It is hard to believe that we are already at the third weekend of September, but it’s true 😊
You will notice a scarcity of photos this week because, once again, I am without a cell phone, which means I’m also without a camera.
This past Tuesday evening Jillian was here before our Day Camp committee meeting and I was changing all the dates on the office white board, ready for Day Camps 2020. Jillian was using my phone to give me all the correct dates and commented that it seemed the casing on the phone was lifted along one side. I hadn’t noticed it myself because the phone has the cool Pela case (a recent gift from Jillian 😊 ) but what I had noticed was that the battery had suddenly started running down much more frequently than usual. After Jillian noted this new issue I contacted Wentworth, our CTM guru of all things technical, thinking that perhaps the battery had somehow got dislodged (yes I do drop the phone fairly often 😊). He came over the next evening to take a look and diagnosed the problem as “expanded battery”, which sounded rather nasty.
Yesterday he kindly took it downtown to a repair place and, yes, that is what is wrong. He had told me it could be fixed in 2 hours so I was pretty upset when he called again from the store to say that in fact they need to order the battery and it will take 5 days. It is also an unexpected large expense so I am feeling both bereft and gloomy today, hence NO PHOTOS 😞 (or only a few). On the bright side, apparently phones with this issue often catch fire, I’m sure glad mine didn’t!!!!
Steven has once again come to the rescue and taken a couple of pictures for me and I am also going to see if I can embed our new Day Camp Slideshow in this post, although I’m not promising anything because I think the file might be too large (sadly it is). What did we all do before cell phones??
As mentioned above we held our monthly Day Camp committee meeting this week. We are looking to beef up our numbers as there were only 4 of us at this meeting but even so we seemed to cover a lot of territory as we launch into planning for Day Camps 2020. I made lots of lists of people to contact, both as potential committee members and also as contributors of content to the Program Manual.
As mentioned above we held our monthly Day Camp committee meeting this week. We are looking to beef up our numbers as there were only 4 of us at this meeting but even so we seemed to cover a lot of territory as we launch into planning for Day Camps 2020. I made lots of lists of people to contact, both as potential committee members and also as contributors of content to the Program Manual.
Every year we do an intensive rebooting of one of our 6 Programs, so people are needed to look over the previous version of each section and either edit or do a complete rewrite. In order to meet a publishing deadline of early April we need to make December 31st the submission deadline for content, so I really like to get the chapters into the hands of the writers as soon as possible to give them more time if they feel they need to make a lot of changes.
We are also at the point of putting together the Harvest Thanksgiving edition of CTM’s Newsletter “Networks” so I’m on my usual badgering quest trying to encourage people to send in content, a thankless task.
Today is a glorious late summer day with warm temperatures and lots of sunshine. So this morning I decided to wash and store away the table and chairs from the large deck and to plant the 3 large pots of chrysanthemums in the flowerbeds. They make a wonderful pop of colour throughout the Fall and occasionally even survive to bloom another year. It is also a “Bake & Blog” Saturday and I’ve just finished washing the dishes from quite a big baking- Maple Granola, Cheddar Cornmeal Scones, Kale Chips, roasted root vegetables, toasted ciabatta cubes, and a “Rhubarb Crunch” made with my own rhubarb!
Tonight Jenna is coming for dinner so the toasted ciabatta is for BLT Panzanella I’m making for us and the roasted root vegetables are for a large main course salad that Steven is taking with him for lunch tomorrow as he and some friends are going on a boat excursion after church.
Steven is out for dinner tonight, he has been invited to a Chinese/English Bible Study so Jenna and I will be enjoying our meal outside on the porch as it is going to be a glorious evening.
I thought I would share the Panzanella recipe, it is quick to pull together and delicious at this time of year when tomatoes are at their peak.
BLT Panzanella- 1 small ciabatta, cubed
- 6 oz. organic bacon
- 2 large tomatoes, diced large
- 1 red leaf lettuce torn into pieces
- ½ lemon, juice & zest
- 2 Tbsps. olive oil
- 1 Tbsp. veganaise
- 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
- salt & pepper to taste
Toast the ciabatta cubes in a 350º oven for 20 minutes, allow to cool and place in a large salad bowl. Dice the bacon and fry until crisp, drain and add to the Ciabatta, reserving one Tbsp. of the bacon fat. Just before serving, whisk together the lemon juice and zest, Dijon, olive oil and salt & pepper. Whisk in the veganaise and bacon fat. Toss the ciabatta and bacon with the tomatoes and lettuce. Add the dressing and toss again. Serve immediately, Serves 3-4