Odds & Ends

I took a few days off to get some other things done; also was thinking about the way the blog has been going, and how it might continue. I haven't made any definite decisions yet, but there will be some changes. I'll let everyone know.

Yesterday I went to a volunteer luncheon at the local library where I spend a lot of my free time. It was a very nice affair with good food and nice people. I even met a prospective new volunteer who might take a critical position from someone who is retiring this September.

I finished the latest Maisie Dobbs mystery by Jacqueline Winspear. It's called "To Die But Once". Of course, it's a murder mystery, but it advances in time just like the others in the series. The backdrop is 1940 Dunkirk. I haven't seen the movie yet, but this book convinced me that I had to watch it soon.

Reading a past copy (19 March) of The New Yorker today. I always read the review column about a restaurant and one about a bar. Anyhow, the bar is called Lucy's and is near Tompkin's Park in lower Manhattan. It's been owned by a Polish woman - called Lucy - and runs a cash-only bar.

The point I am getting to is that they serve a Polish rye vodka called zubrowka, a flavorful apple juice color, with a long piece of grass that comes from the Bialowieza Forest near the distillery. It's called "Buffalo" grass since that is who eats it.

Why is this fascinating? Because I have had a bottle of this vodka in my freezer for years! you just can't find it very easily here in America. 

I went to the library today to take some paperwork in that I printed for volunteers and I checked the Daily Book Sale for a friend who on a short vacation. Though strictly speaking another friend had already checked it, I wanted to see if something had been changed since yesterday when I checked it.

I was checking the bookshelves and noticed five books in the biography section next to a bio on Bill Clinton. All five had been reversed so you could not see the spine covers. I pulled them out to reverse them back and found each one was about Hillary! I guess someone has it in for her. They were not molested today.

Finally, we have a new tenant on our porch. A mother robin is building her nest in a hanging plant we just bought. Eight years and nothing like this has happened before.

I'll try to post a daily picture of her progress if she will let me.