Post 451 Stepping up

This week I've made a bit of an effort to walk. It has worked quite well until the rain set in again today. I won't call it a triumph - or even a breakthrough - but I have resurrected my step-count app and doubled the average number of steps taken over the last few months.     

                        

Some of the credit goes to the wetlands, which I really enjoy. There is new growth (and maybe a bit of mistletoe) appearing and several species of waterbird. 

On Wednesday I paid another visit to Sandy's 100 Year Climate Project which was taken down on Friday. It was good to see it mounted, because visitors could get quite close and see the detail of the stitching.

Hopefully it will not be in storage long before being able to tour more widely.

I got to Grange twice this week. The main event was Sunday lunch with visitors from NSW. It was a long weekend here and almost no cafes or restaurants were open in the city. I had been unable to book a table at my go-to choice of the  Jetty Cafe but managed to secure a table at the Grange Hotel. 

On Friday, on a whim, I went early to Grange for Sit'nStitch with a view to walking a bit and eating at the Jetty Cafe. Out of luck. The cafe was full to overflowing, so I walked a bit and tried the Hotel. 

Not only was it good, but staff went to lengths to get my meal and account quickly so I could get away on time. On Sunday they were just as helpful.

I had the same thing to eat both times - Salt and Pepper Lemon Squid. I suspect the Jetty Cafe has lost a customer. On Sunday we spent 2 uninterrupted hours enjoying a leisurely meal and catching up in most pleasant surroundings before I dropped my friends at Henley Beach for their next appointment. 

I look forward to more meals there.   

On a far more mundane note, I had the sheet I mended last week back on my bed for two nights before it split again, parallel to the mend. I surrender. I washed it, cut it in two along the tear, opened out the corners and stored it to use as backing for embroidery projects. 

However, to keep my mending skills honed, I glued a broken handle back on to one of my favourite mugs. To honour imperfection - I painted the repair with gold paint (a nod to Japanese Kintsugi). The effect is more golden than the photo shows. I haven't tried coffee in it yet! 

Some paper fold-out Christmas decorations I ordered from Welcome to Country, a First Nations social enterprise,  arrived last week. Most of them are beautiful fold-out balls. I have always loved these paper fold-outs and these are superbe. I ordered two stars as well. Both feature art work depicting the Seven Sisters story. The gold one, in particular is so lovely I haven't taken it down.

I bought the balls as Christmas presents, but I'm not sure I will part with them!

The second package from Pascal Jaouen arrived. I knew it was coming today so, in spite of the wet and windy weather, went downstairs to wait for the postman. I had a two hour delivery window, and know the post usually comes in the middle of that, so I got in my steps walking around the Square where I could see the postman's approach. 

The bad news is that it included Glazig Catalogue No.1 when I had ordered Catalogue 2! I had ordered No1 from Amazon, assuming it was in Australia, but it seems to have been sitting at Heathrow for a couple of weeks. I have boldly constructed an email to the Pascal Jaouen people in my schoolgirl French to ask them to rectify.

The good news is the patterns are exciting, the threads lovely and the cards very, very clear and useful. 

Once I had the delivery, I dashed off to Unley to post a finished shawl to a friend - update coming in my embroidery blog soon- and to buy milk. The weather is unpleasant - gusty winds and rain squalls. 

I'm now on to my brother's vest. I knitted a couple of samples to get the gauge right. The pattern has a 13 cm chest difference between sizes and my brother falls between two. I was trying to solve the problem by needle size, but after knitting the samples, decided I can more reliably  adjust the number of stitches.

Interestingly, the samples both have a slant on them, which I am rectifying by knitting into the back of stitches on the purl rows. This works while I am on the rib but won't work when I am knitting stocking stitch in the round. Cross that one when I get to it.

A couple of interesting sunset skies during the week, but too much cloud cover tonight - and for the rest of this week according to the forecast.

These will have to keep me inspired. It's school holidays, so no dinners to be prepared. A mixed blessing.

I got the results of my eye biopsy on Saturday - all clear! Now that is a blessing.