Post 227 Mostly domestic

I went to Unley shopping centre early (for me!) this morning to get supplies for Monday’s family meal,  more fruit, a few things Woolworths had on special and a few bottles of wine. I wanted to get there before it got busy. The day began cool but sunny and soon warmed up. The city is beginning to show its Spring colours.

Blush had visited before I went shopping, a little nervous, but strutting around a bit before confident enough to start eating seed. She returned a couple of times later in the morning until engaging in a skirmish with a dove watching her from the roof. 

The lorikeets were making noise, but the morning sky largely belonged to the doves.

While hanging out the washing I had a good look over my balcony at progress on the building site. The shadow in the lefthand photo is that of the end wall of our building. I'm curious as to what the wooden beams are for; perhaps the supports for concrete walls?

I was very pleased to see these shoots on the lemon rose geranium in my balcony wall garden. It had appeared dead and I really liked it. I'd also like to get some peppermint geranium. I had loads of it at our Hindmarsh house but didn't bring any with me. It's not a common plant in nurseries.

I spent an inordinate amount of time this afternoon trying to put together a post on my embroidery blog, summarising the embroidery I have completed since I last posted in July. I'm trying to keep that blog going with quarterly summaries for this year while this blog is consuming my time. The summary is, of course, full of photos, and the text refuses to wrap in most of them. Very frustrating. I suspect the wrapping only works if you add one photo at a time, write the appropriate text, wrap it and move on to the next photo. I usually add photos during the day, then add all the text at the end.

Dinner at Katherine and Anthony's rescued me from further experimenting. I'll try again tomorrow.

Anthony, as usual, had cooked up a storm - a magnificent barbecued leg of lamb with potatoes and lots of veg. I got a few more rows of knitting done on the shawl. It's been a bit neglected of late. 

The cheerful lilies I bought this morning were there to greet me when I got home to do a bit more on my first feather and complete this blog post.

I

Post 226 Playing with photos and grappling with text wrapping.

I suspect there is a generational transition happening in my dove world. In the last few days Myrtle has put in the odd short appearance but rain has kept most birds elsewhere. This morning I had a visit from Blush. It was a swift descent and very hurried seed consumption. Then she(?) paused, listening until another young bird descended. Blush then took on an indignant stance and chased the intruder away, on foot, then in flight. These are smaller, younger birds. 

Before long she was back, this time more confident, exploring the space more than feeding. Is she claiming it, or just free of competition? Building work was continuing next door, loud, but not disturbingly loud to me. She paid no attention. She stayed quite a while, finally settling into my plant basket, then flew away.

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Today was our Sit’n Stitch day at my friend Susan’s place at Grange. I was to pick Jennifer up at 1pm. Around 10 am she rang to say she had sniffles - either from hay fever or a mild cold - and thought, reluctantly, that she should stay away. I agreed. We have no evidence that Covid can’t be caught twice and even though we have no known community transmission in South Australia at present, we follow the rules and play safe - for everyone’s sake. Hopefully it is hay fever (the season is starting here) and she is OK.

Susan had made one of her date bar cakes, absolutely delicious with butter. Susan is working on her amazing blanket. I got a little bit of a feather done, but mostly we talked about technology. Both of us worked in IT related jobs, but staying abreast of computer-related changes is challenging for both of us

I got home in time for the lorikeet feeding frenzy. There were four on my nearest tree. They took no notice of me and my camera, so I snapped away - 85 photos in all! I then spent 2 hours editing them. 

They fed in pairs, swinging around the branch, hanging in all kinds of awkward-looking positions, occasionally flying to another branch, always avoiding each other's space.

Elements of their colour blend into the trees, 

but the red can be easily seen. There were other kinds of birds wheeling overhead, but it doesn't seem to worry the lorikeets. 

In my effort to overcome the text wrapping problem I found a YouTube video this morning that was made about a week ago, and was helpful. I got it to work on a browser on my iPad this morning and managed to insert the first two photos in this post with wrapped text. I couldn't replicate it on my laptop. 

When I came back to it this evening I had trouble on laptop and iPad. However, I seem to have got it working again after a couple of hours working with it. Hopefully it will become habitual, smooth and quick. My effort yesterday to compose in Word and copy and paste was not a success.

My blocking was dry be the end of the day. Here it is folded where it will be joined. Attaching it to the chair  will be a challenge. While the bottom line will be straight, the top line needs to be shaped to fit the panel above it.

I didn't spent a lot of time on the feathers, but this is where I am at the end of the day.

Post 225 Invisible bird thief, rabbits and feathers.

