. Applications will be available in the fall for artists to apply for space.

I immediately fantasized about working there and chose this room.

I love the odd shape and the view of the harbor. I am currently ignoring the rotting ceiling and the smell of damp plaster. A girl can dream.

One of the big attractions this year was a collection of antique French carnival rides and attractions. Many of the rides are functional. There is a small charge for the rides.

A beautiful pavilion was set up in the middle of the rides, complete with a singer singing Edith Piaf songs.

This is what you saw when you looked up at the ceiling of the pavillion.

I just love the lights.

You could also play carnival games.

The island has spectacular views of the city.

But at the same time, it feels like very far away from the city.

We took the ferry back to Manhattan.

And then got on the subway.

at South Ferry and went home. I enjoyed my afternoon at the seashore.

Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee. If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it. My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid. I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed. A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night. I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1) אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2) אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3) יָאֵר יְהֹ...

A Passover loss

My parents bought this tablecloth during their 1955 visit to Israel. It is made out of linen from the first post 1948 flax harvest. The linen is heavy and almost crude. The embroidery is very fine. We used this cloth every Passover until the center wore thin. You can see the cloth on the table in the background of this photo of my parents and nephew My Aunt Sheva bought my mother a replacement cloth. The replacement cloth is made out of a cotton poly blend. The embroidery is crude and the colors not nearly as nice. The old cloth hung in our basement. We used the new cloth and remembered the much nicer original cloth. I loved that my aunt wanted to replace the cloth, I just hated the replacement because it was so much less than while evoking the beauty of the original. After my father died my mother sat me down and with great ceremony gave me all of her best tablecloths. She also gave me the worn Passover cloth and suggested that I could mend it. I did. Year after year ...

sarah in nyc

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