Post 122 Family, Books, Birds

There was an email from my brother this morning with this link to a bit more information about the Noisy Miner. Genevieve was trying to find out more about it and may be interested.

One came down to my wall garden this morning to sample the Aeonium flower. They are nectar eating but I'm not sure if this provided much. The miner didn't stay long, but I was lucky enough to be able to capture it with my phone.

They are not the sharpest photos, but still good enough.






Fortunately, the doves were not around at the time. They had come, eaten and gone long before.

Books
This morning's email brought a newsletter from the Sydney Girls' High School Old Girls Union, my alma mater.  Amongst news of the school's management of learning during the pandemic were reviews of four recent books that focus on, or feature, Old Girls of the school. It caught my interest,  in terms of  biography and history of women.  I managed to find and order copies of all of them. I do most of my reading on a Kindle, Kobo or iPad from choice, but I thought friends might be interested in reading some of these and it is easier to loan hard copies, so order those.

Skip the following reviews if you are not interested. They are from the newsletter mentioned above. I knew something of 'Mrs Mac' and Louisa Mack, but not Zora Cross or Claire Weekes. I will be happy to loan the books when I have read them. If anyone overseas is interested, all of the books are available in electronic form. The years in brackets indicate the year of graduation from the school.

Reviews
“The Shelf Life of Zora Cross” by Cathy Perkins, Monash, 2020. Australian poet and journalist Zora Cross (1908) caused a sensation in 1917 with her book “Songs of Love and Life”. Here was a woman who looked like a Sunday school teacher, celebrating sexual passion in a provocative series of sonnets. She was hailed as a genius, but her fame did not last. She is described, however, as a key personality of Australia’s literary world in the early twentieth century. In this book the author reveals the life of a neglected writer and intriguing person. 

“The Woman who Cracked the Anxiety Code: the extraordinary life of Dr Claire Weekes” by Judith Hoare, Scribe, 2019. The true story of the little-known mental health pioneer who revolutionized how we see the defining problem of our era: anxiety. Claire Weekes (1921) was the first woman to earn a Doctor of Science degree at the University of Sydney before embarking on a career in medicine. She was dismissed as underqualified and too populist by the psychiatric establishment, but she developed a practical treatment for anxiety – now seen, 30 years after her death, as state of the art. 

“The Secret Code-Breakers of Central Bureau: how Australia’s signals intelligence network helped win the Pacific War” by David Dufty, Scribe, 2017. Central Bureau was the Australian equivalent of the UK’s major code-breaking operation Bletchley Park. With the armed forces stretched to the limit, there were severe shortages in specialised skills, particularly signals. In late 1940, the navy had placed an advertisement calling for anyone proficient in Morse to apply to the navy. Florence Violet McKenzie (Wallace, 1909), known as “Mrs Mac”, informed them that she had established an organisation called the Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps, and had trained 1,200 women in Morse. She was pleased to offer the services of these women to the navy.

 “Australian Women War Reporters: Boer War to Vietnam” by Jeannine Baker, Newsouth, 2015 This include  s a section on Louise Mack (1888), who was a contemporary of Ethel Turner. Mack was living in London at the time and, just after the outbreak of war in August 1914, persuaded a newspaper editor to send her to Belgium. The first published memoir of war corresponding by an Australian women journalist was the purportedly eyewitness account of the German invasion of Belgium and the fall of Antwerp in 1914 by Louise Mack. 




Plant Progress

After the Noisy Miner had departed I had a close look at the flowers in my wall garden.

The two I have been following are moving closer to full bloom. I wonder if they will be of interest to the Noisy Miner.



There are also some long roots reaching from another Aeonium,
I presume these are looking for soil but I haven't found anything that tells me this for sure..

I had dinner at Katherine's tonight, two kinds of lamb barbecued by Anthony, with roast vegetables and broccoli. A treat.  Fionn is nursing a toe injured in a football game, hoping it will be recovered sufficiently for him to play again tomorrow.









Embroidery
Most of my embroidery today has been on the owl, which is more portable than the crewel Orange. I'm still thinking of colouring the other side of the bag with the Derwent fabric pencils I bought a couple of years ago in Keswick.


But I need to finish the embroidery first.

Post 121: Pilates and Sit'nStitch.

I was able to predict that the Noisy Miner was around this morning by the stance of the doves. I was watching them both eating seeds on the balcony this morning when they both paused and played statues. They kept the position long enough for me to take a photo. About a minute after, the Miner swooped towards the balcony rail and the doves took off, underneath the Miner and away.

They were back in about 20 minutes to finish the food, but most of the time one of them was keeping watch across the trees.

I couldn't watch forever, so left for Pilates.

My Pilates Studio has done everything possible to manage Corona Virus well. There is less equipment on the floor and it is well-spaced. It is also frequently disinfected. Equipment classes have only 3 -4 students and only one class is there at a time.

