Post 575 Vaccination, Viking Hoard and Visitors

I spent a quiet day inside stitching and reading on Wednesday. Around 5pm I had a message to say our lift was out of order. It had not been fixed on Thursday morning, so I allowed myself good time to get down the stairs for Pilates, for once arriving on time! On the way home I stopped at the Jura coffee shop to replenish my supply of beans and filters. As the lift was still not operational I took myself down to A Prayer for the Wild at Heart for a very late lunch. Once again, the trick worked and the lift was fixed as I finished eating, around 3pm. I did not appreciate the comment, as I paid, that they should make sure the lift was out every day!

The lift fix lasted through Friday but Saturday morning saw it out again. I had planned to shop for Monday dinner, before heading to exhibition duty at the Guild, but postponed shopping in the hope the lift would be fixed and I could avoid carrying the results up the stairs. It’s becoming too frequent for comfort. 

I had debated shopping on Friday morning, but couldn’t bring myself to settle for the pork roast I had planned for Monday, given it was forecast to be 30C, and the roast requires the oven to be on for close to 4 hours. I thought I’d wait another 24 hours, and instead decided to stop off in the city on my way to Sit’nStitch,  to investigate a new perfume. I have used Samsara, by Guerlain, since it was launched in 1989. It has finally been discontinued, all online supplies now gone, and I am on my last 1/2” in my last bottle. Unfortunately, my plan was again thwarted by roadworks in the city which made stopping to park unwise. Plan C was to stop at the West Lakes shopping centre, which I did. The obliging women in the David Jones cosmetics section narrowed my choices to 3 and provided me with a sample of narcisco rodriguez for her, due to be launched this weekend. It was certainly the best of the three, so I've been trying it. It seems appropriate to find another perfume at the beginning of its life!

 

I had agreed to be on duty at the Guild exhibition on Saturday afternoon. The lift being out in the morning thwarted my shopping plans again but it was fixed just as I was leaving. There were plenty of helpers at the Guild and JEMS were meeting. I sold 2 books, handed in my raffle tickets, talked to quite a few people and got some stitching done. I got away promptly and dashed to Unley to get what I needed for an easy Monday dinner, getting it upstairs and put away while the lift was working. Phew!

The exhibition is looking good. A surprising amount of framed work. Photos are not allowed, so I can’t provide a taste. 

It's pomegranate time again, and Katherine's tree has a decent crop. Looking good. 

On Sunday I had my 9th Covid vax at my busy local pharmacy; pretty straightforward. I waited about 10 minutes without ill-effect, before moving my car a couple of blocks, near to St John’s Halifax St., when I had booked for a concert an hour later. I walked back up to Hutt St where the two cafes I had planned to check out had just closed their kitchens. 

I settled for a pizza margarita at Ballaboosta- noisy and crowded, but great pizzas. A total break with my carbohydrate limit which I will need to walk off.

I walked the two blocks back to St John’s in time for the concert. 

Entry was slow and the queue long. The one man checking tickets was seated at a table in the entry, without the capacity (or willingness) to scan the QR codes issued as tickets. Instead he had a list, which he couldn't read. We each had to find our name on his list and point it out to him. He was very happy to take cash from anyone without a ticket and to explain and sell programs - slowly.

 

            I really enjoyed the music, especially the Mongolian, Ukrainian and Irish, but left at interval, feeling tired, perhaps the vaccine kicking in.

I finished the fourth Evil Eye kit  and am now working on my birthday sashiko kit. 

The suggestions for this a fairly generic - circles and straight lines, so I marked a few circle outlines and then filled them by eye. I seem to have mislaid the magnetic clip somewhere along the line so in the end ordered a couple to be delivered from Spotlight. I could have made a 15-20k round trip to pick them up but in the end rated my time above the $10 delivery charge.i also realised that I have a full set of sashiko needles in the harp I made with Jenny Aiden Christie back in 2018 . They would probably benefit from use!

