I woke this morning, after an unusual nine hours of sleep, to a brilliant sunrise. I have finally, after more than eight years of living here, begun to sleep without the blind closed in my bedroom. Even so, I do not intend to shift my attention from sunsets to sunrises.
It's been another busy week.
Wednesday's WES Group meeting went really well, in spite of an unusual number of apologies due to illness an ill-fortune. The 10 present were engaged and interested. Margaret stepped in to help out when the Monitor was ill, and she and I managed to grab lunch together afterwards at a local hotel. A couple of people asked if they could photograph my top, and Andie sent me this one.
On Thursday before Pilates I called at the upholsterer's and asked them to quote for my chair + a cushion cover. The quote arrived on Friday. I have accepted and paid the deposit. Once they have the fabric, they will pick up the chair and begin. In the meantime The fabric I ordered to recover the dragon cushion arrived. Unfortunately, the paisleys are not identical to those on the gold fabric, so I won't be able to match the replacement as I planned. This may prove a blessing in disguise. It occurred to me that i could simply swap the dragon cushion for two dark red Mola ones I keep on the Men of Skyros chair I embroidered, a much easier solution. 
The two Mola cushions are either side of the black. The green cushion almost out of sight far left will be reworked using the cushion cover ordered in the upholstery fabric. Veronica approves, so that's it.
I now have some spare batik fabric to play with.
Because I had moved the bee cushion to a scroll frame and my Lowery stand, I took sashiko panels to Sit'nStitch on Friday and to Katherine's on Saturday. I've finished stitching my third panel and started on another.
Saturday was JEMS and also Brigid's 21st birthday. Niamh and I had our usual post-JEMS milkshakes at the Queen St Cafe and I caught up on the Year 11/12 Formal which had been on Friday night. It appears to have been a success. I am not posting photos here for privacy reasons. We had a family dinner for Brigid at PappaRich restaurant in Gouger St, followed by ice cream cake back at Kilkenny. Gouger St was closed to traffic for Chinese New Year celebrations. The street was jam-packed with people and dragons. I wish I had taken a photo, but was too focused on navigating the crowd.
Sunday morning was Book Club at my place, giving me a chance to use my birthday Sashiko runner and mats, but too busy hosting to take a photo! We had another lively discussion. I had read only one of the three recommended books, and one other in the month - most unusual. I blame the bee. In the afternoon friends recently returned from 20 years living overseas called in for coffee. We had a good 3 hour catch up.
I had managed a visit to Bunnings on Thursday, and bought a well-established Zamioculcas (left) for the last of the large pots I got last week. It should be undemanding while doing well in this spot away from direct light. I also bought another Peace Lily, to go near my Western window, but it needs protection from sun and twice daily water in the current heat. 
I usually cook on Sunday for Monday family dinner, but this week I left all the cooking till Monday and just got stuck into the needlepoint bee in the time remaining after my guests left. I finished the project at about 11.30pm and couldn't wait to construct the cushion, so did it before I went to bed. I also made a bag for it to go in, which I finished off on Monday morning. I'm very pleased with the result (as is the recipient). Details, are, of course, in my embroidery blog.
Yesterday I got the dinner (lamb shanks) going early, waited for the postman to bring me the paisley fabric and (thanks Pat) a book on The Celts ( my next WES Group obsession), before shopping for vegetables and bread for dinner and working out my next embroidery project. In spite of a temperature of 35C, Niamh still had footy training. 
I have returned to the Christine Bishop mat, begun in April last year, which has a few hours of reverse faggot stitch and a few more of button hole edge left to finish. It took me a bit of experimenting and undoing before I got into the swing of it again, but I'm progressing.
After a slow start today I got myself to Aquafit, where a stand-in instructor worked us harder than usual. Still, I was home, showered, wet things on the line and a coffee in hand (feeling smug) 35 minutes after the class finished.
The promising morning sky soon clouded over but the day still reached the threatened 32C. It was clear and still 30C after sunset when the bats arrived.
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