Post 58: Mending

Yesterday's rain limited the dove's visit and the seeds I put out got wet. She was back today to retrieve them, even though they had swollen. She was comfortable enough to sit for quite a while in an empty flower box.





While she surveyed the scene, I got out my darning mushroom and some 2 ply wool, and mended the Uzbekistan slipper socks.







It took a while and it doesn't look elegant, but it is on the sole , not the top. It's interesting that the first mend has felted - no doubt from friction as it rubs on the floor.


Next job was making another batch of ANZAC biscuits, this time using the recipe my mother used - from the Commonsense Cookbook. Over the years I have annotated my copy, to mark conversions from ounces and cup measurements to grams, and also to note a severe reduction in the amount of sugar.

The recipe was similar, but not identical to the one I used two days ago. Butter, flour and oats were the same. Sugar was less in today's recipe (and my variation less still) as was Golden syrup. Coconut was a quarter of a cup more, and bicarbonate of soda half a teaspoon more today. The mixture turned out to be too dry. I added more butter and a little more syrup. I think this was a problem last year as well. They turned out OK - but a bit dry. I think the texture of the last batch was much better. I reckon this is mostly the result of the extra bicarb. I no longer have the Nursing Mothers' Cookbook, which is what I think I used for many years for my ANZAC biscuits. Batch 1 is definitely my preference so far.  I may yet have another try.



I was waiting all day to hear news of Jennifer's progress in the Perth ICU. I had an anxious moment when the WA Premier announced another death overnight from a cruise ship. It turned out to be a man who had been on the Artania. It is a terrible and cruel thing to feel relief.

Eventually I got a message on my network grapevine that Jennifer is still on the ventilator, but breathing herself. Doctors intend, if she remains stable, to take her wholly off the ventilator tomorrow. She will need to remain in ICU for 24-48 hours after that, then in a respiratory ward for at least a week, followed by some time in rehab.  It's a slow process - but it is a way forward to recovery.
The sun was out this afternoon and I spent a lot of time on my balcony with the plants Jennifer gave me.  They are doing well. The aspidistra was divided earlier this year from one I gave Jennifer in 1987 when she succeeded me in a Deputy Principal's job. When Jennifer moved to an apartment last year she asked me to look after it. Earlier this year another friend divided it into 3 parts and we each took one. The begonia also came from Jennifer. Earlier this year she suggested I cut it back,which I did. It has lots of new growth (top right). The small, thriving plant at the bottom right is a cutting from that plant, now expanding its leaves. These plants look so good today. I'm hoping Jennifer is similarly mending.


I spent more time on the balcony contemplating plants today than I did stitching but I managed to finish off the leaves to the right of the squirrel and make inroads into the foliage to the left.













This is where I am now up to. I reckon another two days of stitching will see me ready to scroll up to the lower section of the linen.

Post 47 Pigeon and parrot

A leisurely beginning to the day. It was a sunny morning So I took my breakfast out on the balcony. I moved inside when I’d had enough sun and in time to take a call from my brother that moved from phone to FaceTime so I could see the apple crumble he was about to take out of the oven. It did look good! 

I must have left crumbs from my breakfast on the balcony because I had a visitor. She was very persistent, coming back twice to check for more. In the four years I've lived here I've had birds sit on the balcony rail, but haven’t seen a bird walk around the balcony like this. Odd that it should come now - an anti-isolation bird!

I observed the pigeon from a chair just inside the balcony door. It’s a favourite of mine. From here I can see the balcony and sky, but also some favourite art works. I love the play of light on them






The two paintings at the top are of the Fauldings factory behind the West End Brewery in Adelaide. They were painted by Holly McNamee, an artist and art teacher in Adelaide in the 1980s and 90s. She has now moved back to the Maitland area of NSW where she grew up.  I bought the one on the right at the opening  night of her exhibition at the Greenhill Gallery in North Adelaide in 1987. I was principal at Gepps Cross Girls 'High School at the time, and a few days before the exhibition,  a fire in the early hours of the morning had caused over $1 million damaged to the school. I had been called in at 4am and was taken into the burning building.

These paintings of Holly’s seemed to be a symbol of all that had happened that week. We couldn’t afford both of them, but I bought the one on the right, and years later was able to buy the other one.





I bought this Wangina by Waigan Djanghara at an Elders auction in 2018.. Wangina are cloud and rain spirits in the Kimberley region of WA. I love the simplicity and solidity of this one.





