Post602 Laden with happiness and tears

Birds are active again, making lots of noise and moving around. I captured the doves through my newly cleaned window of the spare bedroom and snapped the honey eater through the balcony door.                       

Unsurprisingly, I didn't pay them much attention on Wednesday when I was up before 7 to reserve a parking space for the electrician. He arrived at 10.30, discussed my problem, pulled out the kitchen extractor fan, and at 11.20 set off  with the old unit, to buy a replacement. It took about 2 hours to find one that fitted & with which he was happy. It took ages to install and when it was in, the unit projected 2mm over the door clearance. I suggested shaving the door. Garry wasn’t happy. At 5.15 we agreed to leave the doors off for 12 days until he can return, dismantle the unit and remove the row of tiny tiles that are causing the problem.

I so admire the problem solving process and determination to get it right. It was a long day’s work requiring diagnosis, problem solving, meticulous measurement, consultation, product sourcing, purchasing, installation, adaptation, testing. At the end of all that, seven hours later,  it works, but near enough is not good enough and it must come out again. I dips me lid.

I returned the things we removed from the side cupboards, and also found another home for my supply of toilet paper. I don’t mind looking at it for 12 days, but it would invite jokes - and my mother would have disapproved of such display.

I had my 10th COVID shot on Friday morning - and have booked the next one for March next year. Back at home for a recovery coffee, my coffee machine showed the sign for cleaning. I got out the book and a cleaning tablet, and followed the steps. Once again, it didn’t work. I rang the shop. The serviceman who had offered to pay me a visit next time it happened was not there (Friday afternoon, POETS day?) but they promised to organise for him to come after the weekend. In the meantime I can still use the machine ignoring the ‘clean me ‘ signal. I haven't heard from him yet,and have kept making coffee. 🤷🏻‍♀️ It makes up for the slightly sore arm and tiredness from the vaccination.

When I finished the felted bag last week I had most of a 200gm ball of pink 10 ply left . It occurred to me it might make beanies for the JusticeNet walk next year. While I have made, and continue to make, white beanies for the AGJusticeNet team, I’m happy to use up coloured wool for beanies the charity can sell. The pink ball yielded 3 beanies with a bit left over. I do have another pink ball but instead I used up red left over from making slippers. In the process I worked out a better design for 16ply. 

I'm planning to move on to one of the larger knitting projects I have waiting, but as a break from knitting I retrieved one of the Ink and Spindle totes I cut out months ago and worked on it for a couple of days. Details in my embroidery blog. I'm pleased with it.

Beneath these activities has run a great deal of emotion and communication because a reserved, very private, widowed uncle in Canada has terminal cancer and had moved into a palliative care unit. Finding this out has taken a lot of detective work by my intrepid  English cousins. I helped where I could. 

The time difference between here and Vancouver makes synchronous communication tricky. He can no longer use email, which is how he mostly communicated over distance. He likes snail mail, so I’m giving it a go, in hope. It  feels as if cancer is taking over. I’ve started wearing my pin again. 

Tomorrow, however, is World Embroidery Study Group - and Fionn has invited me to the dinner he's cooking. Definitely a bright side.

Post 601 Books, Bags and Bats

 

Until today it has been cold and wet.  I spent Wednesday indoors, preparing for my Book Club picks. Around 2.30 I headed to pub for calamari then settled in to knit the back of the water lilies bag.

As I headed out to Pilates on Thursday, I encountered a neighbour unpacking his storage locker in my spare carpark space. He has been away for the 10 years I’ve been here, but has returned to live and is rediscovering his stored treasures. He wanted to show me the family bibles and photos he had found. I was pleased to meet him, but also anxious to get to Pilates. 

View from my sewing machine.

To make matters worse, it was bucketing down, very bad driving weather, both front and back windscreen wipers going and lane markings very hard to see for most of the way. When I finally got there, I went around the block twice before I found parking. I was 20 minutes late. As I was put my sticky socks on, the sky cleared and sun came out. It was hard to believe it had been raining - except the studio artificial lawn remained under 2” of water. 

