Post614 To hear the Angels sing.

It's been a rainy week again here in Adelaide.  We had almost three times our average November rainfall this year, but the first two days of December have been fine enough for the birds to visit and the coming week is shaping up as washing friendly! I have sheets ready to hang out tomorrow.

Last week I  concluded with a comment that I looked like spending this whole week waiting for service people and deliveries. Au contraire, it all happened on Friday!

It wasn't raining when Shane arrived at 8.20am with an apprentice. to locate the roof leak I  had heard last Saturday. About 3 hours later, after removing my temporary manhole cover, inspecting the roof cavity by sticking his head through the hole, teaching the apprentice  to do the same, then working up on the roof for an hour or so, he reported back to me. He had found and repaired a roof capping and a capping on the top of the cement wall of our lift shaft inside the ceiling cavity (which has to be done from the roof as the ceilings are not load-bearing). He wasn't convinced it was the whole culprit. He was right. In the afternoon it rained and the drip was back! It only lasted about 20 minutes. He is recommending installing an evaporation tray in my ceiling, which should stop my drips. It won't, however, ensure the roof is waterproof. I wrote up a report for the Strata Committee and sent it off on Sunday.

No sooner had the roof repairers gone around 11, than the bathroom scales I had ordered arrived. They are certainly solid - and a bit larger than I expected. The tiles in the photo are 12" square. All the instructions assume they are for a doctor's surgery. I'm hoping they really will be reliable. The scale is marked in half-kilos and a bit hard to read when standing on them, and, of course, it doesn’t stay when you step off, but I can just manage it it with glasses on.

I was meant to go out to lunch when the repairers left. I was looking forward to it, wearing a dress, earrings, tights- even a change of handbag to match the dress. At 11.45am, I found a message from FedEx saying they were delivering a parcel between 10.20am and 2.20pm. This I knew to be the Bishops bags I had ordered from VistaPrint and I was anxious to get them.  I attempted to redirect the delivery to the nearby Pack and Send but got nowhere. Neither could I find out what they would do with the parcel if I was not at home.  I have had some bad experiences with couriers taking parcels to difficult-to-access depots. After several unsuccessful phone calls, answered from who-knows-where, and drawing a blank on their website, I cancelled my lunch attendance. The courier didn't turn up until 3.40pm. I could have gone to lunch.  Grrr.

At least, when the package arrived, the Bishop bags were very good and will serve the purpose I had in mind. The story of all the merchandise is in my embroidery blog. 

Also on Friday, B&O negotiated the delivery and installation of my new television on 12 December. In the various spells of waiting during the day I worked on another tote bag featuring a Kasia Jacquot panel, finishing it in the evening.

I find a lot to like in her designs. The stitches she suggests are simple and limited, but because she uses a full 6 strands of cotton, they give texture and dimension. She also has an eye for colour. I was sceptical about the idea of white around the heart - but it works.

I also had another call from my neighbour to check an email she feared was a scam. We spent a good half hour catching up. A lot was ticked off on Friday (at the cost of my lunch!)!

My hairdresser did go ahead and add my Santons to her window display. She sent me these photos on Thursday. I'm chuffed.

Plants on my back balcony enjoy the rain. I left the Vergola open for the early part of the week and closed it for much of the latter part. I paid a bit of attention to the indoor plants and those on the front balcony, which is covered and not reached by rain. I have a few plants I've struck from cuttings, growing in a range of odd glass jars or glasses in clay balls.  I'm especially pleased with this spider plant that I struck from a pup.

On Saturday I acquired more plants from Maggie’s Market at St Margaret’s. It was the last one for the year, so I dropped off some empty pots and came away with 5 plants, all varieties I’ve bought from them before and managed to grow. 

On the way to St Margaret’s I called at the Guild Stash sale. It was good to be there, catch up with a few friends and see the scope of members’ work. I found the basket in the photo above - good for a pot plant. Immediately after explaining I am not buying any more wool until I’ve cleared my stash, I saw these three odd balls and added them to the basket. It is acrylic, which I never buy, with a twist of metallic sparkle. Suddenly, knitting Christmas beanies was back on my agenda. I found a pattern. and began knitting that evening. After knitting about an inch of the band, it occurred to me I might be able to knit a coronet, rather than a beanie. I’d never seen a knitted coronet, but went looking and found a pattern that made use of the beanie band I was knitting.

By Sunday morning I was right into it. Knitting the peaks takes a bit of getting used to, and I made mistakes. I was planning to go to the cinema for a 2pm showing of The Choral, part of the British Film Festival. I was once a regular film goer, but haven’t been since Covid. I wanted to see The Choral, and I wanted to overcome my attendance reluctance. The Strata committee had planned a lunch picnic in the park which I had thought to attend for about an hour before heading to the film, but I ended up trying to master the peaks. I could see from the balcony there were only about 6 people at the picnic - most likely the committee. In the end I just went over and said hello before driving to the cinema. 

The cinema was crowded. Clearly most Adelaideans my age got over their COVID fears before me. The film was excellent, a bit more serious and thought-provoking than I expected. The music was as I hoped, and it was a tribute to determination, spirit and resilience. It did not gloss over the cost of war and its relentless machinery. That’s, I think, as it should be. 

I had intended to go to the 6pm carol service at the cathedral, but the film somehow left me with no appetite for it. I returned home and finished the test-run crown. The photo doesn’t show the sparkle.

