Post 619 Mostly Heat, Health and Happiness.

 

This was the  first photo I took in 2026, about 8am on New Year's Day 2026 from my back balcony. The business of the city is just visible in the top left hand corner - a high rise and a crane. The second photo I took had more balcony and no sign of city building. That's the one I posted to Instagram and FB, but I think the first is appropriate here.

There is a lot of building going on in the city and suburbs as the City Council and State Government prepare for growth. Hopefully they continue to manage that well, and to keep greening the city.

I did my bit on New Year's Day by heading to a nursery with a mental note of empty spots and pots I wanted to fill.   I came home with a punnet of petunias, a pummet of marigolds, a lisiantus, a frangipani and a Ptilitis Mulla Mulla. The last is an Australian desert plant with slightly mauve tufted flowers. I haven't tried it before, so here's hoping. 

It was 30C when I arrived home and unloaded them. I planted all but the marigolds. and watered them all well.  The roots of some of them had reached the limits of their pots, which I should have expected at this time of year.  The lisianthus, in particular, was a bit of a concern. 

They were all looking perky, however, the next day, when I planted out the marigolds. I had to remove a dead lavender bush from this pot before planting them, so it took a bit of time.  It hadn't reached the forecast peak of 31C but was still hot, so everything got watered again. I'll need to keep that up for the rest of Summer. Today it has reached 35C and tomorrow is forecast to be 42C. With daily watering they are all looking good.

I fasted overnight on New Year's Day, so I could do a blood test on Friday morning, ready for a check-up with my GP. My closest pathology lab was closed for the Christmas period, so I drove to North Adelaide. I wasn't sure if they would be busy or quiet during a holiday period. There was no waiting at all. I had a quick look around the very quiet North Adelaide Village Shopping Centre, bought grapes and cheese and came home for breakfast. 

I managed to finish the Spritz cardigan just after midnight on New Year's Eve. The details are in my embroidery blog. I'm delighted to enter 2026 without this on my to-do list! 

I'm now working on another Kasia Jacquot Veronka to add to a bag. That was what sent me off to Spotlight on Saturday. I store each of these panels with a Semco cotton craft bag on to which the finished panel will be stitched. I couldn’t find the cotton craft bag I thought I had stored with the panel. The bags were on sale at Spotlight, so I
bought a supply.  Of course, when I got home I found the missing one! No matter, I have now matched up all the panels I have left to bags. There are ten more panels/bags once I finish this one. And five bags left over for my own designs. One day.

I also called at Eastern Silk, an emporium of imported textiles of all sorts. They are closing in six months and selling off all their stock. I was looking for silk remnants to make another batch of gift bags. They had no remnants, but a room full of rolls of silk. I ended up choosing 5 rolls. The owner did a rough calculation of what was left on each roll and offered a price.  I ended up with 20 metres at an average of $14.50 a metre. The original prices were between $39 and $60 a metre. 

If I follow my original intention, it will make  100 or so bags. I have, however, offered the pieces to family members in case someone would like to have something made. 

There is 6.6 metres of the lovely, floaty orange, and the patterned.  blue would make a beautiful shirt.   I’m not sure I’m prepared to cut up 6.6 metres of silk for bags.   I, however, have more than enough clothes. 

It brings back memories though. I had several silk suits made when working and travelling. They packed small, looked good, and were comfortable in hot weather - even in Darwin where I visited frequently.

I also bought a loose cotton dress from a rack of many, all labelled All size. It was gathered from below the bust and was generous when I checked it against my hips - the usual sticking point. At home, however, it was the bust and shoulders that didn’t fit! I was hoping one of the women in the family can find a use for it but that is looking unlikely. I loved the bright colours and thought it would keep the wearer cool in summer.  I may have to turn it into bags!

I had woken that morning with an ache in my right sacroiliac joint, apparently from the way I’d been sleeping. 

My left sacroiliac joint is damaged from an old fall, but this ache was new. It persisted throughout the day, but didn’t trouble me when I went to bed. I woke around 6am on Sunday, however, with it aching again, and also with an ache in one eye. I applied one of the disposable eye masks and dozed off for the half hour the warmth lasted, after which I got up, heated a wheat bag and applied it to my back, arising pain-free for breakfast.💪🏼 The ache returned a few times during the day and again at night. Heat seems to work -  Deep Heat Rub less effective that hot wheat bag.                                                                                                  It didn't stop me taking down the Christmas decorations. It's a day earlier than my mother dictated - 5 January being the 12th day of Christmas. I was going to be busy on Monday, so risked breaking tradition. I left the angel and bird hanging on my flyscreen where they catch the light. Cards are still arriving, so they also stayed.                                                                                                                                                                         