Back at home I attempted to reduce the pile of unread books, launching into Ovidia Yu’s The Cannonball Tree Mystery before a nice long phone catch up with a friend. After the evening news and QI I watched the Thursday Murder Club on Netflix - the day it was available. Great acting in keeping with the genre I remembered nothing of the plot from having read the books.

On Friday my GP was happy with my blood tests: my creatinine steady and normal, blood pressure good and sugars below the pre-diabetes range. As with the dentist, we are moving to six monthly checkups rather than 4.  I was home in plenty of time to meet a friend for lunch at A Prayer for the Wild at Heart. The weather remained foul. It was pleasant enough inside with good company, but even there, draughts found their way in.

Book Club went well on Sunday, and my choices for September went down well. My choice of lamb roast for Monday also worked. Today, after catching the bats returning at dawn, I spent a lot of time checking car park spaces outside, worried that Will, who was coming back at 3pm to finish installing my bathroom cupboard would not be able to park. At 1.15pm someone left a space directly opposite, so I dashed out and parked in it. Will arrived at 3.35 and managed to park in the 30 minute spot for tradespeople, so I moved the car back inside. The work took about 40 minutes, so I hope he didn't get fined. He is so diligent and meticulous. I need to repeat the process tomorrow, with the electrician coming at 10am.

Two things I've been waiting for arrived in today's mail. I think the book will be of interest to WES Group. It might end up as a topic for next year. I haven't read it yet. It's a substantial hardback. When I went downstairs to collect it I could also see a green envelope in my letterbox. That could only mean one thing - my Be Alice kit had arrived from Ireland.

Sure enough, it was the kit I tried to order at Christmas but was out of stock. It will need concentration, but fun.

I finished knitting the Water Lilies bag last night and spent a lot of time today on the felting process. The pre-felt version is left and the post-felt right. Details in my embroidery blog.

I still have a lot of wool to use, but it might be time to return to an embroidery project as the weather warms.

Post 600 - Still going 5 years later!

My annual dermatology appointment on Wednesday morning went well. No change in moles and no reason to stop washing my hair every day. I wore the shawl I had finished the night before (need easy to remove clothing for dermatologist!). Another patient, then the receptionist, admired the shawl and asked where I got it, seeming astounded I had made it.

I missed a parcel delivery. After picking it up late afternoon I visited the Hameji Gardens, where an elderly man (about my age!) also exclaimed What a lovely shawl! to which I replied Thank you! I only finished it last night! He then asked if I’d mind him telling his 3 companions. He called out to them and explained. They asked what wool, and were full of congratulations. As we parted, the man thanked me and said I’d made their day!  There was much the same reaction at Pilates the next day.  It is cosy and easy to wear and to shed. I’m quite glad I kept it!

The parcel I picked up was  new detergent, made by an Australian company. The top box is full of laundry sheets and the lower one of dishwasher tablets made in Australia and naked  i.e. not encased in plastic. I figured them worth a try. The tin is designed to keep the sheets from sticking together. I’m currently using up a tub of laundry powder. The sheets I've been using for my dishwasher do stick together if they get damp. Here’s hoping.  

Left-over lemon chicken served me on Tuesday and Wednesday last week,  so I had lunch at Queen St Cafe after Pilates on Thursday. The Crispy Salmon is still  really good, as is the lime milkshake.  I had been late again to Pilates, having run into neighbours in the lift foyer as I was leaving. They wanted to discuss the top floor balcony inspections that took place on Tuesday morning to determine the cause of water leakage. Mine was the first inspected - squeezed in before my dermatologist. I was  delighted when the tradie doing the check decided immediately there was no waterproof membrane below the tiles and replacing grout would do nothing. A fix means clearing the balconies, taking up the tiles, inserting a membrane and re-tiling. Yes, it's inconvenient, but I'm all for fixing the problem, rather than bandaid solutions. I'm not sure my neighbour agrees. As we are on the top floor, leakage is not a problem for us, but it's a major problem for apartments below. It won't happen quickly. There will be quotes, budgets, approvals.

