Post651: Good Things

On Friday, after the servicing of my air conditioning system, spending an hour with the hygienist and dentist, visiting the pharmacy and shopping at Frewville for Monday dinner, I treated myself to a late lunch at Balaboosta

While waiting for my wild mushroom pizza to emerge from the wood oven, I was entertained by a troop of sparrows hopping around the outside tables waiting for diners to leave.

They seemed to know their place in the world, staying on the ground until diners left, then hopping on to the vacated table to clean up.

The pizza, was, as always, fabulous and there were only a few crumbs left for the sparrows.

 I My blog week began with WES Group, which went exceptionally well. I was there in plenty of time to set up for SALA Exhibition visitors and, in spite of illness and travel keeping key players away, we had 11 members there to make it work. We moved around the room, hearing about the inspiration and process of the entries of 5 members present, and discussed a further 3 sets of entries from first hand knowledge.  We were able to welcome and assist 6 visitors throughout the morning. There was agreement we should do the same at future exhibitions. No photos are permitted, so I can’t show you.

On the way home I called at OfficeWorks to pick up a box of tips for my iPad pencils. I’d ordered them online to be picked up in store as they had none in stock. I opened the gigantic box in the car to find this! I’m guessing small parcels get lost in their delivery vans. Perhaps if I'd had them delivered to my home they's have been in an envelope.

On Thursday I took the plunge and prepared my 2025/26 tax information. It took several hours to gather and document the information I need.  I approached my tax agent  for instructions, and have sent my documentation to the accountant today.

On Saturday I cooked the lamb shanks for Monday dinner and visited the Handspinners and Weavers' SALA Exhibition.There were a couple of really beautiful shawls in a silk/wool mix and some most interesting felting work.

The Bishop bags arrived on Thursday. I collected them on Saturday and spent Sunday morning making the small corrections to the print. There are 6 places on each bag where a word isn’t clear. Hardly surprising when they are printed from a photograph of words embroidered in Quaker stitch! I mailed the package of 12 bags yesterday, the first stop on my stop-off list.

The second stop was the audiologist, who tweeked the program on my right hearing aid. So the swooshing noise is gone and both aids work. I then went to the bank to check whether they had sent me a replacement for a debit card that expires this month. I was concerned it might have been caught up in a recent spate of thefts from letterboxes. 

It took 45 minutes of waiting while the attendant (“specialist” in current bank-speak) checked online, then on phone with his supervisor, then a variety of bank teams, eventually establishing that, because I had not used the card in 18 months, it was deemed no longer active and did not need a replacement! Once I had disavowed them of this conclusion they authorised a new card, which is being Express posted, at no charge to me, to arrive within 10 days! 

I'm grateful that Australia Post has a different view of Express Post (the box of Bishop bags sent yesterday were delivered safely in Sydney this morning). Having said that, I appreciate the identity checks the bank made throughout the process, and I would rather wait while the "specialist' did it than go through the process on my own at home. I don’t regularly withdraw from that account, but keep the card  as my backup. I finally made it to the shopping centre and home by 2pm.

I spent much of this morning finalising my tax documentation and communicating about the Bishop Bags. My Sydney partner in the enterprise has insisted on sharing the costs as well as delivering them to MOW. In the end I felt it was churlish to keep refusing such generosity. It is a fully joint venture.

Not much of the forecast rain arrived today and it was pleasant on the western balcony in the late afternoon sun. Some pots need replanting, but others are looking healthy. I find this kalanchoe stem very pleasing in pattern and colour.

I've managed to progress the outer border of the Balvraid Hap, working hard this evening to reach the peak. It's fairly slow going, but I'm gradually speeding up. It's rather like a frill- a 16 row pattern of 20 stitches is worked vertically to the edge, progressing about 5 cm. The remaining section requires 20 repeats of the pattern, 6400 stitches (who's counting?). That will take me a few days

The current photo doesn't capute much of the edge pattern, It shows a bit better in the close-up. The finished shawl will need to be blocked to show the lace.

I'm finished knitting for tonight. Even though I'd love to finish, if I push on further I will be up all night.

