A quiet day at the Guild on Wednesday. I was very pleased when Phyllis arrived to do some financial work. We were able to chat for a bit on and off throughout the day. My major job was bringing in the bins. I got most of Hardanger Christmas ornament done, finishing the gold at home before I cut around the edges. There was fabric for one more in the kit, so I started it before I could change my mind.
Between posting off my Cancer Council (not, as I said last week, Heart Foundation!) bracelet with it's 7 days of data, Pilates and a family birthday dinner I as lucky enough to catch an Adelaide Rosella feeding on the native frangipani behind my balcony.
It was a great dinner, a cooperative effort by family members for their mother, every course a delight, and conversation just as good.
I had intended another visit to the Dangerously Modern exhibition on Friday, but last minute weekend commitments put paid to that. I needed to do the big shop for Monday night, prepare the bathrooms for cupboard installation and the spare room for Veronica to crash after a night sleeping out at the school in support of the homeless. Both bathroom cupboards needed to be emptied and contents stored out of the way. When all of that was done, I finished the last ornament from the kit - varying the pattern to suit my whim (and laziness)
I was concerned about parking for Will, the carpenter installing my cupboards on Saturday. It was a big job, with lots of panels and equipment to come up and down in the lift. Curiously, the street is always parked out on Saturday morning. I decided to park my car in the street to reserve a space, worrying about whether to do so on Friday night, or early Saturday. When I checked the street at 6pm, it was already parked out. I realised, for the first time, that most likely local residents without sufficient off-street parking, slip their cars in as soon as the weekday 2hr paid parking finishes on Fridays, taking advantage of free weekend parking. I checked anxiously every half an hour, then, around 8.30pm, I saw someone about to pull out directly opposite my apartment. Still in my slippers, I dashed downstairs and moved my car into the space. It proved fortuitous.
My car was, fortunately, still there, undamaged, the next morning - along with all the other cars. Veronica arrived just after 7.30am, quite bright eyed and bushy-tailed, ready for a shower, toast and Vegemite. Will arrived just after nine and our car transfer went smoothly. He was up and down for tools and timber all day, finally cleaning up and leaving at 4.10pm. Veronica left for work at 12.15. I stashed all her gear in my car to deliver that evening.
The cupboards are a perfect match to the old ones - as I wanted. This time the edge of the fascia is both painted and sealed in silicon, so should not absorb water for decades. The old one had a raw top edge.
In the guest bathroom a miscalculation with a drill means screw holes in the two last pieces of vertical edging on either side of the door are too long not to and will be replaced, I presume because moisture could enter. From my point of view it was a really impressive day's work and result. 
In all of this, I missed the Chants Encounters concert at the cathedral. Katherine and I had tickets. I could have left Will to his own devices, but it seemed churlish when he was taking so much trouble to get it right. Katherine was behind in her schedule to make a 50 person birthday cake and biscuits for a friend's child's birthday the next day, so we both squibbed. I do like Gregorian chant, and the guest organist would have been worth hearing, but I can’t always have it all. In spare moments I finished off a mending experiment, detailed in my embroidery blog and got Monday night's Osso Bucco underway.
The sun rose joyously the next morning before the cloud descended for most of the day. It’s taking a while for the silicon seal smell to go from my en-suite. I had the fan on for several hours on Sunday and both balcony doors open to get a through breeze. A flannel flower, rose and geranium block in the bathroom helped too. It was largely gone when I left for dinner at a Prayer for the Wild at Heart with an old Sydney University friend here on his way to the Flinders Ranges. We discussed our current lives and the state of the world. Good to know we still see eye to eye on most of it.The Osso Bucco went down well, although I overcooked the vegetables. It is so good to be part of the lives of my family.
The shipment of indigo fabric arrived at Riverlea Quilts and I visited yesterday. There was only one good match, so I bought what I needed and got to work while the Osso Bucco simmered, finishing it off today. It has been tricky. I have been in touch with the designer, who has been generous with information about her design process. I think the tablecloth might trigger a discussion at WES next year. In the meantime, I'm delighted with the result.
