Hello Blog Friends!
With the Easter Season fast coming to a close I have packed up my Pysanky and spent last weekend blitzing the house so that now all is in place for Pentecost/Summer.
Instead of the usual ‘back to work Monday” that day was spent baking, sewing a couple of new cushion covers and hauling all the houseplants outside so that they too can enjoy sunlight all summer.
So it was “back to work Tuesday” instead and that day work continued on the soon to be published issue of Networks as well as getting organised for the Team Gathering, scheduled for July 8th.We now have one person in place to lead the Taizé worship and just last evening I heard the good news that the speaker I had approached is available , woot!woot! Next week I will put together a PowerPoint for the evening as the musicians will be pre-recording the songs and will need to slot the audio files into the PP. Once they have chosen the songs we will also be inserting the lyrics so that everyone will be able to sing along (with microphones muted, of course 😊).
Sadly no more news of potential host communities. Tuesday evening Jillian joined me for High Tea and we spent a good chunk of her visit talking Day Camp “shop”. Jillian and her husband Victor are coordinating the Day Camp booked in Ottawa as a joint project between an Anglican Church and a children’s camp “Camp Connections”. Jillian reported that there are still only 3 Campers registered so even that Day Camp is beginning to look iffy, sigh. Fortunately the Day Camp planned at their church here in Montreal seems to be on surer footing and promotion is in full swing even though that camp will not be taking place until early August. I haven’t had any recent updates on the status of the Day Camps in Windsor and Edmonton, both of which will be happening in early July.
My dear friend, Michelle, who lives in Devon UK has offered to take a flyer round to the local Church of England Church as she is friendly with some people who attend there. I’m not holding my breath regarding possible interest from that quarter, but it is super kind of Michelle to give it a try. Michelle is a Montrealer by birth and was very involved in Day Camps when she lived here before her marriage, and although she and her husband converted to the Orthodox Church she still has a heart for the ministry and is loathe to see it end.
Wednesday evening Jessica joined me for an Asian supper. She came bearing a new garden broom as my previous one disintegrated quite dramatically last Saturday when I was sweeping maple keys off the lawns. I was overjoyed to see the replacement as the keys are starting to fall in earnest and sweeping them up will be a major gardening project over the next couple of weeks. We also talked about the tenuous status of Day Camps and she has made a very generous offer of looking into writing some grant applications for funding support of the ministry. If we are to continue into 2023 work on that program needs to begin right at the end of this summer. At our recent AGM a recommendation was made to “wait and see” until yearend so with the potential of terminating my position in December the thought of having a grant that would give a bit of stability over the next months is most appealing. Thursday morning I emailed the committee members to see if they felt it would be a good idea to invite Jessica to the June meeting, more on this in my next post 😊.
If you look carefully at the tabs on the Day Camps website subdomain you will see that ,this week, “&Beyond” has gone public. I managed to create the tab and the content separately and could not figure out how to link them, but CTM’s tech expert, Guylaine came to my aid. Under this tab we will be posting info about products, resources and events beyond the scope of the actual Day Camp Programs. To start off I have posted the info about our sets of banners, which we have made available for sale to host communities. In the future such resources as the Come Together e-book, training videos and extra info about the Cook-Along courses, Carols & Cocoa etc. will all be found under that umbrella. Do check it out 😊
Outside of office time I spent several hours this week painting the basement floor, which had not been done in several years and, except for a pervading odour of paint, everything is now back in order. This morning I got up extra early and after walking Thomason, headed out to mow the lawns and to edge all the flowerbeds but have now moved on to indoor activities as there is GF bread to bake and I also plan to attempt macarons, with which I have not had much success in the past 😊. When I unpacked the kitchen linens for this season I discovered that I had no potholders or oven mitts, I guess the ones used last year must have been deemed too worn to keep so once the bread is in the oven I plan to sew a new pair from some scraps of fabric in my stash. All of which means that it is time to include our recipe and wrap up this post 😊.
The Asian salad Jessica and I had on Wednesday evening makes a tasty summer supper so I thought I would share the recipe today. I served it with homemade Bao and a big pot of Gunpowder Green Tea 😊.
Asian Salad with Tofu & Peanuts
- 2 heads baby Bokchoy OR 1 Romaine lettuce
- 2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
- 4 green onions, thinly sliced
- 8oz, firm tofu, cubed
- ½ cup dry-roasted peanuts
- 1 tsp. chilli flakes
- 3 Tbsps. toasted sesame oil
- 2 Tbsps. Tamari
- 2 Tbsps. lime juice
- 1 tsp. brown sugar
- ½ tsp. ground ginger
- 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
Tear the bokchoy or lettuce into bite-sized pieces and divide between 2 individual serving bowls. Top each bowl with half the sliced carrots. Whisk together 2 Tbsps. sesame oil, the Tamari, lime juice, sugar, ginger and lemon zest. Heat the remaining sesame oil in a cast iron skillet; add the tofu and sauté until it is golden brown. Stir in the peanuts and chilli flakes and cook for another few minutes until fragrant. Divide the mixture between the two bowls of salad then whisk the dressing again and pour it over the top. Serves 2 generously.