Post 566 Here's a hand, my trusty friend

Like Bilbo Baggins' road in The Hobbit, this blog, originally for a single journey, goes ever on. I am now in the weekly rhythm and it helps me reflect, not only on auld lang syne, but on my here and now. I try to keep both the blog and my actions on a comfortably shaded path, not unlike this one as I entered Pakapakakanthi, or Victoria Park, this morning for a walk.

It was very quiet. The usual flocks and families of birds were elsewhere, leaving a lone Rosella to forage undisturbed.

The carpenter ants, however, were busy on the native Blackthorn bushes and there were park rangers, dog walkers and a few families about. I paused for a while on a log. 

It was, I suspect, more comfortable than the elegantly carved chair that I haven't noticed before.

Back at home, the letterbox held more lovely, newsy cards and I hung out the last washing of the year, a clean start to 2025.

Christmas morning brought photos and messages from family in Canberra before I thoroughly watered plants inside and on both balconies, closing screens and blinds before heading to lunch as the temperature hit 34C.  It was a relaxed (for me at least!) and joyful time. As you can see, we ate inside, where the temperature was pleasant. Outside it reached 37C, remaining well above 30C into the night. 

This was the centrepiece for our Christmas table, carefully arranged by Niamh and Veronica for the feast of lamb, pork, potatoes, carrot, parsnip, broccolini, beetroot, eggplant, pavlova & Yule log. 

The crackers from the Leprosy Shop were (apart from paper hats, which I doubt were naturally dyed!) eco-friendly and met with approval. The ‘favours’ were wooden. A spinning dice (Yes, No, Maybe, Never) got a good run. My scoop (1 teaspoon) now has a home in my Psyllium as my morning measure).

Fionn made a stunning focaccia with a complex dip for us to enjoy while opening presents. I limit my bread, but had 3 pieces. 

Everyone enjoyed their presents. Cookbooks and cooking equipment seemed to be the most popular.

I did well with hand and lip cream, amazing earrings and a book about Vietnamese costume, which I can already see as a hit at the Guild. The bag in which they came is a lovely example of Vietnamese embroidery. Best, however, is a hat! I’d planned to buy one of these, sponsored by the cancer council, but hadn’t braved the parking at the one shop I know sells them.

Yay! I've been wearing it whenever I go outside.

I got home around 5pm, in time to watch the Together at Christmas service at Westminster Abbey, which I really enjoyed, singing along to the carols and getting teary at the stories. The temperature remained high all night and was 31C when I woke on  Boxing Day. Oddly, it cooled down around 9am, after which it was deliciously cool and overcast with occasional bursts of sun. It remained thus for a couple of days.

While most of my balcony garden has done well through the heat, the Almanda I ‘saved’ from the blackbird did not make it.

The one given to me (left of the blue pot) is thriving as is the remaining one taken from it (right of the blue pot). I shall now start another for the friend to whom I promised one.

Over the last few weeks I’ve had a bit of trouble unlocking my letterbox. I have several keys, all cut from the 2 originals given to me by the previous apartment owners. I figured there was some wear on the one I use most regularly and swapped them around. On Boxing Day not even the original I used would work. I was mildly panicked. At this time of the year my chances of getting a locksmith are diminished. I had one original untried so overnight devised Plan A and B. On Friday morning I went downstairs armed with all keys, pen, paper and a large tape dispenser. Plan B involved taping over the letterbox slot with a note to take mail to the PO. 

After a couple of failures, the original key opened it. I have now locked it open. Whew! I can get mail! Yes, anyone else with access to our apartments can open it.  That’s a risk I can live with, unlike the risk of not getting my mail. I can now work out with our Strata rep how to get it fixed.

This slim volume arrived last week from the Book Grocer.- another one for passing around WES group. Imagine if it were stuck in my letterbox, its wrapping visible through the slot, out of reach!  

Shopping hours in South Australia over this holiday period are complex. Most businesses are closed on Christmas Day with the exception of convenience stores and a few hospitality venues. The day after Christmas Day is officially Proclamation Day, the day Governor Hindmarsh disembarked his shipload of free British settlers at Glenelg and declared a British Colony in 1836. 

In other states, this is Boxing Day. Under peculiar  and frequently amended restrictions, supermarkets are not allowed to open on this day, but other shops are, so Boxing Day sales go ahead, even though we don’t have Boxing Day! 

