Post 568 A Birthday to remember!

On Wednesday, after a morning of packing the car, drenching the plants and closing the curtains, I picked family up from the airport, before heading. straight to Carrickalinga. There was an accident on the expressway that delayed us for some 15 minutes, but otherwise we made good progress.

We had a holiday rental on the beach. We've stayed there before. It's a very 1970s Aframe, with a  master bedroom and ensuite on a mezzanine, accessed by a spiral staircase, with living area below, both overlooking the beach. Through the door at the back is a rumpus-room setup, bathroom/laundry and a bunk bedroom. The house is currently For Sale. 

The other family holiday rental is a 15 minute walk up the hill and has spectacular sunset views. They cooked a BBQ dinner for our arrival.

I had a good, and very lazy, four days. I didn't have a swim. The rest of the family gathered early in the morning and in the evening to swim (far too hot to swim in the middle of the day: we are neither mad dogs nor English).  The day temperature fluctuated around 25-28C, a good 5-7 degrees cooler than Adelaide.

Our Strata requests we turn the water off in our apartment when we go away, so I had done this as I left. The taps, both hot and cold, are situated in a cupboard in the lift foyer on each floor. Mine are behind a downpipe, not easy to get to.  As I turned the stop-cocks off, the hot water meter fell off on to the floor of the cupboard. The round meter, on the left, should be on the round dial on the right.  I didn't have time to deal with it before going to the airport, so reported it the next day. This resulted in several phone calls on Thursday, and my neighbour giving a plumber access to the cupboard. On my return on Sunday, the dial was as I've left it. I'm assuming the plumber is trying to source a replacement. To my relief, and as the plumber predicted, once I reopened the stopcock, the hot water supply is unaffected.

 

Sunday was my birthday. We had dinner at the Normanville Surf Club on Saturday - an excellent, relaxed meal with lovely views and attentive service. The Canberra visitors were flying home on Sunday afternoon, so we packed up our house by 10am and imposed ourselves on the rest of the family for brunch before heading back to Adelaide at 1.30pm.

I didn't manage to photograph the piles of bacon and eggs Fionn cooked on the BBQ, nor the haloumi Brigid cooked, nor the numerous mocktails made by Niamh and Veronica, but the fruit and cheese convey the idea.

I was, in the words of Fionn, showered with presents. 

This is some of them. Two are really enticing kits, one Japanese fabric to make into a bag in any way you like, and the other a very inviting cross stitch mat on Nordic style. 

Veronica's very cheeky earrings consist of working pencils (!) and silver bird claws made by an artist who is also a taxidermist. These, I think, will provide a better signal than an evil eye amulet. I can't think of a clearer way to say Do not mess with me! I shall use them accordingly.

We made it to the airport in plenty of time for what was, unfortunately, a fairly turbulent trip back to Canberra. 

Back at my place, the plants had survived well. I had clearly overlooked the Christmas poinsettia in my pre-holiday watering frenzy. It looked sad, but has revived with water. I unpacked food and immediate needs, had an 80 minute phone conversation with my brother and numerous messages from friends to round off the day.

On Monday I set about finding places for my presents. Brigid had given me a hanging bird with a crystal, which needed a spot where the bird colours could be seen and the crystal wouldn't set anything alight by focusing the sun. I tried suspending it in the fly screen of the balcony door, but the colours are lost in the light. The Japanese women enjoyed holding it above the bookcase, 

but in the end it hangs nicely from the converted oil lamp.

Fionn's bird is taking longer, because the solder gave way at the base and I am trying to find a fix. I don't solder, and I’m out of superglue. Trip to hardware shop tomorrow.

Niamh's pin cushion demanded white or yellow pins, requiring a trip to Create in Stitch. It looks fantastic. All I need to do is to put the same pins back as I use them.

My next task was the fabric Alison and Karl gave me. It is woven in Harran, Turkey and purchased in a market town.  There are 3 metres of it and it deserves a proper dress. The dressmakers I know are retired or semi-retired. I could be a nuisance and call in a favour. Once I could have tackled it myself, but not now. After a bit of searching I found a dressmaking business just over a mile away on Unley Road, so took the fabric there straight away.

