Post 641 Nature and Knitting

 

It was a long weekend for the King's Birthday.  I spent it very quietly, trying to advance the gigantic Berwick cardigan to a point where I could try it on and survey the damage. It was a relief to venture out to dinner and crosswords on Saturday evening. 

As supermarkets don't open on Public Holidays, I ventured to Frewville on Sunday to stock up on a few things I was running short on. Of course, I came home laden. 

I had plenty of time to admire sunrises - Sunday to the left, Monday below.

I paid a bit of attention to the balcony plants.

The Aeonium is flowering, as well as the pale Schlumbergia

My efforts to fill the abandoned barbecue tub with nasturtium plants has had only mediocre results. Three plants are still alive, but hardly thriving. After Katherine mentioned getting Nasturtium seeds from the Digger's Club, I remembered the Diggers' shop in the Botanic Gardens, so I pushed myself out of the apartment on Monday afternoon and visited.

It is really uplifting to walk through the gardens with so many families enjoying them. 

I bought 8 different varieties of nasturtium seeds and some fertiliser, pausing on the way to photograph a pair of ducks posing in front of the fountain.

They were still there on my way back, allowing me to capture them from the other side.

I have only planted half of one packet of the seeds. It's worth a try, but Spring might be better.

Somewhat in contrast, on the way home from Pilates and the Queen St Cafe on Thursday, I managed to capture a rainbow over the western parklands, where the road into the city curves to the right. I'm not sure what promise the rainbow is making to the parklands - a sacred border around the city mile, declared in 1837 and currently being controversially developed to extend a golf course and car racing track. 

While at the cafe I had just signed a petition against the development. I'm hoping the rainbow is a promise to the trees!

 I have made a lot of progress on the Berwick cardigan. It is slower going than I'd like, but I just keep plugging away. Apart from swimming I worked on it all day today and most of the weekend. 

I have completed the front bands (they are still on stitch holders), joined the shoulder seams and cut the right-hand steek. 

It's still a bit hard to tell, but I now think I will be able to wear it. 

Although it is wide, it will drape, and the fronts will cross over. They can be held with a shawl pin if required. I think the shoulder drop means the sleeve will only need to be about 24cm long. In the photo I have completed about 10cm.

It will be touch and go with the grey wool. I have about 350 gm left. It will finish the sleeves, but I don't know that it will also be enough to pick up 718 stitches around the fronts and bottom and knit 6 rows of rib. I don't want to order more wool until I know I need it - so I'm knitting like my grandmother - every available minute!

Tomorrow is WES Group, so not much knitting!

Post206

Blush arrived on his (or her) own, ate most of the seed and left. No interference from other birds.

The little bit of seed left was gone by the end of the morning. I was at the other end of the apartment, so didn't see who finished it off.


I spent most of the day scanning or preparing to scan - removing the photos from the large 1970s album. The photos from later in the decade remove relatively easily once I lifted an edge with my handy bread and butter knife. The early in the decade are stuck fast. Once removed, I scanned about 250 photos using FastFoto. FastFoto does not cope well with damaged photos or photos that are thicker than normal - such as those with anything stuck on the back. I have about 20 photos that would not go through the scanner. Tomorrow I will either use the App or the flatbed to scan them.

I also have a number of photos removed with the help of Desolvit. It works a treat, but dampens the back of the photo which then needs to dry out. Tomorrow I should be able to scan all remaining photos in this album, hopefully remove the last of those on the early pages and file them in the archive box.  I think the (numerous) remaining albums are easier to scan, or at least easier from which to remove the photos.

It's a messy process.  The sticky album needs to be disposed of in bits - all the cellophane page covers need to go is the soft recycling, and the cardboard pages into the recycle bin. Separating them makes a mess. The photo is after I had tidied up. There are still piles of photos awaiting scanning, awaiting filing, or under a weight to straighten them out.



The Create in Stitch weekly newsletter today featured this meme, which made me laugh.

I could embroider it as a motto!

I took Niamh to JEMS and returned home to more scanning, then went to Katherine and Anthony's for dinner. Delicious as usual. Tonight chicken satay and coconut risotto. It's always good to catch up on the week's activities.









On the way there I was driving into the setting sun, which is now further to the South than it has been for a while. It was briefly spectacular.




Tomorrow is cleaning and Crime Bookclub. Better get some sleep.

Post 157

After Myrtle and Turtle had eaten some seed, I hung out some washing and examined some of the flowers in my wall garden. The building work is mercifully silent on the weekend.

The Aeonium is well past its flowering peak but remains attractive as it goes into a kind of skeleton with the stamen loaded with pollen.




The yellow flowered sedum is flush with flowers


and the kalanchoe has grown a stem with bell-like flowers, not yet open.

I managed to cut out a few more masks for my brother and sister-in-law and began stitching them

I picked Naimh up from Junior Embroiderers which resumed meeting today. Niamh had a good time once the group got the hang of talking across tables in the new distanced setup. We had a milkshake on the way home at the Queen St Cafe since La Lorientaise Creperie had closed the kitchen.

At her place I got Niamh to help me wind some wool a friend bought me in New Zealand. We took a couple of breaks in the process, although Niamh says it helps build her muscles for Taiko Drumming!






The ball does not look as interesting as the skein, but I'm hoping it will show off the colour when finished.. I found a pattern for a shawl which has a very simple, repeated lace -pattern ( just two rows of eyelets, followed by 6 rows of  garter stitch). I'm hoping it will suit the wool.

I haven't done a lot, but I'm thinking it will work.

I've done a little more on the counted thread bag, but not enough to justify another photo.

We had another great meal of barbecued meat, roast vegetables and broccolini at Katherine and Anthony's place.  The girls had enjoyed their netball umpiring and games. Fionn has clear concussion from his football match which  the clinic says will prevent him playing for a week but is not serious.

Post 124: Mostly dinner

Today's post is short. Although I had a fairly busy day, I didn't think to take photos.


Just as I finished my breakfast I caught the Noisy Miner out of the corner of my eye - back to sample the Aeonium flower. I managed to take a photo, but it was through the fly wire screen, so pretty terrible. It's a shame, because it was a clear view of the bird.

I didn't see the doves at all today, but then, I was busy shopping or in the kitchen.

The kids were coming here after school. Although I had bought the main ingredients for dinner yesterday, I had bread to get and some sort of savoury snack for after school. Frewville is the place for these and, inevitably I bought a number of other things.

I made eggplant parmigiana, potato and bacon and roasted chicken Marylands.

I had intended to take a photo, but forgot. It worked quite well.


In the evening I concentrated on the Muncaster Orange. I was falling asleep by the end so there is a bit of tidying to do tomorrow, as well as the centre.  I think this week I should be able to work consistently on this. It's lovely to work on.

South Australia had three cases of Corona Virus identified today after 28 days of no cases. The three are a family in hotel quarantine after returning to Adelaide from India - so not community transmission. Victoria is having a hard time with localised outbreaks and massive hotspot testing regime. They had 75 cases identified today.  They are doing a great job of testing and isolating. Mobile testing vans are parking at the ends of streets in hotspot suburbs and 800 testers are going door to door to ask people to take a test.  They are running short of contact tracers and South Australia has sent a team to help.  Here's hoping they
get on top of it. They should - it's a very concerted team effort.