I did not venture to the shops until Sunday, when I replenished my butter supply and a few extras. The mince pies and Christmas puddings had disappeared, replaced by, yes, really, hot cross buns. I can only shake my head.

This is a very quiet time for me. The Guild is closed, families are on holiday and most services suspended. I take the opportunity to catch up on reading, trying to make up the gap in my Goodreads goal for the year. I began December nine books short but made up the shortfall. I am now one book ahead, having cleared up The Serpent and the Goddess, a couple by Ann Cleeves, and been captivated by new series by Abbie L Martin, set in the Adelaide Hills, beginning with The Ghost of Lilly Pilly Creek. I'm not a fan of ghostly cosy crime, but I loved these. There are four in the series. I read all four and want more!

Yesterday I took myself on a walk around the Square. The Sulphur crested cockatoos were out in force, silent for a change as they extracted seeds from the fallen pine cones. 

They shared the space peacefully with a couple of unusually coloured pigeons, while further away, in the sun, an ibis dug for insects.

I was home in time to take delivery of my order of 3 embroidery kits of Evil Eye deterrents. My WES talk on Evil Eye embroidery is not until the last quarter of 2025, but I thought I’d get started on an example or two. They look like fun. 

                                                       

It’s also a spur to finish the Aquile, which is coming along slowly. I'm planning to do more tonight, but can't finish it this year. It's quite challenging, and far from perfect. I hope to post the completed photo next week.

As I finished writing this, I could hear the 9pm Adelaide New Year's Eve fireworks but couldn't see them. This year they are back on the river, and Calvary Hospital blocks my view. 

I can only offer the view from my balcony. The white dot high in the centre of the sky is Venus, the Evening Star, associated with harmony, love and beauty.  What more could I wish for?

Post 565 A Christmas Indulgence

I began this chronologically at the beginning of the week but reorganised it on Sunday after I spent just over an hour  exploring  Chihuly in the Botanic Gardens, a series of glass installations by Dale Chihuly with a Jam Factory retail outlet.  They were so stunning I have lengthened this post to include them. Feel free to skip any or all.

The first photo was taken in the Bicentennial Conservatory (the building in the second photo). 

The next two photos are installations in the open park. During the day visitors can wander around for free. I didn’t cover the whole park, but will return another day. It’s there until late April. At night the installations are illuminated and access is ticketed.

Coming in from the Eastern carpark, the first installation I saw was the floating balls. A small child in a stroller was yelling bubble, bubble and pointing, an excitement I saw repeated several times by various children at various works. 

The gardens are lovely anyway, but these create marvellous reflections and a sense of both the unexpected, and appropriateness. There is a wow factor, but also of yes, of course. 

There is an entry fee ($14) to the  Conservatory where the remainder of my photos were taken. Here you can get close and also view from all angles. I loved it. There are plenty of explanations and video stations, but I preferred to just take in the glass. I’d had to talk myself into making the effort on Sunday morning. So glad I did.

It was a good day for it, only 25C. The conservatory closes early when the temperature is over 36C and doesn’t open at all when it’s forecast to be 40C. Even at 25C it’s pretty warm inside. I took a lot more photos, but these are my  picks. I will  venture back again on another coolish Sunday and cover what I missed, maybe with a friend.

Like the Radical Textiles exhibition, it will be a major drawcard during the Adelaide Festival in Feb/March. Not to be missed if you are here.

Returning to Wednesday, I almost missed my six monthly car service . As I pay for one service I usually book the next, but it seems I forgot last time. Fortunately I checked my diary and managed to get a booking for last Wednesday only a few weeks into the seventh month. As usual, I stayed for the 3 hours it took for 2 mechanics to complete the service and wash the car. I took my Aquile embroidery, my knitting and my Kobo (I wouldn’t want to run out of things to do). Another woman waiting came over to ask what I was doing. She learned dressmaking from her mother, who learned it from her mother in India. We had a discussion about sewing machines, knitting and learning.

I wasn’t at home to receive the delivery of the alpaca yarn I ordered a couple of weeks ago, so collected it from the Post Office on my way home. This is from one animal, Casper. It is a beautiful dark brown.  I’m looking forward to mixing it with the alpaca I have left  from previous projects. I haven't put it away yet: it is so lovely to look at.

I also tried to visit the Haigh's Chocolate outlet on Greenhill Road, but there are road works happening on their side road. Their carpark was full and no road parking, so I couldn't stop.