It was good enough to wear, and work out improvements. I've been working on the second one, above in the photo. It works much better in a number of ways. I will repeat this one, but I also want to try a variation.

I’m enjoying knitting, especially when there’s a creative edge, but I hanker for an embroidery project, so I framed up another Kasia Jacquot panel, this time Veronka, which I’ve worked before. This time around I mounted it in snap frames so I could see most of the whole, using the Elbesee clamp in a seat stand  So far that’s working well. I haven't done much of it, but it's there to give me a change from knitting. 

I’ve ordered a couple of Kasia Jacquot’s stick-on embroidery patterns for tops. I want to embroider one to go with the pants I embroidered. Yesterday I went looking for a simple black cotton shirt.    I searched online and narrowed my choices down to a chain store that seemed to have several possibles. I wore the pants and tried on quite a few tops, including some men’s. Only one really fit the bill. It’s a cotton/viscose mix. I've also got a pale green linen shirt that might work.

Since it is now December, and Advent, I got down the box of Christmas decorations, made a selection, and hung them on the tree I bought last week. It is neither colour-coordinated, nor themed.

I also hung the Wise Men, star and bird in the mesh of the western fly screen. I don't have a hanging Holy Family, so have sourced one today from Melbourne. It may not be the best crafted, but it will arrive in time for Christmas. I didn't think the blank space was appropriate!

I had some tinsel ropes that now adorn the balcony rail in a haphard fashion. I haven't been down to the Square to see what they look like from below. I’m still finding and trying to remove the prickles in my hands and arm frombrushing on the cactus.The bendy Santa is climbing through the Snake Plant. You may be just able to see the Christmas Spider clinging to the leaf above his head on the right.

It's fairly restrained. I've been selective in choosing ornaments, just enough to capture a bit of history, memory, strength and hope.  There's not much bling.

Until I turn on the candles.

Post 505 Another Busy and Birdy Week.

It has been a fairly busy week again, one way and another, although I have had the weekend largely to myself.

The birds are still active, especially on the native frangipani, which is now in full bloom. Unable to resist, I snapped away at a couple of lorikeet acrobats among the branches on Saturday morning.  In some of the photos the bird was almost vertical - perfect for bookmarks, so I played around, converted 3 of them and sent off a bookmark order to UDesignIt. While I was about it, I converted 3 more to cards and ordered them from Officeworks.                     

Wednesday was the monthly meeting of the World Embroidery Study Group. Maria gave an excellent talk on the origins of Blackwork. Unfortunately, the projection completely failed, in spite of the relentless efforts of Margaret, our tech guru. Maria adapted quickly, working from memory and painting brilliant word pictures. Spanish Blackwork, it seems, did not originate in Spain and was not introduced to England by Catherine of Aragon, although she did play a major part in its popularity. There was a lot of discussion - everyone was interested and engaged. The Guild is mostly about doing embroidery, so I too get nervous when presenting history, but experience shows this group is really interested.                                                                                            

On Thursday, while doing Pilates, I watched a dove in the fig tree, positioning itself to remain partially hidden, while catching the sun.                                                                                                                                                                       I had dinner at friends' place. It was, as always, a truly relaxing time. I picked up Ken's travel pants for mending and set to work on them on Friday. It was quite a challenge and took a couple of days. Ken hasn’t seen them yet, so I will save that story for next week. 

Between Pilates and visiting friends, I called at the Yarn Trader. Since they carry Jamieson and Smith wool from Shetland, I thought I’d have a go at knitting this year’s Shetland Wool Week beanie in their colourway. Shetland mills each produce their own colourway for the beanie, but the time and cost of mailing wool from Shetland is discouraging. The Yarn Trader website indicated they had 5 of the six colours Jamieson and Smith colours..After much searching through their stock, we found 3 and substitutes for the others.                                                                                        Now if I can just finish the shawl….

Niamh and Veronica had a 16th birthday party for their many friends on Saturday, so I did not go for dinner. They bravely invited friends from Netball, from school and from their old Primary school. They were excited to report that people mixed well and had fun. There are lots of photos being developed. I had a weekend of preparing for Monday dinner, some Christmas shopping, finishing off the Advent Calendar I've been making for Brigid and mending the travel pants. I am pretty pleased with all the results. The making of the Advent Calendar can be found in my embroidery blog.                                                                                      

I may have made a mistake by changing to my summer quilt. We have had several cool days and colder nights this week, so I have been using the Huck throw I made a few years ago in addition to the quilt.       There have been plenty of moments of sun. This was the view from the window next to my sewing machine as I worked on the calendar and pants over the weekend. It's warming up for the next few days, but dropping again on the weekend, so I won't put the blanket away just yet.  

My music friends may be interested in a review of last week's Festival of Choirs Finale, published in In Review.

They also had a much better photo than I managed, taken from the balcony and showing the five choirs performing the last number together with Carl Crossin conducting from the centre aisle. I can just pick out Katherine and I.

Today I went to the AquaFit class again, and really enjoyed it. This time I dried off quickly by the pool, put on a dress and drove home sitting on my towel. I had to call at the Post Office to pick up a parcel on the way. That was easy, but I'm not sure waiting to get home to shower and change is the way I want to continue.

The shawl is coming along slowly and with another fairly busy week coming up it may not be finished this week. Still, there is a lot to show for this week's activity.