Post 418 Mostly Sky.

Much of my attention this week has focused on the sky.  It began with my attempts to capture the bats as they come at twilight to feed in the large Morton Bay fig tree in the Square. Left is the best so far.

I have also taken time most days to  enjoy the view from my living area as the sun is going down. 

It has mostly been temperate enough to have the doors open , so I can catch the breeze and sounds of the birds returning to roost - an hour or so before the bats. Another photographic challenge! This group looked like geese or cranes.

Coincidentally, there have been some lovely skies - too good not to photograph.

The Scots, I think, are right to use  'gloaming' rather than 'twilight'. It still captures the idea of 'glow' that was in its Old English root word 'glōwan'. 

I've found this time of day relaxed and peaceful this week, a time for reflection and thankfulness. 

While I've been focused on the sky, I have neglected taking photos of activities. At our Friday Sit'nStitch Barbara blocked her shawl on Susan's design wall, but I didn't photograph it. It looked good but wasn't completely dry when we left. 

Sunday was Anthony's birthday and on Saturday we went to the River Cafe for a birthday lunch . It was a lovely meal and a fun gathering in a beautiful setting, but I forgot to take photos. Monday was the first family dinner of the year at my place. It was a privilege to hear first hand impressions of the first day of face to face learning for 2022.   I made an impressive pastitsio in filo, and had every intention of photographing the table but again, forgot at the critical time. Multitasking seems to be eluding me.

The plants I bought last week are looking splendid on the back balcony, as long as I keep the water up. They droop very quickly if I forget, but reward my attention with harmony and cheer each morning.

What's more, it isn't only the evening sky which attracted my attention this week. This was taken at 8.45am on Monday, looking East.

The sky, however, has not got in the way reading and stitching. The first of the Bush Sentinelle cushions is finished. I have recorded the detail in my embroidery blog.  

I have now begun the second Bush Sentinelle, alternating with continuing the Authorised Version of the Mosaic Carpet Bag. 

It looks a lot  more compact than the first version. It will be interesting to see how it comes together in construction when finished.  

I am being very cautious. I know people with Covid or who are close contacts. My doctor's appointment today was  rescheduled as a phone call and postponed for a couple of weeks so I can get blood tests done. I saw the podiatrist and picked up some printing from Officeworks. I'm still treating my eye about 8 times a day.  Two positive milestones: my weight loss hit 21 kg today; and  I now have enough resources to put together something about the long history of Goddess Embroidery for the WES Group. Better knuckle down and do it!

Post 417 A pouch, plants and stitching progress

It's been another quiet week. I like quiet weeks. The most excitement was that Shafaq and Ali arrived back in Australia safely after their flying trip to Pakistan to visit Ali's terminally ill father. They have tested negative to Covid twice since arriving back a week ago. They bought me two of these phone pouches.  I am delighted to know their family is safe and well, and delighted to have the pouches. I spent some time earlier in the week looking for a similar one amongst my bag collection. I thought I had one somewhere and couldn't find it. I had put on a loose summer dress with no pockets, and needed a way of keeping my phone on my person. 

Voilà!

After Pilates on Thursday I called at Bunnings and  bought some more plants for the empty planter boxes on the Eastern balcony. 

I haven't as yet replaced the seed container that blew away in the winds last month.  

One of the doves has resorted to extracting seed from the portulaca.  

I don't think the new plants will help out on that front!

The other bit of good news is that my Vergola is once again operating. The abseilers have gone, taking their coverings with them. The new plants don't show up very clearly - but the idea is blend into the landscape.

I've continued attempting to capture a photo of the bats in flight as dusk. This is the best result so far. 

I've done a bit of checking as well. These Adelaide bats are the biggest in the world, with a wing span of 1metre. They roost during the day at the Botanic Gardens, and feed at night in the Morton Bay Fig tree in our Square. 

Barbara joined us stitching on Friday. We were all knitting. That's a little unusual in the height of an Australian summer, but somehow we've all landed here. 

Susan helped me work out what I should have been doing with the Mosaic bag. I think we've got it sussed.  I have written the story of the bag to date in my embroidery blog  In summary, this is the completed adapted bag. I am now working it as it should have been worked. 

It turns out to be very easy to knit when you know how!

I have not, however, abandoned embroidery.  I've been working on creating some large embroidered cushions using the Bush Sentinels, created by  Dijanne Cevaal during the 2020 bushfires. I am writing more about these in my embroidery blog, since there's a lot to work out, but in the meantime, these are the fabrics, which arrived this week.

