Sunday was a good day; we went to church, and then rushed home because the service went on longer than usual, and we had two lots of visitors coming, to whom we had said, "Come any time after 11," so when the service finished at five to, I had to scurry the FH away from another cup of coffee. We did manage a little breather before anyone arrived, though.
UJ came to lunch, and the girls wanted lasagne, so I thought I would make some home-made garlic bread to go with it. I put some French stick dough in the bread machine so that it was ready for me to roll out and leave to rise when we got home from church, and that was timed to perfection. It rose beautifully and I cooked it and then let it cool. Once I had the lasagne in the oven, I sliced the bread almost through, and spread each piece with some butter mixed with garlic, wrapped it all up in tinfoil and put it back in the oven. With some steamed broccoli, we had a good feast. We followed it up with some meringue nests [from the reduced section because one out of the pack of 8 had been crushed] topped with a tiny portion of squirty cream and some strawberries and mango.
In between the meals, I did some more potting up and seed sowing, sitting in the verandah. Leeks and brown onions, Sutherland kale and sprouting broccoli all made it to the next stage, and I sowed some new lettuce seed as the last lot hadn't come up at all - I think it was too old.
In the evening, I watched "Vera" starring Brenda Blethyn [can't believe she is 65] and did the ironing.
Yesterday was also another busy day - washing, a bit of stuff to do on the computer, some housework, a quick trip to town to put some cheques in the bank and go to the tool shop for the FH, and get two watches repaired at the jeweller's shop - one dead battery and one broken strap.
Last night I took the church treasurer to a meeting in a nearby village, and that was an eye-opening experience. Once the minister had opened the meeting with a prayer, there was no mention of God or the Bible, of how God might help us to raise money or that we should be praying for guidance on the whole issues around the payments. There are 15 churches in the circuit, and each has to pay an assessment to the circuit each year, in four quarterly payments. There was a general malaise amongst the treasurers that they couldn't pay that amount - and it is all fair and in proportion so each church has to pay the same amount per member. We always struggle a little to pay, but we do a lot of fundraising in the village and always manage to get the money together. Our treasurer was quiet and let the others do the complaining as she felt we had nothing to complain about. The other thing is that these churches expect to get grants from the circuit towards their big expenses - but they can't see that if they don't put the money in, they can't get any back out - it's not a bank where you can get an overdraft or loan! The minister in charge kept asking if people wanted to say anything, but I was afraid to open my mouth as I was concerned that if I started, I wouldn't be able to stop!
And so to today - gymnastics tonight. I am hoping for an email from my sister today as she is mucking me about over the caravan on the coast again. She did this a year or so ago and double booked it so that we couldn't go when we had arranged to go, hence our trip to Scotland last October. This time I booked it for the school half-term in two weeks time, so that we would be able to go from the Tuesday to the Saturday. Now she is telling me that she thinks she has told some man he can have it on the Friday night. We are all very disappointed about that, and I have told her to find out for sure and let me know asap. We were all looking forward to a good poke around on Sheringham Market on the Saturday morning and it was to have been one of the highlights of the break, so I hope she sorts it out in our favour. I shall make her email me confirmation next time!
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