Post 526 Mad, Mad March.

On Wednesday I went on a gallery crawl with a friend visiting from Sydney for Writers' Week, a chance to reconnect, catch up on a few years, and share our  interest in beautiful things. We began at Art Images Gallery at Norwood where, along with their current Leunig exhibition,  I discovered a few Jane Burbidge plates. 

I bought a bowl from her Lotus collection and a plate from her Seafoam collection. The bowl matches the mugs I already have and makes a useful addition to my breakfast crockery, while the plate will serve a tart or pie. From there we headed up to Crafers and Atelier, for very early afternoon tea and more browsing. 

We were tempted by, but resisted, some lovely damask dresses, but I did succumb to some coral earrings and an Erica McNicoll pot plant holder.

Our last stop was the longest, at Aptos Cruz Gallery in Stirling. There is so much to look at there and I haven’t been for a while. There are always treasures. 

I bought a portable LED light which sits at three angles and recharges via usb. I have numerous lamps, but no power near my stitching chairs. This can be positioned beside me to focus on my hoop. It is also elegant. 

To my surprise and joy, they had a new supply of the champagne flutes I had bought as oddments several years ago. Only one remains of the 3 I bought. I now have 5.

They currently have a very large stock of Japanese crockery.

My final purchase was a single dinner plate.  I now have 3 to use when, as usual, I dine alone - and before I need to run the dishwasher. 

Sadly the deconsecrated church building, in which Aptos Cruz is housed, is up for sale. The owners are retiring. It has been a very special place from which I have had a lot of pleasure.

On our return we met up with another friend for dinner at A Prayer for the Wild at Heart - a truly fabulous day.

As the temperature climbed, Thursday was a chance to catch up on washing, Pilates and to read Jane Casey's The Burning pretty much in two long sittings. 

Friday required a visit to an Endodontist in the cbd. He was detailed and thorough in his assessment. I have a weakness in a crown. Replacement is risky. Options are do nothing or an(other) implant. I see my referring dentist next month, so will talk it over with her.  I have huge respect for this set of dentists and their evidence-based approach. So professional. I caught the city loop bus both ways, getting home as the temperature hit 37C and made myself a ham salad in my new plate.

On Saturday I managed to get to Frewville Foodland before 10am, well before the temperature hit its 40C maximum, and buy plenty of salad stuff, iceblocks and prawns to keep me going through a hot long weekend. It has been Adelaide Cup weekend - and a lot going on, Festival, Fringe, Womad, Writers' Week - with temperature each day over 39C. I caught up with Kilkenny news at dinner on Saturday night, then bunkered down with books and the cockatoo bag, venturing out only briefly for petrol on Sunday morning, while the prices were at the low end of the cycle.

I had the aircon on for 3 days, something I haven't done for a couple of years. It will cost me - but less than going away for the weekend.

The plants are coping, with daily watering. Some, like the Durante, have bloomed again. A few need replacing once the heat has retreated.

I met my neighbour while heading out for petrol. Theo is recovering well with help from a visiting physio.  I've stayed out of their way but Di says he'd like a visit, so I'll see what I can do when it's a little cooler.

I finished the cockatoo bag embroidery on Sunday night and on Monday found lining fabric and blocked the bag. I’ve really enjoyed this one, in spite of stuffing up the punch needle. Detail is in my embroidery blog. What I didn't mention there is that in the construction I made good use of the elegant pincushion Niamh made for my birthday this year.

I found some glass pins that match her French knots and it provided exactly what I needed to create the gussets.

While at the machine I affected another repair to my friend’s orange leisure pants. Voila!

Our current heat is producing lots of cloud. Today, after a cloudy sunrise, and slow start,  I ventured out to Aquafit. I nearly didn't go. Although it's a little cooler (37C rather than 39C!) I was temped to bunker down, but I'm glad I went. It was lovely in the water, the exercises mild and flowing.

In spite of the heat, I've been working on the Kaffe Fassett Aztec cardigan. Getting the many colours right is going to be a challenge once the labels are removed from the balls, so I've set up a colour card to help me. 

There's still warm weather to come, so I might alternate with Sashiko.

Post 524 A lot happening.

 

On Wednesday I had coffee with Panayoula and an early dinner with Lorraine. Lots to discuss with both. Lorraine and I went to Noi, Vietnamese restaurant at Glen Osmond and it was excellent. I want to go again.