I've been on a bit of a roll in the last few days and have  progressed one figure. 

I also finished reading a pre-publication copy of The Way From Here  by Jane Cockram, to review for NetGalley. In spite of it switching back and forth between several time-frames, a technique that I don't much like, I was very moved by and engaged with it. It unravels the secrets of women across three generations. The woman of the oldest generation is Nellie. Part of my engagement came from the fact that I am trying to tell the story of my maternal grandmother, also Nellie, and struggling in the process with her family secrets, some of which she knew and tried to share obliquely with me, some of which belonged to earlier generations and were probably not known to, but undoubtedly impacted, her. Jane Cockram has done an extraordinary job  of creating a world in which many women's experience and secrets are made manifest. My goal is much simpler - to tell what I know of my grandmother. It has helped me immeasurably on many fronts to have read this book.

This time two years ago I was preparing to travel to Stratford for the retreat that initiated this blog. An email this morning from Genevieve indicates I am not the only one missing the gathering of those friends. While we can't gather, I am so grateful for and enriched by the ongoing friendships.

Post 416 Between the Balcony and the Guild

This has been a quiet week. Wednesday was Australia Day - fraught with debate about recognition of First Nations, colonialism and nationalism. It's never held meaning for me or my family.  This year I stayed in, read and stitched. I did manage a session on my Everfit  vibration plate

Thursday was Pilates Day.  I was pleased to go, and enjoyed it - four of us, each on our own piece of equipment in a very large space. Afterwards I called at the Guild to pick up the three portable lights I had left to be tagged.  Two were successfully tagged. The third, a small expanding light with a USB plug, was not.  

I realised that what gets checked and tagged is the plug and connection, not the item itself. I had not included the plug. Damn! 

Never mind. I can manage easily with the other lights.

I did a bit of survival shopping on the way home.

The day was topped off by some great sunset visuals - including (above) the returning bats.

A friend had given me a scented candle for Christmas. I'm wary of candles in the apartment, but thought it appropriate on Thursday night to light it on the balcony for a while in recognition of Holocaust Memorial Day. Lest we forget.

Roughly a third of the girls at the high school I attended from 1959-63 were Jewish, many the daughters of the 31,000 holocaust survivors who settled in Australia after the War, or as pre-War refugees. While we did not actively explore backgrounds or culture through our education, I am grateful to have known them, made friends, learned together,  and grown in understanding. It was a rich experience.

Friday should have been our Sit'n Stitch but was called  off because Susan is isolating as a close Covid contact - still, thanks be, clear! I spent the day reading a section of my brother's latest book-in-progress and gathering the requirements for Saturday's Certificate Course Workshop (two this month because there's a fifth Saturday!), which was on Gingham Lace with Carol Mullan.  Detail is in the link, which is to my embroidery blog.

I've done quite a bit of this. I love it and have more to learn.  Carol encourages experimentation. I worked and extended a motif she provided. I've continued to play with it, using white, mauve and a darker purple thread and varying the dominant colour in the fabric.

White thread remains my preference, but the variations are all interesting.

After our plentiful meal on Saturday, eaten outside while the cats relentless pursued a tiny mouse through the bushes, Katherine and I caught up on the week while most of the family was glued to Ash Barty's Australian Open match. It's a good story and a much needed lift to spirits in a tense time of rising Covid infection and death. The joy is as much in Ash Barty's generous and sane attitude as it is in her tennis.

We had notice that SA Water would be working on local infrastructure all day Sunday with likely water cut-off from 9-5. I had jugs, watering cans and sinks full of water in case needed, but if the water was off I didn't notice. There were diggers, men, trucks and noise in the street for about an hour but the tap worked each time I tried. 

In the early afternoon, I was on the front balcony with a glass of soda water which appeared to shatter in my hand. I wasn't aware of dropping it, but it broke, hit the ground and smashed everywhere. I had bare feet and managed to step back through the door in one movement to put shoes on. As I was doing so, I found blood running down my leg. It seems one piece of glass had penetrated my shin. There was a lot of blood, but the cut wasn't deep. Once I'd stopped the bleeding I managed to get the glass cleaned up and disposed of. After a lifetime of going barefoot both inside and in the garden, I have been unusually careful, since living here, to put shoes on when going onto the balconies. The lapse cost! 