 Yesterday I had an appointment for a full health care assessment with both my GP and the nurse. This is required under the government health plan that gives me access to some services at no or low fee . To my astonishment, the nurse’ assessment took nearly one and a half hours - asking questions, checking records, measuring. She was brilliant- personable, astute, considerate, interested.  When she had finished I saw my GP who added some further questions about my social and mental well-being. He also had and discussed my blood test results.  My blood sugars are lower than last time (when they were ok) and my kidney is doing ok.  I came home very happy with plenty of time to marinate the Chicken Marylands in lemon and honey, bake  the potatoes and bacon  and make a Greek salad for dinner - another relaxed and happy time. 

I have a GP appointment in April to check on kidney and get my flu shot, and a nurse appointment to check on the plan progress in August.  So fortunate.

This morning I had a podiatry appointment - one of the services subsidised by the health plan.  I spent the rest of the day doing a bit of family history research for a family member, inside, escaping the 35C heat. Tomorrow is forecast as 42C, and the rest of the week not much better. I don't like the heat, but I can manage it.

The Veronka embroidery is almost finished. I expect to finish it tomorrow and maybe make the bag. I won't be meeting my walking goal outside in the heat but might manage a few turns around the apartment - or even the supermarket. And there are plenty more embroidery and research projects to keep me relaxed and happy.

Post618 A few challenges, much community and joy.

 

I picked up the dress from the Post Office on Christmas Eve after a message saying it couldn’t be delivered. I assumed  the driver hadn’t bothered stopping. Then our Strata Rep discovered her buzzer was not working. It seems that while the reboot last week fixed my ability to provide entry, it did not fix the buzzer itself. All my complaints about delivery service were unwarranted - the buzzer system for our whole pod is out of action, and had probably been so for a week before Christmas! The company that services it is closed until sometime in January. Fortunately, the urgency of parcel delivery is  now over. Visitors need to phone for me to let them in.

The dress, described online as linen and cotton turns out to be fabric linen, trim cotton, meaning that, apart from the thin green binding along the front edge, the dress is linen. I would not have bought it had I known that. As much as I like linen, I do not like ironing. However, it proved fortuitous. After wearing it all Christmas Day, including driving in it (the critical test in my experience), it was barely crushed.      

I went to bed at 9.30pm on Christmas Day, waking a couple of times, but sleeping for at least 10 hours.

It had been a lovely, and not very strenuous day, mostly sitting around, inside and outside with one daughter’s family, while gifts were exchanged and opened, stories were told (or, mostly, retold) and food consumed, followed by a joyful phone catchup with my other daughter. I guess the effort of getting to this point caught up with me. The food, with no input whatsoever from me, was superbe.  The crowns, incidently, were well received.

I had little energy for anything on Boxing Day. I managed to change and wash my bed linen before settling in to read Murder on the Great Ocean Walk , stopping only to make some spaghetti with pesto around 3pm - a carbohydrate treat for Christmas. 

I also opened the Panettone I had foolishly bought. A very generous slice each day over five days with my morning coffee took care of that. I am registering an extra  0.5kg on my now reliable bathroom scales and need to take care of that before I see my GP on 5 January.

There was a bit of noise from the pub when I got home on Saturday night, the sound of people relaxed and happy. The pub looks quite quaint from my balcony at night.

I couldn’t get a decent shot of the moon but it could have been an Oberon and Titania night in the Square - with a little help from electricity.

On Monday morning, in 38C, I went shopping for a Beijing duck for my stir fry dinner. The shop, near the Adelaide Central Market, that sells them fresh each day, opens at 11am. On my way out I ran into our Strata rep. As we stood in the foyer talking the neighbour moving out of the first floor was bringing her last furniture down in the lift, so we acted as door openers and holders. The apartment is sold but we have no information about the new owner. 

On my return, with duck, broccoli, bean sprouts and a supply of serviettes, I met Alec, another new tenant, at the lift. He now lives below me. We got in the lift together and registered our floors. The lift doors closed. The lift doors opened. The lift doors closed. The lift doors opened. Eventually we got out. The doors continued their dance. I rang the Strata rep. She rang the lift company. We came up the stairs. Alec kindly waited to see I made it to the 3rd floor. I sent messages to the 5 family members coming for dinner offering a postponement in light of the lift situation. They were made of sterner stuff and prepared for stairs (as well as no buzzer). 