My second medical appointment for the week was on Friday with my very thorough periodontal hygienist. We have agreed I can return to two dental checkups a year instead of my current three. On Monday I was up early for a fasting blood test, in preparation for my GP appointment this coming Friday - part of the single kidney monitoring.  I am privileged to have a routine of medical monitoring - sometimes seems like a treadmill, but it keeps me connected to knowledgeable people and aware of my health, not something that comes easy to me. I am managing to keep my weight steady, so hope readings are OK.

I skipped the Certiricate Course Workshop at the Guild on Saturday. I didn't want to find myself with another project to finish! Instead I did my supermarket shopping and worked on my next knitting project, based on Water Lilies Tote, a pattern from the most recent Piecework magazine. Using up more left-over wool, and finding the instructions a little complicated, I adapted as I went, and working it flat, so I could have the pattern on one side only. I finished this main panel today. It's approximately 42cm square, deliberately larger than the pattern. Now all I have to do is knit a back, sides and handles, then construct and felt it! It's been a nice challenge so far.

I also wrote up the Sashiko tablecloth in my embroidery blog.

I had a bit of a scare on Sunday evening as I prepared to boil rice. As I pulled open the exhaust fan over the gas cooktop, there was a popping sound and no light or exhaust. The gas flowed but would not ignite. I eventually found matches to light the gas, but there was no exhaust fan action. The electician was supposed to get back to me after his Easter holiday about replacing the fan. In the morning I worked out the fuse had blown. Flipping it back on solved the gas ignition and the exhaust fan, but not the light over the gas burners. I eventually got on to the electrician, who has apologised and organised to come in 2 weeks time, conveniently on the day my Guild Hostess duty has been cancelled because of a change in Guild office hours. Another disaster hopefully averted!   

Thanks to the readers who have stuck with this blog for 5+ years. Quite a bit has changed since I cut short my UK visit to get home before flights were cancelled due to COVID.

Post 599 Family, Friends and Textiles

Taken just before midnight, on Wednesday, through the glass of my eastern window. It seemed an appropriate finale to the day. 

Our WES Group meeting had been a stimulating and cooperative effort. Keryn prepared a well-researched presentation on the Huguenot Silk Weavers of Spitalfields, while Margaret facilitated its display on our 27” monitor and everyone pitched in to help out, discuss, contribute and ask questions. 

Keryn had made a bag, and embroidered a design from a 1712 design of James Leman, one of the leading Huguenot weavers.

I spent most of the afternoon writing up and emailing the summary of the meeting. I think, from the response, that we were all on a bit of a high.

On Thursday morning I began thinking about books for our September Book Club meeting. I’m the chooser, and need to have 2-3 titles by our August meeting. I now have one, published in April this year, ordered from Melbourne and another, from the just released Australian Crime Writers Ned Kelly Awards shortlist, borrowed from the library. I  need to read them before 30 August. I’m intending my 3rd choice to be the Richard Osman Thursday Murder Club #4 to be released on 23 September - hoping our meeting date will be after the release!

When I returned from Pilates I noticed  that some soil had been dislodged from my eastern balcony wall garden on to the newly swept tiles. There has been quite a lot of calling and cooing from the doves of late. I put words to their calls - echoing the rhythms as we were taught to do when reading Latin poetry. I’ve heard conversations like I want icecream! No icecream! Can’t do it! It drives me a bit nuts but I can't help myself.

However, on Friday I finally noticed that a pair of doves were hanging around the balcony, and only when I photographed them did it dawn on me that they were showing signs of nesting - in the same spot as last year’s blackbirds, which I thought I had filled in with extra plants!