Anticipating both the heat and the likelihood I may not feel too brilliant on Monday, I had bought a ready-made  Lasagne for 8 and Chicken with Bacon Pasta Bake for 4 for Monday dinner. In fact I have had very little reaction to the Covid shot: my arm is barely sore but I am tired. I’m also still following instructions for my finger which is still a little sore and red. It’s now 5 weeks since the operation and the therapist said it would take 6-7 weeks to heal with treatment, so I think it’s on schedule. 

Consequently, I  had a relaxing afternoon yesterday. All my effort went into a Greek salad and turning on the oven.  There were only 5 of us for dinner, so  plenty of time to catch up and a bit of food left over, but much less than half. Next Monday is a public holiday. Perhaps in a fortnight it will be cool enough for roast pork. After loading the dishwasher I finished stitching the sashiko tote panel while watching a couple of episodes of Death in Paradise series 13. I’m now in the process of constructing the bag. The replacement clasp is due on Thursday.

Today was a bit of an adventure. I set off on the city loop bus just before 10.00 for the SA Museum, where I was meeting a NSW friend, drawn here by Writers’ Week, for lunch. I went early so I could visit the Viking Treasures exhibition. I’m so pleased I did. 

This is the Galloway Hoard, discovered in 2014, acquired by the National Museums of Scotland in 2017, exhibited in Scotland in 2021-2 and subject of major research 2021-24. The excellent 2021 book on the Hoard by Martin Goldberg and Mary Davis for the National Museums of Scotland has been reproduced by the SA Museum. The story is told clearly and simply with excellent illustrations and acknowledgment of the unknowns and complexities.

Most of the hoard is silver. While most individual pieces correspond to exact weight measures, their beauty and workmanship tell a story beyond greed and commerce.  I was, of course, especially interested in the textiles in which some items, especially this jar and it’s content, had been carefully wrapped,  These are too fragile to travel with the retrieved and cleaned silver, but photos, videos and 3D models tell much of their story. 

This pectoral cross had its chain intact - very rare indeed. It is pretty extraordinary to have this in Adelaide. According to the National Museums of Scotland this is the beginning of a world tour, although there are no other locations mentioned. If it pops up near you, don’t miss it,

I left the exhibition with plenty of time to meet my friend for lunch, so checked out the shop and settled myself in the cafe with a lime milkshake and lemon polenta cake and read the book on the hoard. Bobbi brought her travel companion along with her for lunch and we had a long, leisurely catch up afterwards. The heat outside was a bit of a shock, but I was home around 3.15 and out of it. 

Since then I have read the book on the Hoard and prepared my other birthday kit, a Japanese cross-stitch Nordic Square. I put it in a wooden stretcher frame with drawing pins but only worked the corners. Once that was done the rest of the embroidery can be done in a 12" seated hoop - much preferable. I'm now ready to progress it tomorrow while being Desk Hostess at the Guild. It's been quite a week - again!

Post536 Mostly Art and Crafts

Much of the early part of the week was spent catching up appointments postponed because of COVID. Wednesday was a car service, Thursday optometrist and Orofacial pain doctor. 

In between appointments I visited the Himeji Garden. Even though there was a wedding taking place just outside, once inside, tranquility reigned. It is extraordinarily calming , even for 10 minutes, which is all I stayed. The sound of water is a big part of the tranquility.        

        

Both medicos are pleased with my progress. It looks as if some mild left-side headaches I’m having might be the result of the way I use my left hand in stitching. I’m now monitoring. 

Friday proved busy. I took the city loop bus in and out of the city for my haircut then drove to Melbourne St to look at the art works on offer at the upcoming Elders auction before going to Unley for a big grocery shop for Monday. My brother was interested in a couple of things so I went to check them out for him.

The Create in Stitch webletter advertised a new line in clamps that looked as if they might be able to be fitted to my "flexible" seated stand. While I find the stalk of the stand very flexible, the clamp is inflexible, so on Thursday I bought one of the new clamps. The fit wasn’t perfect, but good enough to be a substantial improvement. I took it out to show Simela on Friday. She, of course, got out her toolkit and made a few improvements. It now means I can attach a roller or frame, not just a hoop, to the stand. Yes!