With no causal connection, on Friday I spent a couple of hours at Looms of Greece , an exhibition at the Cowandilla Community Room of West Torrens Council, talking to a couple of the organisers about the weaving, Greek embroidery, community museums and conservation. It was a really interesting exhibition and there are lots of shared interests and concerns to follow up on. This example of the border of a weaving was a rare example of embroidery, done in satin stitch, some of it single, some double sided. I’ve promised to try to find out more. I sent Panayoula off to have a look at it on Saturday, its last day.

At Sit’nStitch we farewelled Jennifer, who is moving back to her home state of Queensland where she will be in the heart of her family. We’ll miss her, but now have multiple ways of staying in touch and sharing our interests..

Back at home, I plugged away to finish the Pulled Thread Mat from Christine Bishop's 2022 class, putting the last stitches in on Friday night and ironing on Saturday. I originally had the good idea of making 4-8 of these as place mats. As much as I like it, I will now settle for one.    

Appropriately enough, Friday's sunset drew a line in the sky. 

On Saturday I was woken from a dream at 5.18am by the door buzzer. I scrabbled my way out of bed,  for a moment fearing it was Monday, when our Strata tradesman was coming at 8am to look for balcony leaks. By the time I answered there was no response. A passing hoaxer? A visitor looking for another residence? I’ll never know. I went back to bed but not to sleep. It did ensure I got to the supermarket in time to do a big shop, with just time to unload and put it away before having my 7th Covid shot, an easy matter at my local pharmacy, followed by a sore arm and bouts of overwhelming tiredness for a few days. 

I rested and read the latest Dan and Oscar book Murder at the Leaning Tower until it was time to meet up with family at The Red Ochre Grill for an enjoyable meal with plenty of discussion. Food was a bit slow coming, but we had plenty to talk about. I was shocked to discover Brigid and Veronica had only just arrived in Sydney, where they were staying with my brother and going to Monday’s Taylor Swift concert. Storms in Sydney on Friday had delayed flights all over the country and their Friday flight had been cancelled. They ended up flying via Tasmania (!!) on Saturday, missing an afternoon performance at the Opera House. So stressful!  They are clever, independent, resilient young women, now safely in Sydney in time for their main event. Still a shame for all concerned.

My drive home after dinner was interesting. The Festival and Fringe are in full swing: there are road closures, diversions and swarms of people out and about. Strange to remember the days when I would have been one of them! However, my arm was sore, my eyelids drooping and I fell into bed even as the moon lit up my bedroom balcony.

Sunday, fortunately, was recovery day, watering (still over 30C), a bit of food preparation and project organising.

          

Having finished the Botanical Bee cushion, I had dug out the Duftin Cockatoo punch-needle bag kit I had bought a couple of months ago. I loved the bold cockatoo and thought that, if the punch-needle didn't work I could embroider it anyway.  

  

I got going with enthusiasm. The cockatoo figure is printed on the inside of the bag and the flowers (embroidered) on the outside. I dug out needling equipment and got going, working several hours before I realised that what I was doing was needle-felting, not punch-needle! It was too late to go back, too hard to undo, so I had to work out how to turn what I had - a kind of fluffy crested alpaca- into a cockatoo. What an idiot!    Still hearing my mother's voice For an intelligent child you can be very stupid at times.

I did work it out, but had to finish needle felting the whole bird before I could stitch evenly over it. I must say it would have been harder to cover the dark blue background without the layer of white felting. I'm glad to have it almost finished (bit of repair needed on the tail feathers) so I can put it into a hoop and move on to the flowers. 

Christian, our strata tradie came as arranged on Monday morning, quickly deciding my balcony tiles needed re-grouting. It is a day’s work and they will do all the necessary moving, clearing and replacing of pots and furniture.  Hopefully this will fix the problem of water leaking through the ceiling of the balcony below - unless there is another unseen problem, like no waterproof membrane or leaking pipes. 

 

Monday dinner was a quiet affair. With 2 grandchildren in Sydney for Taylor Swift and 2 at football training we had a quiet meal for 3. I tried out the Chicken with Haloumi recipe using duck. Part of my second order from ArteOtomi arrived - the dress. It’s lovely, and very much a statement. It can be worn with or without the accompanying belt. Without a belt I need to wear a heel. 

