Despite a cold and blustery week, it appears that spring has truly arrived and each day flowers and buds are popping open all over the place!
Last Monday I worked on the rectory garden of the former Church of St. Columba, across the street from my house. The rectory is up for sale and the Diocese asked if I could help to make it look a bit more presentable! It was cold work, even wearing a down jacket but it gave me a chance to mull over the results of the previous afternoon’s AGM and be ready to dive into typing of the Minutes, once I got home and thawed out.
A fair amount of time throughout the rest of the week has been spent following up on the AGM since our new President, Nick Brotherwood, has needed various pieces of information as he takes over the reins. It will be different to have my home church pastor also my ”boss” but since Nick first came to Montreal as a Travelling Team Member when Day Camps was in its infancy, and has been involved with every Ministry of CTM at one time or another, he is certainly well qualified to take on the job.
A couple more host church applications have arrived so that now we have 5 more slots to fill on our schedule. This is a bit worrying but lots of people are offering suggestions so each day I fire off more messages in the hopes of finally getting positive results!
Of course there is also the pressing question of TEAM MEMBERS to address. One young man has stepped forward who had loads of experience and will make a super first time Team Leader, it was a happy day when that emailed hit my Inbox!
And so the pieces of the giant “jigsaw puzzle” slowly come together. Earlier this afternoon when I checked the email Anna had sent along more photos from the Signposts Slideshow, which she is creating. Here are some sneak peeks from the “Healing of the Blind man” and the “Raising of Lazarus”, Days 3&4 of this summer’s Program.
During the coming week I shall be pulling together some gigantic groceries lists and on Monday, May 9th, shall launch into cooking and baking for our 2016 Retreat Week. Wow! It is coming fast!!!
With touching up outdoor paint, gardening, and several meetings, there has not been much time for crafting this week. I did spend one afternoon making a quilted laptop cover as a birthday gift for a friend, and I finished assembling and varnishing the earrings for the Spring Coffeehouse, which will be happening just one week from today!!!!!
For that event I shall also need to do some baking plus concoct three beverages, as the refreshments are my responsibility. Speaking of baking, one evening this week I made an unusual Middle Eastern flatbread “pizza” for my dinner. It was quick to put together and tasty, so I thought I’d close off with the recipe…
Flatbread “Pizza”
- 1 batch Naan Dough
- 8 oz. fresh baby spinach
- 1 cup Greek Yoghurt
- ½cup shredded unsweetened coconut
- ¼ cup sesame seeds
- 4 Tbsps. olive oil
- Coarse salt and black pepper
In a small dry frying pan toast the sesame seeds and coconut together until golden and fragrant, stir in salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. Divide the Naan dough into 4 pieces and roll each one out to make a roughly shaped oval. Partially cook each piece in a dry frying pan until the bottom is browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer the flatbreads to a large cookie sheet. In a small bowl combine the Greek yoghurt with 2 Tbsps. olive oil and a little salt. Spread evenly over the 4 flatbreads. Top each with a generous handful of spinach, drizzle with olive oil and place under a preheated broiler. Broil until the spinach is wilted and the top of the bread is browned. Sprinkle each pizza with 2-3 Tbsps. of the coconut mixture and serve immediately. Serves 4