On the whole it's been a week of achievement,  progress and satisfaction. Next week brings, as well as a lot more forecast rain, the challenge of my talk to the Embroidery Tour Group on Sunday. I'm  as prepared as I can be. 🙏

Post638 You win some, you lose some.

On my Eastern balcony, various succulents have come into bloom over the last week or so, aloe buds opening joyfully and the jade, cassula ovata, sending out long stems of tiny star flowers that I’ve not seen before.

The cassula plant itself (below left) is thriving, along with the swordfern, (well below) clearly enjoying the rain and milder sunshine.

There is a lot of work, however, to be done on the Western balcony where I still need to replace and replant after the summer heat. It's a job I will get to over the next month, but in the meantime I am just enjoying what I have.

Last Wednesday was WES Group and we were a merry band of 12 gathered to hear Raelene talk about Community Arts Projects, focusing on projects gathered around a cause. Most involved quilts or quilting and included the Rajah Quilt made by convict women coming to Australia in 1841 with materials supplied by Elizabeth Fry to help them prepare for the life ahead, quilts made in POW camps, AIDs Quilts, and several school or community commemorative projects.  It was an animated, dynamic meeting with everyone contributing.

The highlight of my week, however, was the 80th birthday celebration for a Guild friend, held as a lunch at the Marion Hotel. I’ve not been there before and very much enjoyed the atmosphere in our room, dominated by a huge eucalypt reaching through the roof. 

I had a great time in our Guild corner, having time to talk to a small group of members I rarely see for more than a few minutes. It was a chance too, to meet and talk with a couple of spouses, all the while been plied with rounds and rounds of finger food. 

I had managed to knit my friend the 2025 Shetland Wool Week beanie for her birthday. The blog post is here.  

The only blot on my day was the ticket I received exiting the carpark. The hotel is on the corner of a busy road with no traffic lights. As I needed to make a right-hand turn I plotted a path away from the intersection, down the side road, without realising it was, for the length of the hotel carpark, a one-way street. The carpark was busy and I had turned into the side street heading the wrong way before realising my error.

I couldn’t see how to reverse, and there was nothing coming, so I went ahead, immediately there were flashing lights and the siren of the police car. The lone officer was polite and understanding. He breathalysed me - the main purpose I presume, of his wait outside the carpark. As I had not had any alcohol to drink I did not add to his statistics. He took great pains to explain the road directions, booked me for ignoring a road sign and travelling the wrong way on a one-way street and said he would issue a fine for one offense with a caution for the other. Thoroughly decent - and I was in the wrong. At home I checked my licence record. As I thought, last month the last of my demerit points (the 3 for trying to take a photo of the mounted police while at a traffic light) expired, so for 17 days I’ve had zero demerit points. I had hoped to keep it that way but alas…

The birthday celebration meant foregoing our Book Club meeting on the other side of town. I spent a couple of hours on Friday recording and annotating what I had read since the last meeting to send off to the group. By Sunday evening, most members of the group had sent me lists of what they had read so I added them to our database.

I had read a fair bit. I finished reading the H.L Marsay Inspector Shadow series and binged last week on the Fiona Tarr Opal Fields series. I had enjoyed the first in the series a while ago, so plunged back in and read No.2-No.6 one after the other. The seventh is out, but I think I've had enough for a while. I'm now on to The Denisovans In the Captivating History series.

Last night I cooked Honey-Soy Chicken and Fried Rice for dinner.  I forgot to take a photo of the chicken. It was tricky to get it cooked through without burning the honey-coated skin. I cooked it in advance while the solar panels were active then heated it covered in aluminium foil. It worked well.

In the meantime I have ploughed ahead wth the Berwick cardigan. I've pinned a section to show the curl.  It's slow-going in the round, but progress is evident. Here it measures 30cm in height - according to the pattern, another 4cm to go before I add steeks for the arms. It still looks huge in width. That's hard to measure, but it's about 1.8 metres around. It won't be too small. More like a coat.  This afternoon, after swimming, I've added another 2cm to the height. With a bit of luck I'll be up to the armhole steeks next week.

.Post 629 Mostly about Presentations.

Unusually, I am putting this together almost from scratch on Tuesday night. It has been a week of preoccupation with getting things done. 

