This was a week of things going awry, or worse. My cousin Christine, in Gloucestershire England, died overnight on Saturday. I have 8 cousins, 6 in England and 2 in Australia. My brother and I are older than our English cousins, followed by Christine. She was hospitable and welcoming to me, and to our parents when they were alive and visiting England regularly. She was a great Elvis fan -:so pleased she got to visit Gracelands in 2019. I am sad, and thinking of her family as well as the times I spent with her, the last when she and her husband generously drove me to Marsh Gibbon in search of family history in 2020.
The rest of my news seems trivial in comparison, but some of it isn’t. I had invited friends to lunch on Sunday, but one of them was taken to hospital in the early hours of Saturday and operated on a few hours later. He is now home recovering and still planning to go on the cruise he has booked leaving next Monday.
Wednesday should have been an adventure, my first day of being the Day Hostess (!!) at the Guild - a volunteer available to answer queries, show visitors around and help out our part-time employee. She, however, was ill. As there were no groups booked to use the premises a decision was taken to close for the day.
I used the unexpected free time to visit Kmart, drop some items off to a friend and call at the Jam Factory to view their Mother's Day collection. At Kmart I bought more drawer organisers. At the Jam Factory I bought myself yet another mug. I like this a lot. The base is slightly larger than the rim so it holds heat fairly well, and the glaze is lovely. I tried it out later in the afternoon, on the front balcony in the sun, surrounded by plants, knitting.
Thursday morning was the annual service of my airconditioner. It hasn't been used a lot this summer and all is well. I discovered, however, as the serviceman was cleaning the filter, that I have for years neglected to clean the vent over the filter. I'm ashamed to say it was really dirty. It was a bit like cleaning venetian blinds, a job I had as a child, necessitating checking every angle. The serviceman (and I!) finished around 11.30am, in plenty of time for me to get to Pilates.
This tree (left) is on the street outside the practice, which, unfortunately, had run out of Shingles vaccine. My GP, had she not retired, would have called me to let me know.
The stand-in GP was apologetic, thorough and pleasant. so I had my flu shot and made an appointment in a month's time for the Shingles shot. That's within the allowable effectiveness period and will work well with blood tests and a specialist appointment I have scheduled, so all's well. I left quite happy.
That afternoon Pat's Early Women of the Book bag arrived in Sydney and brought her pleasure. A second one is winging its way to Robin.As well as a cancelled lunch on Sunday, Monday dinner was a nonstarter because it was parent-teacher night at the girls’ school between 6pm and 8 pm. I got early warning of this, so only bought 4 chicken Marylands for (the now aborted) Sunday lunch, instead of the 12 I had planned to buy when including Monday.
With lots of freed up time, I plunged into reorganising drawers using my Kmart purchases. First priority was my scarf/shawl drawer, which presented quite a challenge. Success! (yes, the left side of the drawer has two layers).
The bigger challenge, however, were my drawers of fabric! That took quite a while. Without organisers, the drawers take more fabric but I can now see what is there without rummaging. I did some sorting and threw a little bit away.
As well as the drawers, which mostly hold lengths of fabric I have bought, I had several tubs of fabric scraps in varying sizes, mostly left over fabric from things I have made, or, from 1986 to 2004, my dressmaker made for me. The tubs were roughly sorted, but a jumble. The only way to sort it out was to iron.
Of course, I underestimated the time the ironing would take -about 8 hours over Saturday and Sunday in between helping out at JEMS and dinner at Kilkenny.The tubs however, are sorted - one patterned cottons, one plain cottons, one ginghams, one silks and one satin lining fabrics - lots of the last thanks to the dressmaker I once had. I also have a few more pieces set aside to make gift bags and a few for embellishments.
As well as being able to see what is there, I have refreshed my memory - including the memory (or absence of memory!) of clothes long gone. There were moments of sadness, but overall gratitude for all the joy of making, wearing and sharing.
JEMS on Saturday was fun, a small group of creative, productive girls focused on their projects. I had to keep sitting down. My sciatica kicks in when I am on my feet for more than about 15 minutes at a time. I recovered at home with coffee before relaxing at family dinner.
I finished Paul Ceolho's Maktab and Simon Rowell’s Wild Card both of which I enjoyed. Just as Niamh was heading off to her parent-teacher evening yesterday, Fionn, unaware of cancelation, arrived for dinner, an unexpected pleasure. I had Sunday's uncooked Chicken Marylands. It was too late to bake them as planned, but I was able to pan fry two of them with potato and bokchoi -with a little bit of dismembering to ensure they cooked through. It was great to share a meal, and to have time to catch up on his uni news: so glad he came.
Today I skipped Aquafit in view of a slightly scratchy throat, tiredness and sciatica. Swimming is usually an antidote to sciatica, but oddly that doesn't hold true for Aquafit, where, even with movement, we stand in the one place. Because my cleaner was coming, I took the chance to clean the fly screen door onto to my front balcony. It was harder than I anticipated - and made a dusty mess both inside and out. I took a lot of trouble cleaning the runners and left it to the cleaner to vacuum the dust - and decided against doing the Eastern balcony screen as well today. In the meantime, as I opened a cupboard, a pyrex dish fell out and smashed all over the floor. It took a while to clean up and dispose of safely.
I am now very tired (and wondering if it is a side effect of my flu vac) but have made some knitting progress. The rows are getting shorter and I only have 20 to go before the final decreases (I'm on the back. It's looking pretty good - and long!
Vale Christine.❤️
