Post 585 Mostly Marta and Medical.

I’m not sure what it was my camera caught in the sky over the slate roof of the old Rymill coach house on Thursday morning : perhaps it was a glitch in the glass of the window through which I took the photo; or a drone. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a UFO...

Wednesday didn’t turn out as planned. When I arrived at the Guild right on 10 am for my Desk Hostess duty, the place was still locked. I waited 10 minutes to see if the office manager was just late before making phone calls. Eventually I got hold of the President who asked me to open up as the office manager was waiting with a sick grandchild until the mother arrived, and would be late. At 11.25 the office manager sent me a message that I should go home as she was taking the child to an urgent care clinic and would not be in. I locked up and arrived home in time for a parcel delivery (Christmas presents!).

This meant I could walk the 3 blocks to my 2.30pm appointment with my orofacial pain clinician. She was hugely helpful in making sense of my recent and upcoming dental work. The pain that led to my proposed root canal work has gone, leaving me wondering whether to proceed. She removed my doubts. She also discovered I have already cracked the mouth guard I had made in January! She adjusted it a little and it should last a year, but we have made an appointment to make a new one next year, this time entirely of hardened material. Apparently a mouth guard with softer material on the inside is prone to breakage by serious biters! 

The headache-causing  tension in my shoulders has eased, but I need to find a physio.  I walked home with a lighter step.

It’s a week for medical appointments. By 10 the next morning I was staring at the stone wall of the Heritage-listed Rymill Coach House through the window of my Renal physician’s waiting room. I was interested to see the iron capping - evidence of the popular old Adelaide method of dealing with leaning walls - inserting rods through the building and periodically tightening them. Our Gawler house had them. I also photographed the slate roof,  capturing the strange object at the top of this post.

Half an hour later I left elated. All pathology readings were good, we had a helpful discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of Ozempic and I heard about progress in the astonishing  blood type conversion research in which he is involved.🙏🏼

I was sufficiently buoyed to have the lunch special at Queen St Cafe  after Pilates, slow cooked lamb shoulder with spiced sweet potato and barley, with, of course, a lime milkshake. Quite delicious, nutritious and very filling.

It gave me the energy to cut out and stitch the Mola cushion covers when I got home.

On Friday I began with a GP appointment, scheduled to discuss the renal results from the day before and get my flu vaccination. We did that and quite a bit more. I got advice on a physio, exercise, bone density and weight. Because I now have a health plan, there was no charge. Deo gratias. My flu vaccination arm ached mildly for a couple of days. 

From the GP I headed to Dillon’s Bookshop in Norwood. They had reserved  a copy of a book I thought would be useful for my Celtic Embroidery talk later in the year. I noticed it in the Can Do Books catalogue but it was sold out by the time I tried to order. Parking was a bit of a trial at Norwood but I had a fine time in the bookshop and found one of next month’s Book Club reads as well. It’s a couple of years since I’ve been in Dillons because major building work removed most of the car parking. I will visit again but try to do it earlier in the day. All I have to do now is read the books.

On a roll, I headed back across the city to Kent Town and a shop called Pillow Talk. They found me inserts for the two cushions. I’m very pleased and  hopeful they will meet with approval.

I was close to Bunnings, but resisted the efficiency of stopping there to buy plants, recognising the inefficiency of being too busy to plant them!

It's been sunny but cool for most of the week, just the weather for the zygocactus to bloom. I'm aware this is commonly called Christmas Cactus in the northern hemisphere, but we don't go for that here in Australia! At the moment, however, I'm a bit inclined to allow Thanksgiving Cactus through my censorship net, in a general, rather than a festival sense...

It took a while, but we are now truly in autumn. The best images are from the car, which I can’t take while driving, but this one from the my eastern balcony as the waxing crescent moon rose on Friday evening, gives an idea of the gradually changing colours by moonlight.

It doesn’t convey the racket the birds were making at the time.

The colours are clearer at sunrise.

I had the weekend to myself as the family were attending a 21st Birthday in the Barossa. I shopped for Monday’s lamb shanks on Saturday morning, checking for white flowers along the way.

It seems white flowers no longer dominate Mothers' Day! I did, however, find an interesting bunch of Australian natives that I thought would do justice to the vase. While I was right, it also showed me that native greenery would work as well. The white banksias work, but are not necessary.  That should simplify things in future!

I finished another beanie in the afternoon and evening, some of it while sitting in the late afternoon sun on the Western balcony. While there I trimmed and tidied a few plants. , itching to do more, but resisting.

I did, however, make the effort to cook the sweet potato and zucchini fritters for my dinner, this time in one piece - I guess it amounted to an omelette! I enjoyed it - and ate almost all of it. I think this will become a staple. On Sunday I tried it with mushrooms in place of the sweet potato. It wasn’t as good.

I knitted another beanie on Sunday while the lamb shanks cooked. That bought the beanies and registrations once again in harmony so I went back to working on Kasia Jacquot’s Marta. My friend is still in hospital, so I think of him and stitch good wishes.

Today, taking my GP’s advice, I made an appointment for next week, with a physio at a clinic at Calvary Hospital, a block away . They have a hydrotherapy pool which I will be exploring too!

In between routine chores, I finished the Marta panel. I have machined it on to the craft bag, but haven't embroidered around the machined edge.  I thought of leaving it, but think it would complete it.

When I checked this afternoon, there are another 5 registrations for the walk, so I'm knitting more beanies. Fortunately I'm more or less prepared for WES Group tomorrow, so time to pick up the knitting needles.