I am slowly regaining ground lost by my three month absence. There are three in my class and Martine is a really good instructor. She is very specific about the point of each exercise for each individual.






The Studio also has a very lovely and productive garden. It's looking great at the moment - but then, it usually does.


















From Pilates I went on to a friend's place to resume out Sit'n Stitch sessions. It is just Jennifer, Susan (whose place it is) and I. This time we had a lot to catch up on, and to celebrate Jennifer's return to Sit'n Stitch, Susan prepared a delicious minestrone-type soup, bread, cheeses and baked a fruit cake which she iced. We didn't get a huge amount of stitching done - there was too much to talk about.

I did take a photo of Jennifer and Susan examining the amazing and huge blanket that Susan had knitted. but it was vetoed by the two stars, who didn't like the way they looked.

Jennifer is doing well - still gets very tired and has lost much of the muscle gain she made after her two knee operations last year. She has a physio program which she's sticking to. There is much of her time in ICU which she can't remember

I got home not long before sunset. It was pretty grey but got interesting just as the sun went down.














I love the way the clouds seem to open up a little at sunset.











Tonight I started the reverse Muncaster Orange. This is going to be a great joy to stitch- and a lot of fun.

It has been quite a busy week, with something on every day - all within my little bubble. It will be good to maintain this for several months. I think it is now 30 days that South Australia has been Covid-free, but tomorrow there are two planes arriving with locals returning from other countries. They will go into 14 day quarantine but it is expected that a number will test positive for Covid19.

The current word from a couple of the responsible Ministers is that we will not resume overseas travel until there is vaccine for Covid 19. If pushed for a timeline, the officials indicate overseas travel is at least 12 months away for us. At the moment that's fine by me - but it isn't for the 6000 employees that Qantas is about to make redundant. That's in addition to those who are stood down, with no idea when they will resume work.

As a country we are weathering this quite well - but the cost to many, many individuals is enormous. 

Post 120 : Birds at sunrise

Since I had a 9 am dental appointment this morning, I was up in time to see the sunrise. The colour made it worth taking a photo. When I looked closely at this photo, I noticed two birds on the leafless trees in the centre.

This sent me for my SLR and telephoto lens in the hope of getting a better view of those birds.













They were too far away to get a close-up, but I did get a couple of  photos I really like. They were Crimson Rosellas.





I managed to get to the dentist on time (just).This was my regular six-month check up and clean. Between them, my dentist and hygienist found a deep receding gum point that might indicate  a crack in a root canal. They took two Xrays and found no crack, so no action to be taken. I will, however, see the hygienist in three months time instead of six.





When I got home Myrtle and Turtle were waiting expectantly for their seed. Myrtle still flies away when I open the door to broadcast it, but Turtle stays and begins eating before I close the door.

This morning there was an email from Geneviève with news from Brussels prompted by yesterday’s blog update on Junette’s contribution to the Australian Quaker Tapestry project.

Genevieve is working on a tapestry of the medieval epic love poem known in English as Floris and Blanchflower to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the Flemish version of that poem ( Floris ende Blancefloer).

There are medieval versions of the poem in 13 Western European languages. It was written in French 850 years ago.  I recall something of the poem from my university studies in Early English Literature and Language. The English version was recorded around 1250AD.  The tapestry is an ambitious 100 metres long by 90cm.  The website says it will have 85 panels,  You can read more of the the project  at http://www.tapijtvanassenede.be/english%20version.html.

Geneviève is working on a panel dealing with the persecution of the young lovers. She is working on the column at the right. The figure in relief is the executioner holding a torch. Genevieve will embroider  the executioner’s vest and the torch as well as clouds and a bird. I have only shown a small part, to maintain copyright while giving a bit of an idea.

This is another exciting project and will interest medieval scholars as well as stitchers. 

I had lunch with two friends at Mr Nick's at Frewville. It was very pleasant, both the meal and the company.


The deciduous trees are now almost bare, just the last leaves hanging on.

The girls were here after school. Their family car was being serviced and Niamh and Veronica needed to do their choir practice by Zoom so it was easier if they did it here. It's always great to see them.

I've done a little bit of embroidery today and set my hoop up ready to begin the reverse Muncaster Orange.

Post 119 : catching up

Today was Jim's birthday. He would have been 73.

I spent a couple of hours reading Peter Swanson's Rules for a Perfect Murder. It's a most interesting book, drawing on some traditions of classic crime fiction and undermining the reader's trust in both perception and detection. It's far more Patricia Highsmith than Agatha Christie.

Before the doves came and devoured their somewhat soggy seed, the Noisy Miner put in an appearance, this time descending briefly to the balcony floor to examine - but not eat the seed. It's the first time he(?) has to my knowledge done that. He soon went back to his surveillance position on the rail before taking off.