They were amenable, but needed me to supply the lining fabric.

I was headed to Create in Stitch for the pins, so thought I'd ask there before heading to Spotlight. Simela found me a fine cotton in a cream colour, which works well. I went straight back to the dressmaker, and have ordered a very simple, A line, long dress. I have a fitting on 31 January. 

While I was away my neighbour had taken in a parcel on my behalf.  This turned out to be a birthday gift from my friend Vivienne, who has knitted me two hats! They fit nicely and will come in handy in winter. The other component is ingenious, two clip-on earrings, joined by a chain, to form a shawl clip! Another useful winter accessory.

Fionn got it right - showered with gifts!

My prediction about which project I would progress while away was well off the mark. I began the Evil Eye protection embroidery and just kept going. I really loved doing it. I finished it early on Saturday. When I got home on Sunday I mounted it in the display hoop and on Monday found backing fabric. Detail in my embroidery blog.

I managed a few knots for the tassels, but nowhere near enough. I’ve almost managed one tassel, rolling some of the linen trimming into a round and covering with needle lace to form the head. It’s slow work. 

This morning I composed a final, rounding-off sentence for this post, before discovering that my storage locker had been broken into during a Sunday night car-park break in. My locker is about 75cm wide and 1.5 metres deep. There are storage boxes at the back and a 1.8 x1.8 metre trolley in front. The trolley is quite hard to move. The photo on the left is face-on to the locker gate. The large cardboard box sits on top of the trolley that has to be manoeuvred out when the gate is open, to access the boxes piled beyond.

The intruders cut, not the lock, but the metal the lock goes through. They must have pulled the trolley out, removed 2 boxes behind the trolley, replaced the trolley and arranged the door to appear locked! They took 2 boxes,  marked Personal Treasures and Treasures from Asia respectively, into the street and abandoned them, opened. A box of diaries was opened and some diaries, I think, are missing, as are the remaining 8-10 copies of Conversations with Baby Boomer Teachers that I self-published.  With the help of neighbours, the rest is back. The weirdest thing is that the intruders put the locker back together. It’s not easy to do. They could not possibly have been searching for diaries (could they?)! There is a lot of Strata security activity. We had CCTV installed late last year. I haven’t asked yet if it picked up anything.

I had written this morning that it has been a good week and thanked everyone who sent messages. Today’s discovery has not altered that. Yah Boo Sucks to intruders. At the end of the day, it's just stuff. If I ever meet them, I shall thank them for being tidy. I hope, however, I'm wearing Veronica's earrings! 

I really appreciate the connection, support and love shown to me this week. I may not have swum, but I feel afloat. One nice touch is that while we were at Carrickalinga, Fionn asked what happened to a boomerang we had above a door in our Hindmarsh house. I didn't know. Turns out, it was in the box of treasures found abandoned in the street. It did indeed come back!

Post 567 2025 is heating up.

It was very quiet on the street when I went for a walk around the block on New Year’s Day around 11.30am. The nearby cafes were closed. I didn’t go as far as Hutt St, where I’m sure there would be more activity. The yellow cube at the far end of our row is A Prayer for the Wild at Heart, packed up and closed for the next week.

I don’t often walk past the Box Factory(which is a Community Centre directly behind our apartments) unless I’m going to a meeting there. Today I noticed this prickly pear growing in their garden, a fine specimen to see from the opposite side of the road!

KimoYES, importers of Japanese fabric, both vintage and contemporary, had one of their periodic clearance sales. I have ignored these for a couple of years now. In the past I have used their remnants to make gift bags. More recently I have used cotton fabrics, mostly from the Guild trading table, and I still have a good supply of these. I had, however, recently realised I have very few silk bags in my current supply. There’s a place for their feel and interest, so I ordered a few remnant pieces, enough, I think,  for 18 medium sized bags at a cost of about $3.70 per bag. I had hoped to post a photo but they will no doubt arrive while we are at Carrickalinga this week and be waiting at the PO next Monday. 