The Elders auction was on Sunday. While checking things for my brother, I noticed two bark paintings. I am a sucker for vintage bark paintings. I registered to bid online and bought both of them. Family members will be interested in them. I hope to go and pick them up tomorrow, along with the two my brother bought!

Over the last few days I made 52 gift bags. The bags I cut out in January, from fabric bought at the Guild's trading table, have been sitting on my sewing machine ever since. I decided it was time to make a move on them. Tonight put the finishing touches on the last of them. Details, of course, in my embroidery blog.

While I am now free of Covid, I still have what appear to be symptoms of a cold - a cough, sneezing and a little congestion. This is, apparently, common after number of viral infections, including Covid. Advice seems to be that it is my immune system ridding my lungs of fluid and I am not infectious.  It should clear up in the next couple of weeks.  I am trying to rest, drink warm lemon water and take things easy. I didn't go to Aquafit today and stayed inside for most of the day.

I did go to Katherine's place for dinner on Saturday and hosted our family dinner yesterday, a lively and entertaining time. I had a busy day, beginning with fasting blood tests at 8.30am, shopping, cooking and meeting Barbara who had kindly collected my gallery purchases for me. I get the results of the blood tests from the nephrologist on Thursday. 

As well as family,  I have been visited most days by doves. On Friday they kept up a loud conversation. The rhythm of one of the calls sounded like "It’s Zeffirelli!". Once I got that into my head there was no eraser.

Just as I was wondering whether it would be wise to cancel my early morning coffee appointment tomorrow, Panayoula suggested the same, as there is Covid in her family. Seems it's everywhere. Instead I'm hoping to go and pick up the art works from Sunday's auction, then make more progress on the Inca cardigan. 

Post 535 Crossing the stream

Last week’s post finished with me wondering if my tiredness was an effect of my flu vac. I also had a sore throat. That night I started to worry that it might in fact be an infection. I had thrown away the last RAT test a couple of weeks ago when I realised it was well past its use-by date. At 2am, searching online. I found a pharmacy not too far away with a pack of 2 tests that could be purchased online and picked up in shop when they opened. I ordered a pack. At 9am I called a couple of WES Group friends to ask them to manage the meeting in my absence then dashed to the pharmacy to pick up the tests. I was in and out in under a minute.

The kit tested FluA&B,COVID  RSV. I tested positive to COVID. 

I was shocked. I've been so cautious - 8 vaccines and avoiding mingling. My second thought was relief that I had not gone to WES - the first meeting I’ve missed since becoming convenor. There are vulnerable  people in the group and we've taken pains to observe the ‘out of an abundance of caution’ principle.

I had plenty of food so bunkered down. I phoned my doctor’s surgery. The duty doctor phoned back that evening having researched anti-viral requirements for kidney donors. She was thorough and helpful and texted me a prescription. My nearest pharmacy was still open, prepared the prescription,  messaged me to come and pick it up wearing a mask and by 7pm I had taken my first dose of antivirals. Katherine dropped a couple of boxes of RAT tests at my door the next morning.

To summarise  the rest, I had mild symptoms, sore throat, croaky voice, on and off mild headaches, waning body aches, tiredness. I tested positive until Sunday morning. My last antiviral dose was Monday morning after which I again tested negative and was free to rejoin the community.

We had a full quota for dinner yesterday with lasagna and cannelloni I bought from Frewville Foodland. A joyous occasion. 

There were 17 people at the WES Group meeting, which went swimmingly. I and other absent members have been able to view a pdf of Margaret’s presentation on Ukrainian embroidery.  Obviously I couldn’t go to family for dinner on Saturday nor to the Ukaria concert on Sunday. Lorraine made the trip on her own. A busy, generous Guild friend called at Mrs Harris’ Gallery on Saturday to retrieve the handbags I’d bought at the last exhibition. 

I am really grateful for the support I’ve had; a health system that functioned efficiently and effectively, family and friends who tended assistance, stayed in touch, checked in and kept me connected, along with a home that kept me safe, in touch with others and nature, with plenty to do.

Today I skipped Aquafit.An overabundance of caution, but seems a bit soon to be in a closed pool environment with 20 other people.

