Lynn: Mennonite Cook and Snorkel Girl

I had no particular plans for the day and didn’t know how it would pan out - I certainly didn’t have snorkeling on the to-do list, but somehow it got on! After a quiet morning at home (I did some beading), we went to town for an early lunch, and to pick up a few things at the manse. Nick said he wanted to shop around for sea gear…he came and found me at the Star and asked if I would also like a snorkel and goggles, as a present. I wasn’t sure about it – not knowing if I’d ever get much use out of them, having only recently braved swimming in the ocean. The colour of the proposed set tipped my vote though…

...so while I went to Sally’s to order lunch, Nick and the boys went back to Rose & Crown to buy everything – a pair of flippers (the boys already had flippers and there were two pairs at the manse, one in my size), four snorkels and four pairs of goggles. Lunch was superb - Sally's take-aways at Castle Gardens will be one of those things we will reminisce about long after leaving the island.

After lunch we went home – Nick to do some more sermon prep and me to carry on with beading – and then headed back into town around 3.30. The tide was the highest I’ve seen it…washing in right over the landing steps and flooding the whole section below the second flight of stairs. Anyone disembarking the RMS would have been soaked. Because of the tide, Caleb and I were scared to go in – I thought perhaps the current might wash me back against the rocks or steps and I’d crack my head open. Eventually Nick helped me in, and there it was – my new love of snorkelling. It was amazing to swim along, watching the fish and not getting a face full of sea water. There weren’t many fish about, and the seabed dips quite suddenly so there wasn’t a lot of reef, but there was certainly enough to see to keep it interesting – a few small fish of varying species, parts of wrecks, a fanta can, rocks. We all noticed a clicking sound under the water but couldn’t ascertain the source – perhaps rocks tumbling against each other as the tide washed over the shore.

Last night Nick was given a packet of white beans – the mature inners of string beans, I think. I wasn’t sure what to do with them until I read bits of the Mennonite cookbook from Genevieve which utilizes a lot of beans. I first soaked them which turned them purple, and then left them in the pot all day until I was ready to properly cook after we got home from the snorkelling. All I did was add a can of chopped tomatoes, a can of cream-style sweetcorn, a can of baked beans, some fried onion and some diced cooked beef. It was really simple and tasted pretty good. I served it with pasta. While in town earlier, I bought some more varieties of legumes with which to experiment – soya beans, split peas (aka lentils?) and pearl barley. Aaron has been keen to try Jacob's red lentil stew for which Esau sold his birthright. I’ll try my hand at it.