This Sepik River story board Jim and I bought in 2011 or 2012 at the StrathalbynAntiques Fair. Tim Wannacott opened the Fair and as fans of Bargain Hunt we went to catch a glimpse.


In the afternoon I followed the sun to the Western balcony. I don't like moving my Lowery frame with the Crewel work parrots out on to the balcony, and I wasn't in the mood for the concentration of  Fair Isle, so I picked up a project I've been working at the Guild's Basics to Beyond Group. I can't see that group meeting for months, so I progressed the counted work I'm doing there.

I'll explain more about it one if and when I take it further.



My brother and sister-in-law had been asking me about how people were exercising in Adelaide.  I get a bit of an idea from my balcony.  One woman walked her dog around the Square, then sat on a bench and let the dog walk in circles around the bench on its long lead.











This young woman did resistance training in a harness against the pull of her partner. There was much mirth.













It was hard to photograph this group of five who formed a very wide circle, 2-3 metres between each participant, and did exercises with ribbons. Unfortunately, there was a tree in my way but if you look carefully you can see three of the five participants.

From time to time a parent would cycle or walk around the Square with children on scooters or bicycles.

It was certainly not crowded and everyone appeared to be practising distancing.



Margaret sent me the photos of her lectern fall in place in the Glenelg Catholic Church on Saturday night's video vigil. It looks even better in situ.

Earlier in the day Andie, a member of the World Embroidery Study Group, had sent me the PowerPoint she has prepared on Embroidery for book binding.  I'll send it to members in a few day's time.





It was a bit of a Disney sunset tonight, whether viewed from outside










or in.


I've been working on the left Parrot and nearly finished it tonight. There are a few bits to finish which I think will be better done in the morning.

I wonder if the pigeon will be back then too.

Post 45

Several good things happened this morning. My son-in-law sent me a text message to say the hot cross buns were outside my door. In addition to the hot cross buns there were two bunches of stock. Such fabulous colours and such a lovely perfume.


The buns were really delicious, moist and full of fruit.




I had them with coffee after a phone call from my friend Lorraine. We had a bit to catch up on.


The succulents I checked on the other day have progressed further. The new plants seem to be well established. Even though Easter is in Autumn in our part of the world, there is still new growth.

The zygote has still more flowers and is looking splendid.


Today I planned to go for a walk in the Hameji Gardens, in the parklands a couple of blocks away. Even though it is close by, I originally planned to drive there and only walk in the gardens themselves. At the last minute I changed my mind and walked, not along the main road, but through back streets. Just before I reached the gardens, I tripped on an uneven footpath and fell hard, blocking my fall with my knees and hand.

A young man came along and, from a distance, asked if I was OK. He said "I just want to come over and help you". I said "Please don't!".  He asked questions from a distance and I showed him that I could stand and put weight on my knee, which is where it hurt. I promised him I would go straight home and put an icepack on my knee.  Which I did.

It was a remarkable encounter.  Two strangers, decades apart in age, adjusting to connection and kindness in this world of infection. I was very touched.

I am OK. I have a bruised knee, and it will be sore for a day or two. I will, for the foreseeable future, stick to main roads and parkland pathways. And my knitting.



My Woolworths delivery arrived just after 4.15pm - efficiently narrowed in time by a text message to let me know it was the next delivery.

With fresh bread, I had egg sandwiches for dinner - nothing like it.


Because this is my Easter delivery, I did include some chocolate. On reflection, I think it will get me through until next Easter!

With the delivery put away, I was in time to watch the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra broadcast of the Messiah on YouTube, with my score in hand to join in every now and then. Thank you Deirdre for the information and Katherine for the score. 




On the Western balcony, in the sun, I knit, rather than embroidery, because it is easier than moving my Lowery frame. For the most part, however, I worked inside on the firescreen.


I finished the leaves to the right of the parrots and above the branch on which they sit.




So it looks as if I will be able to start on the parrots tomorrow.

It will be an appropriate treat to be adding colour!

Post41: Lost and found

This afternoon my friend Jennifer, in isolation in Perth, got a positive test result for Covid19 on her second test. She had not been feeling well for a couple of days. It is very distressing news. It does, however, mean that she can move back into the room she was sharing with Susan, who also has the virus. They feel stronger and more able to fight it off together. Deo volente.


The day had begun with a treat , an email from my friend Christine in Watford. She is doing OK.  Though struggling with hay fever, she is walking every day, queuing for access to shops and watching Phillipa Turnbull's videos. So good to get her news.