On Monday I had coffee with Panayoula - picking up, as always, where we left off, ever on the same page. I went on to Unley to get some fruit and veg, and then to Barrow and Bench to get some potting mix and plants in preparation for Tuesday, when Fionn came to help me for a few hours with a bit of a mad idea.

First we went to Adair's and bought a replacement plant stand. Then, back at home, we dismantled the electric barbecue I bought about 3 years ago. It sat on my balcony. The last time I tried to use it - at least 18 months ago - it blew my fuses. I haven't tried it since and tossed up between getting an electrician to look at it, or getting rid of it. At the time I bought it, it seemed like a good idea, but I don't really need it, and the safety issue bothers me.

I now have a new plant stand on my front balcony. When the creeping ficus grows it will hang over the edge, and the geraniums should give a burst of colour.

We cleaned up and removed all the dead plants,  replaced them with yesterday's purchases and cleaned up the mess. The balcony is looking pretty good.

I'm hoping for no bursts of temperature over 40C this month.  

The lid of the barbecue is now  on the back balcony, on the replaced stand, full of salvia and geraniums, and we've added another low bowl of the same. Again, we removed the dead plants.

As a result, I have several empty flower boxes on this balcony, so can buy a few more pots of instant colour.

I'm really pleased with this morning's work. I had expected it to be more difficult. We took the electrical components of the barbecue to Bunnings electrical recycling bin. 

Fionn also helped me turn my mattress - a job I simple can't do on my own. Our annual fire alarms checks were today, after the gardening. All good.

I've been trying to capture the bats returning on and off this week. Tonight I sat with my DSLR after sunset waiting for them. The photos were total rubbish. The bats are much faster than my camera at dusk. This one with my iPhone is the best.

I have made some progress on the second side of the Fair Isle bag. I'm nearly half way through and should have it finished within the week. I think I have worked out how the pattern should be knitted to achieve the product illustrated. When this is finished I might have another go, trying it as I suspect it was intended. 

If I'm not enticed away by another project.

Post 253 Mostly rabbits, a seagull and a bat

This morning I removed the pins from the 2 blocked Rabbits panels and joined them together before placing them on the cushion cover. It was only then that I realised I would need to complete the hillocks on either end. Otherwise the hillocks end suddenly before the end of cushion front.  I should have thought of this before blocking - even before taking the panels out of the hoop.

I had been intending to attach the panel to the cushion this morning and take the completed cushion to Sit 'n Stitch to show my friends.

I set to work to finish the hillocks. I had put away the green wools, so had to find them and match the colours, sketch on the hillock shape and get stitching.

When it came to time to leave for Sit'n Stitch, I had just finished the hillocks. Although I frequently work without a hoop, just holding embroidery in my hand, it's not an easy way of working crewel, because it is difficult to manage the tension. This however, had to be worked in hand because it is at the edge of the fabric.  Reluctantly, at this point, I decided to leave this at home and take my knitting to Sit 'n Stitch.

I had decided not to rush to the Post Office to pick up the parcel I missed yesterday but to pick it up on my way to Sit 'n Stitch. I only needed to drive around the block once to get a parking space outside the Post Office. When I got to the counter, I discovered the parcel had been taken to another Post Office, not my nominated local one. I had not checked the notification, just assuming it was my nominated one. So I drove the 2 km to the Hutt St PO and got the parcel.

It was, as I had thought, the Jos Hendriks book on Assisi work. I didn't have time to read it, as I was already late for Sit'n Stitch. I have now had a quick look but still haven't had a serious read. It looks as if it might prove to be the basis of yet another World Embroidery Study Group discussion. There are wahat look like useful chapters on the history and style as well as beautiful colour designs. It is not a workbook.

At Sit'n Stitch I helped Jennifer cut out two knitting needle rolls before I got on with my knitting.  

On the way home I swung past the beach. It was sunny, but windy. Relaxing to breath sea air. 

I had to slow for a seagull on the road. 

Back at home I read an article about a Queensland farmer who planted 40.000 sunflower seeds on his property and created a message to be seen from the air, to cheer people up.  

My single pot of sunflowers have a similar effect!

The sun went down a bit like thunder tonight and I was just in time to catch a bat returning to the bat roosting tree.

After dinner I got to work attaching the rabbits. It took about 3 hours.

This, I think, finishes the cushion. I have 3 more pieces to add to the skirt (one finished) and the feathers to attach (currently pinned) before the final panel on the centre back of the chair.

I suspect I might end up adding something to the front panels of the arms.