Hello Blog Friends!
It has been a full week around here. I made a bit more progress on the All Ages Gatherings e-book, painting a page border, editing and rewording a few sections and Wednesday sharing the rough draft with Lee-Ann, the person responsible for youth ministry in our Diocese. A mutual friend had told her about the project and she is planning an event to take place in October at which “presenters” are going to talk about various topics relative to children’s ministry in the Church in a post-pandemic world. Lee-Ann called to see if I might consider joining the panel of presenters. I am loath to do so for several reasons, the main one being that the E-Book is aimed beyond conventional “Sunday School” leaders as it is about ALL AGES ministry not just ministry for children. I have 2 weeks to think and pray about it, meanwhile Lee-Ann asked if she could see the draft so I sent her a Google Docs link.There is a certain vulnerability in sharing one’s work so I’m now waiting nervously to see what she might have to say about it!
Other office work has included sending a second message to a long list of Day Camp Coordinators and parents of Day Campers, reminding them about the upcoming “Cook-Along”. As a result of the mailing, 2 families have registered, which is mildly encouraging 😊
Of course my former boarder, Steven, was also staying here from last Saturday until Wednesday. Thomason was overjoyed to reconnect with his friend and accepted him immediately, which was a huge relief given the difficulties I have been coping with when other visitors arrive. Sadly the Tuesday visit with Janice, Matthew and Maddie had to be postponed as they had colds but we have rescheduled for this coming Monday and hopefully everyone will be recovered by then.
Thursday the Deacon for whom I am doing chasuble alterations came so that I could assess how much fabric will need to be cut off in order to make the garments fit her frame. After much crawling around on the floor pinning things I think I now have an action plan and have begun work already on the white one, which she hopes to wear in September at her Ordination. Unfortunately the Deacon, despite my best efforts, tried to “say hello” to Thomason resulting in his pushing aside my carefully constructed barricades, bursting into the dining room, crashing into the tea wagon and breaking a very special coffee mug. Sigh.
Yesterday I welcomed Jill for a morning coffee visit. Jill was on the DC committee for several years and our friendship has continued as she is also an avid knitter, quilter and seamstress so we have much in common. We had not visited in person since pre-pandemic and since she was willing to brave a visit with Thomason we had a good chat, albeit sometimes having to shout at each other above the barking ☹️
There hasn’t been much garden work as the heat wave continues so the lawn has turned brown and cannot be mowed again until we have rain and many of the flowers have also shrivelled up due to lack of water. I still go outside early each morning and do a bit of tidying up, removing brown leaves and trying to make things as presentable as possible.
Afternoons I managed to complete the Coptic Bookbinding and am pleased with the 4 small notebooks/sketchbooks, which have been added to my Christmas gifts stash. The current knitting project is a pair of socks for myself, worked on extremely fine needles using some pretty self-striping wool.
So as you can see, there has been quite a bit of activity around here, including a few more interactions with real human beings, despite the precautions that are still necessary as Canada is now officially in the 4th wave of COVID.
My next sewing project will be all the chasuble alterations, which is quite a complicated task. This afternoon I plan to put in some work as it will take several days and towards the end of next week I would like to be able to devote a few days to the “Changing of the Decorations” so I do need to first make headway on this work.
The night Steven arrived we had delicious lobster he had kindly brought from Halifax and for dessert I made a celebratory chocolate meringue pie. The original recipe appears in Jan Karon’s “Mitford Cookbook”, a favourite of mine since I’m a fan of the Mitford series.
Marge’s Chocolate Meringue Pie
- 1 prepared pie shell, unbaked
- 4 eggs (I used 3 duck eggs!), separated
- 2 cups whole milk
- ¼ cocoa powder
- ¼ cup flour
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- ½ tsp. vanilla extract
- 2tsps. cornstarch
- ¼ cup hot water
Line the pie shell with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake in a 350º oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the pie weights and allow to cool slightly while you prepare the filling. Leave the oven on!
Heat the milk over medium heat. Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl and combine the cocoa, 1 cup sugar, salt and flour in another bowl. Very slowly add a small quantity of the hot milk to the yolks while whisking then whisk them into the saucepan with the rest of the milk. Whisk in the cocoa mixture and stir constantly until the filling thickens to the consistency of pudding. Set aside.
Dissolve the cornstarch in the hot water. Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Gradually add the cornstarch mixture, then the remaining ½ cup of sugar and vanilla, beat until stiff. Pour the warm filling into the pie shell and top with the meringue making sure it adheres to the crust around the edges, otherwise it will shrink while baking. Bake at 350º for 10-15 minutes or until the meringue is lightly browned. Cool on a rack then refrigerate for several hours, until thoroughly chilled, before serving. 😊