I checked in on my balcony spider who has now extended her web in both horizontal and vertical directions to completely block off the base of the frangipani. I couldn't get a decent photo, because I couldn't get the light behind the web.

I spent some time looking, unsuccessfully for my reading glasses. I had them yesterday.  I hadn't taken them on my walk yesterday. They had to be in the apartment, but the spectacle fairies seemed to have visited. I almost rang my optometrist and ordered a new pair. While my multifocals work well, I couldn't imagine getting through the next 3-6 months without them. I gave myself 24 hours.

My first Coles delivery arrived. South Australia has had charges for plastic bags for many years, and I have been taking my own bags for at least 10 years. I am now accumulating a huge supply of plastic supermarket bags. Although there was parking outside the doors of our apartment block, the driver parked down the road. He will get it right next time. I have a good supply of fruit and veg for Easter.

It's a new way of shopping. The trick is to predict what I will need well in advance. I was skilled at doing this when cooking for a family of four. Since being on my own I have cultivated just-in-time cooking. I now need to predict for around 10 days, including items like milk. I think I'm heading for a routine of a food shop about every 5 days. I put in another order today, because when I added some items to my list on the Woolworths site, the next available delivery time was Saturday afternoon. I figured by then I would need more fruit and veg, so closed off another order. I am in no way complaining. I am very fortunate to have this service. It will just take a little while to hone my routine.


I spent time this morning looking more closely at the book that arrived yesterday.  I am very impressed. It is, firstly, a very beautiful production, with page after page of full page close-up colour illustrations of stitches on knitted fabric. Secondly, the text is clear, simple and explicit.



It is organised by stitches. While these are recognisable, standard embroidery stitches, here they are adapted to embroidering on knitted, particularly hand-knitted, fabric. The needle works with the individual knitted background stitch.

Once my delivery was unpacked and put away, I decided to try some out on a top I had set aside at the end of last winter to darn. It had suffered from the holes I wrote about in Day 8 of self-isolation. I had darned the holes with leaves, then embroidered the outline of a tree across the whole front. The outline was waiting to be filled in.

I couldn't find the top. I knew it was here somewhere. It had been on my sewing machine for weeks. I had tidied it away. But where? Eventually I found it under a pile of projects awaiting my attention!

Still no glasses though.
 Christoffersson uses 2 ply wool for her embroideries on wool, so I dug out some Bendigo 2 ply I have had for decades.She uses an interesting variation on couching.


 I am working, in all these examples, within the boundaries of a tree trunk I had previously outlined in stem stitch.

 Instead of laying the thread and couching it down, you first create large, fairly loose couching stitches ( the stem stitch outline was already there as the trunk of a tree),


then you put several thicknesses of wool in a needle and thread then though the stitches you have laid out.


It forms a very heavy, braided look.This works better on small, geometrically bounded areas rather  than long freely stitched designs. I suspect it is too loose for longer freehand designs. It would not react to washing in the same way as the background.

Next I tried what Christoffersonn calls Alternating (or double) stem stitch. By alternating the side on which one holds the thread for each individual stem-stitch. you create what looks like a double row of stitches. Again, a braided effect.


The final stitch I tried was a variation on Roumanian couching, where the couching stitches are in form of a cross/


The shape is a bit small, but it does give an idea of the texture required. I can see that geometric designs would be a powerful way to work a sampler, or cover a section of wear. I also think there is great potential for running classes on embroidering on knitting. We could begin with a knitting class to knit a square, or, say, a baby jacket . Once finished, we could run classes in embroidering the knitted items. There are endless possibilities. Even darning classes. My top was machine knitted, so does not lend itself to some of the stitches. I'm not rushing to finish this particular project, but it has been useful to try out some of the stitches.












I was bringing my washing in as the sun went down. Again a huge flock of birds screeched their way East, stopping briefly on the large tree on the left.  They were too quick for me to grab the camera, but the sky was worth the effort.









For dinner I used duck-stock in my freezer to create duck soup, with the additions of carrot, fresh spring onions, asparagus and noodles.

My granddaughter Veronica rang me for a chat about 9pm. The family had just finished eating the Shepherd's Pie she and Fionn had made for dinner!


I finished another section of the Parrots.


The whole piece is coming along nicely.




Oh, and on my fourth search for my reading glasses I tipped out my project bag for the Fair Isle scarf and found the glasses underneath all the skeins of wool.