After posting last week I received the admission forms for my upcoming hand surgery. When I read them, I was horrified to discover I was not only required to have someone pick me up after the surgery, which I had anticipated (a friend had offered) but to have ‘a carer’ there throughout the procedure and staying with me overnight. This seemed a considerable burden in January, as people were returning from leave, or preparing for a return to study. On Thursday I phoned the surgeon’s rooms, explained I couldn’t meet the requirement and requested a quick consultation to see if the finger was sufficiently healed to cancel surgery altogether. By a miracle I got a time that afternoon. He was sympathetic and helpful. The knuckle no longer held fluid. It wasn’t urgent. His advice was however, to do the surgery while the finger was in its current non-inflamed condition. We agreed to postpone. I promised to discuss a suitable date with my family.

The next day I raised it with Katherine when she called in unexpectedly. Her immediate response was that January is, in fact, a good time for her to take a day off work, and to stay overnight! After several reassurances, I phoned the clinic. They had not reassigned the booking and reinstated it . On Sunday I spent 2 hours filling out the online admission form, Katherine has organised our transport - surgery is back on! A tiny blister has appeared on the joint, but won't, I hope, deter the surgeon.

While that might have been Much Ado About Nothing, Sunday, 5 January, was Twelfth Night, Epiphany, and the day for removing Christmas decorations. It was also my parents’ wedding anniversary. My mother was meticulous about adhering to tradition, so, in addition to filling out hospital forms, I removed Christmas decorations, put them away in their red box, reread all my Christmas cards and updated my Christmas card address records. The tree I bought is not looking too healthy. Along the stem, the needles are dry and brown.I’ve watered it as instructed, but it’s dropping needles. 🙏

On Saturday I had a phone call from my neighbour around 9.30am, to say the lift was out of order again, and the service company had been called. I had intended to go for an early walk, before the temperature reached its predicted 38C but decided against it. The lift was fixed around midday, well in time for me to go to family dinner. 

Meantime, I had a strange visitor.  It looked like a relative of one of the birds I had seen in the Square last week. It is a Rock Dove, a feral form of Columbidae, the common pigeon. This one stood stationary on my balcony for a couple of hours, moving to a slightly different position about every ten minutes.  It initially had an inflated neck, but that was less noticeable over time. I didn’t see it leave, and it hasn’t been back. It left behind quite a few droppings, unusual for birds on my balcony. Perhaps a form of heat stress? 

 

I've also been ticking off a few small jobs. One was testing the pouch I bought to hold my car keys while swimming. I wore it in the shower with a pen inside. The pouch got thoroughly wet, but the pen remained completely dry, so it's ready for the beach! 

I also posted an account of this Christmas embroidery to my embroidery blog

Sunday's sunset caught my eye, drawing me away from the repeat of Donaldson and Dodd.

While it can't compete with the Aurora Australis that was visible that night along the coast, it was beautiful and enhanced by the arrival of the bats for their nightly feed in the Moreton Bay Fig tree.   

Once again, the Catholic Cathedral sent its message in lights, dwarfed but not extinguished by the surrounding reflections of commerce.

Today I began packing for Carrickalinga, first deciding what embroidery and knitting to take, then the swimming gear, including sun and insect lotions, followed by clothes and a trip to the supermarket for the basic supplies we will need to get us going. I pick up my daughter and son-in-law from the airport tomorrow afternoon and drive straight there. We’ll be too late for regular shops. A big part of my preparation, of course, was clearing the boot of my car. That involved trips to the Salvos, to the bin and to the Guild. I’m just about there. I can finish packing in the morning before a thorough soaking of my plants. I’ve saved a few empty milk and soda bottles to upend full of water in a few pots. I'm only away 4 days but that’s enough to kill a few plants when it’s over 34C each day. 

Yesterday I finished Aquile . The account is in my embroidery blog. It’s far from perfect, but I’m satisfied. I’m taking knitting, an evil eye embroidery and the tassel knots for Aquile  to Carrickalinga. I can knot and socialise, so that’s my predicted winner but I’m not putting money on it.

I'll report next week!

Post 566 Here's a hand, my trusty friend

Like Bilbo Baggins' road in The Hobbit, this blog, originally for a single journey, goes ever on. I am now in the weekly rhythm and it helps me reflect, not only on auld lang syne, but on my here and now. I try to keep both the blog and my actions on a comfortably shaded path, not unlike this one as I entered Pakapakakanthi, or Victoria Park, this morning for a walk.

