Post 411 To safety, sanity and solicitousness in 2022.

Last Wednesday I dashed into the city to pick up the brooch that has been with the repairer for several weeks and was finally finished. It belonged to my grandmother and is not a glamorous or expensive piece. The sparkly stones they have used do not resemble the original, which were, from memory, plastic beads in a range of primary colours. It was, however, the only option - and I rather think my grandmother would have liked it. 

The interest lies in the brooch coming apart to form two clips, 

which can be used on the corners of a square-necked dress to hold undergarments out of sight.

I don't know that I will ever use it, but I really like the concept. My grandmother had very little jewellery and am pleased to have it in working order.

This was the view down King William St, in the centre of Adelaide towards the Christmas tree in Victoria Square as I returned home. The Town Hall is on the left and the GPO clocktower on the right.

I posted last week on the anniversary of my mother's birthday. On the day my brother visited our parent's grave to place frangipani blooms from one of the successors of the tree she nurtured for 40 years. The magnolia tree on their grave has grown in the last year and is looking healthy. I'm glad he went. 

There was a flurry of noisy activity in the street in front of the building next door in the last few days before Christmas - what looked to be the extension of the NBN cabling underground and repairs to the road. It was finished and the road block removed on Christmas Eve. This is now the view from my balcony.

At street level the footpath is still blocked but the road is open and parking has, for the moment at least, improved significantly.

From across the Square the view is not too bad. 

Closer up the new buildings loom a bit, but it is, admittedly, a reasonable streetscape.

The sunset on Christmas Eve was truly glorious - I would not have been at all surprised to see angels.

It prefigured a lovely Christmas Day- calls with my brother and with Alison, most of the day at Katherine and Anthony's, relaxed, delicious food outside, amazing presents, great company.

I have a treasure trove of presents, a really lovely bird brooch, charming, vibrant earrings, a needle-keep, fabric to play with, a calendar of wonderful bird photos, a pouch of hand cream and an antique box for needle packets.

There might be more about some of these in later posts.

The public holiday's following Christmas Day have been very quiet. We have Omicron circulating in the community and  tightening restrictions. Friends are isolating and booked for tests tomorrow because they are  contacts of someone who has tested positive. Family work contacts and friends are also awaiting results. 

I've stayed home catching up on reading, embroidery and several friends and family. It's been really lovely to have long emails, phone calls and cards from so many friends and family who have taken the time to catch up.  This is a very important part of the year for me - the maintenance and strengthening of the web of connections spun over a lifetime, across circumstances, the country and the world.  I do my best to keep in touch throughout the year, but this fixed point ritual is so renewing and strengthening. Thank you to all who have participated.

There has been quite a bit of dove activity this week. I haven't manage to capture the four birds on camera, but they seem to be parents and their two offspring. Either the young birds are now muscling in on the parents' territory, or they are being taught the protocols of feeding. 

They arrive together and there is a lot of chasing around the seed and the ground space until they fly away, then one or two return. I'm sure this will end with only two birds visiting - but which generation it will be is not yet clear.

I took time out from the bag I've been working on to make this pouch for some scissors I had bought as a present. I have published details of this and other presents today in my embroidery blog. I could not write about them here without ruining the surprises.

The base of the Hearts and Roses Bag progresses.  It still has a central rose and a border to go, but I'm pleased with the progress. It is fairly slow work, much of it in a single strand of cotton, but very pleasurable. With a lot of incentive to stay at home I expect to make progress to the sides by next week - although there is the Guild Challenge to draw me away......

I've read some interesting books, watched the BBC's Road to Istanbul and Road to Rome series on pilgrimages and also the Sacred Isles of Scotland series. These are all helping to shape my thinking about historic embroidery. 

My weight loss continues slowly but steadily, 17.6 kg down as of this morning. 

Until next year.

Post 410 Christmas is Coming - Keeping Watch

It seems that Feedburner is still working, but not on the two hour window on which it is set. Last week the post was 16 hours late in going out. I will now plan for that and keep monitoring. 

I spent Wednesday recovering from my booster. I cancelled a visit to a friend's place. My arm and gland under my left arm sore, but mostly I was just tired. Around midday got a few provisions from Markets but read and rested. 

I finished the Fallahi pincushion, deciding not to put the tassels all around as  per the pattern. I didn't like the way the cushion sits with tassels on all sides. I quite like it hanging with tassels only around the bottom.

I haven't quite shaken the lethargy all week, but I was fine for Pilates and had friends around for early dinner  on Thursday. 

I cooked duck and made, for the first time in about 30 years, an orange sauce. It tasted good but was a bit thin (shouldn't have added that cup of wine!). No cornflour. It was a relaxed and renewing evening, very pleasant sitting with the balcony door open and the city lights. They brought me a lovely table centre.

The long awaited Rowan No 70 arrived in my letterbox. It has some fabulous patterns. Fortunately, summer is upon us and I have a few things to finish before I decide whether I will take the plunge.

