Post595 Food and finishing

There was a lot to catch up with Panayoula on Wednesday morning. She had fabulous photos from a recent trip to Japan, such beautiful flowers, streetscapes, landscapes. We could have stayed all day, but both of us had other commitments. I dashed out to Create in Stitch to pick up something I’d bought online that morning, then to JBHiFi where I bought the Dyson heat/cool/purify appliance I’ve been investigating for a couple of weeks. It was recommended as a heater by Choice. I have an earlier version in my bedroom where it works really well. With the door closed it heats the whole room quickly and I turn it off in less than an hour. The room then stays warm for several hours. 

While my reverse cycle aircon works reasonably well, there are times when it’s cool recovery period (when the motor avoids overheating by going into cool mode) lasts longer than is comfortable. I then bring the Dyson from my bedroom to the larger living room. A second Dyson for the living room is a total luxury, but the Choice review, and a 40% discount sale, overcame my scruples. 

. Ticking off my list,  I went to my local chemist, had a prescription made up and bought the sunscreen most recommended by Choice, ducking to the shop next door for some calamari, tabouli and chips for my very late lunch. I ate at home while reading the 9th (and sadly last) of the Inspector David Graham books, with the new heater on trial. It worked well. The hourly cost seems to be 10-15%. less than the aircon.

The sunset (above) drew me away from the book. The skyscape doesn’t stay the same. 

On Thursday morning an article in the Washington Post caught my eye. It referenced a recent study in the journal PNSA USA comparing obesity and energy expenditure in developed and underdeveloped countries.  The results suggest that diet is a more critical factor than exercise in addressing obesity. There’s a lot more to be learned but I read a strong caution about processed foods. I don’t use a lot. For a while I was having a couple of frozen commercial pasta meals a week, but now only about one every month or so. I do have processed soups in my cupboard. Maybe stop that. Then there's icecream...

There was no danger of processed food on Friday when our roughly quarterly lunch group met at Lenzerheide. It has good food, excellent service and a very relaxing indoor garden: a most leisurely chance to catch up. I had thought of staying away because of my cold but by Thursday night , the 13th day, I had only the weakest of symptoms.

On Thursday evening, a bit bored with knitting the long rows of the Rowan shawl, I dug out my pile of Ink and Spindle  linens cut months ago into tote bag lengths. There are four bags cut from this Kangaroo Paw pattern. I used a motif from Evan Lewis’s A Garden of Curiosities to embroider ladybirds on one side. On Friday night  I embroidered over one of the flowers on what will be the other side of the tote - hopefully just enough to add interest and a little texture. There are a lot more of these to come, but I've put them away for another while, and focused my attention on the Sashiko Galaxy Dreaming panels - which are close to completion.

Three of these were completed and gifted by a friend in 2023 and 2024 to help me put together a table setting. Originally I intended the square ones as place mats, but decided they were too big. I amended the plan to joining them into a tablecloth, This week I finished embroidering the 8th square panel, so could lay them out on the table, unhemmed. I'm still not sure, but at the moment I am inclined towards keeping them as separate pieces which can be laid out to (mostly) cover the extended table.  I still have a runner to embroider. In the meantime I am hemming the squares by hand. I've started on the last one.

I am also now curious to know about the design process for these Australian panels. Yesterday I contacted the shop that produced them to ask about it. By next week I might have more information - and the last panel finished.

I’ve read a bit more this week, returning to Robert Thorogood for another Marlow Murder Mystery, and my first Death in Paradise book although I've watched most of the TV series.  I also discovered this week that my aversion to tension and needing to know the ending of books is a non-cognitive aversion strategy and quite a normal response. Spoiling the surprise protects your attachment to a character or community from being spoiled. Makes sense to me. The DI David Graham series I’ve just finished is a case in point. Things go wrong, there’s a mystery and changes, but the community will be there for another story.

The pressure is now on the students in the family, trial exam results for the two Year 12s , preparation for resumption of Uni next week for the other two. No dramas, but a lot of pressure.