It was very quiet. The usual flocks and families of birds were elsewhere, leaving a lone Rosella to forage undisturbed.

The carpenter ants, however, were busy on the native Blackthorn bushes and there were park rangers, dog walkers and a few families about. I paused for a while on a log. 

It was, I suspect, more comfortable than the elegantly carved chair that I haven't noticed before.

Back at home, the letterbox held more lovely, newsy cards and I hung out the last washing of the year, a clean start to 2025.

Christmas morning brought photos and messages from family in Canberra before I thoroughly watered plants inside and on both balconies, closing screens and blinds before heading to lunch as the temperature hit 34C.  It was a relaxed (for me at least!) and joyful time. As you can see, we ate inside, where the temperature was pleasant. Outside it reached 37C, remaining well above 30C into the night. 

This was the centrepiece for our Christmas table, carefully arranged by Niamh and Veronica for the feast of lamb, pork, potatoes, carrot, parsnip, broccolini, beetroot, eggplant, pavlova & Yule log. 

The crackers from the Leprosy Shop were (apart from paper hats, which I doubt were naturally dyed!) eco-friendly and met with approval. The ‘favours’ were wooden. A spinning dice (Yes, No, Maybe, Never) got a good run. My scoop (1 teaspoon) now has a home in my Psyllium as my morning measure).

Fionn made a stunning focaccia with a complex dip for us to enjoy while opening presents. I limit my bread, but had 3 pieces. 

Everyone enjoyed their presents. Cookbooks and cooking equipment seemed to be the most popular.

I did well with hand and lip cream, amazing earrings and a book about Vietnamese costume, which I can already see as a hit at the Guild. The bag in which they came is a lovely example of Vietnamese embroidery. Best, however, is a hat! I’d planned to buy one of these, sponsored by the cancer council, but hadn’t braved the parking at the one shop I know sells them.

Yay! I've been wearing it whenever I go outside.

I got home around 5pm, in time to watch the Together at Christmas service at Westminster Abbey, which I really enjoyed, singing along to the carols and getting teary at the stories. The temperature remained high all night and was 31C when I woke on  Boxing Day. Oddly, it cooled down around 9am, after which it was deliciously cool and overcast with occasional bursts of sun. It remained thus for a couple of days.

While most of my balcony garden has done well through the heat, the Almanda I ‘saved’ from the blackbird did not make it.

The one given to me (left of the blue pot) is thriving as is the remaining one taken from it (right of the blue pot). I shall now start another for the friend to whom I promised one.

Over the last few weeks I’ve had a bit of trouble unlocking my letterbox. I have several keys, all cut from the 2 originals given to me by the previous apartment owners. I figured there was some wear on the one I use most regularly and swapped them around. On Boxing Day not even the original I used would work. I was mildly panicked. At this time of the year my chances of getting a locksmith are diminished. I had one original untried so overnight devised Plan A and B. On Friday morning I went downstairs armed with all keys, pen, paper and a large tape dispenser. Plan B involved taping over the letterbox slot with a note to take mail to the PO. 

After a couple of failures, the original key opened it. I have now locked it open. Whew! I can get mail! Yes, anyone else with access to our apartments can open it.  That’s a risk I can live with, unlike the risk of not getting my mail. I can now work out with our Strata rep how to get it fixed.

This slim volume arrived last week from the Book Grocer.- another one for passing around WES group. Imagine if it were stuck in my letterbox, its wrapping visible through the slot, out of reach!  

Shopping hours in South Australia over this holiday period are complex. Most businesses are closed on Christmas Day with the exception of convenience stores and a few hospitality venues. The day after Christmas Day is officially Proclamation Day, the day Governor Hindmarsh disembarked his shipload of free British settlers at Glenelg and declared a British Colony in 1836. 

In other states, this is Boxing Day. Under peculiar  and frequently amended restrictions, supermarkets are not allowed to open on this day, but other shops are, so Boxing Day sales go ahead, even though we don’t have Boxing Day! 