On Friday two separate postal deliverers placed their parcels in the lift downstairs so I could retrieve it on my floor without contact. One was the Marie Wallin Berwick Cardigan kit, the other the Uradale colourway kit for the 2024 Shetland Wool Week beanie. They are lovely to handle, but I have managed to resist and stick to knitting the Inca Coatigan (I’m relabelling it now I can see how big it is!)

With a little bit of pattern manipulation, it is exactly the recommended length of 93cm. Quite long. (the variation in shading in the photo is the result of a shaft of light, not a bleaching agent!).

I've started on the left front, which, is, of course, a much faster knit. 

I think I finally understand the attraction of knitting colour work in the round. The purl rows are slow work with three colours. It would, I think, be worth the terror of a steek to be able to stick to knit stitches and see the pattern as you work it. Enlightenment.

While isolating, I did read 3 books, none of them outstanding. Today I finished Lawful Duty, the latest of Mike Campling's books, the first in a series of police procedurals spinning off the Devonshire Mystery series. It has interesting elements, some of which make me wary. 

The second Early Women of Books bag is now in its happy place transporting vegetables in Sydney's Blue  Mountains! Thanks for the photo Robin.

It was my brother's birthday during the week. This is his birthday rainbow, appearing as he stood on his Sydney balcony listening on his phone to a group of friends sing Happy Birthday.

If that's not a promising start to a year, I don't know what is! Thanks for the photo- and the love.

All week I've had an ear worm, an ABBA song going around in my head.

I have a dream, a song to sing

To help me cope, with anything.

If you see the wonder, of a fairy tale

You can take the future, even if you fail.

I believe in angels, 

Something good in everything I see

I believe in angels,

When I know the time is right for me

I'll cross the stream, I Have a Dream.

I feel as if I crossed a stream this week. 

Not a river or an ocean, but, yes, a stream.

Post 422 Out of isolation with an abundance of caution

My most displayable achievement for this work is the completion of the 4th, and last, Bush Sentinelle cushion cover. I have written about its completion in my embroidery blog.

I tested negative with RATs on both my 5th isolation day  and 7th (Saturday). My daughter's family is still in isolation and all members have tested negative on their 7th day. They have another week to go, because they chose not to isolate from their Covid-infected member. 

The days tended to flow into one another. Barbara and Margaret M stepped in to manage Wednesday's WES meeting. 7 people gathered and discussed Indian Quilts under Barbara's leadership and Margaret's quick PowerPoint  construction. It's a great group.

Pilates went by the board and Friday's dinner got tentatively moved to Sunday. I spent my days reading, doing bits of research, working on the 4th, and last Bush Sentinelle - and voting. Our State election is on next Saturday and I registered for a postal vote. When the voting package arrived it took a while to work through. The lower house was straightforward enough, but in the upper house, there were 19 political parties fielding candidates.  Under our preferential system you either vote for one Party, or for at least 12 individual candidates. I chose the latter, and it was hard. I posted it today.

I emerged from isolation on Saturday evening. This week, as per SAHealth recommendation, I am avoiding crowds and "unnecessary activities".  Several friends rang and had long conversations, including one I had lost touch with - fabulous to talk to each of them. 

I had enough food to get me through this week and ordered a delivery on Friday from the Adelaide Central Markets in the hope that  I'd test negative so Sunday lunch here could go ahead with two friends. The delivery worked well (meat is in the polystyrene box) and lunch went ahead. I repeated the duck with nectarines and potatoes recipe from the City Mag a few weeks ago. I had every intention of taking a photo, but as usual, was too focused on serving it to remember. It worked well. We had a lovely relaxed meal and catch up. The birds at sunset and bats as darkness began to fall put on a good show for us.

A couple of parcels came during the week. The coloured continuous zips I had ordered to share with a friend at the Guild fitted into the letterbox as did the fabric for the cushion. I haven't had a chance yet to share.

Unfortunately, a book I had ordered was delivered on Saturday morning and I mistook the deliverer's single buzz for a birdcall. I picked the book up today. The book itself was 16x23x2.5cm. The stiff cardboard packaging was 45x36x2.5cm. Had the packaging been closer to the size of the book, it would have easily gone into my letterbox. I know I carry on about this. I have written to the retailer.

