Post 369 Easter

It has been glorious weather this week. A few degrees higher than I'd prefer at times, but for the most part a lovely breeze and sunny skies. The succulents are loving it and showing their appreciation. No sign of the Noisy Miner but I did see two yellow throated honey eaters swooping over the aloe, 

The first thing I did at the beginning of this week was to get the extra blood test my doctor ordered. I drove to a different clinic because my doctor wanted the test from a different laboratory as an additional check.  I have no result as yet. My Inspirations Magazine arrived, and I did some food shopping to avoid having to do so on Thursday before the four day break. 

I had arranged to have my air conditioner serviced on Thursday morning in preparation for cooler weather. Previously I'd had my annual service at the beginning of Summer but last year I had some trouble with heating and the serviceman suggested that it would be better serviced before Winter because of the position of the unit in the carpark where pollution can collect on the point the air is drawn in for heating. Once again I found the service efficient, helpful and informative. As the temperature this week has been between 30-32C I haven't given the heating a run!

I progressed the sampler over the week - getting quite carried away, I'm afraid. This is how it ended up - as a roll to keep embroidery flat! The details are in my embroidery blog.                       

While I was shopping on Wednesday I missed a parcel delivery so picked it up from the Post office on my way to Pilates on Thursday - some winter trousers from Ezibuy. After Pilates I called at North Adelaide Village, Metropolitan Fresh still had nectarines, which have disappeared now from most other greengrocers. I explored Romeos Organic Wholefoods shop and managed to find ecycled paper hand-towel  - I had finally run out - as well as some fabulous chocolate with honeycomb. 

When I got home there was another parcel in the letterbox - the Madagascan silk I had ordered from Dale Rollerson. 

This is treasure -  small pieces of different kinds of wild silk tor a friend and I to play with in the hope it will be of interest to the World Embroidery Study Group next year.

There was also a card to say I'd missed another delivery - to be picked up at the large PO Pick-up Centre in the CBD. When I called there on Tuesday the two women on duty did a fabulous job of data mining, working out it was the parcel I'd already picked up last week. Contractor error. 

On Friday, before going to Katherine's place for some of her delicious home-made hot cross buns (photo courtesy of Katherine),  I worked again on my family tree in response to emails waiting for me when I woke up from my fellow researcher in England. 

It's looking more and more as if my maternal grandmother's eldest sister had a different mother (and possibly father) to her siblings and that her very distinctive name came from the family of her 15 year-old biological mother. We are still following leads, but it seems as if the families stayed connected over decades, and at times exchanged surnames as well as passing on first names. There are still mysteries to unravel, but we have made real progress on what has been puzzling me for decades.

First up on Easter Saturday I made the chocolate crackle nests my mother always made at Easter. She used Arctic Mints as eggs but I haven't been able to source them for years. I've even resorted to jelly beans some years. This year the best I found were coconut covered fruit balls but Katherine found some excellent speckled eggs. I added a few of the fruit balls for good measure.

For the rest of the day I stayed hunkered down with Ancestry.com but eventually put it aside to work on the Aesop wood pigeon. I was working on the pigeon herself - using the fine Renaissance wools, which require a bit more accuracy and attention than the Appletons. Today I finished this section. The white is a bit more dominant in the photo than in the real thing.

To help me with this, my dove friends visited frequently all weekend. Getting impatient for me to put out more seed, Black Tips came right up to my door and stood next to (at one point on) the seed container.

I was sitting just inside the door. Although he could not see me through the glass he knew, I'm sure, that I was there and stared pointedly. 

His partner made herself very much at home, exploring the whole space and venturing, for the first time that I am aware, on to the vertical garden, finding edible seeds in unexpected places.

I made a collage, rather than bore you with bird pictures, or waste the shots. It's in rough sequence.

Easter Sunday was Fionn's 16th birthday and I had a really lovely afternoon, late lunch for family and friends at their place. Again the weather was perfect.

Fionn is a fine, fit and considerate young man who looked after his guests. He now towers over his mother. I'm not going to put family photos in this public domain blog, but I can share his cake. He suspended his very disciplined healthy eating regime long enough to enjoy it.

It was really lovely to be able to relax outside, enjoy conversation with family friends I don't see frequently and just hang out.

A perfect way to spend Easter Sunday.

Fionn's birthday is also the anniversary of my mother's death - now 28 years ago. I don't often mention it, as it could be a bit of a burden for a young man to carry, but I see it as renewing. She would have so loved to have known him. 

I've managed to read a couple of books over the weekend. I should have been reading A Dictionary of Lost Words but instead I binged on two of Michael Campling's books.

What's more, I downloaded the fourth in the series and I'm now part way through.

I like the relationships and the setting as well as the mysteries.

Today I had a podiatrist appointment, sorted out the parcel-notification-left-in-error and visited Create in Stitch looking for DMC 12 perle cotton no.160 or 161. No luck of course. I need it to match the linen I plan to use for an upcoming class by Christine Bishop on Fisherton-de-la-mer. I'm not going to find it in Adelaide, or indeed anywhere else. I found an overdyed variegated equivalent thread I'm going to try to substitute. 

Jennifer called today from Queensland, where, in spite of the rain, the reservoirs are not yet full. She's fine and back in Adelaide on Saturday. 

In spite of the continuing warm weather, Autumn has arrived here. The leaves are falling in the streets.  Daylight saving ended on Sunday morning - an extra hour that day.  It was great to have four days of silence on the building site next door.

Here's next week's challenge!