WES Group met on Wednesday to hear a talk on The Development of Church Vestments. Vikki  did a lot of research, and took the trouble to find, amongst many other sources “Church Vestments their Origin and Development” by Herbert Norris, published by J.M. Dent & Sons, which is now out of copyright. It has many beautiful plates that show very clearly the changes in vestments over 2000 years. The photo here is a very early vestment. It is  Mazimiam of Ravenna, in mosaic at St Vitalis Ravenna Basilica. He died in 556. My take on it is that over the centuries vestments got very  complicated, then, in this century, seem to have returned to something close to this early version.

Much of my week has been spent  thinking and reading for a lecture I promised to give to a tour group in Adelaide in August on  The Emergence and Growth of English Embroidery in the Early Medieval Period. I finalised the title and details with the organisers on Thursday. Vikki’s WES  presentation inspired me to search for out-of-print sources I could use for illustrations. 

I found a few but not enough. I then decided I could sketch some of the designs I wanted to show. I spent a day with a variety of circle shapes, a ruler and my own freehand, making sketches of symbols like the triquetra

or the Gosford Stone Cross in Cumbria, and a pattern that appears to emerge from a. cloth remnants in archeological digs. 

I won’t win any prizes for drawing, but the drawing might help me explain. I now have  a fair idea of the story I want to tell, and a very jumbled and patchy PowerPoint. 

I’ve decided I need to write it as a prose account, with links to referenced material, then construct the presentation from that, with visuals for the audience and prompts for me. It’s a long time since I’ve worked like this, but I think it’s called for. Slow, but a better result. 

The effort was enough to send me to the Queen St Cafe after Pilates for a late lunch of scrambled eggs, haloumi and asparagus (of course, with a lime milkshake). On Friday morning I visited the dressmaker again, this time taking the orange silk, the habitue lining and the previous dress she made for me. She hopes to have the new dress ready for me in a fortnight, based on the existing one, with the addition of pockets.

'On the weekend, as well as spending hours in the Early Middle Ages (which included more of the RSN History of English Embroidery) I went shopping at Frewville for Monday night- roast pork, potatoes and stir-fried veg. They had some very. decent oysters, so I had a dozen of them for a late  lunch, along with zero alcohol Prosecco and fresh Turkish bread. Delicious , and reasonably healthy.

Yesterday it rained heavily. This didn't help my indoor plants, some of which were looking deprived. They picked up quickly with water. Then, around 10pm, the drip in my ceiling returned. I timed it for an hour, and reported it to the Strata rep, who has lodged a work order.  I suspect this means it's time for a large drip tray in my ceiling.

I’ve also advanced the shawl. I’ve been weighing the wool after each row to calculated how many more rows I can finish. I  estimate about 75. It’s very relaxed knitting. 

I am, however, being distracted by some Easter kits that arrived yesterday. Today I postponed a hairdressing appointment, went swimming around midday, covering 750 metres in half an hour then got to work on the Easter projects,  They are fun to make and I've nearly finished two.  I'll wait till Easter to show them.

Post 625 February is for First Meetings, Family, Friends, Flowers and Food

Wednesday’s sunrise was beautiful. I don’t think it counted as red. I certainly didn’t take it as a warning as I prepared for the first WES Group meeting of the year. It was a good meeting - 13 of us gathered around the table, which was covered with my Sashiko tablecloth, catching up on holiday activity and discussing the ethics of merging cultural designs in embroidery. I thought I had posted the account of this project, but apparently not. I have rectified. 

The temperature is back in the mid to high 30s. It took a while for the Gallery to cool down for our meeting, as we were the first to enter. I met our new Office Manager, who is happy to turn the Aircon on for us in future when she first arrives.

The Crewel Work Company have released the kit and linen for some of the projects from Crewel Work Then and Now,  including the Blue Bird which I loved as soon as I saw it. I have given my copy of the book to the Guild library, which is currently accessioning it. As the Library Team were meeting at the same time as WES, I made a note of the Appleton's wools required for Phillipa’s Then version . and checked my stash. I had 11 of the 51 skeins required. 