This time two years ago my cousin Christine and her husband Eddie were generous enough to come from Cheltenham to pick me up in Stratford-upon-Avon and take me for a day of exploring the towns in Buckinghamshire that had been home to my maternal grandfather's ancestors. We visited Piddington, where my 7x GGrandfather was born in 1657. His son Thomas married Margery Mukell here at St Nicholas's Church in 1697.

We also spent time at St Mary the Virgin Marsh Gibbon, where the 7 children of my 5xGGrandfather John Ray and his wife Sarah were baptised. It was a fabulous day, both in terms of company and what I experienced. Thanks so much Christine and Eddie.

I cut my UK stay short, leaving on 17 March to get home before Australia shuts its border. I'm glad I went, and glad I got home.

Having finished the cushions, I finished off the  pouch I was making from the Viking embroidery examples I'd prepared for the Certificate Course workshop. I'd left it unfinished so the inside could be examined.  I added lining and a zip. 

I find these zip pouches quite useful - as pencil cases or for tools for a particular project. 

I'm now turning my attention back to knitting the Mosaic Carpet Bag. There are lots of projects waiting to be started or finished, so I need to get on with it. I'm edging closer to continuing the Aesop Frame.

It's been a warm week - most days 30-33C with warm nights. This is tonight's moonrise, taken about 6.40pm. The 7 faint dots in the sky are birds returning to roost.

As my Adelaide family is locked down for another week, I will spend Saturday night with friends watching the election count on TV- a very old arrangement. Postal, absentee and early votes, which are up because of Covid, are not counted on the night, so a result is unlikely for several days. I'm not complaining.  I'm grateful that our community is voting, managing Covid, and functioning, that my family is able to quarantine and keep each other safe, and that I can isolate in my home yet stay in touch. None of it can be taken for granted.

Post 421: Goddesses, Glass and quarantine

This time two years ago I was in Stratford-upon-Avon, on the embroidery retreat that started this blog. 8 March, the day I'm posting this, was the last day of the retreat. Melody and I visited Holy Trinity Church which had been closed to visitors on our earlier visit. 

The retreat finished with drinks and canapes, and I won the lucky door prize.

Today, as more than 1 million flee war in Europe, and more than 2000 families in NSW have homes destroyed by flood,  I am writing in isolation as a close COVID contact. I tested negative last night and need to test again tomorrow night and Friday night. So far so good. I've cancelled all commitments this week.

I wrote in the post two years ago:

 It has been such a good 8 days. Amongst this group of people I find my tribe. We recognise each other, share not just embroidery, but values and experiences. We pick up where we left off and connect to each other in very fundamental ways.

I'm so glad I came.

I little thought, when I came home early and agreed to keep this blog going as I quarantined, that I would be still be posting, in quarantine, 2 years later and the world would be so changed. I'm still glad I went - and live in hope of reuniting physically with this part of my tribe one day, and the local part soon.

I spent a lot of time this week preparing presentations - a lot of searching for resources, reading books, articles and mining museum sites, finding threads of thought, organising and then telling the story. Much of it was done from my chair overlooking the back balcony, Next to embroidery, it's in this process I feel most relaxed and engaged. The whole dove family came on Thursday to keep me company, absorbing the heat from the tiles into their bodies, sharing the space with no sense of three's a crowd. The three were back today.

The urgent presentation was the one for tomorrow's World Embroidery Studies Group. I brought forward my Goddess in Embroidery offering from later in the year because the scheduled presenter couldn't do hers in March. This meant fast tracking my preparation, which is not as thorough as I'd have liked. Still, I have enough. One thing about ancient pagan goddesses is that they are attended by birds, originally swans, but later birds in general. So maybe the doves came to encourage me in the exercise.

In any case, I appreciated their presence. The presentation, of course, is now postponed and two other members have stepped in. The tribe again!