I did not venture to the shops until Sunday, when I replenished my butter supply and a few extras. The mince pies and Christmas puddings had disappeared, replaced by, yes, really, hot cross buns. I can only shake my head.

This is a very quiet time for me. The Guild is closed, families are on holiday and most services suspended. I take the opportunity to catch up on reading, trying to make up the gap in my Goodreads goal for the year. I began December nine books short but made up the shortfall. I am now one book ahead, having cleared up The Serpent and the Goddess, a couple by Ann Cleeves, and been captivated by new series by Abbie L Martin, set in the Adelaide Hills, beginning with The Ghost of Lilly Pilly Creek. I'm not a fan of ghostly cosy crime, but I loved these. There are four in the series. I read all four and want more!

Yesterday I took myself on a walk around the Square. The Sulphur crested cockatoos were out in force, silent for a change as they extracted seeds from the fallen pine cones. 

They shared the space peacefully with a couple of unusually coloured pigeons, while further away, in the sun, an ibis dug for insects.

I was home in time to take delivery of my order of 3 embroidery kits of Evil Eye deterrents. My WES talk on Evil Eye embroidery is not until the last quarter of 2025, but I thought I’d get started on an example or two. They look like fun. 

                                                       

It’s also a spur to finish the Aquile, which is coming along slowly. I'm planning to do more tonight, but can't finish it this year. It's quite challenging, and far from perfect. I hope to post the completed photo next week.

As I finished writing this, I could hear the 9pm Adelaide New Year's Eve fireworks but couldn't see them. This year they are back on the river, and Calvary Hospital blocks my view. 

I can only offer the view from my balcony. The white dot high in the centre of the sky is Venus, the Evening Star, associated with harmony, love and beauty.  What more could I wish for?

Post 565 A Christmas Indulgence

I began this chronologically at the beginning of the week but reorganised it on Sunday after I spent just over an hour  exploring  Chihuly in the Botanic Gardens, a series of glass installations by Dale Chihuly with a Jam Factory retail outlet.  They were so stunning I have lengthened this post to include them. Feel free to skip any or all.

The first photo was taken in the Bicentennial Conservatory (the building in the second photo). 

The next two photos are installations in the open park. During the day visitors can wander around for free. I didn’t cover the whole park, but will return another day. It’s there until late April. At night the installations are illuminated and access is ticketed.

Coming in from the Eastern carpark, the first installation I saw was the floating balls. A small child in a stroller was yelling bubble, bubble and pointing, an excitement I saw repeated several times by various children at various works. 

The gardens are lovely anyway, but these create marvellous reflections and a sense of both the unexpected, and appropriateness. There is a wow factor, but also of yes, of course. 

There is an entry fee ($14) to the  Conservatory where the remainder of my photos were taken. Here you can get close and also view from all angles. I loved it. There are plenty of explanations and video stations, but I preferred to just take in the glass. I’d had to talk myself into making the effort on Sunday morning. So glad I did.

It was a good day for it, only 25C. The conservatory closes early when the temperature is over 36C and doesn’t open at all when it’s forecast to be 40C. Even at 25C it’s pretty warm inside. I took a lot more photos, but these are my  picks. I will  venture back again on another coolish Sunday and cover what I missed, maybe with a friend.

Like the Radical Textiles exhibition, it will be a major drawcard during the Adelaide Festival in Feb/March. Not to be missed if you are here.

Returning to Wednesday, I almost missed my six monthly car service . As I pay for one service I usually book the next, but it seems I forgot last time. Fortunately I checked my diary and managed to get a booking for last Wednesday only a few weeks into the seventh month. As usual, I stayed for the 3 hours it took for 2 mechanics to complete the service and wash the car. I took my Aquile embroidery, my knitting and my Kobo (I wouldn’t want to run out of things to do). Another woman waiting came over to ask what I was doing. She learned dressmaking from her mother, who learned it from her mother in India. We had a discussion about sewing machines, knitting and learning.

I wasn’t at home to receive the delivery of the alpaca yarn I ordered a couple of weeks ago, so collected it from the Post Office on my way home. This is from one animal, Casper. It is a beautiful dark brown.  I’m looking forward to mixing it with the alpaca I have left  from previous projects. I haven't put it away yet: it is so lovely to look at.

