Post 646 Stars and squares

I should have known from the complex, colourful sunrise that greeted my opening eyes on Wednesday that it would be a challenging day. It was the day of my presentation on Anglo-Saxon Embroidery to WES - a preparatory run of the one I have agreed to give to a tour group in August. To my relief it went well. There was a lot of interest and a couple of useful suggestions.While I was giving it, two messages came into my phone, one from my Pilates tutor asking me to change my booking for the next day, the other from the coffee machine service mechanic. 

At the end of the session I managed to message Pilates and cancel for this week. 

Returning the coffee machine call proved  complicated ( if your call is about….) so I called in briefly on the way to the audiologist.

My machine had a new part and was working.  After a discussion with Henry, the serviceman, I suspect the chipped interior part he found had been the cause of the malfunction for the last 7 months, since, in fact, they last serviced it! I left Henry to make one more check and dashed to the audiologist, where my hearing aid turned out not to be broken. On the spot, the brilliant Rada wired me up, determining that the problem had been a small deposit of wax blocking my eardrum and creating an echo! The wax has now moved of its own accord. Recommended treatment is to syringe my ears twice, rather than once, a week and kept using the hearing aids! I went back and collected the coffee machine. By now I had too much gear for a single trip from car to apartment so began with the heavy bag of books from the WES presentation. That’s when I discovered the message that there was a parcel waiting for me at the post office! 

 

By the time my brother called around 4pm, I was slumped in a chair, the coffee machine operating and the Wordle done. I also knew that the Australian-made, merino wool trousers in the parcel would fit me and that, with no Pilates the next day, I might be able to take up the just released OfficeWorks trade-in offer on Apple devices to replace my much-loved but dying iPad mini!

I finished another JusticeNet beanie before falling asleep.

My hopes for an easy resolution to the iPad demise was short-lived. The trade-in message had been poorly worded. The offer is only online, and my local OfficeWorks does not have any iPad minis in stock. I did get helpful information however. I now know how to delete all data from my tablet and how to go about getting a trade-in, regardless of how I buy a replacement. I also confirmed that the manufacturer recently upped the prices of the current product range by $200 an item!. That seems an odd way of preparing for the new range release in 3 months time! I'm better informed, but still not clear what to do, so for the moment I keep using the old one. In the meantime I began the next tea box lid, opting for The Stars of Winter.

I made steady progress, so on Friday, having used up my archival supplies on last week’s tea box, I did a round trip to OfficeWorks to pick up some acid-free backboard, to Spotlight (slowly, through the roadworks on South Rd) for acid-free wadding, then the butcher, greengrocer and supermarket for supplies for Monday’s moussaka. 

Saturday morning therefore, was taken up making the moussaka. It rained on and off so, in between showers, I made time to finally plant the lobelia I had bought for the wall garden so it could benefit. I had just finished cleaning up the kitchen ( messy business, moussaka) when our Pod Rep rang to chat and tell me I could go ahead with cleaning the balcony vents.  When we hung up, half an hour later, I returned a call I’d missed from an old work colleague, long retired from the Federal Public Service, wanting to consult me on a paper he is writing. Hearing from him was a joy and occupied another 35 minutes, after which coffee was called for and I returned to those Winter Stars.

I finished the embroidery o n Saturday and blocked it on overnight, mounting it on Sunday. It's not yet delivered. When it is I will post more details. There was a lot of rain, and, unfortunately, my ceiling drip returned. The inspection is scheduled for Monday of next week with Shane, who will also clean the vents on my balcony verandah.. 

I switched briefly to knitting, to create a few samples. A granddaughter wants help to knit a blanket so I am experimenting with a few chunky yarns.. I'm going to suggest 12 ply (top 2). 16 ply (lower) would be faster, but is not machine washable. A garter stitch produces a larger sample than stocking stitch, so there is a lot to take into account. Today I order several more balls of 12 ply in various shades of green. 

This was a welcome break this evening. Earlier in the day I had begun the embroidery for the next tea box, this time the Anna Scott Galah Ripe for Picking. 

I have doubled the size so it will fit the tea box lid more substantially.  It's quite slow-going and fairly compicated. I have just started on the needle lace body of the galah. It's hard on my eyes, and is likely to take a while. You can see why I took a knitting break!

The rain is benefiting the back balcony  There are numerous spots looking lush and verdant.

My eyes are feeling the strain of today's embroidery. I think it's time for bed and an eye mask.