Hello Blog Friends!
Another week is almost over and we are nearing the end of September. Twice, when on my morning walks, Canada Geese have been spotted overhead, so beautiful, but also a poignant reminder of the winter to come. We are having a very chilly few days, with nightly lows of 7°C. Tuesday, it became necessary to exchange the large screen in the kitchen door for the glass window, EEK! Yesterday, the Swedish rag rugs were brought out of storage and aired on the deck , before laying them in two of the upstairs rooms and, this morning, while doing the garden work, I installed the coco matting on the front stairs.
But let us first, rewind to last Sunday afternoon, when we had a CTM Board meeting. With the exception of last April’s AGM, the Board had not met since March, so there was plenty to cover. Of course, that meant, Monday morning, it was time to type more minutes! Once that task was out of the way, my focus shifted to the world of Day Camps. A priority was to see if committee member, Ruth, was up for a spot of proofing, as the 2 sections of the 2027 manual for which I am responsible are completed and ready for a second pair of eyes to take a look! Ruth agreed to my sending the files, so I uploaded them to Drive and the “Luke Street Program Manual 2027” folder was created; we are now truly “in business” for the coming year.
Tuesday, included a long list of badgering texts and emails as the hunt continues for participants to attend the Harvest Team Gathering, which is only a week away. We also really need some more “small people” to sign up for the Cook Along series as, two weeks from today, the first episode will be aired. Happily, we now have two alumni out of the four who are needed to lead reflections during the Advent Study Program, hopefully it will not prove too difficult to find the others.
Wednesday, involved some editing work on the Team Gathering slide template, as Bishop Mary has now selected a Scripture for her talk, and has sourced an image, which she suggested could be included. I also dived into the MailChimp account, which is used to create CTM’s quarterly newsletter. The Harvest issue will soon need to be readied for publication and the Junior Camp Directors have asked if they can include a video in their article. It looks as if this will be doable, but I will need to find out the format of the video or if I will just need to link to a URL, when embedding it. Next week, will be full steam ahead on setting up the template, as Thanksgiving Weekend is, suddenly, just around the corner.
Thursday, there turned out to be some day-to-day CTM banking to take care of, as our Treasurer is still wrapping up the final odds and ends from Junior Youth Camp and several people needed to be reimbursed for expenses. After completing that task, it was back to badgering, with some time spent on a video chat with alumnus , Randy, who has agreed to update the Special Events (SE) section of the 2027 Program Manual. These events are, essentially, “Wide Games” and form part of the afternoon portion of the Day Camp, day. They are geared to the three older groups, as they are a bit too complex and strenuous for the smallest campers, who have separate afternoon activities. The SEs are loosely connected to the daily themes. Last year, one of the DC committee members invented a new one, which was well received and we hope to be able to really refresh the ones for the 2027 program, while including a couple of the old favourites, that are always anticipated by returning campers!
Yesterday, the Special Event files were shared with Randy, then some of the photos for this post were resized as well as working on part of the post text. In the afternoon, I did the weekly baking prep- a batch of granola, an Apple Crisp, a Pumpkin Cake and 6 Butter Tarts and 2 crusty loaves.
Outside of office time, there is still daily garden work. Thursday the lawns got mowed and on other days, I have been cutting down a few perennials that are starting to show signs of mildew. One evening, a bit of Christmas sewing was fitted in. Some of my, recently harvested, lavender is now dry, so I’m making a few pretty sachets as gifts.
As soon as today’s Bake is out of the oven the plan is to cut out fabric for three hairbands, destined to be a Christmas gift for a 7year old, who is also on the list! A friend may be dropping in later for tea but, since they are on a “low sugar” diet, none of this morning’s work will fit the menu! A pot of Kusmi tea with a simple platter of cheese chunks, fruits and digestive biscuits, will have to do!
So it is now time to share another Autumnal recipe. Earlier in the week when a friend came for coffee, she brought a lovely bunch of black kale. This recipe is adapted from one found on the NYT Cooking app, which is a favourite inspiration “go to”.
Linguine with Black Kale & Tomatoes
- 1lb linguine
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
- 1 cup Passata
- 1 Tbsp lemon zest
- 5 Tbsps olive oil
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- Black pepper
- 1 bunch black kale leaves, stems removed
- Freshly grated Parmesan
Place the linguine in a skillet, large enough for the pasta to lie flat. Add the tomatoes, passata, olive oil, lemon zest and salt. In a separate pan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil; ladle the water over the linguine and cover the skillet. Bring to a boil, then uncover and simmer for about 6 minutes Add the kale and, with tongs, fold the pasta over in the skillet. Continue simmering until the linguine is fully cooked and a sauce has formed. Season with pepper and grate a generous amount of Parmesan over the top. Serves 2-3