Hello blog Friends!
Here we are on the last Saturday in October, how can this be? It seems we were just celebrating Thanksgiving and now there are Christmas advertisements everywhere. AGH!!! Of course Advent is my very favourite Season but I do also love autumn and am in no hurry to switch out my dried gourds and orange patchwork quilts for Christmas décor; roll on autumn 😊
I’m not sure if I will be able to post at all next Saturday, as it will be the Day Camp Team Alumnae Autumn Day Retreat, woot! woot! I might post Sunday or compose the post on Friday and just quickly publish it Saturday morning. Hmmm. This week has involved a bunch more intensive planning for that event. I have created a Power Point and hope that the musicians will soon be inserting their recordings of the Taizé songs they have selected.
Wednesday evening I had a lovely dinner visit with our Retreat Speaker, Jenna, and after eating we met so I could make sure she has everything she needs. I was not sure if she wanted the Scripture passages she will be quoting included in our Power Point and/or the journaling questions she will be posing. She will be adding the questions to the slides and will get back to me about Scripture passages.
Gillian has put together an excellent “Welcome Package” to send to all the registrants. It arrived in my Inbox yesterday and since I had already prepared an email to accompany I was able to send it straight off this morning . Because next week will be occupied with the final details of the Retreat, I also took time this week to make up the draft agenda for the next CTM Board Meeting, which takes place Sunday November 7th and for the November Day Camp committee meeting on Thursday the 4th, I sent the Board agenda to our President for his approval and will email it to everyone later today. The Day Camp Agenda was sent off yesterday morning so all of those bits and pieces have been cleared up.
One day this week there was also a meeting of the Bishop’s Commission on Ministry, of which I am a member. This is usually a time when I just have to turn up and participate but I had an email from the Chair asking if I could transcribe the notes taken at the September meeting and also take the minutes at this meeting because the secretary, who is a staff person at the Synod Office, is currently on medical leave. Of course I agreed to help out so that meant that Wednesday afternoon was spent typing a draft of those minutes. The meeting had lasted a full 2 hours so I ended up with several pages . The draft has now been double-checked and sent off to Amy, so I can tick that job off my list. Yay!
Outside office hours, the raking has finally started in earnest. We had a couple of days with winds and heavy rain so the leaves are beginning to fall steadily and as long as it isn’t raining, I can be found outside early each morning hard at work with rake and broom. One rainy afternoon I also tackled my quarterly task of cleaning all the pantry shelves. This involves removing everything, washing down the shelves, washing and drying ALL the containers and then putting everything back, quite a task but the pantry is sparkling now 😊
Evenings I have started to knit a pair of winter socks for myself since all my Christmas gifts are completed. There is a small family-owned mill in New Brunswick from which I like to order my yarn as it is locally sourced pure wool, dyed with chemical-free dyes. These socks are knit on very fine needles so they may take a while, but I’m hoping they will last longer as I walk so much that my socks tend to wear out quite quickly.
I had hoped to do major garden work this morning but sadly it is raining again, however there is always “Bake & Blog” so it is time to wrap up the “Blog” part and get on to “Bake”. Today there will be GF loaves for my friend Sue, an Apple Crisp for myself, 2 more Cranberry Orange Loaves (towards my Christmas gift stash) and some brown sugar Shortbread shaped with an oak leaf cookie cutter!
Right now it’s time to share my final October Soup recipe: –
Mediterranean Fish & Bean Soup
- 2 Tbsps. olive oil
- 1 ½ cups diced onion
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large tomatoes, chopped
- ½ cup red wine
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 2 tsps. ground cumin
- ½ tsp. thyme
- 1 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped
- 2 cups green or yellow beans cut diagonally in ½“ pieces
- 1 tin water packed tuna
- ½ cup pitted black olives
- freshly grated Parmesan
Heat the oil and sauté the onions and garlic for approx. 5 minutes. Add the wine, stock, herbs and spice and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the beans, tuna and olives and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and garnish with Parmesan. Serves 4.