No Social Distancing in this House!

Social distancing in this house?  Not so much!  We have tried to tell the cats about social distance, but they just don't seem to get it!  What are you going to do?  It is so interesting to me that so many times the cats, when lying down, love to do it while in contact with another cat.  It wasn't that long ago that I showed you two cats curled up in a chair.  Endlessly fascinating, these pets of ours.

Joy

In these trying times, I have never seen so many people and families enjoying the beach and sandbars and tidepools.  I have a whole bunch of photographs of people walking and playing, but I like this the best, a father and two of his children.  Gives me a sense of joy to see people and families making good use of the time that so many people have on their hands.  

No Dunkin' Donuts, Week 3

WHAAAAAAAAA?  We came down the hill and looked for a place to park, with our hot tea and coffee and our two donuts and saw this!  WHAT?  What's going on?  Why have they put those orange barrels in our parking spot?

We saw some heavy equipment at the end of the long lines of barrels, and yellow tape for a long distance along the road blocking all parking.  I think there some serious road work about to happen in April.  We will see what happens.

Our beautiful view of the water was not to be today.

We sat in the parking lot at Tappan Beach, a lot further from the water than at our other parking spot.  You can see the water way off in the distance.  Oh well..  It was still coffee and donuts in an unsettled time.

Walking the Line

After we visited Amaka, we went by Trader Joe's because there were a couple of things that Kathy wanted.  One look at this line and we were out of there!   Well, not exactly.  I had my duties as a reporter to park the car and do a photograph to show you.  We are lucky that at grocery stores near us, do not have these kinds of lines.  And we are grateful for that.  I posted a really large file, so click on the photo and it will fill your screen.

Keeping Social Distance!

This is a little bit of a long story.  This is Amaka.  We worked with her and her fiance Chris in the marriage preparation program at church, and they are now friends.  They were supposed to be married two days ago, but had to cancel the wedding, to which we were invited, which was really nice.  You know, no large gatherings.  Amaka is from Nigeria and her family was flying over for the wedding.  Kathy wanted to make her a small cloth purse, so Amaka gave Kathy several yards of this spectacularly beautiful Nigerian cloth.  So today we decided to drive down to Westbury and drop off the purse and the extra cloth.  It was an understatement to say that Amaka was thrilled to see us!  We kept the proper social distance and then left after seeing her for just a minute.

A Couronne for Covid Times

Kathy was getting a bit antsy on this rainy day, so she decided to bake something.  "What do you want me to make?" she asked me.  "How about a Couronne?" I asked.  So this is it.  It is stunning and it has an almond filling.  The couronne technique comes to us from the Bordeaux region in France. Traditionally this ring-shaped loaf is composed of six to eight balls of country bread dough, blanketed by another flat disk of dough that holds the loaf together.  But the main thing?  It is absolutely delicious!

Venus and a Crescent Moon

Oh man, my apologies to all!  I forgot to post the blog last night!  I was so thrilled with the photograph, that I occupied myself sending it to a few friends, and then forgot the blog...   :-)  Stan sent me an email this morning asking where the blog was.  Duh!  I was at home working on some photographs when I got a call from a non-astronomer friend who lives a short distance away. He said: "Have you seen the moon and that star?  Man, I am some astronomer… I said that I hadn’t seen it, and that the “star” was Venus.  I went outside, saw the conjunction, fell down on my face in amazement, got up, and then got my camera!  This is the result!  What a wonderful thing this is to see, so beautiful and uplifting to see  Something, for a moment, that reminds us of the eternal, and which takes our mind off of our earthly problems for a few moments.