Post 637 The sky clears a little

On Wednesday I had an optometry appointment, the first with the replacement for the brilliant optometrist I’ve been seeing for around 5 years, who has recently enrolled full time in a Doctor of  Medicine course. To my relief, her replacement promises to be as good. He was thorough, thoughtful, knowledgeable and listened. My eyes are stable, I’ve now added a non-steroid cream to the nightly regime and will see him in six months time. 

Rather than rush home and change for swimming. I stopped at the wetlands on the SE corner of the parklands, and went for a walk. I haven’t been for a long time and a lot had been done - plenty of fallen timber arranged for animal visits and habitat.       

Most of the birds can be heard rather than seen, but the lorikeets were in view, as well as a wandering noisy miner. I managed 23 minutes before the rain came. I didn’t stop to photograph the magpies strutting in the rain.

Before Pilates on Thursday I had an appointment with my orofacial pain clinician to do the preparation for a new night mouth guard.  We had agreed on the timeline 12 months ago. The technology has changed significantly. Instead of biting into goo, creating a plaster cast, on to which the plastic is  moulded,  the clinician used a laser pointer to scan the inside of my mouth in great detail, projecting an image on to a computer screen. It took a while until she was happy with the scan. She is now using that to print me a 3D mouth guard! I'm very impressed. I return in 2 weeks to fit the guard.

Although I went to bed at a reasonable time, I made the mistake of reading another chapter of R. L. Marsay's A Christmas Shadow.  I had enjoyed the first 5 in the series, then set them aside. I've now returned.  My Kindle dropped out of my hand just before 2am. 

That left me a little tired on Friday, but, after running short of stitch markers for the Berwick cardigan, I ventured to the Needle Nook. Their online listing of  packets of stitch markers proved wrong. I selected 50 of these pins from a paperbag on the counter, handed over $5 and had a conversation with Hugh about steeking before taking myself determinedly to the swimming pool to swim laps. The markers do have the advantage of being wire rather than plastic.

The City Council had given notice of a road closure this weekend to remove a crane - the one that has appeared in my sunset photos for at least 2 years, and which curious readers had asked about. 

On Saturday I photographed the sunset towards the northwest at ten past five (above). Ten minutes later, directly west,  (right) the crane was still moving.

By the time I left for dinner at 6pm there was an additional crane in place (left) - clearly the move was on.

Dismantling a crane is evidently a major work. All day Sunday the cranes were slowly moving, 

Structures appeared above and below and only occasionally could tiny human figures be seen, dispelling the sense of a giant robot.

No wonder there were road closures!

At 3.15pm on Sunday. the cage that had evidently been inside the building supporting those tiny figures, was lifted out and manoeuvred to the street below. At that point I lost track, focused on finishing another book and progressing the Berwick cardigan. 

It was dark when I next looked - and there was no blinking light to warn planes. The job, I guessed, was done. When I checked in the morning, for the first time in recent memory, there is no crane on the grey building. The smaller one on the Credit Union building next to it is now the only one currently in view. 

I doubt it will be long before more appear.

We had a jolly crew of eight for dinner on Monday. I wasn’t happy with the crackling on the pork but everything else I deemed successful. I either need to buy from a different butcher or adapt to the way the current butcher is now cutting.

I slept exceptionally well last night and got a couple of rows of knitting done this morning before heading out to swim.

The Berwick cardigan has, as I hoped, stopped curling now that the pattern contains both knit and purl stitches. The edge will straighten when the band is added - and I will also block it.  Progress is still slow. I'm far enough into the 40 line pattern to see where it is going but I need to constantly check, and frequently have to undo several stitches. With 405 stitches in each round, it takes a while. It is, however, progress!

Post615 Art, Craft and Nature

 One way or another, there's been quite a bit of art and beauty this week. I treated myself to these Pyrethrum daisies on Thursday. They looked so cheerful and I could see them in this  vase. They are drooping in the heat and won't make it to the weekend.

This week the honeyeaters have been out in force, this one in the honey locust tree behind the apartment. This morning the one on the left was less picturesque in the native frangipani, 

but probably keeping out of the was of the noisy miner claiming territory on the other side of the same tree.

I spent much of the early part of the week thinking about 

an item in the catalogue for the Elder's auction on Sunday. It was a maquette of a statue in Rundle Mall,  Girl on a Slide by David Howie (left). It was a favourite of Jim's. He always said it reminded him of Katherine.

I went to a  viewing on Thursday after Pilates, and took the photo on the right. It was clearly an early maquette (since it hadn't been used!) with the general shape, but little detail. The figure was roughly 6"-7" long. While not what I call beautiful, it is a great piece of history. I talked it over with Katherine and thought long and hard. In the end I decided it belonged in a museum and not in my home. I nevertheless went to the auction to see the outcome. It sold for $2200, towards the lower end of the estimate. I'm glad it sold. I hope it informs the history of Adelaide Art.

On Friday I took myself off to the Museum and Art Gallery. I did a bit of Christmas shopping and had lunch at the Museum. I sampled the upper galleries of the Art Gallery, delighted to see these silhouettes on display. I can remember how many years ago I first saw this, but it made me smile then as it did this week.

