On Wednesday I made a dash up to Stirling to Aptos Cruz. I had it in my head to buy a touch screen clock for Fionn’s birthday and I had decided to buy some water glasses for myself, to match the Champagne flutes I bought last month. (my best crystal water glasses did not respond well to being in the .dishwasher many years ago. While I still use the three that are left, they are cloudy.) I got both the clock and water glasses (and some wine glasses while I was about it).
Aptos Cruz is in an old church, and from the carpark I noticed a pair of Adelaide Rosellas, high on the building. I’ve not seen a pair before. They were not together but both, I imagine, within sight of their nest.
I watched until they flew away and was able to take quite a few photos from inside my car, some with the window down and some through the windscreen. The female is, of course, the one with muted colour.
The new Amanda Hampson, a sequel to The Tea Ladies was released on Thursday. I ordered a copy online from BigW at the Brickworks, hoping it would be ready to pick up on my way home from Pilates but the notice came close to closing time, so I picked it up on Friday morning and did my big supermarket shop while I was there, before heading of the The White Picket for lunch with Lorraine. The little Dulwich shopping area was abuzz. We had a good lunch and sat for a couple of hours catching up and reflecting.
It is this time of year that Adelaide comes into its own. It is sunny without being too hot. Leaves are beginning to fall, but there are a lot of blooms and verdancy. Things still need watering, but not twice a day as they did even last week. Saturday was the end of daylight saving. Turning my clocks back was easier than I anticipated, in spite of the fact that the synchronise function worked on none of them (I suspect too many changes in connectors since the clocks were made).
As it has been cooler this week, I decided to change over my quilt. Then, inspired by Fionn’s birthday present from his parents - a new bed and bed linens - I decided to change all my bed linen from the mattress cover upwards. I can’t turn the mattress myself, nor remove the valance, but everything else came off. When I got to the linen cupboard to find replacements, I decided it was time for a sort-out. All the bed linen came out. After putting on a load of washing, putting some pillow covers in to soak and a much needed cup of coffee, I sorted the linen.
Remembering a tip from my friend Pat years ago, I placed sets of bed linen in bags or pillowcases and labelled them. I now have three “Queen bed set”s, one ‘king bed sheets for spare room’ and one ‘double bed top sheet’ (don’t have a double bed, so should I keep this? Probably not.)
I found a lost king-single bottom sheet, which went to the spare room, a pretty much unused child's beach towel, set aside for charity shop. One sheet, with a note pinned on it in my handwriting " Queen sheet with 41cm removed" (I'm guessing it ripped and I cut and redeemed it, but I have only a vague memory. It is now in my stash of backing fabric). One set, bottom beige linen, top white cotton, went on the bed after the clean protectors, with the winter quilt on top.
The linen cupboard is looking good. I admit I returned 20 or so pillowcases unexamined.
I did two loads of washing in the afternoon, but left the pillow protectors to soak overnight, washing them the next day, along with one pillow. The pillow came out of the wash in fine shape, but with some strange brown goopy marks on the case. Foolishly, I put it back in the washing machine on the quick cycle. The result (including a few more of the brown goopy marks) went on the line, in hapless shape, dripping everywhere and has now, unfortunately, been consigned to landfill.
A more careful examination of my washing machine, revealed the brown goop around the door seal. Oh dear. How long since I cleaned my washing machine? Too long, it seems. I have now scrubbed the door seal and run the cleaning cycle.
Is Autumn Cleaning a thing, or have I just invented it?
In between laundry drama, I have been working solidly on my Early Women of Books project. I've been switching between reading about the women, creating a summary to turn into a booklet, and stitching their names onto the bag fabric. My Quaker stitch is coming along a treat.
After the dentist this morning, cleaning this afternoon and another false fire alarm, I finished the bag late this evening and the booklet about 5 minutes ago! It will take me a few hours to write it up in my embroidery blog and publish the booklet.
I apologise for all the jobs I have neglected while working on this over the last few days. I have been obsessed. The trial bags printed using photos are now on their way to me, so I should have the verdict by next week. To my astonishment, the bags were printed in China. I’ve ordered over 20 items from this company, all printed in Victoria. I think there should have been some explanation for sending this one off-shore. I’m very interested to see the result. Meanwhile, here is one side of the finished bag of Early Women of Books.
Tomorrow is WES Group so I had better get organised. There's also the Amanda Hampson to read.
