Monday, July 9, 2012

Monday, July 9th - another successful Village Feast

It's a cool 15' this morning and we're heading for a balmy 24' later but no humidity to make it feel hot and sticky. From the looks of it the temperatures should stay around this level for the rest of the week - very pleasant when you read about weather conditions in the rest of North America. We really do seem to be living the dream this year!

Well it was a pretty packed weekend. Saturday afternoon we drove out to Borden to visit some cottages on the south shore. One of Lloyd's co-workers from Great Gulf was staying there with his wife and two daughters as well as another couple and their daughter. We arrived shortly after 5:00 and what a beautiful spot. The tide was going out and the three girls were having a great time digging for clams and checking out the very long expanse of ocean floor that was exposed. Meanwhile, the adults sat inside a very nice cottage and had wine and chatted. I'd not met them before but they were very easy to get to know and of course, Lloyd and John enjoyed catching up (although it has only been two weeks!).  They've never been to the island before so they had lots of questions. While we chatted the two ladies got supper on the table and what a feast - we enjoyed a delicious homemade potato salad,  tossed green salad, BBQ steak and lobster (again?).  I had suggested that I would bring dessert, which was Strawberry Cream Cheese Dessert Crepes, made with strawberries from the neighbours.

What we didn't know was that they arrived on the island approximately 45 minutes before we got there. I was astounded that they managed to pull together this feast in such a short time. Well done ladies!  It was a most enjoyable evening but by 11:00 we really needed to hit the road. Sunday was going to be a long day.

Sunday morning dawned clear and sunny, a perfect day for a village feast. We loaded up the pot and headed out about 10:00.  Things were well underway by the time we got there. Rika, the volunteer coordinator had suggested we didn't need to arrive until 1:00 because we were both serving but because they were going to use our pot to cook potatoes, we arrived early.  This was the fifth year and as a lot of the volunteers have been with the group since the beginning, it just gets more organized each year and everyone knows exactly what to do and what needs to be done. The documentary on TV about last year really helped boost volunteer numbers as well. Other than a few minor tasks, there really wasn't that much left to be done. I helped with the pizza's for the volunteer lunches and they were mighty delicious. They were cooked in the Speerville Flour brick oven, and take no time at all. They then used the oven to finish baking the bread for the meal. Lloyd was assigned to the beer tent, to sling beer and wine. Not a bad gig as it's out of the sun.  I was on one of the serving lines and it was hot and sunny but a light breeze (sometimes very breezy)  helped a lot, especially with the heat and smoke from the BBQ pits right behind us.

This year they sold 1200 tickets and as usual, it was sold out. It was a busy day, and by the end of it I was exhausted.  My feet were very sore from standing in one spot for 3 hours, and I was hot and grimey so all I really wanted to do at the end was go home and have a nice long bath, and that's precisely what I did. All in all it was a great day, and already it's Monday, again.

Brenda has been texting me over the weekend. They are having a really great time out in Vancouver and I'm sure she'll be sorry to see it all come to an end. I'm looking forward to hearing all about it when she gets back. I know she arrives on the midnight flight tonight so I suspect most of today will be taken up with travel.

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