Brigid is hopefully recovering quickly from a bug picked up on a flight from Sydney. I have plenty of left/over lambshanks to tide me over a couple of days while I finish the sashiko panels.  I had one serve for late lunch today.

I also had a couple of Craters crumpets this evening. I read about these Adelaide hand-made, no preservative crumpets several weeks ago, but couldn't find a local supplier. Yesterday Tony and Marks  my local greengrocer, had a supply and I bought some. They are indeed, light, fluffy and delicious.

On Sunday Katherine and I had tickets to another Ukaria concert, the German acapella group Sjaella. Although we are both fans of the group, we agreed to skip the concert . Katherine had work and I ran out of energy. It was ultimately too attractive to stay in the warm apartment with my book and stitching. A shame, but je ne regrette.

I've also had a couple of confronting scam messages, one purporting to be from PayPal and one demanding money via my website. I suspect they are a result of the Qantas hack. I am cautious and suspicious online, and was alert enough to pick up and check them out. Unpleasant and no room for complacency. It may be time for me to retire the website. Its value is now legacy and history..

Post 594 Cold of both kinds

I made it to World Embroidery on Wednesday, after a bit of coughing overnight but a fairly normal waking. The meeting went really well, largely thanks to Margaret’s skill and generosity in managing the setup of our new screen. It means we can all sit around the table in the foreground and see a presentation rather than being spread out around the room. Those present loved it (encouraged, perhaps, by the hummingbird cake brought by Pam).

There was interest in my effort to trace Celtic embroidery from motifs carved in stone, to metal engraving, to illuminated manuscripts to printed patterns.

It was a miserable day - maximum 10.1C (coldest for Adelaide since 2021) and 7cm of rain. I managed to get a bit cold and wet closing the gates as I left and within an hour I was sneezing, coughing and blowing my nose. 

I cancelled my Thursday Pilates, fell asleep on the couch, waking to make a lemon drink (someone had kindly left help-yourself lemons at the Guild) take Codral and fall into bed at 7.30pm. I woke a couple of times but basically slept for 10 hours. Thursday I stayed in, warm, dozing, using up the best part of a box of tissues, drinking a lot of tea in between hot lemon and weaned myself from Codral to paracetamol. By the end of the day I had enough energy to write up the summary of our meeting and  dig a piece of ham out of the freezer to boil with dried peas since I had run out of tinned and packet soups. It fit the bill and kept me going for a couple of days.                               .

I felt a lot better on Friday, but stayed indoors for most of the day, venturing out around 2pm to my local pub, which was surprisingly busy,  for calamari lunch, which I ate outside to avoid noise and hot air.It seems a few office workers have discovered POETS day. I nevertheless got served fairly promptly and was home by 3. I took Margaret Hickey’s An Ill Wind with me to read. I really enjoyed this one. She is an engaging writer.

On Saturday I ventured to the supermarket and stocked up on soups. I also bought some fresh chicken livers, bacon pieces and mushrooms to make myself chicken livers on Sunday and Monday. I'm not great on cooking for one, but I can whip this up quickly and I really like it. 

My cold is now following the five stages I find listed on a variety of websites. I am staying inside and warm most of the time, taking things easy, staying hydrated and using a lot of tissues. I'll continue until the symptoms completely disappear.   I'll make a decision about Thursday Pilates at noon tomorrow.  

Over the last 18 days I have read nine of Alison Golden's Instpector David Graham detective series set on Jersey. Obviously I am hooked.

I finished the Schwalm embroidery from Carol Stacey's May workshop. Details in my embroidery blog.      

I've taken concentration breaks from Schwalm by advancing the Rowan shawl. With 400+ stitches now on the needles, it takes me 20 minutes per row. I calculate I have about 90 more rows to go before I consider finishing it. I'll see how I feel in 30 knitting hours time.

I've been taking my cold to bed a little bit earlier than my norm. I managed to snap this before I fell asleep on Sunday, two nights after the full moon.  Tonight is cloudy with rain forecast and moonrise just before 10pm, so I'm unlikely to take a comparison photo.

Until next week.