I was out there like a shot, in my slippers. The doves flew off. 

I grabbed the hose and watered the plants (not sure if that’s a deterrent, but worth a try), placed two pot plants where the two birds sat and a flat stone over the soil in the relatively empty planter on the right hand side. You can just see the stone circled in purple in the photo.

There followed a lot of bird communication, but none ventured back to check it out. One perched on the roof above and called several times what sounded like Our spot’s gone! and maybe She’s a b——. I, however, have no regrets. I don’t want to rear any more birds on the balcony.

Two doves (not sure they were the same two) returned on Saturday and Sunday but didn’t seem to approach the nesting spot. Phew!

I shopped at Frewville on Friday because they have large free-range chicken, which I wanted for Monday dinner. While there I indulged in a startlingly marketed fresh, uncooked pizza. i don’t do pizza often because of carbs. It served me for 3 meals and tasted fresh. I’m not sold on sausage and truffle flavour, but would try another in the range one day.

I was up early on Saturday, getting organised to pick up my old Sydney Uni friend who had returned from his trip to the Flinders Ranges and had about 5 hours to kill between hotel checkout and flight. We drove to the beach, walked the jetty and had lunch before I dropped him at the airport. We had a good time, reflecting rather than reminiscing, on our time at Uni, our naivety, backgrounds, learning and subsequent directions. There are few people with whom I could have that conversation, and having it is health-giving. That we are still on much the same wavelength 60 year later is a gift and blessing.

After dropping him at the airport I had dinner with family as usual, spending some time complying with a school directive that Veronica’s winter school uniform be let down. We gained 5cm in length, hopefully enough to satisfy authorities for the remaining 27 days she has to wear it. Not a battle worth fighting, but one worth remembering. It will make a good and bonding story for decades to come.

That left Sunday to cook lemon chicken for Monday night and progress the left-over-Rowan-yarn-shawl. I started the day with 582 stitches on the needle and ended with 598, so 6 rows added. It’s a long way to the end of each row but I’m persevering to finish with a colour sequence.

The dinner went well. Somewhat to my surprise, the lemon chicken was a hit. The slightly defrosted carrot salad much less so (I really like it!).) The tablecloth was admired and discussed., fulfilling its purpose. 

Today I finally paid my second visit to the Dangerously Modern exhibition at the Art Gallery, this time focusing on the beginning pieces, notably the miniatures. It’s still fabulous, and I’ll go again if I can. 

I also had a look at the Ramsay Art Prize entries, intrigued by the People’s Choice Award I had read about, a huge wall hanging, The Pool, by Emma Buswell. It was amazing. While described as a tapestry, it  is in fact knitted! 

This is not obvious at the distance needed to see the whole composition, but very clear up close. Astounding! It would certainly have my vote.

I spent the rest of the day finishing the shawl. 

 It doesn't compare with the People's Choice example but I'm pleased with it. 30 minutes ago I finished casting off the final 615 stitches. The ends are not yet stitched in. At this stage I don't think I will block it. If I do, I will need to assemble  the hap stretcher. The table is 2.4 metres long and a metre wide.  I don't think I need it any larger!

The purpose was to use up left-over wool - and it has used a fair bit. I will write about it in my embroidery blog over the next few days. 

I may just keep this one for myself.

Post 598 The cupboards get fixed!

A quiet day at the Guild on Wednesday. I was very pleased when Phyllis arrived to do some financial work. We were able to chat for a bit on and off throughout the day. My major job was bringing in the bins. I got most of Hardanger Christmas ornament done, finishing the gold at home before I cut around the edges. There was fabric for one more in the kit, so I started it before I could change my mind.

Between posting off my Cancer Council (not, as I said last week, Heart Foundation!) bracelet with it's 7 days of data, Pilates and a family birthday dinner I as lucky enough to catch an Adelaide Rosella feeding on the native frangipani behind my balcony.

It was a great dinner, a cooperative effort by family members for their mother, every course a delight, and conversation just as good.