I saw my doctor on Friday morning for my driver's licence assessment. She was, I think, a bit impatient with needing to do it. She believes I no longer need to declare epilepsy and has written as much on the form. I now need to get my optometrist to fill out the eye test and send it off.

I also took a necklace to be repaired at the Norwood bead shop. One strand had come out of the clip. I did my best to retrieve the beads but was one short. I expected to leave it and pick it up after Christmas, but the diligent proprietor repaired it there and then - took about 20 minutes and cost me $12! Brilliant.

Just after returning from Norwood I found a promo for a book that looked promising for my Goddess in Embroidery studies next year. After sourcing it online, I rang Dillon's books (back in Norwood!) to see if they had it in stock. I paid for their one copy and picked it up on Saturday morning. 

It is less useful for the Goddess than I hoped, but very useful for a couple of other projects - including the Certificate Course Christmas challenge, with its theme of 'Star'. It has really clear illustrations and diagrams. Pleased to have it.

Saturday by moonlight.

There were very delicious burgers for dinner courtesy of Anthony. The kids are enjoying their holidays.  It is, however, a very busy time for their parents.

Ali, who cleans for me once a fortnight, is from Pakistan. His father is still there, and is dying. Ali's children were born here and have never met their grandfather. The family of four are attempting to fly to Pakistan in the next week, implementing elaborate precautions to protect themselves against Covid and get back in time to isolate before school goes back in late January. Such hard decisions.

On Sunday I was a woman on a mission. I needed an item of underwear and I wanted to buy two packs of DIY Christmas BonBons from Ecolateral.  The underwear was most easily purchased from a department store in the city. Ecolateral have a large, new shop in the city although I like their original shop on Magill Rd, about 4km from me. I went into the city. I got the underwear in Myers. It took a bit longer than I expected because the helpful assistant persisted in reactivating my loyalty card (which I didn't have on me, and didn't try to us) and installing the App on my phone. Ecolateral, when I got there, had sold out of BonBon kits, but told me their Magill store still had 7 in stock! So of course, I headed out there, secured two of them and headed home to make them up.

They come with cloth wraps, tubes, jokes and snaps, but you provide your own novelty. No plastic toys. The idea is to reuse the wraps and tubes each year. Replacement snaps are promised.    I think people will enjoy them, this year, at least.

This week I selected another long-held but unstarted kit. This one is by Sue Barrows and I've had it since 2009. I did her class in Italian Smocked Silk Cushion at Beating Around the Bush that year, and she had spare kits from another of her classes, The Most Useful Needle Case Ever. I bought a kit, which has sat in my kit drawer until now. 

The smocked panel sits in a double band of silk

Inside you construct pouches in felt for needle packets. Single needles can be added to the felt near the packet. 

It then folds into a pouch.  I found a silk-covered button to hold it in place.  I don't need another one of these, but someone will like and use it. I'm delighted to have finished it!

On a roll, I have begun another old kit, this Hearts and Roses bag from Inspirations 75 - ten years ago. This one is rather more complicated. It comes with a metre of fabric and interfacing, which has to be marked up into over 20 pattern pieces. 

I've ironed and traced, marked up all pieces, attached interfacing, and begun work on the base of the bag. 

This is one of six individual hearts that form the base, surrounded by a vine border.

Now that the stitching is started, this is proving to be a most enjoyable, if fiddly, project to work on.  At the current rate of one heart per night, I might have the base finished by next week's post!

Today I had a podiatrist appointment and went from there to supermarket shopping. I'm hoping I've stocked up sufficiently to get me through the Christmas break. The less I need to go out over the holiday period the better, given the current chaos around opening borders, queues for testing and Christmas shopping.

As I recovered in my favourite chair with a glass of mineral water there was activity on the balcony. To my joy an abseiler swung down to remove the covering on my Vergola.  20 minutes later I heard them depart across the roof - like elves removing chimney covers for Santa's visit.

I'm delighted to have sky back for Christmas! It fits with the 'Star' theme for the stitching challenge.

Today was my mother's birthday. Had she lived, she'd have been 96 today. 

For all of you who follow this journey, I wish you the very best of the season - and hope you too, have plenty of sky for Christmas.

Post 408 Jacaranda Joy and Jab

For those who get this by email, the feedburner service is not posting on time and not being serviced. It posted 14 hours late last week.  I'm posting this a bit early in the hope of compensating. I'll wait for 16 hours this time before sending out manually so you don't get 2 posts.

Adelaide  jacarandas are gradually shedding purple, displaying their leaves and distinctive seed pods. I wanted to capture the last of the purple against these two stone churches, St Francis Xavier's Catholic Cathedral at the top and St Augustines Unley below. Not great photos, but an impression.