On Thursday I called at the Guild again to check if the trading table had any more. I found another 3. Another Guild member offered to search her stash for more - her mother had been into crewel. She found another 8. On the basis that I have almost half the skeins required, and Create in Stitch has a full Appleton's range, I have only ordered the linen. When it arrives I will buy the remaining threads and borrow the book from the Guild Library. If it goes well I’ll have a go at Hazel Blomkamf’s Now version, in cottons.

On Friday Brigid and I had another fitting with the dressmaker, this time the first fitting of the actual garment. It's looking fabulous and should be finished next week. There will be more to come. Back at home I worked on the vegetable bag I've been trying to finish for Brigid's birthday today. I finished it just before midnight on Sunday.  

It folded up as neatly as I hoped, to fit into the Kasia Jacquot bag I had quietly embroidered a few weeks ago for just that purpose.

Now that the vegetable bag is finished I have returned to the Jacquot panels for my craft bags. On Saturday I mounted Olga in a 12" hoop and sorted out the threads I need. The threads were in a bit of a tangle, but are now sorted, and I have enough for this panel. 

I'm still alternating with knitting the shrug. The silk/alpaca  mix is fine for knitting in warm weather. I got a few rows done while we did two more-than-usually-difficult crosswords after dinner on Saturday. 

On Sunday I chickened out of driving to Ukaria for a concert by a group called A Mouthful of Teeth. I’m sure it would have been good, but I just wanted to stay home and read, which I did. It was 35C. Even the bamboo clothes in the load of washing I did dried in 2 hours. I had noticed the publication of the third book by Anthony Horowitz in the Susan Ryeland series, and realised I hadn’t read the second, so downloaded and read it. A little disappointing.

The very large pot of Casula tetragona  on my back balcony ( in the lid of the electric barbecue I bought and abandoned several years ago!) keeps blowing over in any strong wind. The metal base circle on which it is balanced needs to be larger. I keep meaning to go to a nursery to find one. I decided yesterday was the day to do it. Straight after breakfast I assembled the vegetable sausage bake ingredients for dinner. I knew I was missing shallots, and wanted to identify anything else so I could buy them. I went to Frewville for a change - always a pleasure and came home via Barrow and Bench nursery. 

They didn’t have an 

appropriate larger stand. They did, however, have a strange bottomless woven cane circle that I thought might do the job. While it won’t last as long as metal, it works for now and looks good. According to the sales assistant it was intended to go around the base of a Christmas tree!

At the nursery I avoided the plants. No point being tempted when it’s 37C.  I have redeployed the metal stand for the moment for the frangipani.

It is Orientation Week at Adelaide Uni, so all three granddaughters are getting oriented. They seem to be finding their rooms and pathways while avoiding being captured by aggressive club recruitment tactics. Reckon they’ll be rearing to go by next Monday when courses start.

Today I had my annual audiology check up. Very little change in my hearing and my 10 year-old hearing aids are going strong so we have made no changes: a bit astounding, but when on a good thing… 
I drove from the audiologist to the swimming pool - carefully removing my hearing aids to swim 500 metres with no hassles.. 

Brigid’s birthday dinner was at Luigi’s - a fabulous meal that I couldn’t finish. I piked out of birthday cake afterwards - a sugar hit after 9pm is no longer my scene and I didn't think I could resist icecream.

The dinner, however, was special: a privilege to be invited - and to be alive to enjoy it.

Deo gratias.

Post 616 Installation, Lament and Light

This wasn’t the way I had planned to begin this post, and I can’t safely leave a candle burning for long in my apartment, but I feel the need to light one, however briefly, for hope, solidarity, affirmation, defiance and belief. 

Light will triumph over darkness.

The week’s narrative originally focused on Friday’s activity - my 6 hour television installation. Just before 8am  on Friday two young installers/electricians arrived with two vehicles, made several trips from vans to apartment with large boxes, which they then unpacked, piling up the empty boxes.

It’s hard to believe that’s all for one television. 

A couple of hours later, Richard, salesman and project manager, arrived to supervise, with a trainee. A lot of discussion, conversation and construction, dismantling, rebuilding occurred. Around 1pm I downloaded the B&O app and Richard began teaching me how to use the TV. In spite of my fear, it went smoothly. 

At 2pm all four workers were sitting watching me find channels. We were all very pleased with ourselves. 