Post593 Ticking off lists and testing

Wednesday was very cold for Adelaide. I stayed in, washed sheets and a jumper, read the fourth book in the Inspector David Grahame series and progressed the Glazig Butterfly embroidery. 

Thursday, however, was a different matter. I had an 8.45am appointment with my endodontist to finish the four root canals begun in May, so I broke my no-food-before 8am rule, suspecting, correctly, it would be several hours before I could eat. The tooth had to be opened up, cleaned out again and filled with the permanent gutta-percha and sealant. A couple of X-rays later and all was well. 

I came home spent an hour on the Butterfly embroidery and sealed up the box of plastic recycling that has stood next to my laundry door for 7 months. I wrote about it when I bought it in early December last year. I calculated that if I could make it last six months I’d regard it as worthwhile. It has comfortably lasted seven months. I could probably have pushed it to hold a little more. It weighed 4.2 kg. It was awkward to handle, and I used a lot of packaging tape to ensure it didn’t burst open, but there was no trouble depositing it at the post office with its prepaid label. I had already bought the next box when the company had an Earth Day 30% discount. It is working out at $23 a month to recycle my 600gm of soft plastic. I’d prefer it to be less, but I’ll continue. It seems fair that I should take some responsibility for dealing with my detritus. I'm aiming to make the next one last 8 months. In the meantime, local councils are slowly sourcing recycling services. Hopefully this is the last one I have to buy.

From the post office I went to Pilates, experiencing no ill effects from the dental treatment, then to the Brickworks to pick up a copy of the second in the NZ Bookshop detective series and the latest Margaret Hickey An Ill Wind. I took the opportunity to drop into Tony and Marks for breakfast grapes (ending up with three packets of stunning biscuits, 2 avocados, and two packets nuts and seeds as well) before

swinging past the Guild to drop off my pink silk lipstick holder and the wooden cotton reels I had promised Christine. This got me home right on 3pm, unfortunately just too late to have lunch at A Prayer for the Wild at Heart but in time to bring in the washing that had been out for 30 hours. I do like a day where the to-do list gets ticked off! It is not lost on me that my first excursion after posting the soft plastic recycling resulted in plastic bags with grapes, biscuits, nuts and seeds.

After all that activity, I settled in to finish the Glazig butterfly I mentioned last week.. I finished the embroidery and spent much of Friday constructing a bag with it. I am delighted with the result which is written up in my embroidery blog.

From there I moved on to those Japanese fabric remnants I mentioned last week. I spent most of the weekend cutting, ironing, machining, threading drawstrings and adding stoppers to the drawstrings. The plan I had to visit the Australian Women Artists' Exhibition at the Art Galley went by the board. I now have 21 lovely bags ready to contain gifts when occasions arise. Again, details in my embroidery blog.

In between, I gave my eyes a bit of a break by knitting another Scales of Justice Beanie. I now have ten ready for next year's walk.

Yesterday the herbal insect-repellants I ordered from Bell Art arrived. I want to make sure these beanies survive the ten months to the next Walk for Justice. They are now stashed in this bag with a couple of Kakadu Plum repellant blocks protecting them.

By Saturday my Adelaide family had all recovered from their encounter with COVID so I had a very relaxed evening with those not at an 18th birthday party. 

I woke yesterday with a sore throat and, in view of the upcoming WES meeting and all the effort that's gone into swapping and preparing my Celtic presentation, I was mildly panicked. Would I have to cancel?

Before 6am I was attempting to administer a Covid test to my self in bed. Unsurprisingly, the test didn't work. Around 8 I got up and administered a test properly, getting a negative result. I made myself a hot lemon drink with honey, and settled to read and advance the left-over Rowan wool shawl I started last year. I drank tea rather than coffee throughout the day. In the afternoon I ventured to the Chemist to purchase a test kit for Covid, RSV and Flu A & B. To my relief, the test was negative for all of them. It seems I have at worst, a head cold.

I have stayed inside all day today, drinking more hot lemon, tea and soup. I have an occasional cough and sneeze but my throat is less sore, so I'm hopeful I'll be OK for tomorrow. I have had a coffee this afternoon, so must be on the mend.