I also bought a copy of Jenny Aland's History of the SA School of Art, which is the oldest in Australia, having begun in 1856. Jenny worked with Jim in the Education Department and since retiring from there, continues her work with the for the Arts.

It's a remarkable, monumental, achievement and I'm enjoying dipping into it.

I hadn't managed to plant much of what I bought last weekend at St Margaret's Market. as I had run out of potting mix. As fanily dinner was back on here on Monday, I went shopping on Satuday for moussaka ingredients, then on to a nursery. As well as potting mix  I bought a Bay tree, and a wicker balcony basket.  When I got home I parked the nursery purchases and spent the afternoon making the moussaka. I once did this over two days, but have now got it down to 4-5 hours. It takes it out of me - but with a sense of achievement. It went down well on Monday night and felt good to be back in this routine.

 

On Monday I got up early and, in my nightdress, got stuck into planting. The Bay tree is on the lower right. I managed to rearrange the baskets on the rail to fit in the new wicker one, repotted a couple of spider plants that were badly pot-bound, and potted up the plants from St Margarets. The nightdress went into the laundry basket, I showered, dressed in proper clothes and vaccuumed the carpet where my feet had traipsed soil. 

I  also finally ventured into the Square to see what my tinsel balcony decoration looked like from below. I didn't much like it, so today, after coffee with Panayoula in Dulwich, I called at the Heirloom Christmas Shop and bought a big red bow.

Much better.

The hanging nativity  arrived. It will do for this year, but I'm hoping to find one in the future that lets light through.

Five days ago the Bishop of Grafton announced the appointment of Tiffany, a new bishop for the diocese. I've managed to add her name to the embroidered bag, and spent many hours trying to adapt and adjust photographs to have more bags and cushions printed. It's a tricky process when dealing with multiple photographs. I have both bags and cushions orgered. When they arrive I'll know whether I managed it, and will tell the story.

And  10 minutes ago I finished knitting the sparkly acrylic yarn and writing a blog post. This is the result.

Emails and messages have begun arriving in response to my Christmas cards. I love getting these. They lift my spirits. 

It's been a busy, but satisfying week.

Post 597 Birds, bookmarks and a couple of exhibitions

Having spent last Wednesday reading and pottering, I was about to catch a few minutes of late afternoon sun when I noticed this noisy miner perched on my western balcony rail, surveying the Square. Birds rarely visit this balcony, so I was careful not to disturb, observing from inside until it flew away.

On the eastern balcony, however, the doves are visiting most days, exploring the new plants. They seem to approve. 

I am now booked to repeat the Mexican Embroidery gig at the Guild’s General Meeting in March next year. The technology arrangement should have improved by then.

On Thursday, just before Pilates, the post brought a bracelet from the Heart Research Foundation. I have agreed to take part in a data-gathering exercise. It involves wearing a bracelet for one week to measure directional movement. I put it on straight away - exactly 12.00pm, and will take it off at the same time next Thursday  to mail it in the return envelope provided. 

After Pilates I called at the Guild to catch one of the organisers of the pre-Christmas fund-raiser, who had asked for donations of Christmas ornaments and bookmarks. I have a supply of cardboard bookmarks I have had printed. I punch holes in them, add ribbon and use them as gift tags. The recipient gets a message on the back, and can use it as a bookmark if they read in hard copy. 

I wasn’t sure if these would be acceptable  for the sale, or whether they needed to be embroidered. Turns out they are acceptable, so I’ve been busy adding ribbons or cords. I expected to have to buy ribbon, but found enough bits and pieces in my stash.  A metre or so of  complementary silk ribbon helped a lot, once I ironed out the kinks. I now have 48 bookmarks ready to hand over.  

I also finished making a Santa ornament today (detail in my embroidery blog), and have a couple of other things in mind. 

On Friday I finally got myself organised to visit the Dangerously Modern Exhibition at the Art Gallery. It is really,  really good. As I expected, it is far too much to take in in a single visit, so I settled for a 40 minute walk of the whole exhibition, reading enough to get an idea of themes and pausing when something caught my eye (a lot!). I got to the end as my sciatica kicked in, so sat for a bit in front of Stella Bowen’s fabulously evocative  Embankment Gardens c1938, thinking that this was as my father, and other young Englishmen and women must have known the Embankment when war broke out in Autumn 1939. 

There is so much of interest here. I’m pleased I bought a season ticket. Amongst my favourites were the Margaret Preston Harbour Bridge, most of the pottery and Josephine Muritz-Adam’s A Gypsy belle c1896. 

The exhibition has another 5 weeks to run and I’ll try to get back a couple more times. I bought the excellent catalogue to be better prepared, before managing to find a table to enjoy what must be the best Caesar Salad in Adelaide.

Dinner on Saturday night was rich in food and netball news. The cat community will have been kept up to date by the silent presence in the corner.

