After some lovely spring weather, today we are experiencing a very dark wet Saturday. Fortunately we enjoyed good weather for the holiday weekend a week ago so I guess we cannot complain, although I always have ambitious ideas for intense garden work on Saturdays over the warmer months.
Actually I am having luncheon guests today, Anna and her 7-year-old son Nathanael. Regular readers of this blog will recognise Anna as a “para-member” of the Day Camp committee and also as maker of the amazing puppet slide shows we use to illustrate all the stories in our Day Camp Programs. Anna’s husband is a military Chaplain and so they are used to being posted to different bases and now the family is getting ready for a move, this summer, to CFB Halifax.
It is solely due to their efforts that our Teams have been invited to lead Day Camps on 4 different bases in both Quebec and Ontario, maybe next summer will see us in Halifax, woo hoo!!! So this will be a last visit with them although happily Anna is able to help lead the Kick- off Event, next Saturday for local helpers, which will truly be her “swan song”. However, one of the blessings of modern technology is that she will still be able to be involved in working on future programs as everything is done online.
Of course Anna and I also have a friendship that dates back over 20 years to her first involvement as a Team Member so there is no way we will lose touch, even should they be posted overseas in the future. 😊
There have been a couple of positive developments this week that have certainly helped to cheer my personal aura of gloom (it is going to take a while to recover from Wil’s death) First of all I had a call on Tuesday from the secretary of the Bishop of Saskatchewan with the fabulous news that a multi-point Parish in that diocese was interested in taking the two spaces caused by the recent cancellation of two camps in the adjoining Diocese of Qu’Appelle. I subsequently had a long conversation with the priest there and am expecting the applications to be emailed to the office early next week.
Jessica and I met over at the supply room on Wednesday morning and are now close to completing the task of packing 6 sets of Team Supplies. And yesterday afternoon Jillian was here again to work on the music binders, which are also nearing completion. Of course we still have a long way to go before we are “out of the woods” but seeing God’s hand so present and feeling His plan begin to unfold does give us hope that the other major obstacles will be overcome.
Late last evening an email arrived from Bishop Bruce of the Diocese of Québec. He is currently visiting the Gaspé region of his diocese and has sent me the name of a priest there who may be open to hosting a Day Camp. (we still have 2 spaces to fill in the Province of Québec and 2 in Ontario.)
Of course the other BIG issue is the need for TEAM LEADERS and there has really not been any movement on that front. On Thursday I met with Mae Anne who is approaching a friend from IVCF, this young woman attended a Team Gathering once and is studying education so she would be an ideal candidate.
Well I see it is 11 am and my guests will be arriving at noon so pretty soon I need to make a start on lunch prep. As Day Camps draw closer there is little time during my days for much else but this week I did manage to finish a first anniversary gift for Jessica and Tyler (no picture until next week as she reads the blog and I want it to be a surprise 😊) I also did a fair bit of garden work as we are currently living through the annual plague of “maple keys”, millions of which fall from the many maple trees in this neighbourhood entailing a massive amount of sweeping and raking. Sigh. And I also managed to make 4 little cushion covers for the green bedroom and 2 new summer aprons for myslf as my old ones were in shocking condition ! So that’s about it for this week’s report- just enough time to end with a recipe.
When Mae Anne joined me for lunch on Thursday I made a favourite- Fried Rice in Pineapple Boats, it makes a delicious lunch or supper dish, when fresh pineapple is plentiful.
Fried Rice in Pineapple Boats
- 1½ cups cooked brown basmati rice, chilled
- 1 medium pineapple
- 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 yellow pepper, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 cup button mushrooms, sliced
- 1 tsp. each ground cumin and coriander
- 3 Tbsps. soya sauce
- ¼ cup cashews
Halve the pineapple lengthwise, keeping the leaves at the top intact. Remove the core and cube the fruit. Heat the oil in a wok and fry the onion, garlic and pepper until softened. Add the cumin and coriander and sauté a further minute. Stir in the rice, mushrooms and pineapple and toss to combine. Continue sautéing until heated through. Sprinkle with the soya sauce and cashews and cook for another few minutes. Pile the rice mixture into the pineapple boats and serve immediately. Serves 2 ,generously !