I also tried to visit the Haigh's Chocolate outlet on Greenhill Road, but there are road works happening on their side road. Their carpark was full and no road parking, so I couldn't stop.

The Rita Maria Faleri Aquile is quite challenging. I undid two eagle tails while waiting for the car. I had hoped to live with the mistakes, but decided to adjust. The small sections are especially tricky. The thread is thick, and although the loose weave means holes are easy to see, it is worked in hand, and the threads move around. 

Thursday was the last Pilates class for the year. I managed to return Paul's book on Mitochondria. He, Heather and I had a lovely focused class, much cooler in the studio than outside. I had intended to have lunch at Queen St, but it was crowded, no parking and the kitchen had probably closed anyway, so I went home. 

Friday was my Crown installation - an easier process than the preparation a week ago. Clemmie explained why she hadn't used 3d printing for this. As I suspected, the older method can achieve subtleties 3d can't, and we were altering the shape of the tooth to reduce the gap between it and the next one, to help with cleaning.  She adjusted my mouthguard as a stopgap, but I have an appointment to make a new one. 

I had chosen bags for Clemmie (bluebird of happiness) and her assistant (Clementine Ford is a bit of a hero of both). Both seemed to delight, so I am very happy. I will miss Clemmie - but she will do well wherever she is, and so will her child. 

This time there was no waiting time to eat or drink. I came home via Haigh's chocolate outlet again and this time they had staff directing people to spaces in between the cement trucks and workers' vans on the side street. I managed to buy my supply of Christmas chocolate, and then stock up on groceries and alcohol-removed drink at Unley. Most of the washing I hung out around 2.30pm was dry by 6pm.

I spent an hour or so catching up with my brother on the phone. Our mother would have been 99 on Saturday. He visited her grave and took frangipani - from his potted tree grown from her enormous one where we grew up, and which provided my wedding bouquet. 

 I wore the mourning locket with the hair she was so proud of.  It seems a strangely Victorian concept. Collecting it when she died was really important to my father. I rarely wear it but it seemed important this year. 

Each day brought physical Christmas cards or letters, newsy email messages from friends and family, virtual cards and a phone call or two. I really look forward to catching up (such an evocative phrase!) but inevitably there is a sprinkling of sadness. 

The wife of a second cousin (with whom I had done a lot of family history research) died two weeks ago. There is a lot of infirmity. The joy, however, of ‘catching up’ (like today’s newsy email from friend Christine) lifts me up.

On request I took a bag of my remaining gift bags on Saturday night, where there was a lot of bag making activity happening, along with work calls, cooking, planning, eating and crosswords.

On Sunday afternoon, after Chihuly, I made gingerbread, interrupted by a long Christmas phone call. 

I thought I had checked ingredients before shopping on Friday, but I missed butter. I had 4/5 of what I needed, so topped up with margarine. I had intended to try icing them with white chocolate but, as usual, decided they don’t need icing (besides being too irregular in shape to ice easily!). The lighter ones are rolled thinner and more prone to burning, so I took them out sooner. As well as the smell of Christmas, they taste  delicious.  I tried several to make sure.

I did my final food shop yesterday. Every year I avoid Christmas Eve shopping, and every year as I manoeuvre my trolley around the crowd, I remember that everyone else thinks the same. I went with a list of 6 things and came home with two heavy bags and a box of drinks. I collared the last Pandoro in the Frewville supermarket!

Today I had a haircut in the middle of the day, travelling to the hairdresser on the city loop bus. I didn’t venture into the Markets, but it didn’t look crowded. This was the Market’s Santa seen from the bus. 

A Prayer for the Wild at Heart was still serving lunch when I got off the bus, so I indulged.  They are open, except on Public holidays, until New Year’s Eve, then closed for 2 weeks so I enjoyed the pleasant breeze, 27C and slightly changed menu.

My parcel arrived in Canberra, my packages are ready to take to lunch tomorrow (might need a small sleigh) and my candles are lit.

In the words of Tiny Tim, God Bless us, every one.