Just after 4pm the Strata rep declared the lift fixed! Family arrived carrying my Christmas detritus and my TerraCycle box, successfully delivered to their place. The stir fry hit the spot. I didn’t photograph it in the rush to get my timing right - and I forgot to add the bean sprouts, but it made for a relaxed and companionable evening. So grateful for the support and love.

Leftovers for late lunch today and the bean sprouts  will go in duck soup made from the bones. That will be my New Year's Eve treat.

The last batch of printed Bishops' Bags arrived today. That's 11 days from my order - printed and delivered from China. Faster than the Christmas cards that arrived today - 13 days from Eastern Australia!

More detail in my embroidery blog.

I managed to finish the sleeves on my cardigan last night. Today I stitched the pieces together. While the sleeves look tiny, they are not. The body is large and the shoulders come well down the arms, to just above the elbow. The photo was taken with the left-hand edge band on the needle. Tonight I am stitching the band. I won't be sorry to see it finished.

I've had a joyful and productive week and wish everyone a Peaceful, Happy New Year. 

Post 617. Christmas Wishes

I managed to mend (at least for now) the glass angel whose head had come away from the solder, so my nativity is now only missing shepherds.

I spent Wednesday morning at CMI Toyota, knitting and emailing while my car was serviced. Just before 7am, Couriers Please informed me they would deliver the bishop cushions that morning, but I managed to contact them and redirect the delivery to the Pack and Send down the road. All power to Couriers Please! 

I was not as fortunate the next day, when I cancelled Pilates and waited in all day for a delivery that never came! While the courier left a delivery card, they did not ring. The system records attempts, and there were none. I have now learned from reliable sources that some courier companies tell couriers not to ring apartments because it takes too much time! I now have the bags. The account of the new merchandise is in my embroidery blog. 

As I was confined to barracks on Thursday, waiting for a courier who didn't come, I decided to wash all my woollens. I put the 9 merino ones in the washing machine  and the five possum merino in the sink to hand-wash. I dried the machine lot first, a bit of turning and bone dry in 3 hours. 

I then spread out the possum merino ones dripping wet. This, at least, is a very good job jobbed.   

I had tickets to the Messiah at the Cathedral on Friday night, but after a lot of thought, gave it a miss. The temperature on Wednesday and Thursday was 39C and 40C, and forecast as 30C on Friday. The Cathedral has no cooling system and the heat builds up over several days. The deciding factor, however, was the cricket. The Cathedral is within an easy walk of the Adelaide Oval, and when a match is on, all parking around the Cathedral is restricted Event parking. As the third Ashes Test Match was in it's third day, scheduled to finish at 6pm, parking for a 7,00pm performance at the Cathedral was sure to be challenging. I opted out.  The attendance over 5 days was 223,638 a record for Adelaide Oval, so a good decision.

Apart from a couple of big supermarket shops and visits to an Art shop and the Post Office,  most of Friday and Saturday was spent adjusting the print on the Bishop bags. On Sunday I ordered 6 more, this time in a paler background colour, in the hope the printing will be clearer. I've organised for these to be delivered to my daughter's home.🤞 I'm hoping this will now be enough bags for those interested.

Once that was done I put the cricket on the television and set to work to get my Christmas gifts in order. I'm missing some of the Christmas sacks with initials on them for each grandchild, but as they are all now adults, and I have no shortage of gift bags, I improvised.  The bags are slowly turning up in unexpected places and I will swap on the day.

I haven't watched a cricket match for decades. As a child I heard the cricket on the radio throughout summer - pretty much everyone listened, and my family certainly did. On Sunday it proved very entertaining. Both sides went all out, making mistakes, but nevertheless demonstrating enormous skill and tenacity.  It was cricket at its best, and uplifting to watch, regardless of who won.

I kept watching until stumps, finishing the second front of my cardigan while doing so. I think I rather overdid making it larger. It is more a coat than a cardigan - but that's good. I've started on the sleeves. I was tempted to knit the two together on the same needles, as my mother and grandmother would have done, to ensure they are identical, but decided to keep it simple. If I managed to match the two fronts working them separately I can manage the same for the two sleeves.

The Christmas emails, eCards and calls keep coming in and four more cards came in Monday's post. I do so love getting the updates. It really lifts my spirits. It's my community, connected strongly over distance.

Monday's dinner was a sausage and vegetable bake, the original recipe from Ken Cock, the dear friend who died this year. My version has many more vegetable varieties than his, but still holds his memory. The photo, of course, is before  cooking! 