I discussed my idea of a low cabinet behind the TV to accommodate the cords. The additional power point I had requested had slipped off their worksheet, leaving my dvd  player still on a power board. Lots of phone calls.  When pushed, one of the young electricians reluctantly said if it were his, and he had a cabinet there, he’d stick with the power board for the dvd player. 

After they left around 2.15, I made a coffee and stared at the blank machine for some time, then took myself off to Nordic Design Furniture to discuss a cabinet. David, their designer, agreed to visit at 9.30am the next morning. He arrived at 8.30am(🙄) and left 45 minutes later with a drawing. By 1pm I'd paid a deposit on a Tasmanian Blackwood cabinet to hold cords and the dvd. It will likely take months to build, but will I think be worth the effort and wait.

It was not until well into Friday evening that I plucked up courage to use the remote and navigate through a few free-to-air programs. It worked! Only on Sunday did I try navigating beyond free-to-air, and successfully logged in and opened some apps. There remains a problem accessing Apple products. I can stream iTunes from my phone or iPad, to the TV, but it won't open directly - my punishment for not buying an Apple product! I can only view Apple photos one at a time. I expect to solve these with help at some point.

I took the photo around 8.45pm on Friday night- the calm and successful end of an intense, 37C day, charged with fear and expectations, navigated with compassion and persistence by 4 highly skilled young abovemen. There are even bats returning to feed if you look closely.

The WES group’s last meeting for the year went well on Wednesday. We shared morning tea, news and projects. I didn’t seek  permissions to show everyone’s work, but I think it’s OK to show this section of a large rug one member had finished weaving the day before.

Another member recommended this book, not just for knitters, but any hand- crafters.

I took along the Bishop cushion and bags. It was the encouragement of this group that gave me permission to proceed. Incidentally, the amended bags are on their way from Guangzhou and the cushions from Melbourne.

Sunday was a Book Club Christmas Morning Tea without book discussion.

There were a lot of stories about miscommunication in medical settings and the mis-application of AI, but on the whole we are a cheerful, resilient and problem-solving group. I got up early on Sunday to make gingerbread trees and angels from dough I prepared late on Saturday afternoon and left in the fridge overnight. I like my biscuits crisp- probably leaving them in the oven a fraction longer than ideal. They are definitely crisp. I took a few to Book Club un-iced but when I got home, melted a block of white chocolate and drizzled it over them. They would certainly not pass muster in any cooking competition, but I like the taste. 

Much of the evening was spent knitting while watching the TV news as the BONDI shooting incident unfolded - a shocking and terrible thing. At the moment it looks as if we will rise to the occasion and put in place the necessary controls to maintain our democracy and prevent a recurrence.

Monday dinners are back on. Last night it was 5 of us for party pies, salads chicken and duck legs, Today my first 3 Christmas cards arrived - all from cousins in England! I love the messages they bring. More connection and light!

To cap off the day, around 5pm a piper began playing laments in the Square. I suspect it was the same one who played 3 years ago and stayed well out of sight. This time she (if it was the same one) stayed below several large trees, out of my sight, played for ten minutes and left.

I've spent the best part of today with my two youngest granddaughters, who got their Year 12 results yesterday - a trying time for everyone. While there are minor disappointments, their results are excellent and they will be able to do the courses they're aiming for either at their first or second-choice universities. Which it is will not be known until offers come out on 10 January. Today we went shopping at an Art Gallery and had lunch at Queen St to celebrate. 

They are candles of hope for the future in a fractured world. We are in this together, however old, wherever we are, were born, or are headed. Even as we lament, we remember:

In this world of darkness so we must shine, 

You in your small corner, and I in mine.

Post 612 Projects Galore.

It's jacaranda time again in Adelaide. The best views are driving along streets lined with purple trees, but I can't photograph while driving, and stopping is not usually possible. This is the tree visible from my back balcony. It's slightly to the left of me, behind Di and Theo's apartment.

The native frangipani directly behind me is still attracting a pair of rosellas.  I certainly have a lot  of photos!

