Post 364 Festival, books, desertion, and embroidery - a lot happens in a week!

A lot happens in a week! I found myself at a loss last Thursday, with no organiser for my day - no need to take photos or think about story. Pretty soon, however, stories began to emerge.

The Adelaide Festival of Arts is in full swing, including Writers' Week. A few friends are attending sessions but I am not venturing out to performances at the moment, although I have today taken out a subscription to morning performances of the State Theatre Company this year. 

This was Saturday night's moon, rising in time to shine on the Festival's opening outdoor concert with Jessica Mauboy.  

We currently have 5 active Covid cases in South Australia, all in hotel quarantine.

My dove friends remain active and attentive. I have a new supply of seed, courtesy of Katherine's chickens and the young pair wait patiently for me to distribute. It is usually the male who initiates. 

This morning as I was composing this, the pair arrived and waited expectantly. 

When I cautiously opened the door, she flew away, but he waited and began eating while I watched through the open door. 

The first thing I did this week was to make a book from the last 85 blog posts - the 5th volume in the print copy of a year’s blogs. The creation went well. No hitches. I put a print copy into my shopping cart, but decided to wait for a special offer before ordering it. At around $US100 delivered it's worth waiting. I did, however, order the PDF and the link duly came by email. After 3 hours, however, it had still not downloaded. Eventually I worked out that my account with Blog2Print was through my Sydney University Alumni account, and the University server was not happy with a huge file. So once again, I contacted Blog2Print with a request for a direct link, which they promptly sent. Their technical help is very good. It still took a good 10 minutes but it download it did.  I have a complete copy of the year's blogs on a USB stick to send to the National Library. I figure some future researcher may be interested.

My friend's History of the Macquarie Dictionary that I mentioned a couple of weeks ago  arrived on my Kindle as promised last week. I had read it by the weekend and reviewed it on Goodreads.  I can't tell how interesting this will be to those who did not live through those years in  Australia, but I was enthralled. It is a reminder of the world in which I grew up, where deviation from Oxford English was a source of amusement, mocking and disapproval. The scientific study of language in the last 50 years, as for many other areas of learning, has transformed what we know and understand. This is yet another account of how this has happened in the Antipodes. 

I phoned Pat  when I finished. She was a bit down about some errors that had crept in during the editing process. I hadn't picked them up and presumably they will be corrected quickly for electronic printing. I have a few friends interested in reading it, so I have ordered a paperback copy that I can lend to people.  It is due for dispatch in a couple of weeks. 

I called at the Guild on both Friday and Saturday. The Exhibition entries were being received. The 200th entry came in while I was there on Friday. On Saturday I went to pick up a magazine from Margaret Adams. She had also found another article on Iceland Embroidery for me. Since then Junette has sent me a link to Jessica Grimm's review of Elsa Gudjonsson's book on Traditional Icelandic Embroidery. Thanks friends.

After my Friday visit to the Guild I went on to Mr Dishwasher to finally get my supply of powder for clothes washing. Later Jennifer called in to pick up an Inspirations magazine for her Retirement Village stitching group which is planning to make some of the Alison Snepp pouches in Issue 69.  This is the one I made in 2011 from that magazine article. I have made many since. 

After my Saturday visit to the Guild Katherine and I drove to Belair to pick up Niamh from Music camp. She's had a good time. Back at their place we had pasta with smoked salmon and apple pancakes for dinner. All delicious. At the moment there is a fruit fly outbreak in Adelaide and residents are not allowed to take raw fruit off their premises. You can preserve, cook and eat it, but the raw fruit must not be in any way distributed. Fruit trees are very common in Adelaide back yards and the crop is usually shared with friends and neighbours. Katherine has a supply of jams, pickles and frozen fruit from the plum crop and apples are now asking to be used. The quince tree is also laden. Apple pancakes were excellent but didn't make a big dent in the apples!

I've been working all week on Remembrance, the poppy brooch featured in Inspirations Magazine 109. As readers will know, I was unhappy with the colour of the silk that came with the kit and I've been working it in a much richer red.  It hasn't been plain sailing, but I finished the two brooches on Monday night. Detail about the stitching of these can be found in my embroidery blog. While I've been working on it this week, a couple of things happened to make me think about desertion in WWI. 