As family began to arrive my buzzer failed to work. That heaven for phones! I could go down and let them in. I reported the problem to the Strata. This morning I checked with my neighbour, and placed a sign over my buzzer instructing deliverers to buzz her. Our Strata rep, just back from a 2 week holiday, checked with other reps (the key one of whom was on holiday in Thailand!), then came up and showed me how to reboot my connection. It worked!  My buzzer is now operational! A learning curve for all of us. 

Apart from 2 parcels I have re-routed, I am still waiting on a couple of deliveries one of which is a dress I ordered to wear on Christmas Day. It was meant to arrive yesterday by Express delivery, but appears stuck in Melbourne - no surprise at this time of the year. It is now at Melbourne Airport, so pretty unlikely to arrive tomorrow.🤷

The weather has cooled a little. and is forecast to stay this way until  the weekend. By that I mean 23C-26C  - comfortable for eating outside, not pretty snowflake weather. 

The doves were back today, finding spots where the tiles were warm, but not too hot, to groom and fluff up their feathers, managing to look a bit dishevelled but nevertheless helping each other  to get it together.

Let's shake out our feathers, and help each other to peace and goodwill this Christmas.

Post 616 Installation, Lament and Light

This wasn’t the way I had planned to begin this post, and I can’t safely leave a candle burning for long in my apartment, but I feel the need to light one, however briefly, for hope, solidarity, affirmation, defiance and belief. 

Light will triumph over darkness.

The week’s narrative originally focused on Friday’s activity - my 6 hour television installation. Just before 8am  on Friday two young installers/electricians arrived with two vehicles, made several trips from vans to apartment with large boxes, which they then unpacked, piling up the empty boxes.

It’s hard to believe that’s all for one television. 

A couple of hours later, Richard, salesman and project manager, arrived to supervise, with a trainee. A lot of discussion, conversation and construction, dismantling, rebuilding occurred. Around 1pm I downloaded the B&O app and Richard began teaching me how to use the TV. In spite of my fear, it went smoothly. 

At 2pm all four workers were sitting watching me find channels. We were all very pleased with ourselves. 

I discussed my idea of a low cabinet behind the TV to accommodate the cords. The additional power point I had requested had slipped off their worksheet, leaving my dvd  player still on a power board. Lots of phone calls.  When pushed, one of the young electricians reluctantly said if it were his, and he had a cabinet there, he’d stick with the power board for the dvd player. 

After they left around 2.15, I made a coffee and stared at the blank machine for some time, then took myself off to Nordic Design Furniture to discuss a cabinet. David, their designer, agreed to visit at 9.30am the next morning. He arrived at 8.30am(🙄) and left 45 minutes later with a drawing. By 1pm I'd paid a deposit on a Tasmanian Blackwood cabinet to hold cords and the dvd. It will likely take months to build, but will I think be worth the effort and wait.

It was not until well into Friday evening that I plucked up courage to use the remote and navigate through a few free-to-air programs. It worked! Only on Sunday did I try navigating beyond free-to-air, and successfully logged in and opened some apps. There remains a problem accessing Apple products. I can stream iTunes from my phone or iPad, to the TV, but it won't open directly - my punishment for not buying an Apple product! I can only view Apple photos one at a time. I expect to solve these with help at some point.

I took the photo around 8.45pm on Friday night- the calm and successful end of an intense, 37C day, charged with fear and expectations, navigated with compassion and persistence by 4 highly skilled young abovemen. There are even bats returning to feed if you look closely.

The WES group’s last meeting for the year went well on Wednesday. We shared morning tea, news and projects. I didn’t seek  permissions to show everyone’s work, but I think it’s OK to show this section of a large rug one member had finished weaving the day before.

Another member recommended this book, not just for knitters, but any hand- crafters.

I took along the Bishop cushion and bags. It was the encouragement of this group that gave me permission to proceed. Incidentally, the amended bags are on their way from Guangzhou and the cushions from Melbourne.

Sunday was a Book Club Christmas Morning Tea without book discussion.

There were a lot of stories about miscommunication in medical settings and the mis-application of AI, but on the whole we are a cheerful, resilient and problem-solving group. I got up early on Sunday to make gingerbread trees and angels from dough I prepared late on Saturday afternoon and left in the fridge overnight. I like my biscuits crisp- probably leaving them in the oven a fraction longer than ideal. They are definitely crisp. I took a few to Book Club un-iced but when I got home, melted a block of white chocolate and drizzled it over them. They would certainly not pass muster in any cooking competition, but I like the taste. 

Much of the evening was spent knitting while watching the TV news as the BONDI shooting incident unfolded - a shocking and terrible thing. At the moment it looks as if we will rise to the occasion and put in place the necessary controls to maintain our democracy and prevent a recurrence.