The Rita Maria Faleri Aquile is quite challenging. I undid two eagle tails while waiting for the car. I had hoped to live with the mistakes, but decided to adjust. The small sections are especially tricky. The thread is thick, and although the loose weave means holes are easy to see, it is worked in hand, and the threads move around. 

Thursday was the last Pilates class for the year. I managed to return Paul's book on Mitochondria. He, Heather and I had a lovely focused class, much cooler in the studio than outside. I had intended to have lunch at Queen St, but it was crowded, no parking and the kitchen had probably closed anyway, so I went home. 

Friday was my Crown installation - an easier process than the preparation a week ago. Clemmie explained why she hadn't used 3d printing for this. As I suspected, the older method can achieve subtleties 3d can't, and we were altering the shape of the tooth to reduce the gap between it and the next one, to help with cleaning.  She adjusted my mouthguard as a stopgap, but I have an appointment to make a new one. 

I had chosen bags for Clemmie (bluebird of happiness) and her assistant (Clementine Ford is a bit of a hero of both). Both seemed to delight, so I am very happy. I will miss Clemmie - but she will do well wherever she is, and so will her child. 

This time there was no waiting time to eat or drink. I came home via Haigh's chocolate outlet again and this time they had staff directing people to spaces in between the cement trucks and workers' vans on the side street. I managed to buy my supply of Christmas chocolate, and then stock up on groceries and alcohol-removed drink at Unley. Most of the washing I hung out around 2.30pm was dry by 6pm.

I spent an hour or so catching up with my brother on the phone. Our mother would have been 99 on Saturday. He visited her grave and took frangipani - from his potted tree grown from her enormous one where we grew up, and which provided my wedding bouquet. 

 I wore the mourning locket with the hair she was so proud of.  It seems a strangely Victorian concept. Collecting it when she died was really important to my father. I rarely wear it but it seemed important this year. 

Each day brought physical Christmas cards or letters, newsy email messages from friends and family, virtual cards and a phone call or two. I really look forward to catching up (such an evocative phrase!) but inevitably there is a sprinkling of sadness. 

The wife of a second cousin (with whom I had done a lot of family history research) died two weeks ago. There is a lot of infirmity. The joy, however, of ‘catching up’ (like today’s newsy email from friend Christine) lifts me up.

On request I took a bag of my remaining gift bags on Saturday night, where there was a lot of bag making activity happening, along with work calls, cooking, planning, eating and crosswords.

On Sunday afternoon, after Chihuly, I made gingerbread, interrupted by a long Christmas phone call. 

I thought I had checked ingredients before shopping on Friday, but I missed butter. I had 4/5 of what I needed, so topped up with margarine. I had intended to try icing them with white chocolate but, as usual, decided they don’t need icing (besides being too irregular in shape to ice easily!). The lighter ones are rolled thinner and more prone to burning, so I took them out sooner. As well as the smell of Christmas, they taste  delicious.  I tried several to make sure.

I did my final food shop yesterday. Every year I avoid Christmas Eve shopping, and every year as I manoeuvre my trolley around the crowd, I remember that everyone else thinks the same. I went with a list of 6 things and came home with two heavy bags and a box of drinks. I collared the last Pandoro in the Frewville supermarket!

Today I had a haircut in the middle of the day, travelling to the hairdresser on the city loop bus. I didn’t venture into the Markets, but it didn’t look crowded. This was the Market’s Santa seen from the bus. 

A Prayer for the Wild at Heart was still serving lunch when I got off the bus, so I indulged.  They are open, except on Public holidays, until New Year’s Eve, then closed for 2 weeks so I enjoyed the pleasant breeze, 27C and slightly changed menu.

My parcel arrived in Canberra, my packages are ready to take to lunch tomorrow (might need a small sleigh) and my candles are lit.

In the words of Tiny Tim, God Bless us, every one.

Post 564 The temperature feels a lot like Christmas

We had an enjoyable WES meeting on Wednesday, 12 of us sitting around a table spread with food and sharing what we are currently working on (or not, in a couple of cases where family illness is requiring full attention). Colleen brought along a folio of samples given to her by a batik master, showing all the stages of batik preparation. A real treasure. Colleen has an exhibition of textiles opening next Friday at the Fabrik Gallery Lobethal.

Glenys brought a mystery object. The base is hollow, a receptacle of some kind. The remaining three sections all come off separately, but are each like a lid with no connection holes for incense or insertion. There was a lot of speculation, but no concrete suggestions.