Wednesday was the last meeting of the WES Group for 2021 and in lieu of a party we had coffee during and after our meeting with a small paper bag of biscuits for each attendee. We got our 2022 program sorted and then a bit of a show and tell. This proved very interesting. Janet, our weaver, brought along her trial pieces - all scarves. 

They were extraordinarily varied and interesting.

Junette had some hand-dyed fabric from Rarotonga, 

and Lori her counted sampler of trees inspired by a range of mostly literary sources.

We had a lovely time catching up. Our next year program includes. Or Nue, Pockets, Tablet Weaving, Smocks, Rarotonga Embroidery,  Sequins, Lagartera, Anglo-Saxon and Celtic Embroidery and The Goddess in Embroidery.

On Thursday my missing parcel turned up, packed in a box twice its size and weighing next to nothing. It's the cane stand in the lower right corner - yes, identical to the other one I already had. It now holds the splendid snake plant I bought at the Guild Christmas Market, and it's companion pot (which doesn't fit in the stand!) holds the other succulent from the Market.

It's great that Australia Post got it sorted. I thanked them when at the PO today.

I spent much of the first half of the week finishing the Maria Rita Faleri Catherine de Medici design I picked up again last week.  The hem was easy but I hesitated over making the knotted tassels. 

In the end I just went for it. 240 knots in each tassel, but they are not hard to do and don't demand too much concentration. Relaxing really. 

At the moment he finished piece is draped over a cushion. While these can be used as food covers, that requires regular washing which isn't a good idea. 

I dropped some pieces into the Guild for the Certificate Course Display which goes up this week and stays up throughout January.  The promo sheets for each of this year's workshops are posted around the display board along with the tutor and student samples. Students add their pieces I needed to dig out my samples for the Icelandic workshop and then a couple of others I had attended. Barbara also wanted my Design Online Coat. I find it hard to remember what I did!

It was a very pleasant, quiet evening at Katherine's on Saturday. Her front garden is looking fabulous, repaying all their hard work. I was home and about to go to bed when I got a message to say the Federal Government has approved booster jabs at 5 rather than 6 months. I immediately searched and managed to make a booking for Tuesday at my local pharmacy. On Sunday afternoon I called in to the pharmacy to check that they had approval for the 5 month change. The pharmacist had spent the day checking and said yes, I can have it.  This solves my timing problem in January.

I'm still in the mode of finishing off smaller projects rather than moving on to the Aesop Frame which will occupy my time for several weeks. I'm now tackling the Fallahi tasselled, beaded pincushion from Inspirations 72, which I bought as a kit at the time and began. I should have checked before continuing with it. I had worked five petals, all of which I have had to undo, because the count was wrong. I no longer choose to work with 36 count linen, but I will finish this one. I really love the look of it.

On Sunday I caught up with my friend Lorraine. We haven't met for many months. She has had significant blood pressure problem, ending up in hospital twice in the last 2 months. She has lost weight but remains engaged, positive and active in her health management. She is making adjustments to her diet and seeking as much information and help as possible. It was so good to spend time with her. 

We exchanged gifts. Hers was some neck cream (she has a knack of picking key needs - I had just noticed that my weight loss is showing in my neck!) and a lovely potpourri sachet which I've hung with my woollen coat).

This week there has been a third dove competing for the seed. The first couple of days there were attempts to drive one away but by Sunday there seemed to be acceptance. I'm unsure whether two of them are young birds, or just one. The one at the back is definitely young. The one in the front is also small, but not quite as small. It is most likely the mother, but possibly a sibling. They are nervous of any movement from me.

This is now the third generation of birds that I've been documenting. Not bad for what was intended to be a three week blog!

I've made progress on Fallahi. Both sides are now embroidered. I gridded up the second side, counting over four, under four. It made me realise how much I've learned in the ten years since I purchased and began this kit. I had marked the centre lines without thought to stitch length, not realising how important it is to have guide lines with threads marked accurately. 

I do love this design, especially the fit of colour and shape.

Today I had my Pfizer booster at my local pharmacy. Pretty straight forward - form to fill out, questions, jab, wait for 15 minutes. While I was there several people came in or phoned to make vaccination appointments. It is a small pharmacy with only two staff at any time and this is clearly keeping them busy. Good to see so many people acting on the new timeline. I'm very pleased to have it done. 

Afterwards I had coffee with a friend, called at the PO to pick up a parcel and at Create in Stitch to get some memory thread for an idea I've had for the Guild's Certificate Course Christmas Challenge.

On the way I snapped a couple more jacarandas.

My eye is recovering from its Meibomian Gland Disorder. I'm still keeping up the treatments 8 times a day as instructed by my optometrist and my weight loss is 17kg as of this morning. My vaccination arm is a bit sore and I have a headache hovering. I suspect I'm going to have aches and pains for a day or two, but I'm not complaining. I may need to cancel a commitment tomorrow, but that's a call for the morning.  Deo Gratias.