I had intended another visit to the Dangerously Modern exhibition on Friday, but last minute weekend commitments put paid to that. I needed to do the big shop for Monday night, prepare the bathrooms for cupboard installation and the spare room for Veronica to crash after a night sleeping out at the school in support of the homeless. Both bathroom cupboards needed to be emptied and contents stored out of the way. When all of that was done, I finished the last ornament from the kit - varying the pattern to suit my whim (and laziness)

I was concerned about parking for Will, the carpenter installing my cupboards on Saturday. It was a big job, with lots of panels and equipment to come up and down in the lift. Curiously, the street is always parked out on Saturday morning. I decided to park my car in the street to reserve a space, worrying about whether to do so on Friday night, or early Saturday. When I checked the street at 6pm, it was already parked out. I realised, for the first time, that most likely local residents without sufficient off-street parking, slip their cars in as soon as the weekday 2hr paid parking finishes on Fridays, taking advantage of free weekend parking. I checked anxiously every half an hour, then, around 8.30pm, I saw someone about to pull out directly opposite my apartment.  Still in my slippers, I dashed downstairs and moved my car into the space.   It proved fortuitous.

My car was, fortunately, still there, undamaged, the next morning - along with all the other cars. Veronica arrived just after 7.30am, quite bright eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for a shower, toast and Vegemite. Will arrived just after nine and our car transfer went smoothly. He was up and down for tools and timber all day, finally cleaning up and leaving at 4.10pm. Veronica left for work at 12.15. I stashed all her gear in my car to deliver that evening.

The cupboards are a perfect match to the old ones - as I wanted. This time the edge of the fascia is both painted and sealed in silicon, so should not absorb water for decades. The old one had a raw top edge. 

In the guest bathroom a miscalculation with a drill means screw holes in the two last pieces of vertical edging on either side of the door are too long not to and will be replaced, I presume because moisture could enter. From my point of view it was a really impressive day's work and result. 

In all of this, I missed the Chants Encounters concert at the cathedral. Katherine and I had tickets. I could have left Will to his own devices, but it seemed churlish when he was taking so much trouble to get it right. Katherine was behind in her schedule to make a 50 person birthday cake and biscuits for a friend's child's birthday the next day, so we both squibbed. I do like Gregorian chant, and the guest organist would have been worth hearing, but I can’t always have it all. 

In spare moments I finished off a mending experiment, detailed in my embroidery blog and got Monday night's Osso Bucco underway.

The sun rose joyously the next morning before the cloud descended for most of the day. It’s taking a while for the silicon seal smell to go from my en-suite. I had the fan on for several hours on Sunday and both balcony doors open to get a through breeze. A flannel flower, rose and geranium block in the bathroom helped too. It was largely gone when I left for dinner at a Prayer for the Wild at Heart with an old Sydney University friend here on his way to the Flinders Ranges.  We discussed our current lives and the state of the world. Good to know we still see eye to eye on most of it.

The Osso Bucco went down well, although I overcooked the vegetables. It is so good to be part of the lives of my family.

The shipment of indigo fabric arrived at Riverlea Quilts and I visited yesterday. There was only one good match, so I bought what I needed and got to work while the Osso Bucco simmered, finishing it off today. It has been tricky.  I have been in touch with the designer, who has been generous with information about her design process. I think the tablecloth might trigger a discussion at WES next year. In the meantime, I'm delighted with the result.

Post 597 Birds, bookmarks and a couple of exhibitions

Having spent last Wednesday reading and pottering, I was about to catch a few minutes of late afternoon sun when I noticed this noisy miner perched on my western balcony rail, surveying the Square. Birds rarely visit this balcony, so I was careful not to disturb, observing from inside until it flew away.

On the eastern balcony, however, the doves are visiting most days, exploring the new plants. They seem to approve. 

I am now booked to repeat the Mexican Embroidery gig at the Guild’s General Meeting in March next year. The technology arrangement should have improved by then.