I managed today to fill out a couple of Adelaide City Council forms sent to ratepayers. I am putting off a 30 minute survey from the same. It's good that they consult. I hope they also listen. I also had confirmation of the Thursday Pilates bookings for which  I had been waitlisted . That takes me to the end of the year.   Yeh!                                                                                                

No scanning today, but the feathers are going to be a lot of fun.

Post 224 Music and Art

  

Converging Currents: Bark Paintings from Arnhem Land 

I had seen photos of Chihara Shiota's Absence embodied.  
It was something else to be in the midst of it, surrounded by fibres.

After 30C last week, today's forecast was 15C and rain. It certainly began in line with the forecast. No birds around this morning. It only made it to 14C.

I was to meet a friend at Elder Hall, in the grounds of Adelaide University on North Terrace in the CBD, at 11am to hear the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra in their lunchtime Mozart at Elder concert series.

I had intended to catch the free city loop bus. While I used this bus frequently pre-Covid, I haven't ventured on board since it resumed service a couple of months ago. This morning, in the face of the rain, the footpath being blocked off by the building work, and consideration of whether I needed to wear a mask, I hesitated. I checked out the car parking option opposite Elder Hall and discovered there was an option to book parking online for less than half the normal drive-in cost. I went with this option.

The next debate was what to wear. I settled on layers, a black skivvy, a new top, and eventually a waterproof jacket. It still felt cold, so I added the lovely soft white scarf Vivienne gave me for my birthday. It served me really well - feels fantastic and kept me toasty warm in the neck area. 

The necklace made for me by a granddaughter matched brilliantly.

The parking arrangement worked well, very easy and convenient.

This concert series has been rescheduled because of Covid. To socially distance the audience on a chequerboard pattern, we were offered either a morning or afternoon performance. This is the first live concert I've been to since February and it was fantastic. I had not heard either of the first two pieces and loved them both, especially the Anton Webern.   

Carolyn and I had lunch at the Art Gallery. It was a bit odd. They are limited, under their Covid Safe Plan, to 20 chairs in the cafe. Staff had to juggle with other tables to find our second chair. We were also told we'd need to leave before we had coffee because someone was waiting for the table, but that was not enforced when someone else left and freed a table.  We were just happy to be able to catch up safely. 

After our lunch I visited two of the exhibitions, both spectacular. The Bark Paintings are from the permanent collection, and well curated.  Really interesting.

It's still cold and raining, but today's excursion warmed the cockles of my heart, as my mother would have said.

I have spent the evening on the last section of the second Rabbits panel. There are a few bits to finish, but it's getting close. It will be very exciting to block the two panels and put them together. Tomorrow.

Post 223 Mostly fabric

Today's focus was on an afternoon helping Brigid to turn one of her school uniforms into an outfit for  her end of school Celebration Day. This is, apparently a tradition, not just at her school, but at many girls' schools in Adelaide. It wasn't a tradition when I was a principal, but that, of course, was an eon ago.

I needed a pattern for her idea (which I can't reveal, but will try to post a photo on the day) and sourced one at Spotlight Melrose Park (gone are the days when you could get a full range of patterns at any fabric shop in town) so headed off around 10.00am. There were quite a few people about but all mindful of their movements and distancing. 

I've also had an idea about Christmas, and was after seersucker. No joy at Spotlight, which no longer stocks it ('old fashioned') so I visited Trish's Fabric Warehouse around the corner. Again, people were behaving well, although it is much harder to distance here because there is barely room to move. This photo is from Trish's website. I didn't think to take one today. There were maybe another 5 or 6 people there and we managed to dodge each other.

Trish came good with seersucker, though only a choice of two.  As she said herself, they are not the most exciting colours, but I accept the challenge! More on this later.

From Trish's I called at Create in Stitch for a few more skeins of Appleton's wools. I've been working with what I have for the Rabbits at Dawn, which is working quite well, but I have four of them to do, and want a bit of colour variation in my greens in particular.

There was a group there stitching with Di Kirshner - so good to see women sitting, well distanced, relaxed and sharing. 

Brigid and I had a bit of fun creating her Celebration  outfit. She had a clear idea of what she wanted, which always helps.  I look forward to sharing the results when the day comes. 

Tonight I finished most of the second hoop of my second Rabbits at Dawn. 

It is good to have a few more choices of shades of green from my purchases today.

I have moved the hoop on to the last bit - an extension so the piece will reach to the edge of the seat of the chair.

I'm conscious that some who read this blog are not able to do some of the things I am able to do - like visiting shops or a friend's home, or having lunch at a cafe or restaurant. We are very fortunate here in South Australia. We do live with restrictions, and I, and most people I know (who, other than family, tend to be in my age group) are cautious and very restrained in where we go and what we do. We think carefully about every activity, every trip outside our doors. 