Both my grandfathers served in WWI. My maternal grandfather, who I knew quite well, served in France and Salonika. I have letters, postcards, newspaper articles, a book of a pantomime production by troops as well as his medals and dog tags. 

Documentation for my paternal grandfather, who I never met, was harder to obtain. A few years ago, with the help of cousins, Ancestry.com and Forces War Records, I managed to establish that he enlisted in January 1915 with the 35th Reserve Battery Royal Field Artillery, attended some training but did not turn up for deployment in March 1915. His regimental record at the end of 1915 lists him as a deserter who was owed 4 shillings and 1 penny! However, at some point, probably the same year, he  re-enlisted and was accepted in the  Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex) Regiment where he became a Sergeant and served in France until the end of the War. There is a photograph and medal records which confirm family testimony to this.  He suffered for the rest of his life from lung damage as the result of being gassed in France.  

Those who deserted or absconded in England were listed in Police Gazettes and pursued by the police. There are family stories of him hiding from police under the stairs. I have not been able to find an original Police Gazette listing for his absconding, but this week I received notice of two entries in the Police Gazette 1915-1917 for a deserter of the same name who "has rejoined and is not to be apprehended". Neither recruitment number given matches my grandfather's, but it is interesting to see that such notices were posted - and that re-enlistment was not  uncommon. Regiments did their own recruiting in  WWI, setting up a recruitment post in a main street. I suspect some men enlisted, then found their mates had signed up to a different regiment and decided to swap. There was, of course, no direct communication between regiments, and no way of sharing records.

Coincidentally, I read a mystery this week, set in Devon which hinged on a related circumstance in WWI. It's quite a short book by a contemporary writer. I can't discuss the plot without spoiling it. I really enjoyed it and found it moving - partly, I think because of the Poppy and Police Gazette.  I could guess where the plot was going, but that mattered little. It is a powerful story and part of an ongoing one that needs to be told continuously in all its aspects - lest we forget.

I'm going to read more by this author.

After I finished reading this, I spent the rest of Sunday cooking moussaka for Monday dinner, even though it will be a small gathering. The girls' school had an open evening for prospective students and their parents from 6pm-8pm on Monday and all three girls have been recruited to conduct people around. Fionn went home to catch up on his exercise program, so Katherine, Anthony and I had a pleasant, quiet meal and shared out the left-overs.  

The next-door building scaffold remains where it was a week ago. There has been a lot of activity on the  site, but I can no longer see what is going on - no bad thing!  I caught it in the sunset on purpose on Friday. I can, for the most part, choose whether I look at it or not.

Finally, Nelly Ivanova organised for her mother-in-law, Vala Georgieva, to send me a 2 minute video talking about her embroidery. I was taken by surprise and  moved.  

She talks to the camera and Nelly has added a translation in text. So fantastic.  She talks of her membership of a Guild, and their work to preserve Bulgarian embroidery traditions. 

She has also send photos of some of her embroidery which I can use in my presentation to the WES Group. This is one of my initial favourites in that collection.

What a privilege to be able to share across countries and language - even during a pandemic!

When I was planning to shift to weekly posts, Tuesday was my first choice of day. I don't have regular commitments on Tuesday. The first Tuesday (today), however, I had a late afternoon appointment for another major dental procedure involving multiple injections. I wasn't sure how I'd feel afterwards. As it happened, I got the blog well prepared in advance, and the procedure has gone smoothly (14 injections this time!). It seems I have a genetic tendency to gum disease and to thick saliva which holds on to plaque. My very best cleaning routines will always, it seems, be defeated by genetics! So I now have a course of antibiotics, 3 monthly hygienist appointments and an annual periodontist appointment!

The good news is, two hours later, though my jaw is a bit tender, I have recovered from the anaesthetics and can now have a coffee! On the strength of that I plan to post this tonight, and continue posting on Tuesdays where possible. 

Till next week.