I also retrieved the Scwalm masterpiece I began in Carol Mullan's workshop in May. I have never tried Schwalm. We made and traced templates on to our linen. I hsd drawn myself a flannel flower and begun to outline the leaf in coral knots. Today I completed the coral knots around the whole thing, 

I am now about to work a row of chain stitch inside the coral knots. After that, I need to consult the book (also acquired at the workshop). 

It's a bit hard on the eyes, so I will alternate with knitting - that's after more lemon and checking my Celtic Embroidery PowerPoint.

Post 592 Flashes of colour.

A very pleasant lunch on Wednesday at my local, Cooper’s Alehouse at the Earl. While none of us took advantage of the only bar to have the full range of Coopers (Adelaide family owner since 1862) beer on tap, we really enjoyed our meal, the company, and our single glasses of wine. 

The rain held off. 

One of the Kilkenny mob has come down with COVID, so no family dinners this week. Fortunately the infection appears mild, will not interfere with her practice exams and hasn’t infected other family members. 

After all my stressing and planning around the monitor for WES, Margaret’s medical appointment on our July meeting day has moved forward, and she is now available for our meeting. We had a tentative plan to meet at the Guild today and test the positioning of power board, monitor and laptop. This didn't work out, but one way or another we'll manage. I also need to drop off my pink silk lipstick holder for the July Diamond Anniversary challenge.

Other than a bit of shopping and Pilates on Thursday, Saturday was my only activity day outside the apartment. Saturday began with a Certificate Workshop at the Guild, taken by Christine Bishop on Sue Spargo Style Applique. I had a great time messing around and getting carried away. As I had no other weekend commitments or preparation to do,  I kept stitching through the evening and all day Sunday, resulting in this pouch (which started out as a pincushion). The full account is in my embroidery blog.

I left the Certificate Workshop early to get to the St Margaret's Market before it closed at 1pm. I had some empty pots to hand over, and was looking for a couple of larger plants to fill two empty pots on the front balcony. Fortunately, when I arrived at 12.30, the plants, although packed up into boxes, were still available, so I nabbed two sword ferns. The two I bought a couple of months ago are thriving on the back balcony, so I'm hoping these will do as well. 

Yesterday I did a bit of planting and rearranging before running out of potting mix.  

Having completed the felt embroidery, I allowed myself the relaxation of knitting another beanie yesterday afternoon and evening. 

To find what I needed for the workshop on Saturday, I  spent around 3 hours sorting and organising threads, braids and a few beads - a good job jobbed. As a consequence, I have now cut out twenty drawstring giftbags from Japanese fabric I bought months ago, ready for stitching when the mood takes me.                        

I have also been progressing a Glazig design I had started, hoping to add it to the examples of Celtic embroidery for my upcoming presentation. It's finer work than I have done for a while.

Today continued a bit gloomy, but dry. A flock of Adelaide Rosellas descended on the trees behind the apartment at one point, but I wasn't fast enough to capture their flight - except for the flash of the last one to follow. 

A lot of noise, a flash of colour, and gone.

Pot 591 I dared

I was up early on Wednesday, cutting out and stitching the bag for the infamous screen so I could transport it safely for our trouble-shooting session. I got the basic bag made in time to leave home at 10.50, only 10 minutes later than I’d planned. 

I had made a protective slip cover for  the screen. The slip-covered screen fitted in the bag and the bag strapped up. It didn’t have  pockets and the front flap was loose, but I could carry it securely by the handle. At Margaret’s, after a cup of coffee and delicious Italian honey dunking biscuits, we connected my Mac using the HDMI cable had I purchased for the purpose, Margaret recording each step as we performed and checked it. The first trick, as Fionn had picked up, is that the connecting HDMI cable must be the only thing using the two ports on the Mac. Navigating to the external screen then takes several steps.

We disconnected my Mac and connected Margaret’s PC laptop using the HDMI cable that came with the screen. Two navigation steps and it connected - plug and play in action! Were we surprised? Yes. Were we triumphant? You bet! We inserted my WES Group USB, selected a PowerPoint presentation and were in business! If all else fails, we know Margaret’s laptop connects quickly and works. A baseline!

