These days, I half-dream of it right before I fall asleep. Air. Fresh, windy, open. I have spurts during the week when my lungs pine for oxygen. I dream of opening the door into the green air, and sitting on the porch of my parents’ house. But, then, a day later, I walk outside and breeze is there. Yesterday was one of those "don't you just love living in New York?" days. It made me want to run errands and buy pumpkins, so I did. More in a sec.

Today I’m back to the good old days of instants of the past week, except I’ve been slow, so it will be weeks.

*Farm food is in abundance in New York, and weaving through stands of potato varieties and fresh chard brings back my breath. I love the greenmarkets here, even if it means pumpkins weighing me down for the trip back home.

*My charming husband passed his Series 7 Financial Certification Exam last Friday. Despite having complete confidence in his intelligence, I checked my phone about four times a minute for the last hour of his exam. It rang. And then there was great rejoicing and the usual Post-It pomp.

*I have hoped for months that my nephew might visit, as our park is the coolest, but I haven’t been able to explore it. (It has a gate, and somehow I feel awkward going in without a kid.) I took him to the roof and he exclaimed over the ‘twains’ going past. When I opened our apartment door he said, ‘Well this is a very nice place!’, and proceeded to stand by the window. ‘Quick, Aunt Alie! Come, quick!’ he said as he looked out the window at a boat going past. He later told my dad he had seen a submarine. In the end, we didn’t have time for the park, but it was nice to see him.

*My best attempt at panna cotta happened on Saturday. Simple, vanilla bean, luxury. The recipe can be found in the New Brooklyn Cookbook. Word up, Brooklyn.

*There are three streets in St Andrews. On our first date, we walked out of the restaurant in a rush to make it to the orchestra, and (cringe) I went the wrong way. He tapped me on the shoulder and smiled at me, and laughed. #Smitten. Hence, my favorite app of the week? ExitStrategy. Who shared it with me? #Smitten.

*In the house this week? Madam Cello. I’m doing some calculations on when people are least likely to hear me, and just might crack the case from about 11:15-11:45am for the next few days. (Thanks for dropping off my music, Dad!)

*Walker and I shot our first wedding last month, had a complete blast, and are looking forward to a few more weddings of camera happiness. It took me well over a month to edit them, but at last I am done. Favorites to come in a future post. Thanks, H&M, for giving us front row seats to such a lovely day!

*And there small things that are really not small. Leather boot weather. Autumn cheese plates. The lights of boats at night. Eaveswatching weddings in the gallery across the street. Fresh cider.

There has never been weather more welcome than the cold front this weekend; the air is clean, and all of the sudden, I feel like me again. We're inside, eating pumpkin pie and watching snowflakes hold our windows. I want to pull up our windows and lean out to catch some on my face. Maybe I will.

p.s. A year ago we had apples in our garden.