My birthday was this past week and I got to do a bunch of things.

On Tuesday one of my friends took me to lunch. I chose a place I had read about in a neighboring city which has individual fondues on its menu. It was so good! They had dessert fondues, too, and I wish I could have indulged but I couldn't even finish my lunch fondue. In addition to buying me lunch, my friend also gave me a bouquet of flowers and a bag of lemons from her very prolific lemon tree. This is not the first year I've gotten a lemon bounty from her! I used to make limoncello with them but these days I just juice the lemons and make lovely homemade lemonade. I think this year I might try zesting them, too, and having lemon zest on hand. Whenever I want to make a recipe that calls for zest, I never just happen to have a lemon lying around.

On Thursday another friend took me out for lunch to a Chinese place we both really like. Usually my go-to meal is either Beef and Broccoli or Almond Chicken and Hot and Sour soup. I had the chicken this day. Then we went back to her house where I got to spend time petting some of her cats (some of them are still convinced I'm a dangerous stranger and have no desire to come downstairs for pets).

And then on Friday I took my 2nd mom out for afternoon tea. The family didn't have a chance to get together to celebrate her birthday in January so this was a double celebration. I took her to a new place I found out about and it was just wonderful! We had dainty sandwiches (cucumber and cream cheese, roast beef and horseradish and Coronation Chicken); 2 scones each with lemon curd, strawberry jelly and clotted cream; and a selection of sweets - macaron, sugar cookie, chocolate-dipped strawberry and small cupcake. It was such a cute place and we had such a lovely time.

The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. I did find out that there is a Democratic Socialist group in the area so on Saturday I attended their monthly meeting. It was really cool! They do a lot of mutual aid projects (like a flea market for free things at one of the local parks once a month and coordinating with other groups to distribute mutual aid). There is a book club that meets regularly (discussing books related to socialism), the group is a presence at protests, they have social meetings. Part of making it through these times is finding your people and I've been looking. I'm a helper - it's part of why I chose a medical profession. And this group provides a way for me to get involved with helping others. I didn't become a member at the meeting. In the past I've had a habit of jumping into something new without considering everything. It has led to some disappointment! So I like to think things over before making a decision whether or not to join. But this is a definite possibility.

Listening

Some podcasts I've listened to this week:

My son bought some new music last week on Bandcamp Friday and this is one of his new albums. Really great blues/rock/rockabilly

Reading

So on last week's blog I had finished a book but hadn't started a new one yet. I've been reading Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring by Alexander Rose. This is a well-written and very engaging history of the Culper spy ring. If that sounds familiar either you know your history or you watched Turn: Washington's Spies, an AMC series that I highly recommend.

My favorite passage so far in the book happens during the early days of the spy ring, when a member left under mysterious circumstances. Washington never told what happened but in later years this member wrote to Washington wanting a government appointment and reminded him of all he had done for the spy ring. The letter referred quite obliquely to what caused him to leave:

"I had gone through all those dangers that awaited me in getting a regular plan laid, and was beginning to carry it on with every appearance of success, [but] the Jersey [man fell] in love with his horse, the doctor narrowly escaped with his life, and the whole scheme was frustrated."

Good Lord, WHAT HAPPENED?? We will never know.

Watching

I was looking for something to watch while cross-stitching and chose Kedi, which has been sitting in my "watch later" playlist on YouTube for years. I think I might have not just saved it but actually paid money for it. This was a bad movie for cross-stitching because it's in Turkish and I had to put my work down and read captions but it was absolutely delightful in every other way. It's about the cats that live in a particular area of Istanbul and the people that care for them. These are street cats but they are cared for by the community. Lovely film, highly recommended if you are a cat person.

I think that's about it for this week!