I had an email a few days ago from my friend Sandra in Manchester saying that reading of my freedoms gave her hope. This is a huge relief to me. I would hate to appear to be blasé about it . I take nothing for granted and evaluate very carefully where I go and when. I am, however, grateful, for all I have - especially my friends in many places and over many years. Even in isolation those friendships keep me sane and grounded.

Post 222 Mostly related to scanning

This afternoon there was plenty of bird noise at the back of the apartment, but no bird in sight. I think the birds are revelling in the bloom on the various trees, especially the red bottlebrush in the centre of the photo. I did see a Noisy Miner visit my balcony first thing this morning, perhaps looking for the bloom on the aloe. It didn't stay. The aloe flower hasn't amounted to much.

Once the Miner had gone, a fairly plump Turtle arrived and strutted around looking for seed. He flew off before I opened the door, but waited on the roof, watching me. Once I was inside he returned and had a feed.

He paused every now and then but didn't seem nervous. I realised there was a lorikeet feeding in the tree behind him - you can just see the flash of red and yellow.

I spent much of the day removing photos from albums - two today. One, an album of a family visit to Bali around 1989, was easy. The photos lifted out relatively cleanly and scanned easily. The second album, recording a visit Jim and I made to Lombok and Bali in the early 1990s, was more difficult. The photos were harder to remove, and emerged with residual paper and glue on the back. This needs  to be removed as far as possible so the photos don't jam in the scanner. It is also not good to shed bits into the scanner. It's a messy process, leaving bits all over me, the floor and any other surface nearby.

It took me several hours to get the photos clean and into the scanner. The scanner also lost its wifi connection a couple of times, resulting in my needing to rescan a few batches.  Nevertheless, the job is now done. I have two more empty albums, around another 300 photos scanned and stored in archive boxes.  Unfortunately, of course, I have tackled the easier albums first, so I can expect more complications as I go on.

I did manage a bit of embroidery and moved my hoop to start a new section in the morning.

 

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Post 221 Birds, Rabbits and a lost hour.

The day began fairly bright and sunny and, as forecast, became overcast and threatened rain in the early afternoon. It was also our daylight saving commencement morning, so I dutifully tried to adjust myself and the four timepieces that don't automatically adjust.

I could hear doves calling, so sprinkled a little of the seeds I had cadged from my daughter's chickens last night. To my astonishment, when I returned from preparing my breakfast there was a dove sitting on the tiles of my balcony. I have never seen this behaviour before. I had the door open and only the fly screen between me and the balcony so proceeded very cautiously. I managed to take a photo before she (I'm pretty sure it was Myrtle) flew away. Some of the seed was gone, but by no means all.


It turned out to be a good bird day. I did some washing and hung it out before heading off to North Adelaide to get some milk and a bit more fruit. By the time I returned it was overcast with a few drops of rain, so I checked on the washing.

 The lorikeets were out in force, screeching and wheeling, except for one who was tucking into something on my nearest  tree.

I can't, I'm afraid, resist photographing these birds. I spent so many years trying unsuccessfully to capture birds in photos from the ground. The opportunity presented by being almost on their level is too good for me to miss.

It is such a privilege to see them like this. As I write this I am holding my breath. The text and the photos seem to be going where I want them!

It's not all smooth sailing though. I usually load photos from my phone or iPad, then add text on my laptop. Synchronising the two has just resulted in a doubling, instead of an updating of the post!

Still, three cheers for the Blogger developers who do seem to be listening to feedback and trying to fix.

I spent much of the afternoon finishing Rabbits at Dawn. I really loved doing this last section. It was large enough to get a good run on blending threads.


This is, of course, the first of four of these panels destined to go along the front of my Crewel chair.

I couldn't wait to try it out.








This is a very crude placement. It will need to be carefully appliqued by hand, to blend with the hillocks above.

I'm hoping to match the next panel up with it to form a single border of rabbits. I think I might need to add an extra bit of hillock and another rabbit.  Exciting.

While I was testing this out, I noticed a young dove, Blush, I think,  arrive, explore a bit and test the remaining seed. The rain was beginning in earnest, so probably a good time to visit without being chased away.

I managed to finish scanning the album of my 1995 visit to the USA. 245 photos scanned relatively easily and the photos filed in the 1990s archive box. So interesting to be reminded of the schools I visited.  The children whose learning I observed would now be between 35 and 40.




I have made a start on the next panel of rabbits, hoping to be able to match this edge to the end of the finished one. It is now raining steadily and the temperature has dropped a bit.

I'm pleased with my day. I haven't really noticed the missing hour!