Hello Blog Friends!
Oh my goodness!! here we are at the last blog post for July! It has been another full week around here. I am pleased to report that the Coordinators last week’s Day Camps have submitted their feedback forms, and one person also sent a bunch of photos, woot woot!!
The Junior Youth Camp nametags are finally printed and waiting for pick-up. Sadly, still no resolution regarding the outstanding records check form. Thursday afternoon, I messaged the young man, again, and cc’d the JYC directors, perhaps that will bear fruit.
More progress has been made on the 2026 Program elements, as several more people have volunteered to take on the writing/editing of manual chapters and others have signed up to handle “tech” jobs. Although there have been MANY emails added to the thread about whether or not to rerecord the audio portion of the 2026 “It’s Showtime!”, I have suggested we now wait until our August 6th DC meeting, at which time, it is hoped, we can come up with a proper decision.
The week has also played out under the cloud of the blocked kitchen sink drain. Sadly, the plumber, of whom I had high hopes, is on vacation until August 4th and so I’m now entering the second week of not being able to let a drop of water go down the kitchen drain. Thankfully, the weather has, mostly, been hot and dry and so many bowls of grey water have been lugged outside and used to water the flowers and herbs (do not fear, I always carefully WASH the herbs!)
Of course, a number of visitors had already been scheduled to come for snacks and meals during this time, but, with some ingenuity, baking has been done, dishes washed and loads of laundry handled. Tomorrow, Brian is coming again, not in the hopes of fixing the situation but with a plan to try and get half one half of the double sink, “functionable”, which would certainly ease the situation. More in our next….
This afternoon the postponed High Tea is scheduled to take place this afternoon so I am not baking today but have just finished gardening and indoor chores and am moving on to intensive tea preparations (albeit under a cloud of doubet, sinc yet another high heat alert has just been issued!) Jillian was here for lunch yesterday and offered to give a hand with prepping summer roll veggies but, as she is 9 months pregnant I suggested she just entertain me with light conversation, since we always have plenty to talk about! She had brought with her a “haul” from Fabricville , as I am going to be sewing a wildly complicated diaper bag as my gift for her new baby. She chose all the fabrics from my stash but some notions and special interfacing were required so we had Facetimed on Tuesday afternoon and put together a list. Although it looks like quite a challenging design, (there are no written instructions, just a video tutorial that is mostly in Japanese!!) I’m always up for this sort of project and really wanted her to choose what I should make for the baby.
Now it is time to get back to the High Team Preparations. The table is already set but I still need to assemble the summer rolls and dips and arrange everything on plates and in bowls. Watch for some photos in next Saturday’s post ( if it isn’t, yet again, posteponed!!!).
To finish off, I’m including the recipe for a Vegan Zucchini loaf, which is on the Tea party menu. I had to adapt it also for gluten free, but you can easily make it with regular all-purpose flour.
Vegan Zucchini Loaf
- 1 cup organic light brown sugar
- ⅔cup coconut milk or other non-dairy milk
- ½cup olive oil
- 1Tbsp. lemon juice
- 1¼tsps cinnamon
- ¾tsp sea salt
- 2cups coarsely grated zucchini, well squeezed to remove excess moisture
- 2cups all-purpose flour
- 1tsp baking powder
- ½tsp baking soda
- 1Tbsp Demerara sugar
Line a loaf pan with parchment paper and grease with olive oil. In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, milk, ,oil and lemon juice, whisk well. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda and cinnamon, then fold into the wet ingredients until well combined. Fold in the zucchini. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and sprinkle with the Demerara sugar. Bake in a preheated 350ºF oven for 50-60 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean. Holding the parchment paper, lift the loaf out of the pan, onto a cooling rack. Cool completely before slicing.