On Thursday I saw the hand therapist who brought in a surgeon to look at my myxoid cyst. We all agreed it needed operating on. We found a mutually possible day in late January but I needed a referral from my GP., whose practice wouldn’t facilitate it without my seeing him, but managed to fit me in the next day. Fortunately, I had done all the right things to avoid infection, and need to continue being careful.                                                                                                       Friday, therefore, was spent in a GP visit, followed by 95 minutes with my mouth open in the dentist chair, preparing a molar for a crown. A tedious process, but competently and carefully done. I now have a temporary crown, with the permanent one to be fitted next Friday. It seems that an hour after seeing me last week my dentist had a cancellation and I was in the front of her mind. I was very pleased to be able to make myself a coffee at 5pm, by which time the anaesthetic had worn off and the no food/drink period had passed.!  The practice rang on Saturday morning to check that I was OK. Great service.                                                                                                                    

While I’ve been working on the Rita Maria Faleri birds, a spider has been working her magic on my back balcony. I love the pattern and pictures created by these webs. Unlike me, the spider doesn't need a book (for size indication, the book is a little larger than A4).
                                                                  

I woke around 4.30am on Saturday, registered that it was time for the asteroid shower, but could tell from my bed there was too much light around to see it, so went back to sleep. I was, however, up in time to hear laughter coming from the Square.  It emanated  from this group exercising. A great early morning sound.

I spent the rest of the day at home, mostly playing with colouring a cotton bag, incorporating a couple of experiments I’ve been  wanting to try. 

It’s approaching pomegranate season and Katherine's tree is doing nicely. Such attractive fruit to welcome Veronica home from her adventure in Cambodia and Laos.

I was looking forward to the last Adelaide Chamber Singers subscription concert for the year, Resound at the Cathedral on Sunday afternoon. Although it was forecast to be 41C , I still thought I’d go. The cathedral relies on a couple of large fans at the back for cooling and the concert was one hour, with some audience singing. By the time I had watered my balcony plants I was wavering.

At 12.15 it was 38C and I saw sense. I’ve been at concerts before at the cathedral when people have had to leave because of the heat. There is also minimal shade for parking and while I love singing, the thought of the impact of all that breath in the already hot air cathedral decided me. I microwaved a couple of scones I bought on Friday, made a coffee, closed the blinds and turned on the aircon. A pity, but a no-brainer.  I read Eileen Thornton’s A Mystery in Tyneside and finished the experimental bag, 

which I shall probable give to a charity for food distribution. It's interesting and useful, but of limited success.

The heat continued with 38C on Monday and has brought the mandevilla back into bloom. I've also moved the almanda that was attacked by the blackbird back to the eastern balcony. It is struggling, and won't, I think, survive the heat on the western one. I have hidden it behind other plants in the hope the blackbird doesn't find it.

I made a quick trip to Dymocks at Unley to pick up a copy of the 2025 Guide to the Southern Hemisphere Night Sky, then get some supplies and home by 11 to bunker down and read.  I get very tired in the heat. I thought the sky guide would be useful, especially at Carrickalinga in January. Carrickalinga has met the requirements to become Australia's first International Dark Sky Community. 

There was no dark sky here in Adelaide when I went to bed last night at 11pm,  24 hours after the full moon. It would have been a good night for an outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

 I nearly put myself to sleep in the afternoon trying to read The Serpent and the Goddess which has been on my pile far too long. Very small print and lots of dense, detailed prose has put me off, but the central claim, that ancient serpent creation mythology largely either assigned or incorporated female involvement in creation but was usurped over time by patriarchal structures, is an interesting one. 

Around 6pm yesterday there was a courier delivery, this time the fascinating, populist, well-illustrated history of sail making in the UK town of Coker, the birthplace of William Dampier and T. S. Eliot. Its supremacy in sailmaking, it seems, was down to its unique process of ‘bucking’. This is easy to read, and will be of interest to WES Group.

Today the temperature dropped to 26C.  I got a lovely breeze through the apartment in preparation for cleaning. It won't last, but the 30-33C forecast for the next week is a lot better than 41.  Tomorrow my car is being serviced, and Friday will be taken up with the Crown fitting, both in airconditioned premises. The current forecast for Christmas day is 34C, so definitely no robins, snow or sleigh bells. I'm delighted, however, to have messages from friends via card, email, messenger and sms, and after significant delay from a cancelled plane, Veronica is home from the school trip to Cambodia. So deo gratias.

I think my Christmas shopping is finished.  I might make gingerbread for the Summer solstice.