That called for a celebration of Margaret’s excellent minestrone .

At home I found bias tape and a zip, ready for stitching. The next morning I began before breakfast, adding a small pocket inside for cords and instructions, and a large, zipped pocket on the outside for a laptop. As the fabric is backed with wadding I used bias tape to cover all edges. 

I also added a third clip in the middle of the flap.

By now I had to rush to Pilates. No sooner had i got home than I had a call from the Coffee machine shop, to say my machine was ready.Back out again.

The two technicians came out to talk to me. They don't really understand what happened, but had descaled it and it was working. We discussed several possibilities, none of which make sense to me (and not a lot to them). They haven't had this problem with other customers. I seem to be having trouble interpreting the symbols on the screen. They have offered to visit my home if I have another problem, to see it in situ. I'm pleased to have it back, but I'm wary. Older machines have more direct instructions. If I continue to have problems I think I'll give it away. For now, however, I'm enjoying coffee.

           

I drank a couple of cups while working for about 16 hours on my presentation on Celtic Embroidery for WES. I've postponed this several times because of the sheer volume of reading required. I was scheduled to give it in October, but Margaret, scheduled for July, has had cataract operations and can't read to prepare hers, so we've swapped.

In addition to websites, I have 18 books, and needed to read them, or substantial sections of them, to find the big story thread. 

It took most of Friday and much of Thursday night, but I found it and now have a presentation with 34 slides, on my laptop, two USBs, my iPad and in the cloud, plus a bag with 18 books and  a few embroidered examples.

 

I am now ready to try the presentation on the new screen and hopefully use it on 9 July at the Guild. Unfortunately I'll need to manage the tech on my own on the day, as the Office Manager is on leave and Margaret has a medical appointment. I've worked out a back-up plan involving my Mac, two iPads and 4 printed copies of PowerPoint handout!

To give my head and eyes a rest I have knitted three more beanies. They are relaxing to knit and don't make great demands on my eyes.

On Sunday I skipped Book Club to go to a concert at Ukaria with Katherine. This meant I was home when the postman (presumably a contractor!) delivered my latest batch of 16 ply wool - another 1.2kg. Even in the 1950s there wasn't a Sunday postal delivery!

The concert, preceeded by soup and bread, was the result of a week long workshop that brought together an Adelaide choir chosen from The Festival Statesmen, Aurora and Adelaide Chamber Singers with Nobuntu, a 4 woman aCapella group from Zimbabwe.

It was an extraordinary performance -  Nobuntu's skill energising the combined choir and audience.

The winter solstice was just after midday on Saturday. 90 minutes later I took a photo of this Kangaroo Paw about to open on my balcony.  I haven't managed to grow one here before. It's a non-traditional  mark of the shortest day of the year!

Yesterday I risked hanging out washing. Although rain was forecast, it was sunny in the morning. I was in luck. The clouds had gathered but the wind was up by the time I hung it out. I tried to capture the vigorous movement. It was (just) dry when I took it in around 5pm. The rain has now set in for several days. Again, I promised myself I’d take a photo of the cooked meal, 

but when the time came my mind was preoccupied with carving and serving. There were five of us and this 4kg roast was the smallest piece of pork available in the cut I wanted, so Fionn will have plenty of cold meat to snack on today. The girls are buried in exam preparation, so an early night.

Today would have been Jim's 78th birthday. I'm grateful to family and friends who shared photos, memories and messages on Facebook. He loved sharing his birthday.

 

After picking up new orthotics from my podiatrist  I went to Haigh's chocolate outlet to stock up. I have finally finished what I bought for Easter. 

It has been a cold, wet day, so good to be home and warm.  I settled for soup for dinner. 

I haven't unpacked the chocolate, although I can hardly say I'm saving it for a rainy day! 

Post590 Do I dare?

