Post 240 Plants and stitches.

I managed to get up and organised for the Certificate workshop this morning - thermos of coffee, lunch, the required thread and usual scissors, needles. Fortunately Christine Bishop was taking the workshop, on Deruta embroidery, and supplying the linen on which we were to work. There were 16 of us there - pretty much back to pre-Covid level.

Deruta embroidery derives from the town of the same name in Italy. There are three styles, or techniques, two antique, one developed between the two World Wars. We were working on one of the antique forms, a counted technique worked on 18 count linen in  a neutral colour.

Christine had a couple of physical examples to show us, as well as some on the screen and notes which outlined the technique and some motifs to be worked into a sample.  

We began with a simple rectangle in the basic stitch, then attempted an L shaped design with a tricky component and then on to a couple of others without the trickiness. 

                                                                                     

 I plan to finish the sampler, but it's not a style I see myself using to create projects.

The greatest excitement of the day for me was this bag of cuttings brought for me by Margaret. Margaret reads this blog and told me on Thursday that she has a number of scented geraniums in her garden, as well as red, white and pink pig face. Today she brought me a generous sample of all of them. It is really generous of her. She did not have a lot of spare time yesterday but managed to gather this bonanza for me.

As soon as I got home, I found pots, some empty and some with space behind other plants, divided them into cuttings and planted them. There is another group that I have placed in water to root. There are rose, lemon rose, nutmeg and pineapple geraniums.  If even half of them grow my garden will be blessed.  A thousand thanks, Margaret.

I spent the evening at Katherine and Anthony's as usual. Very delicious lamb cooked on the barbecue with potatoes, carrots, parsnips and broccolini. Brigid's last day at school went well as did the primary girls' Bookweek celebrations.  Brigid's secret outfit, made from one of her uniforms, was a pair of shorts and a waistcoat. The shorts were cut from the lower part of the uniform and the waistcoat from the top part, with sleeves removed and buttons opened up down the front. It worked really well. Again, since this blog is in the public domain, I am not going to post a photo.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                             This evening I worked a fourth sample from today's workshop.   Unfortunately I did not position the third example well and had to undo part of it to fit in the arrow. If I wish to add the hem (which I do) I will need to redo both motifs before I block it in order to accommodate the hem.    That's not a job for tonight.  

Tomorrow I have book club in the morning and Sit'n Stitch in the afternoon. In the meantime - sleep.                                                                                                   

Post 175

There was some rain and wind overnight (in fact, what is believed to be a tornado in a Southern suburb) but although it was very overcast, there was little rain this morning. I'm not sure if the weather explains the silence on the building site today.

I had lunch with two Guild friends at Louca's Seafood Restaurant two blocks down the road. We has a table nicely isolated in one corner, a delicious meal and good conversation.

The restaurant booking system insisted on a credit card from which a $50 per person guarantee would be taken if a booking didn't turn up or cancelled in less than 24 hours before the booking. A bit rich - but they have limited space and trying to keep a business going. Understandable in these times.


Walking home I had a closer look at the mural on the wall of the building on the corner of Carrington and Pulteney Street.

It's quite extraordinary - birds with what appears to be a sea creature on a huge wall.

There's also a small panel of wrought iron visible on the end of the hotel verandah- oddly contrasting with the electricity box just below!













I ran into my neighbour in the street. It's nice to have the experience of neighbourhood.

The Square was looking quite lush and cheerful.















Several of the trees are dropping pine cones. or seed pods.

Just before 5pm the skies opened and the rain came. In the East the Hills disappeared into cloud, but it was short-lived. The promised day of rain did not happen.

The rain brought Brigid to my door, wet from playing sport in the rain, to change her clothes while waiting for her Dad. A bonus for me!

Since arriving home I have worked solidly on the cube pincushion. The embroidery is finished. I'm not sure if the beads show up in the photo, but they are there! Tomorrow's task, in between Pilates, is to construct it.

That should be a lot of fun.

Post 167 Hospital visit

It was an exceedingly grey and damp day in Adelaide today. Our Winter rain has finally arrived.

My plan for today was to visit Jennifer at Calvary Hospital and call in on Lorraine, another friend in the rehab ward of the same hospital.

At 11.00 am the rain was pelting down and Jennifer called me to suggest I cancel coming. By 11.45 it looked like a pause so I set out. Of course, the rain returned within a couple of minutes.








I had on my rain jacket with a hood. The coat was wet, but I was dry when I arrived. It is the first time I've been inside this new hospital.  I sanitised my hands at the entry station, but no-one directed me to the desk where I was meant to register my details and have my temperature taken. I just found my way to Jennifer's room. The precautions are good - but need the security officer at the entry sanitising station to get a replacement if he needs to leave.
It appears to be a well designed and organised hospital.

Jennifer was looking pretty good. She goes home tomorrow, with outpatient appointments to manage her medications. Tonight she has her heart and breathing monitored .
We worked out the thread colours on the remaining parts of her embroidery panel. I should have taken a photo but didn't think of it until I was home. I got another 10 row pattern of my knitting done while there. 

Before I went looking for Lorraine I went downstairs, registered and had my temperature taken. Unfortunately, Lorraine's door was closed - presumably for a treatment or visit from her doctor.

I managed to get home just as the rain returned.





Work had recommenced on the building site next door this morning. As I returned home the heavy equipment was at the front of the block.

Some readers have asked about Myrtle and Turtle. They visited on Sunday when there was no building work and Turtle came briefly again yesterday - again, no building work. No sign of them today.


















Late in the afternoon the sun broke through the clouds for about 15 minutes. It makes such a difference.





Jennifer sent a photo of the gear she has to wear to sleep tonight. It was switched on at 8pm. I do hope that somehow she has managed to fall asleep. She will be very glad to get home tomorrow!