The rest of my weekend was spent shopping for ingredients for Monday’s moussaka, and cooking the same. I usually get the ragu underway on the top of the stove, then slice and bake the eggplant. When both are done, I assemble the layers in a baking dish before making the sauce - a bechamel to which are added Kefalagraviera cheese (while the sauce is still hot) and egg yolks (once the sauce is cool). I then add the sauce to the top and refrigerate.

For some 50 years I’ve made this the day before  then baked it for an hour before serving. On Sunday, however, my sharpened awareness following recent food poisoning publicity made me pause to think about the egg yolks in the sauce - the only thing uncooked in the dish. Should I really leave them uncooked overnight? A bit of checking suggested a 24 hour maximum. To be absolutely sure I changed the habit of 50 years and baked the whole dish, before refrigerated it, then reheated it for dinner on Monday. Paranoid? Probably. But not sorry.

In between the overcast skies there were a couple of brilliant sunrises. I caught one as the bats returned to  Botanic Park from their overnight feeding. 

Both were gone 10 minutes later.

August is SALA month - South Australian Living Arts, when artists display their work in shops, public spaces and anywhere there's space. The Unley Shopping Centre has turned a vacant shop into a Gallery for the duration, showing the work of Bill McSwain. It looks great - lots of native birds, some in landscapes.  Also ceramic dishes.

I've observed with interest from outside. I have no wall space left and do not want to be tempted.. 

I have another busy week coming up - hostess duty at the Guild tomorrow, a birthday dinner on Thursday, my new bathroom cupboards arriving on Saturday morning, a concert in the afternoon and dinner with a visiting friend on Sunday. Not to mention knitting. 

Carpe diem.

Post 503 Preparing, Relaxing, Enjoying.

It began as a week of getting jobs done, catching up on things I have been putting off. On Wednesday I went to the hairdresser, hung the photograph I had framed a few weeks ago, and prepared my tax.

Many thanks to the friends who provided advice on carpet cleaning. That was helpful, supportive and useful. I haven't as yet acted, but I will. Next week I plan to visit Bunnings to investigate further. At the moment I am favouring buying a small carpet shampooer. 

On Thursday I took the plasters off my back and got back to Pilates (not in that order!). On the way I called at Bunnings and bought potting mix, some dianthus, a couple of wheel platforms for pots and some wall hooks that hold weight and don't require tools to install. I haven't heard back from my former picture hanger, so decided to see if I could do it myself. 

The mirrored mosaic I bought a few weeks ago weighs 4.2kg. I used a 7 kg hook for plasterboard walls and followed the instructions. 

 It's holding up firmly.  The lovely pinky watercolour visible in the left of the photo is by Brigid. I moved it to where it now is so it can be seen from the corridor. It goes well with the Ruth Tuck watercolour above it.

It was formerly on the corridor wall where I have now hung Colleen's Green Parrots and Ginger Jar (above left). I think it all works - and I did it myself! 

I also made adjustments to a bark Wandjina painting that hangs over my bath. A couple of the hangers (removable adhesive so as not to damage the tiles) had fallen off, so it hung askew. My efforts were not of a high standard, as I did not want to climb in the bath while on my own, but I did manage to support and straighten it.

The two books on Mexican embroidery that I ordered after seeing the Frida and Diego exhibition arrived (separately) this week. I'm hoping that someone in the WES Group will be inspired to investigate and tell us about it sometime next year. The Guild Museum has a decent collection of Mexican embroidery.

The Goodman book has a lot of very helpful information about stitches.

Birds are still active and I am trying to resist too many photos.  I can't claim to have been successful in that.

I finished off the Christmas bags - adding the ribbon to the last one. I also stopped off at DK Fabrics on Thursday and bought some black zips, one of which I used to turn the embroidery from Christine Bishop's Romanian Braid and Needle Weaving workshop in March of this year, into a pouch. I found some raw silk, from a suit I once had, to use as lining, so it could be used for storing pearls, or other jewellery. 

It was a long weekend in much of Australia, our State included. My brother and sister-in-law arrived on Sunday for a week's visit - the first since COVID hit, so much of the early part of my week was taken up with preparations. They had a busy week (including two surprise birthday parties in 48 hours) before their (inevitably delayed) flight. 

It is fantastic to have them here. We have been catching up with each other and visiting the Kilkenny mob. Katherine hosted a family lunch for 10 yesterday which was fabulous in every way, from the conversation, shared experiences and empathy to Anthony's wonderful lamb roast, vegetable smorgasbord and Katherine's pavlova.  

I now have an advance copy of Jim's latest book, which is to be released on 30 October. I'll provide more details closer to the date.

Meanwhile, Margaret is making the most of the hap stretcher, stretching a navy shawl she finished a year ago for herself. It is even more complex than her last. I hope she will wear it to our December WES meeting when we discuss knitting.   

For those following the progress of my latest shawl,  I'm now on to the 7th of the 8 required 28 row patterns. 

Finally, two more books arrived today from Can Do Books. Textile Portraits looks a bit ambitious, but Japanese Knitting Stitches looks as if it has some achievable, interesting stitches - to add to my list of things to try!