Sausage, a Praying Mantis, and Fruit Cake

This was a very busy day.  At church today I cooked lunch.  Father Basil was gone but there was still a big crowd.  I cooked super hot cajun sausage and cut it up and put toothpicks in it for an appetizer.  Then I had a couple of big trays of bratwurst and polish sausages in sauerkraut, and then a huge platter of Italian sausage in caramelized onions.  Someone else made dessert, and someone else made a salad, and someone else made mashed potatoes.  It was a good meal for the last Sunday before the start of the Nativity fast.

Kathleen is so pretty.  Is it wrong to feel pride when she goes to church with me?  I feel like I got the pretty girl.

After church I dropped Anselm Samuel off at work then picked up Basil at his mother's house (it used to be my house) and we went and worked in the garden.  He pulled out the last of the summer squash vines, cut them up and put them in the compost bin, and helped me plant radishes.  It might be too late in the year to try for radishes.  We'll see how it goes. 

We watched a huger praying mantis hunting.  It spied a flower stalk covered in aphides from about 15 feet away and slowly moved toward it, and up it, and began feasting on the aphids.  It was fun to watch.   I am pretty amazed that it saw the aphids from so far away.

After working in the garden we set to work making fruitcakes.   The first time I made fruit cake was 10 years ago.  It is hard to believe the time goes by so quickly.  I didn't cause any explosions this year but I did burn the hair off the back of my hand when the whiskey in the oven flashed.  Basil and I made 12 fruitcakes.  We'll make more throughout the month and give them away on Christmas.

It has been a long day and I have a hundred fifty kids to teach tomorrow.  Goodnight.