I spent a couple of hours this afternoon visiting Junette in Collinswood. It was a joy to catch up. Junette was in New Zealand at roughly the same time as I was in England this year. Her garden is looking great and she has a wonderful vase of tulips in her dining room.  There was a lot to catch up on.

I was able to see the Quaker panel that she worked on , part of which I showed in Post 85. The whole panel is fabulous close up.

I have borrowed the book published last year about the tapestry and the women who are working it. I haven't read it yet, but it looks really interesting. I will report in due course.

Driving home I was struck by the contrast in Adelaide city.  On the one hand, there are high-rise and cranes - although not always a lot of movement.

On the other hand there are more surviving colonial buildings than in many Australian cities, because there was so little timber available for building, and most buildings were stone, or eventually, brick from the brickworks that grew up around pug holes. It makes for interesting juxtaposioning.


Back at home I checked on my flowering cacti. The yellow group are opening up in slowly and elegantly.




The aloe has opened even more, but there are still unopened buds. Interestingly, the Noisy Miner does not seem to be interested in the yellow flowers. The only red flowers I have at the moment are geraniums - in which the Miner is manifestly uninterested. 









The cranes are evident again at sunset.

I have very little progress to show on my embroidery today - not worth showing.  I hope to have more to show tomorrow, in between a 9.00 am dental appointment ( how did I agree to that?) and lunch at Mr Nick"s.

I am still being very cautious, only going to places where I know the distancing and cleaning rules are being followed.

I'm grateful nevertheless to have  had the chance to visit a friend today and to enjoy a little of the Adelaide environment.

Post 118 Getting Organised

I had given a lot of thought over the last couple of days to buying a box of face masks. It has not been recommended that we wear them in Australia unless we work in Health, or are attending a large gathering. South Australia has had 440 cases of Covid19  diagnosed since the pandemic began. 4 of those have died. We have had no known cases in the State for 28 days. We still have a 4 square metre rule for all spaces, particularly restaurants, pubs and events. From next Monday this will be reduced to 2 square metres. Victoria has had a number of clusters developing, particularly around families who have held large gatherings in their homes.

Should something similar develop here in SA we could see a requirement that we wear masks in crowded situations. I wanted to be prepared, so this morning I made a trip to OfficeWorks, which now has a supply of St John's disposable masks. I also took about a ream and a half of paper to be shredded.

I was also looking for a document holder for my metallic threads.I have one for my perle 8 and 12 cottons. One advantage is how easily they are seen.

I have a number of document holders with stationery in them, but all occupied.








At OfficeWorks I bought my box of masks, deposited my shredding, and looked at document boxes. The best I could do was a coloured on, about half the thickness of those I already have.

I went on to Frewville to get some supplies for the girls coming this afternoon for a couple of hours before Netball practice.

At home again, most of my metallics fitted in the new box, but at least one was too fat, so I did some reorganising, moving pencils from an existing document holder to the thin one, moving the perle cottons to the larger stationery one, and the metallics into the one that held the perle.



This occupied a bit of my time. It's a good outcome - and I probably should do another big clear-out of the stationery cupboard. I have tried many thread storage solutions, but transparent boxes have proved very useful.

I have been working on another embroidery project that can't be shared at the moment, but also made time for the owl.

I almost finished one quadrant of the outer surround of the owl in those strange colours. I think it will be OK.

I got the girls to netball on time again. I don't envy them playing  - it was dark and another grey, cold, drizzly evening in Adelaide.  They, however, being, unlike me, sports women, are enthusiastic and undeterred.  Good for them. It will serve them well.

Post 117: Light and Dark

It was a grey dawn.

I awoke to a couple of emails from friends in England. Sandra is pleased that their lockdown now allows visits to grandchildren.






Christine is taking daily walks around the neighbourhood, admiring gardens. She collected this sprig of jasmine yesterday which she is drawing, with a view to embroidering as a sample for a book she made at her embroidery branch in a summer school two years ago. The class taught the book construction and some samples of embroidery to include in the pages.

It's a nice idea, and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with. It will be good to have something other than Covid stories to show for the 2020 British Summer Solstice.

There were a few moments of sunshine during the morning and the doves chose these to make their appearance. With the light on the residual rainwater, it made for interesting photographs.

I spent a bit of time reading one of the books for next month's crime book club, Rules for Perfect Murders, by Peter Swanston. It is built around an interesting concept, one which will send me off to read or reread some classic crime stories - someone imitating eight 'perfect' fictional crime murders.


I have also been playing with colours and threads for the border of the owl.

I began with green, but have ended up a very long way from there. I'm not quite sure about the gold but I think it might work. I'll know when I finish the first quarter.


















There was a little more light at the end of the day.