I mentioned last week that Margaret Adams had constructed and brought me the charts for the projects for my Bulgarian Embroidery workshop in August. This prompted me to stay on my presentation roll and prepare that one as well.  I already had the one I'd used for the WES Group last year, so I adapted it, prepared the notes, adding in the charts and sent them off to Officeworks for printing on Wednesday night. The charts need to be in colour but the notes could be printed in black and white. I also managed to print the illustrations of the projects in multiple smaller versions on 3 pages, then cut them out and paste them into the notes.  I dug out the Aida fabric I had been hoarding to use for these projects. I'm hoping to find a bit more, but can manage with what I have if necessary.  I'd have made a good Girl Guide~

On Friday I had lunch with four friends at the Magill Estate Kitchen. On the way there I stopped off at Heine's Nursery to buy another pot and another Mandevilla, this time white. A recent article confirmed my experience that they are very well suited to Adelaide. Now I have pink, red and white.

My GPS took me on a bit of a wild goose chase from the nursery to the restaurant but once I found my own way out of the maze, it was a very pleasant, relaxed lunch. 

I arrived home to find an undelivered parcel message in my letterbox.  It was the bookmarks I had ordered a couple of weeks ago, which, had they been packaged flat as I requested, would easily have fitted through the letterbox slot. As it was, each of the three bundles was encased in plastic, then placed together in a box, with bubblewrap to stop them rattling around. 

The box was then wrapped in plastic  before being encased in cardboard and placed in a padded postbag - which was then mailed inside a plastic Express Post bag!  6 layers of packaging for cardboard bookmarks that would have travelled safely in a heavy paper envelope and saved me a trip to the PO, a queue and the need to find a park! Grrr.  ( I am, nonetheless, pleased with the bookmarks!)

On  Wednesday  I had a phone appointment with me GP to report on my bloods. I took the opportunity to ask some questions about vaccinations - flu around May and 4th Covid probably sometime soonish. I am now out of the pre-diabetes range and my kidney readings are on the borderline of OK. It seems that is unlikely to change much. I continue with weight loss. 

Back in September last year I bought a second set of scales. The ones I was using were about 30 years old and gave varied readings within less than a minute. I have been using both sets in order to reassure myself of reliability. On the Saturday mornings that my cleaner comes I put the second set, which is glass, into a cupboard out of the way. This Saturday they slipped as I lifted them, and shattered on the tiled floor, like windscreen, into tiny fragments. I backed out, put on shoes and cleaned it up.

When my cleaner arrived I warned him there might be residual glass. He told me that in Pakistan there is a strong superstition that when glass or ceramic shatters in this way it is a sign that someone has wished you ill and the ill-will has been taken into the shattered object and dispersed! I'm grateful! Doubly so three days later with a negative COVID test.

On Saturday Niamh's basketball brunch prevented her going to JEMS so I managed to shop for Monday dinner and buy a bag of potting mix to move the Duranta repens, "Geisha Girl" I bought three weeks ago (another reported Adelaide-friendly bush) into the pot I bought on Friday. Hopefully, in this pot, it will grow to a reasonable balcony size.  It's very pretty.  

Dinner on Saturday was at Grange Jetty. It was windy and overcast and the wind surfers were out. I arrived home in time to catch something of the atmosphere from the city.

I tried a new potato recipe on Monday - Spanish potatoes - with the Chicken Maryland, eggplant parmigiana and greens. Very easy. Fionn and Niamh were at their respective football trainings. 

 

The eggplant parmigiana didn't brown as much as I wanted, but it tasted fine and everything else worked well, 

It was only later in the evening that I discovered a member of my family has COVID and I am a close contact. I used a RAT for the first time. It requires a UV torch which comes in the test kit, partially assembled. I completed the assembly but couldn't get it to work no matter how many times I tried. I discovered online that others had similar problems. Some three hours later, after booking myself in for a PCR test, I pulled the torch completely apart and reassembled it - voila! a UV light and a negative result. It was a huge relief, both to be negative and also to be competent to conduct a test!

I have made some progress on the final Bush Sentinelle and the Mosaic Carpet Bag, but not enough to add photos. Hopefully there will be a lot to show next week.