Addendum:- After starting this yesterday morning I decided to forge ahead with changing the decorations. I was going to publish last evening but there was a fire nearby and we lost power for several hours so this post contains all the “after” photos, no one would want to see what the place looked like until 4pm this afternoon (Sunday) 😊
It has been another windy snowy week here in the frozen north but thankfully it appears some people are starting to think about summer as we have received 2 more applications from host communities and a number of enquiries from several provinces 😊
The Program Manual content is still missing 2 sections but we will soon be able to send it on to Jessica who does the formatting and layout work. I have also been doing quite a bit of planning for the Training Retreat. In a couple of weeks I am going to start baking and cooking for the Retreat and have been making grocery lists and a work plan as it will take at least 4 sessions to do the advance food prep for 6 dinners and several morning snacks, all for approx. 20 people.
We have settled on using the Hall at St. Thomas Church for our workshops and I just need to get a second signature on the rental contract and send that to them, as I’ve already submitted a copy of our insurance policy.
Every morning this week, while doing office work, I have been playing the 2020 Day Camp Liturgical Dance song to ingrain it in my mind as I finalise the choreography. I have completed a copy of the dance notation but sometimes a new idea comes to me if I keep listening to the music. I also need to know every word off by heart before teaching the piece. We have decided to record the instructional video on the same day as our April Team Gathering since it means the young people can just come a couple of hours early instead of our having separate events. Mae Anne has agreed to be our videographer, which is great news as she did a super job last year😊.
Yesterday I spent a couple of hours shovelling off the most recent dump of snow and ice so that I can devote today to preparations for “The Changing of the Decorations”. As it is now Lent it is time to take down the Epiphany/Winter decorations and switch to Lent/Spring/Easter. I’m hoping to complete most of the work this weekend, as the coming week is already looking pretty full. I’m looking forward to the change and especially to my Lenten discipline of creating 2 dozen Pysanky, which serve as my annual Easter gifts. Last week I went through my books of traditional pysanka designs and selected 6 patterns to use this year, now I just have to find a source for white eggs. Because I only eat certified organic foods all my eggs come directly from a farm and are brown. The white eggs in regular grocery stores come from battery farms where chickens are forced to live in terrible conditions and I will not condone such practises by purchasing those eggs. Sometimes it is possible to buy “free range” white eggs. I still do not approve of the type of feed the chickens may be eating but at least I know their living conditions are more bearable. The other snag with grocery store eggs is that every egg is stamped with a bright pink barcode number that must be painstakingly scrubbed off with baking soda and water before they are of any use for making pysanky. Sigh. Oh well, I guess I can look on the process as an additional Lenten penance 😊
No more time for sitting around typing, I need to get to work on these decorations!So let’s finish off with a recipe. For Shrove Tuesday this year I made pancakes using a Wholegrain Pancake mix that I like to keep on hand.
Wholegrain Pancake Mix
- 2 cups unbleached flour
- ¼ cup buckwheat flour
- 1 cup whole grain spelt flour
- ¾ cup oatmeal
- 1 Tbsp. raw cane sugar
- 1 Tbsp. baking powder
- ½ tsp. sea salt
Combine all ingredients and stir well. Store in an airtight jar, in a cool place.
To make a batch of pancakes: –
- 1 large egg½ cup plain yoghurt
- 1 Tbsp. sunflower oil
- 1 cup pancake mix
- ½ cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
Stir together the egg, yogurt and oil then add pancake mix and stir just until combined.Heat a cast iron skillet and grease with oil or bacon fat. Add pancake batter using a 1/3 cup measure. Top each round of batter with a few blueberries. Cook until bubbles form on the surface, then flip and brown for another 1-2 minutes.Makes approx. 6 pancakes.