Monday dinners are back on. Last night it was 5 of us for party pies, salads chicken and duck legs, Today my first 3 Christmas cards arrived - all from cousins in England! I love the messages they bring. More connection and light!

To cap off the day, around 5pm a piper began playing laments in the Square. I suspect it was the same one who played 3 years ago and stayed well out of sight. This time she (if it was the same one) stayed below several large trees, out of my sight, played for ten minutes and left.

I've spent the best part of today with my two youngest granddaughters, who got their Year 12 results yesterday - a trying time for everyone. While there are minor disappointments, their results are excellent and they will be able to do the courses they're aiming for either at their first or second-choice universities. Which it is will not be known until offers come out on 10 January. Today we went shopping at an Art Gallery and had lunch at Queen St to celebrate. 

They are candles of hope for the future in a fractured world. We are in this together, however old, wherever we are, were born, or are headed. Even as we lament, we remember:

In this world of darkness so we must shine, 

You in your small corner, and I in mine.

Post615 Art, Craft and Nature

 One way or another, there's been quite a bit of art and beauty this week. I treated myself to these Pyrethrum daisies on Thursday. They looked so cheerful and I could see them in this  vase. They are drooping in the heat and won't make it to the weekend.

This week the honeyeaters have been out in force, this one in the honey locust tree behind the apartment. This morning the one on the left was less picturesque in the native frangipani, 

but probably keeping out of the was of the noisy miner claiming territory on the other side of the same tree.

I spent much of the early part of the week thinking about 

an item in the catalogue for the Elder's auction on Sunday. It was a maquette of a statue in Rundle Mall,  Girl on a Slide by David Howie (left). It was a favourite of Jim's. He always said it reminded him of Katherine.

I went to a  viewing on Thursday after Pilates, and took the photo on the right. It was clearly an early maquette (since it hadn't been used!) with the general shape, but little detail. The figure was roughly 6"-7" long. While not what I call beautiful, it is a great piece of history. I talked it over with Katherine and thought long and hard. In the end I decided it belonged in a museum and not in my home. I nevertheless went to the auction to see the outcome. It sold for $2200, towards the lower end of the estimate. I'm glad it sold. I hope it informs the history of Adelaide Art.

On Friday I took myself off to the Museum and Art Gallery. I did a bit of Christmas shopping and had lunch at the Museum. I sampled the upper galleries of the Art Gallery, delighted to see these silhouettes on display. I can remember how many years ago I first saw this, but it made me smile then as it did this week.

I also bought a copy of Jenny Aland's History of the SA School of Art, which is the oldest in Australia, having begun in 1856. Jenny worked with Jim in the Education Department and since retiring from there, continues her work with the for the Arts.

It's a remarkable, monumental, achievement and I'm enjoying dipping into it.

I hadn't managed to plant much of what I bought last weekend at St Margaret's Market. as I had run out of potting mix. As fanily dinner was back on here on Monday, I went shopping on Satuday for moussaka ingredients, then on to a nursery. As well as potting mix  I bought a Bay tree, and a wicker balcony basket.  When I got home I parked the nursery purchases and spent the afternoon making the moussaka. I once did this over two days, but have now got it down to 4-5 hours. It takes it out of me - but with a sense of achievement. It went down well on Monday night and felt good to be back in this routine.

 

On Monday I got up early and, in my nightdress, got stuck into planting. The Bay tree is on the lower right. I managed to rearrange the baskets on the rail to fit in the new wicker one, repotted a couple of spider plants that were badly pot-bound, and potted up the plants from St Margarets. The nightdress went into the laundry basket, I showered, dressed in proper clothes and vaccuumed the carpet where my feet had traipsed soil. 

I  also finally ventured into the Square to see what my tinsel balcony decoration looked like from below. I didn't much like it, so today, after coffee with Panayoula in Dulwich, I called at the Heirloom Christmas Shop and bought a big red bow.

Much better.

The hanging nativity  arrived. It will do for this year, but I'm hoping to find one in the future that lets light through.

Five days ago the Bishop of Grafton announced the appointment of Tiffany, a new bishop for the diocese. I've managed to add her name to the embroidered bag, and spent many hours trying to adapt and adjust photographs to have more bags and cushions printed. It's a tricky process when dealing with multiple photographs. I have both bags and cushions orgered. When they arrive I'll know whether I managed it, and will tell the story.

And  10 minutes ago I finished knitting the sparkly acrylic yarn and writing a blog post. This is the result.

Emails and messages have begun arriving in response to my Christmas cards. I love getting these. They lift my spirits. 

It's been a busy, but satisfying week.