Post 73: Friends, Family

A lot happened today, but not a lot that was photographable. There were a couple of exceptions.

My cleaner came again this morning at 8.30. He is the only person, other than myself, who has been inside my apartment since I returned from England. As he mops the balcony, I did not put out seed until he had gone.  The dove was waiting on the rail but flew away when I stepped outside.

Around lunchtime the magpie lark stood sentinel but did not attempt to eat the seed.







My first surprise of the day was a call from Jennifer. Her voice was soft and husky, but strong and recognisable. We talked for 27 minutes. She is tired, but looking forward to physio. She spoke of how hard the ICU staff worked to bring her through, acknowledging too, that she worked hard herself. She knows it will be a long row to hoe, but is ready for the work. I had to keep pinching myself to believe I was talking to her. She had 300 messages on her birthday! She had been in the ICU for nearly 4 weeks and the staff clapped her out.

There will be more calls.


The second surprise call was from my daughter in Adelaide, inviting me to a socially distance afternoon tea. Of course I accepted. She was in the midst of cleaning out her pantry. I caught up with the girls, who are all happy to be back at school. Most of their friends and classmates are back. Niamh and Veronica are busily planning their Spanish projects, which is to cook something, then explain to the class, in Spanish, what they made and how they did it. Cake of various kinds seems to be the order of the day.  Brigid is reasonably happy with her progress in Year 12. We caught up on lots of things.

I stopped briefly on the way home to photograph Wright Street as the leaves fall. I like the way this stretch of street shows seasonal change in Adelaide. Not all streets do.

I especially enjoy the web-like tracery at the tops of the trees as the leaves fall.


I began the reading for the writing task for my brother. It's interesting - and leading me into background enquiries. It might take longer than I thought. Today is my brother's birthday. We are catching up on Zoom tomorrow. Next year his birthday will fall on Mother's Day, as it did the year he was born.

I had intended to include something about my father's 1945 VE Day but will leave it until tomorrow. There has been quite enough excitement for today!


I have been trying to finish a project I was working on in the Guild's Basics to Beyond group. Since we won't meet for several months I decided to finish it. It is based on the work of Maria Grazia Carmina, the mother of a friend who has an Italian background. My friend graciously let me examine and document her mother's embroidery and I've been working a bag as a sampler, using a couple of her designs. This is the second side of the bag, mostly shadow work using herringbone. My sampler doesn't quite work on evenweave linen. It needs to be finer to give the curves I want.

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The fact that I'm falling asleep has nothing to do with it.