On a Grey Friday

 

Today, like yesterday was grey, dreary and cold. I could stay focused on the bone chilling grey dampness.

A post by my dear friend Racheley, who manages to find beauty at the edges of her urban environment, inspired me to do move past the slate skies and the damp sidewalks..

My telephoto lens brought the bright umbrella into focus.

Flowers are being bought and sold at the health food store across the street--even in the rain.

Yesterday a convention of pigeons gathered across from the subway station. Perhaps they were discussing the best way to deal with the uptick in the rat population.

 What I assume is one of the last roses of the season was still blooming in spare change plaza---in front of the subway station.

I went downtown to buy fabric to make some gifts for people I love. I am not showing those gifts before they have been received.

During the week I baked cookies for my building holiday party. I more or less followed the recipe from Joy of Cooking for refrigerator cookies.  The flavorings were my own riffs on Joy of Cooking's standard flavors. The pale cookies are lemon cardamom dipped in dark chocolate. 

The dark cookies are  mocha cocoa spice cookies dipped in white chocolate.

I hadn't made refrigerator cookies in a couple of decades. I am now officially a fan. I love the convenience of mixing the dough one day and then baking when I have the time.

Last Saturday night we visited my nephew, his family and my sister.  So lovely to spend time with delicious children. I was so touched to see the quilt I had made when my nephew's oldest was born draped on the couch because it is still being used by his youngest. I was delighted to see the baby pull the quilt over his head and run around the living room in a delightful  extended game of peek-a-boo.

Tonight we are eating beef. It has been spiced with

and ground coffee. I also added some cinnamon to the mix.

The beef is now sliced and sauced and ready to be heated up for Shabbat. I plan to air-fry a couple of fat zucchini for the vegetable component of our meal.

This wonderful song is new to me. Once again...it helps if you know Hebrew, but basically the song compares childhood memories of one's mother to the flickering candles of Shabbat. This more or less bring me back to the grey dismal skies at the beginning of this post. 

My mother wasn't much of a morning person. Never the less, she often was the one who woke us up for school. On similarly grey and dank days she used to quote the phrase from her Brooklyn childhood, " I shoulda stood in bed!".  The phrase conjured images of one standing a top a mattress with a quilts pulled over your head. The phrase is so often exactly the right way to greet a morning of grey skies.

Shabbat shalom!