On Thursday, just before Pilates, the post brought a bracelet from the Heart Research Foundation. I have agreed to take part in a data-gathering exercise. It involves wearing a bracelet for one week to measure directional movement. I put it on straight away - exactly 12.00pm, and will take it off at the same time next Thursday  to mail it in the return envelope provided. 

After Pilates I called at the Guild to catch one of the organisers of the pre-Christmas fund-raiser, who had asked for donations of Christmas ornaments and bookmarks. I have a supply of cardboard bookmarks I have had printed. I punch holes in them, add ribbon and use them as gift tags. The recipient gets a message on the back, and can use it as a bookmark if they read in hard copy. 

I wasn’t sure if these would be acceptable  for the sale, or whether they needed to be embroidered. Turns out they are acceptable, so I’ve been busy adding ribbons or cords. I expected to have to buy ribbon, but found enough bits and pieces in my stash.  A metre or so of  complementary silk ribbon helped a lot, once I ironed out the kinks. I now have 48 bookmarks ready to hand over.  

I also finished making a Santa ornament today (detail in my embroidery blog), and have a couple of other things in mind. 

On Friday I finally got myself organised to visit the Dangerously Modern Exhibition at the Art Gallery. It is really,  really good. As I expected, it is far too much to take in in a single visit, so I settled for a 40 minute walk of the whole exhibition, reading enough to get an idea of themes and pausing when something caught my eye (a lot!). I got to the end as my sciatica kicked in, so sat for a bit in front of Stella Bowen’s fabulously evocative  Embankment Gardens c1938, thinking that this was as my father, and other young Englishmen and women must have known the Embankment when war broke out in Autumn 1939. 

There is so much of interest here. I’m pleased I bought a season ticket. Amongst my favourites were the Margaret Preston Harbour Bridge, most of the pottery and Josephine Muritz-Adam’s A Gypsy belle c1896. 

The exhibition has another 5 weeks to run and I’ll try to get back a couple more times. I bought the excellent catalogue to be better prepared, before managing to find a table to enjoy what must be the best Caesar Salad in Adelaide.

Dinner on Saturday night was rich in food and netball news. The cat community will have been kept up to date by the silent presence in the corner.

The rest of my weekend was spent shopping for ingredients for Monday’s moussaka, and cooking the same. I usually get the ragu underway on the top of the stove, then slice and bake the eggplant. When both are done, I assemble the layers in a baking dish before making the sauce - a bechamel to which are added Kefalagraviera cheese (while the sauce is still hot) and egg yolks (once the sauce is cool). I then add the sauce to the top and refrigerate.

For some 50 years I’ve made this the day before  then baked it for an hour before serving. On Sunday, however, my sharpened awareness following recent food poisoning publicity made me pause to think about the egg yolks in the sauce - the only thing uncooked in the dish. Should I really leave them uncooked overnight? A bit of checking suggested a 24 hour maximum. To be absolutely sure I changed the habit of 50 years and baked the whole dish, before refrigerated it, then reheated it for dinner on Monday. Paranoid? Probably. But not sorry.

In between the overcast skies there were a couple of brilliant sunrises. I caught one as the bats returned to  Botanic Park from their overnight feeding. 

Both were gone 10 minutes later.

August is SALA month - South Australian Living Arts, when artists display their work in shops, public spaces and anywhere there's space. The Unley Shopping Centre has turned a vacant shop into a Gallery for the duration, showing the work of Bill McSwain. It looks great - lots of native birds, some in landscapes.  Also ceramic dishes.

I've observed with interest from outside. I have no wall space left and do not want to be tempted.. 

I have another busy week coming up - hostess duty at the Guild tomorrow, a birthday dinner on Thursday, my new bathroom cupboards arriving on Saturday morning, a concert in the afternoon and dinner with a visiting friend on Sunday. Not to mention knitting. 

Carpe diem.