Post 594 Cold of both kinds

I made it to World Embroidery on Wednesday, after a bit of coughing overnight but a fairly normal waking. The meeting went really well, largely thanks to Margaret’s skill and generosity in managing the setup of our new screen. It means we can all sit around the table in the foreground and see a presentation rather than being spread out around the room. Those present loved it (encouraged, perhaps, by the hummingbird cake brought by Pam).

There was interest in my effort to trace Celtic embroidery from motifs carved in stone, to metal engraving, to illuminated manuscripts to printed patterns.

It was a miserable day - maximum 10.1C (coldest for Adelaide since 2021) and 7cm of rain. I managed to get a bit cold and wet closing the gates as I left and within an hour I was sneezing, coughing and blowing my nose. 

I cancelled my Thursday Pilates, fell asleep on the couch, waking to make a lemon drink (someone had kindly left help-yourself lemons at the Guild) take Codral and fall into bed at 7.30pm. I woke a couple of times but basically slept for 10 hours. Thursday I stayed in, warm, dozing, using up the best part of a box of tissues, drinking a lot of tea in between hot lemon and weaned myself from Codral to paracetamol. By the end of the day I had enough energy to write up the summary of our meeting and  dig a piece of ham out of the freezer to boil with dried peas since I had run out of tinned and packet soups. It fit the bill and kept me going for a couple of days.                               .

I felt a lot better on Friday, but stayed indoors for most of the day, venturing out around 2pm to my local pub, which was surprisingly busy,  for calamari lunch, which I ate outside to avoid noise and hot air.It seems a few office workers have discovered POETS day. I nevertheless got served fairly promptly and was home by 3. I took Margaret Hickey’s An Ill Wind with me to read. I really enjoyed this one. She is an engaging writer.

On Saturday I ventured to the supermarket and stocked up on soups. I also bought some fresh chicken livers, bacon pieces and mushrooms to make myself chicken livers on Sunday and Monday. I'm not great on cooking for one, but I can whip this up quickly and I really like it. 

My cold is now following the five stages I find listed on a variety of websites. I am staying inside and warm most of the time, taking things easy, staying hydrated and using a lot of tissues. I'll continue until the symptoms completely disappear.   I'll make a decision about Thursday Pilates at noon tomorrow.  

Over the last 18 days I have read nine of Alison Golden's Instpector David Graham detective series set on Jersey. Obviously I am hooked.

I finished the Schwalm embroidery from Carol Stacey's May workshop. Details in my embroidery blog.      

I've taken concentration breaks from Schwalm by advancing the Rowan shawl. With 400+ stitches now on the needles, it takes me 20 minutes per row. I calculate I have about 90 more rows to go before I consider finishing it. I'll see how I feel in 30 knitting hours time.

I've been taking my cold to bed a little bit earlier than my norm. I managed to snap this before I fell asleep on Sunday, two nights after the full moon.  Tonight is cloudy with rain forecast and moonrise just before 10pm, so I'm unlikely to take a comparison photo.

Until next week.

Post593 Ticking off lists and testing

Wednesday was very cold for Adelaide. I stayed in, washed sheets and a jumper, read the fourth book in the Inspector David Grahame series and progressed the Glazig Butterfly embroidery. 

Thursday, however, was a different matter. I had an 8.45am appointment with my endodontist to finish the four root canals begun in May, so I broke my no-food-before 8am rule, suspecting, correctly, it would be several hours before I could eat. The tooth had to be opened up, cleaned out again and filled with the permanent gutta-percha and sealant. A couple of X-rays later and all was well. 

I came home spent an hour on the Butterfly embroidery and sealed up the box of plastic recycling that has stood next to my laundry door for 7 months. I wrote about it when I bought it in early December last year. I calculated that if I could make it last six months I’d regard it as worthwhile. It has comfortably lasted seven months. I could probably have pushed it to hold a little more. It weighed 4.2 kg. It was awkward to handle, and I used a lot of packaging tape to ensure it didn’t burst open, but there was no trouble depositing it at the post office with its prepaid label. I had already bought the next box when the company had an Earth Day 30% discount. It is working out at $23 a month to recycle my 600gm of soft plastic. I’d prefer it to be less, but I’ll continue. It seems fair that I should take some responsibility for dealing with my detritus. I'm aiming to make the next one last 8 months. In the meantime, local councils are slowly sourcing recycling services. Hopefully this is the last one I have to buy.

From the post office I went to Pilates, experiencing no ill effects from the dental treatment, then to the Brickworks to pick up a copy of the second in the NZ Bookshop detective series and the latest Margaret Hickey An Ill Wind. I took the opportunity to drop into Tony and Marks for breakfast grapes (ending up with three packets of stunning biscuits, 2 avocados, and two packets nuts and seeds as well) before

swinging past the Guild to drop off my pink silk lipstick holder and the wooden cotton reels I had promised Christine. This got me home right on 3pm, unfortunately just too late to have lunch at A Prayer for the Wild at Heart but in time to bring in the washing that had been out for 30 hours. I do like a day where the to-do list gets ticked off! It is not lost on me that my first excursion after posting the soft plastic recycling resulted in plastic bags with grapes, biscuits, nuts and seeds.

After all that activity, I settled in to finish the Glazig butterfly I mentioned last week.. I finished the embroidery and spent much of Friday constructing a bag with it. I am delighted with the result which is written up in my embroidery blog.

From there I moved on to those Japanese fabric remnants I mentioned last week. I spent most of the weekend cutting, ironing, machining, threading drawstrings and adding stoppers to the drawstrings. The plan I had to visit the Australian Women Artists' Exhibition at the Art Galley went by the board. I now have 21 lovely bags ready to contain gifts when occasions arise. Again, details in my embroidery blog.

In between, I gave my eyes a bit of a break by knitting another Scales of Justice Beanie. I now have ten ready for next year's walk.

Yesterday the herbal insect-repellants I ordered from Bell Art arrived. I want to make sure these beanies survive the ten months to the next Walk for Justice. They are now stashed in this bag with a couple of Kakadu Plum repellant blocks protecting them.

By Saturday my Adelaide family had all recovered from their encounter with COVID so I had a very relaxed evening with those not at an 18th birthday party. 

I woke yesterday with a sore throat and, in view of the upcoming WES meeting and all the effort that's gone into swapping and preparing my Celtic presentation, I was mildly panicked. Would I have to cancel?

Before 6am I was attempting to administer a Covid test to my self in bed. Unsurprisingly, the test didn't work. Around 8 I got up and administered a test properly, getting a negative result. I made myself a hot lemon drink with honey, and settled to read and advance the left-over Rowan wool shawl I started last year. I drank tea rather than coffee throughout the day. In the afternoon I ventured to the Chemist to purchase a test kit for Covid, RSV and Flu A & B. To my relief, the test was negative for all of them. It seems I have at worst, a head cold.

I have stayed inside all day today, drinking more hot lemon, tea and soup. I have an occasional cough and sneeze but my throat is less sore, so I'm hopeful I'll be OK for tomorrow. I have had a coffee this afternoon, so must be on the mend.

I also retrieved the Scwalm masterpiece I began in Carol Mullan's workshop in May. I have never tried Schwalm. We made and traced templates on to our linen. I hsd drawn myself a flannel flower and begun to outline the leaf in coral knots. Today I completed the coral knots around the whole thing, 

I am now about to work a row of chain stitch inside the coral knots. After that, I need to consult the book (also acquired at the workshop). 

It's a bit hard on the eyes, so I will alternate with knitting - that's after more lemon and checking my Celtic Embroidery PowerPoint.