Today I picked up a collage poster for Brigid’s 21st from the printer. I managed to repeat one photo in my haste to get it done on time but otherwise it’s pretty good. Tomorrow I will try to get cork board to mount it, but failing that I’ve worked out I can pin or staple it to my blocking tiles. I picked it up before Aquafit, which was again vigorous, and rushing home to reserve a parking space for the cleaner, then shower, dress, change the bed, wash sheets and grab food. It reached 36C by 2pm, so aircon now on. For privacy reasons I am only posting this view of the poster laid out for blocking.

Another busy week coming up, with Brigid's 21st Birthday Party, family to stay, friends visiting for the Festival and Writers' Week, window cleaners, JEMS - and temperatures in the 30Cs.  I also have a Glazig workshop for the Guild's Certificate Course coming up in April, which means I need to have a project and requirements ready for the Guild newsletter by 25 March. I have ideas but no firm project, so better get to it this week. 🙄

Post 452 Mostly birds and bees

It was a busy week with plenty of joy to be had. In spite of the persistent, unseasonal rain the birds were out in force. Since the birds don't practice daylight saving, the peak feeding time has shifted to 6pm. On Sunday evening the lorikeets were back in the trees behind my bedroom. Apparently it is National Bird Week - appropriate.

                    

I was a little late  hearing the cacophony that signalled they were there and the light wasn't great, but I managed a few decent shots.   

The Art auction that I had mistakenly tried to preview a week early was on Sunday. I managed to view the items on the correct Thursday this week. included a painting I was after. As I arrived to view it there was a flock of noisy cockatoos fighting for prime position on a building opposite. This was the winner!

I attended the auction on Sunday, and managed to secure the painting I was after - an acrylic painted in 1977 of Para Wirra, a National Park North of Adelaide, by Christine Lawrence who was an Art teacher at the time at Craigmore High School, which shared a camp site in the Park with another school. Jim taught there for 8 years and we were frequently at the park. Chris Lawrence, a brilliant, inspiring art teacher, later taught all my grandchildren.  The family will enjoy the painting. My brother was also bidding on a couple of paintings and was successful in one of them. 

I picked up both of them this morning, and Brigid called in after Uni to pick  up theirs and take it to its new home.

The World Embroidery Study Group last Wednesday heard from Maria, whose study was triggered by this heirloom bedspread she has. She has spent a year researching Lagartera embroidery and customs - even managing to visit the village this year on the day of the Corpus Christi procession, when villagers hang their embroidered tablecloths and bedspreads over the fronts of their houses as the procession passes by. It was a great session. 

I've progressed my Rococo  Stitch set by finishing what should have been a pincushion, but has turned into a name tag. The pin on the back of this Guild name tag was only attached with tape and fell off. I burned holes in the corners to attach it to the linen.

I created a pocket inside so I can keep a packet of needles in it. That way It will do double service. Now all I have to do is stitch the pouch in which to keep it!

I also finished and sent off a shawl I've been knitting for a friend, but wanted to keep as a surprise.

I haven't completely neglected my brother's vest. It's coming along nicely - and no steeks to dread!  I should have it finished sometime next month. 

Saturday was a plant and bake sale at St Margaret's Woodville, and I went along to get some plants, which are always good. I took my own box and filled it up. I won't mention the scones and diabetic fruitcake I bought as well. 

The plants soon disappeared into corners or spots on my balconies or shelves. I also acquired a couple of indoor plants in clay beads from my Pilates Studio. 

Leanne, the owner is preparing and selling them. She says they are indestructible  - but I suspect she hasn't tried hard enough!  

      

The new plants make for interesting early morning silhouettes on my blind.   

Last Thursday the scaffold went up along our Western  side ready for repair of the facia below our front balconies. This has to be done before painting can begin in a month or so's time.  Yesterday plasterers were working below my balcony . They seem to do the work in small increments across the building so are only in one place for short periods.  In the meantime, we are warned to keep our balcony doors locked at night - the scaffold is, of course, climbable. 

We've progressed the Maureen Holbrook database. There's some tidying and checking to do, and labelling of the hard copy folders. I haven't as yet resolved what to do about the five extra folders.

I called at the Guild yesterday to pick up a book.  The bottlebrush looked even better than last week.

I couldn't resist photographing some of the bees gathering its nectar and pollen. 

I also love the patterns that emerge in the centre of the flowers. Now how would I embroider that?

Quite an eventful week. While I haven't extended my walking, I have kept up last week's pace. Very satisfied with that.

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