It has been mostly sunny during the day this week, a bit cool in the mornings and evenings but sunny spots during the day. I spent some time one afternoon sitting on the Western balcony in the sun, noting that the spider, or a descendant of the spider whose web I photographed last year, has been busy again.
I still love the web structure and gossamer.
Last Wednesday I had a ticket to see the SA Theatre Company production of The Gospel According to Keating at the Playhouse at 1Morgan1.00am. I have not subscribed for the last 3 years because of building work at the Festival Theatre Complex. There is no car park, and access is very limited. I can get there and back by bus during the day, but not at night. This year's subscription included an 11.00am performance for most plays, and distanced seating so I took a punt and booked. A week ago, restrictions were eased and the theatre opened up all seats to booking. The day before the performance I received a notification that masks must be worn for the whole performance and that the bars, restaurants and food suppliers would be closed. I decided not to go. I'm sure it was a great production and interesting play.
I'm a fan of Paul Keating, a former Prime Minister. However, the effort of getting to the theatre, through the building works, without food or drink and wearing a mask, not just in the foyer, but through the performance, was too much.
I stayed in, progressed my shawl, had a nice long phone call with my friend Vivienne in Canberra and did a bit more Viking embroidery research. This photo is of a stem-stitched warrior from the 970AD Mammen Gravesite in Denmark.
Late in the afternoon my Guild friend Margaret phoned. She was heading to the southern NSW, where she lived until a few years ago, to attend the funeral of an old friend. who had asked her years ago to sing at his funeral. I do hope it went smoothly for her and the family.
Another Guild friend has sent for an alumni library card for Flinders University so she can borrow the Margarethe Hald book to further our Viking studies. WooHoo!
The Guild has also been given a large number of books relating to World Embroidery. The surplus will be offered to the WES Group next week! More WooHoo.
At the end of last week, before Pilates, visited the Yarn Trader at Port Adelaide to pick up the book I had pre-ordered. I have moved the cover slip up on the photo to display the title fully. The slip extends about 5cm beyond the top of the book, which is about 25cmx30 cm. It has some marvellous, and quite varied shawls, in a variety of yarns, weights and difficulty. The photographs are somewhat muted in colour, very clear and often close. There's no way I would contemplate knitting one a week, but I'm sure I will try some of these.
On Saturday I took Niamh to JEMS where about 5 girls seemed to have a good time talking and stitching. We just had time to go for our usual milkshakes afterwards before getting Niamh to the Netball Stadium where Brigid was playing in the A Grade team for the first time. She played for two quarters, immediately after umpiring a game and was very happy with the quarter she played as Goal Defence. I was excited because the cafe owner had given in to my frequent requests for lime as a milkshake flavour. Made my day. Our Crime Bookclub on Sunday discussed Greg Woodland's The Night Whistler which all of us liked. It is an Australian small town mystery set in the 1960s - and felt very much as I remember those times. I didn't live in a small country town, but my brother did and I had a friend who moved to a country town as a policeman in 1968. The Night Whistler was a good story and resonated.
I also finished reading The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. I found it very interesting and engaging, though sad, especially in the context of the family history I've been doing. I have a slight discomfort with some aspects of the blending of history and fiction particularly as it relates to the contemporary. It is nevertheless very moving.
Yesterday's dinner was another traybake with potatoes, multi-coloured carrots, coloured beetroot, shallots, fennel, broccoli, capsicum, parsnips and 2kg of tiny sausages. It worked quite well for an evening with the younger girls coming after school then returning to school for parent-teacher interviews and back with their parents for dinner. I think next time I will use larger sausages. The cooking time for the vegetables, especially the potatoes, is longer than the time needed for the tiny sausages.
I was also delighted to find Bravo apples back in my greengrocer. Their season is May-September. These apples were developed in Western Australia and released to the market in 2016. They are now being grown by 80 growers around Australia. I'm not a huge raw apple eater, but these are fabulous.
I have made little progress on family history, but today a parcel of books arrived from the British National Archive. It containing a book for recording family history facts. I'm wanting to use this as part of a back-up to my online tree and to accompany the stories I intend to write. 
The two books on Viking and Anglo Saxon embroidery I had ordered a few weeks ago also arrived today. I'm quite excited about these and looking forward to reading them and learning more. I'm on a bit of a roll.
The Scheepjes wool shawl is progressing. This is not quite half the balls. I'm enjoying knitting it.
Tomorrow is my flu vac - and a drink with a friend to celebrate the completion of a long, tedious task we undertook together. Over the next week I'm hoping to make a lot more progress on the shawl and to read and write more about the Vikings. Maybe even begin to write about my grandmothers and their ancestry.
For now, it's time to finish my glass of wine.
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