         

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We had another good meeting of the WES Group last Wednesday. The Guild property was awash with activity in preparation for a Garage Sale on Saturday. The library team were meeting as usual but also sorting spare books for the Garage Sale. Phyllis and I snagged the last two on-site parking spaces and several members had to hunt for street parking, not easy with a building site in the block and tradie vehicles parked all along the street. Barbara Mullan showed us maps and photos from her trips to villages in NE India. For me the highlight was the superb collection of textiles she has accumulated along the way. It was no small feat to bring them along and pack them up again at the end.

We did, however, leave the place very clean and tidy. 

That night I captured the moonrise (unrelated fact!).

Because members of the Guild Executive were working alongside our meeting we learned that when the Guild’s new laptop arrives for the Gallery we will not have access to it, but the old one is being gifted to our group. This will work for a while but has spurred me on to explore the possibility of projecting from a laptop to a portable monitor so we can gather more intimately around a table. Much of my week has been spent exploring this, talking it over with our WES computer guru and two knowledgeable OfficeWorks sales assistants.

On Saturday morning I purchased an 18 1/2” monitor which connected to and operated directly from a laptop without needing to be plugged in, obviating the need for electrical testing and tagging, which was proving very difficult to organise. An hour later, while at the Guild’s Garage Sale (with Noisy Miners making their presence felt), I learned the Guild had several tagged and tested powerboards into which it is permitted to plug untagged equipment. After a bit more consultation with our guru, I returned the monitor and swapped it for a 27” one, better for group viewing.

On Sunday I plucked up courage to try the monitor. I got it assembled OK but the connection to my Mac proved elusive. While the HDMI cable fitted, the laptop and cable didn’t recognise each other. I tried the trouble shooting instructions, but no luck. I found it disheartening   

In the meantime, my coffee machine showed the cleaning sign. When I tried to follow the instructions, it displayed both the 'change filter' and the 'descale' signs- contradictory. I changed the filter, but nothing else changed. The manual says these two symbols together mean the machine is cold and needs wrapping in a blanket! The apartment temperature was 23C. I turned it on and off several times. It now indicated the bean container was empty. Nonsense! Further disheartened. Now I had two machines not working and speaking foreign languages. I did get the washing done, a couple of plants potted, chicken Marylands marinating,  rice cooked and in the fridge to dry out. 

On Monday I took the coffee machine back to Jura for service. There were varying opinions from the 2 sales assistants. I refused point blank to take it home to try any of their ideas. The machine awaits a technician. At the moment I don't care if I never see it again, and my plunger is getting a workout.

Last night, after dinner for 7, Fionn enthusiastically tackled the laptop to monitor connection, and achieved it in about 6 minutes. It appears the spare USB converter I keep on my laptop prevented the monitor cord connecting to the adjacent port.  Once we removed the Comsol USB converter, the monitor was happy to connect via the adjacent port and, after a bit of work with an awkward control toggle on the back of the monitor, we were in business.

I was over the moon. Fionn is my hero! I played with it for a bit after the troops left, but haven't yet tried to do it from scratch. Tomorrow Margaret and I are getting together to sort it out, and hopefully finish confident we can reproduce a display at the Guild from both an Apple and an Android machine. I have not as yet removed the clear film from the screen, just in case...

I did, however, after dropping off some Art works at Pack and Send for my brother, trek to Spotlight and buy fabric, webbing and buckles to make a carry bag for the screen.  Am I insane?

Fionn also tried on my supersized beanies for me. He has a reasonably large head. 

With Georgia's help we figured out the largest one (the not-a-teacosy) would be improved my folding the band in half. I'm going to stitch it down so it stays in place.

The 16 ply knits quickly and is certainly warm. These are anticipating more walkers next year.

I found time this afternoon to sit in the afternoon sun for half an hour doing Wordle and a couple of other puzzles. The  balcony is feeling good at the moment.

I feel relieved and thankful that I have support from family, friends, finance and businesses to keep following ideas. I fear (literally) that I am losing my grasp of changing technology and that will limit my output. That's scary, but help is obviously at hand. 

For now I shall try, in my small way, to keep disturbing, in the hope of improving, my little bit of the universe.