Wednesday was another World Embroidery winner. Pat Grummet brought along a wealth of records and photos of an installation, Monday Blues that she and  Richard Brecknock performed as part of the Fibreworks Collective  in Gawler Place Adelaide, and again in Wellington, NZ, in the early 1980s, as an example of textiles as storytelling. They began by installing a clothes line on a vacant city lot, to which they pegged 7 white and 4 blue items - knickers and nappies. Over 10 days they constructed tents, dyed underwear, nappies and cloth (largely sourced from charity shops), adding both tents and clothes each week to show the growth of the family and the work involved.  They printed a leaflet explaining the project to hand out to the public. Pat did all the dyeing, on site. I remember the vacant block. I worked next to it in 1985 and 1986, but missed the installation. I borrowed the photo of the last days of the NZ installation from Pat's presentation. WES Group also provided me with advice on my female bishops bag -  and we have a draft program for next year.  

I

As a result of the bag advice, I went to Spotlight after Pilates on Thursday and bought some plain purple quilting cotton and iron-on wadding, both for lining the bag. On a whim I continued to Grange Jetty for a late lunch. I haven't been for a few years, as it stopped taking bookings and is often crowded.  At 2.45pm on Thursday it was fine and the fritto misto was just what I wanted.

I worked solidly on the bishops bag on Friday and Saturday, finishing it. It has been a bit of a passionate experimental project, and I'm not quite finished with it yet, having ordered a photo-based spin-off print bag, that I may take further. Detail in my embroidery blog.

On Sunday I worked for a bit on Christmas cards before visiting my local Chemist to sort out a couple of prescriptions and buy a new set of simple bathroom scales. The old scales with which I have been persevering no longer give a consistent reading from second to second. It's a bit scary to start again. I had to wait until Monday morning at my usual weigh-in time to see the damage. It looks as if I am about half a kilo over what I've been guesstimating from the old scales - not too bad!

On Sunday afternoon the cold returned and rain set in. I had the heating on again. I returned to my knitting. I'm making progress on the left side of the cardigan. Looks like I was right to order the extra yarn.

Project Christmas Cards got a bit of a boost on Monday. Each year this becomes an exercise of mixed emotions. As well as the list getting shorter, there are checks on those I haven’t heard from, and dread at what I might learn. There are also warm memories. 

I calculated the stamps required and headed to the PO to buy them, as well as posting a parcel.

Back at home I extended the Christmas connection exercise by working through my gmail address book, which I have never culled. I found no new names to add to the card list, but I reduced the number of entries from around 1200 to 530. The vast majority were the contacts of the last 12 years of my paid work with a few old personal business and trades contacts. Most were also entered twice, automatically indexed by both first and second names. Again, it was a sobering exercise. So many people  I was once in regular contact with, and have lost track of, even forgotten. Jobs and organisations that no longer exist. A world that has gone.

Meanwhile, the Kangaroo Paw is blooming on the front balcony.

As Monday dinners at my place are currently off I've had projects spread everywhere. As a number have reached completion I had a bit of a tidy-up. That pile of hoops and frames on the spare bed is now packed. into bags or units and stowed away, left over threads distributed with others of their kind and cards in piles. 

I had also neglected my Book Club picks in my project frenzy, and we meet next Sunday, so I’ve got 2 books to read this week. I was already reading Daffodils and Deadly Deeds, so finished it yesterday and read Garry Disher's Mischance Creek  today, for Book Club. I'll try to get on to the other, Melaleuca, tomorrow. I am ignoring the piles waiting for my exploration of Anglo-Saxon Embroidery, and Women in the British Secret Service! 

The cushion backs arrived today and were all I hoped for: quality linen and easy to apply. The time taken to add the border paid off. The size is good. I had a spare plump filler, and the cushion now provides company for the Elsa Williams crewel bluebird I completed in 2014

Once the cushion was in place I took myself down to my Podiatrist to deliver her the last of my Voices of Women bags, following our recent conversation about life choices. When I got there, the place was closed. Curious, until I realised it was lunchtime. 

The Greek restaurant is a few doors away, so I treated myself to their lunch special - crisp barramundi on a fabulous salad of heritage tomatoes, capsicum and olives., after which the podiatry clinic was open and I delivered the bag.

Now that the Annual Christmas Pageant has brought Santa to Adelaide our Christmas box is back in the Square.

At the eastern end of the apartment, the silhouette of a rosella echoes the shape of the bluebirds.