Post 313 Mostly crochet and getting organised

I took this photo last night, looking East at sunset - and forgot to post it yesterday. I don't live in or near a jungle, but there are some great glimpses of trees and the Adelaide Hills.

And I do love the pot of purple petunias.

While I was reading this morning, the two young doves arrived , polished off the few seeds remaining from yesterday then came to the container of seed just outside my door and stood beside it. Blush even pecked at the plastic sides!

I didn't obey immediately, but when they had given up I went out and put out some seeds. 

The photos were taken through glass and fly wire, but I quite like the effect.

I adjusted the pins on the blocking twice during the day. It's looking good but still slightly damp.   

                                        

In the meantime I sorted out my Appleton's threads and hooped up the Phoenix and Tree. I have most of the threads I need, but need some very pale greens and a more gold yellow. Tomorrow I have a running around day so will call at either the Bobbin Tree or Create in Stitch, both of which I now know have reopened after holiday closures.

I haven't started the Phoenix. I gave myself a break and relaxed with some more crocheted squares.   I've been trying to work out whether to roll more small balls off the humungous 200 gram balls to take to Normanville. It's hard to judge how much I will need, so maybe I'll roll off a few small balls and put the big ones in my car.

I've now made 25 squares. The colours are randomly chosen. I'm considering whether they should be directly joined or have a single colour border. There's plenty of time before I have to decide.

I also got out the two remaining Nicola Jarvis birds I have to embroider, along with the Ink and Spindle linens that will make the bags on which they eventually perch. I'm planning to take these to Normanville as well. 

I wouldn't want to run out of things to stitch. 

What kind of birds will they be?

It was a mild, charming sunset. I rather like the ones that have a lot of grey cloud

Someone finding this blog in a future world might tag me as a tree worshiper.

I completed another two squares this evening . The last one (bottom) has better joins than the others, thanks to a tip in a book I've been reading - but more of that another day. 

Tomorrow, if, as Hank Williams used to say, the Good Lord is willing and the creeks don't rise,  I have two dental appointments, an optometrist appointment and a shopping list. I could have done the shopping today, but it seemed more efficient to do it while I have to be out and about anyway. 

We'll see how it turns out.

Post 310 Mostly buried in a spreadsheet.

 

My library booking for an electronic copy of this came up yesterday, so I downloaded and began reading. This was drawn to my attention by Ann Borthwick. She and my late husband worked with Natalie Conyer on the Myer Committee in the 1990s, working on a national set of key competencies for high school graduates.

This is Conyer's first novel, a crime mystery set in Cape Town. It creates a strong sense of time and place, is well-paced with memorable characters and no stereotype in sight. While it is a legitimately described as a police procedural, it is overwhelmingly an exploration of state corruption, more comparable to Le Carre's Cold War espionage novels than traditional police procedurals. I found its world hard to come to terms with and wanted the plot to move faster. I will be very interested to see the series develop - there's a sequel in the pipeline..

While I was reading there were visits from a dove or two, then two Magpie-larks turned up. I think my friend Vivienne may be right when she suggested they find spiders on apartment balconies. They paid attention to a railing container that has a web on it. They didn't stay long.

I spent several hours throughout the day on my spread sheet. By the end of the day I had completed it and made a summary of some of the statistics. I'm very pleased to have done this. It is fairly tedious work, but makes the next writing task possible - and more enjoyable. It's been a reminder of how good some of these stories are. That's where the strength lies, rather than in analysis.

It was a very pleasant day in Adelaide - or so it seemed from my windows, which was the only way I saw it. It is lovely to have the doors open on to both balconies and get a breeze through. I'm grateful for this comfortable weather.

My 2019 Christmas poinsettia, which is doing quite well on the Western balcony, has a single red leaf that catches the sun and the eye in the last rays of the sun. I don't mind that the other leaves are all green. One red leaf is enough.

On Thursday, when I missed the parcel delivery I had been thinking that Monday, as well as Friday, was a public holiday. It isn't, of course, which means I can pick up th e parcel tomorrow.

It hasn't been a big stitching day, but I did make some progress on Lady Anne's Flowers. I'm now well into the tree trunk, which will occupy time tomorrow, when I am not picking up parcels

Post 302

 

Today's excitement was a fire alarm in our apartment block at about 7.50pm. It got progressively louder. I met my neighbours outside our doors and we went down the stairs, meeting up with the first floor tenants on the way.

The fire brigade was there and all the residents on the street. My immediate neighbour was barefoot in a nightdress and dressing gown - we were all in good humour. After checking, the fire brigade decided it was a fault in the external control box for our fire alarm. They have isolated the faulty part and will replace it tomorrow. 

I had been eating my salad and lamb cutlets and watching Dolly Parton's Christmas in the Square. I grabbed my handbag and keys, hesitated over the briefcase that contains my passport and birth certificate, but left it. Somehow, rescuing my passport didn't seem important at the moment. When I got back Dolly was still dispensing angelic wisdom. 

It was quite nice to meet my neighbours in a brief encounter that ended well.

Last night, after my blog post, I called my friend Christine in Watford. She had to turn down Once in Royal David City on her radio so we could hear each other. We had a good old catch up. When we had finished I scanned a pamphlet I'd promised her, put in my eye cream and got to bed about 12.30am. This morning I followed up on the Shetland Virtual Wool Week 2020 , subscribed to their newsletter and ordered a copy of their 2020 Annual 

I also finished another square while waiting to get through to Christine.

Christine had attended her Zoom church service, and was about to have her lunch and listen to the Queen's message.  I went to bed full of Christmas blessings.

I missed the sunset tonight between the fire alarm and Dolly Parton restoring order to the town. This was the sky at 6.40 pm. Strangely grey, but quite special - a bit reminiscent of Dolly Parton's version of an angel.

I worked on Lady Anne's leaves this morning. Much of the afternoon and evening has been spent playing around with photos for a powerpoint project. 

There's not a lot to show, but I'm pretty happy with it.