It was one of those evenings when the sunset turns these buildings gold.






The last side of the bag is almost finished. I am enjoying the Breton Stitch. I shall be sorry to have no more after this side. The other elements of the project don't use it.  By Thursday I should have the challenge of construction.

Tomorrow is the first meeting of the World Embroidery Study Group since March. Quite a milestone.

Post 166 Cars, Doors and Family

My car survived the night in the street, and I got it to the  Crash Repairer at 9am as requested. I had to pack up the numerous shopping bags in the boot, and all the useful things in the car itself - hand sanitiser, sunglasses,  face masks, walking stick, keys, pens and a Tshirt waiting to be altered. These, of course, are needed in the loan car.

The crash repairer is in unlikely premises - except in Adelaide where stone houses like this are common and not infrequently used for businesses.

The loan car was in use by staff - 20 minutes away. It is a Yaris, a car I drove between about 1995 and 2000. It didn't take too long for me to remember how to use an ignition key but unlocking the steering wheel took a bit longer.

The heavy  door to the apartment carpark was being repaired between 8am and 11.30 so I couldn't return there. With the building work,  street parking is at a premium and impossible by 10 am. I had a podiatrist appointment and some shopping to do, so I went to Frewville, getting the feel of the car, did some shopping, drove back to the podiatrist (which is within walking distance of the apartment, but does have off-street parking for clients) then went to another shopping centre to deposit soft plastic recycling and go to the Post Office - an elastic mercy mission. 

It was here, at 11.30, as I was about to head home, that I received the message to say the repair to the garage door had been postponed to 2pm-5pm. Grrr! I was home by 12, so no harm done. It was still a lot of unnecessary messing around.

I had this evening's meal prepared, so was able to get organised, put shopping away and spend a couple of hours embroidering.

Jennifer rang. She is now being discharged on Wednesday, with outpatient appointments to keep monitoring and adjusting her meds. If the meds do not improve her breathing, a pacemaker is on the cards. I have promised to visit her tomorrow.

The kids arrived after school. It is such a privilege to be part of their lives. They are so interesting to listen and talk to.

It wasn't a big photo day I'm afraid. I was too focused on getting the hang of the loan car!



I did do a few rows of knitting, but mostly I worked on the last panel for the bag.

Post 163 Birthday

Today is Katherine's birthday and we went out to lunch, as we have done for several years now. This time, with a couple of favourite restaurants still closed, we went to the River Cafe, at the weir on the Torrens.

It was the coldest Adelaide Day in quite some time reaching a maximum of 10C at 1pm. I do remember other days with a 10C maximum but, it is not common. The lowest maximum recorded was 8.3C in 1922. There were a few light showers, but it didn't amount to much.

We shared small entre plates of pulled pork balls, salt and pepper squid and flat bread. Katherine had lamb shanks as a main and I had stuffed garfish.

Oh, and there was the Panna Cotta desert.

It was a good place to go, - about 20 diners with at least 1.5 metres between tables, even though they were all along the window. It must hold 90-100.

This morning I read another chapter of The Bird Way, this time about mimicking. Again, much of the research was from Australia, particularly relating to Lyrebirds as well as Bowerbirds, Magpies, Blue Jays.  Birds from other continents, including Mockingbirds, also featured. Much mimicking is to deceive - to protect by creating sounds that cause predators to hesitate or give up. The remarkable thing I learned, however, was that some birds, particularly Lyrebirds, construct individual songs from a medley of imitated sounds.  That is, they compose. Their unique song and dance accompaniment is what they use to attract a partner.  There is also evidence that the sounds they mimic are passed from generation to generation, being evident in generations who have never heard the song of the originator bird. 

A few weeks ago I ordered the kit for the project on the cover of the current issue of Inspirations magazine. Delivery is delayed so the company has offered purchasers a free download pattern from their repertoire.

Today I downloaded this pattern. I have subscribed to Inspirations since about Issue 50,  so chose a pattern from an earlier issue. Not sure if or when I will get to it, but I liked this Jenny McWinney rooster.

 I think Jennifer will like it too. She called me today from Calvary Hospital. She is out of ICU and very pleased to be in a room with a pleasant view, a TV and her iPad. The balloon insertion was not successful because her trachea is curved rather than straight and the balloon will not inflate.  Doctors plan to try a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine on Monday night to see if that helps. Today's angiogram showed no arterial blockages, which means her heart itself has been damaged by the virus. They hope to control the effect of the damage by beta blockers. She will be in hospital until Tuesday. I hope to visit over the weekend.

I finished the Breton stitch border on the third box side. I've come to like this stitch, but now need to fill in the centre.

I also completed another 10 row pattern on the shawl. This time I photographed it with a tape measure to give an idea of size. There is a long way to go - but it is very relaxed knitting and the colours are lovely.

Post 161: Bobbins, birds and builders

Most of my morning, after an editing conversation with my brother, was spent filling 70 bobbins.  I now have a full quota of bobbins in my bobbin containers. I also have about 10 bobbins with small amounts of thread stored in the bobbin holder in my machine cabinet, along with a few spare empty bobbins.

When I had finished, I also tidied up my very messy machine cabinet ( well, the top surface anyway). It hasn't looked as tidy as this for a long time.












The building noise was well in the background for most of the day. A check mid-afternoon showed a number of very large holes, waiting, presumably for cement.



While checking out the building from my balcony, I checked on the blooms on the succulents. The flowers on this one are getting close to opening.



















My favourite, however, is this one that is showing its  open face.to the sun.

I began work on the third side of the Christine Bishop counted thread box before setting out to friends' place for dinner. By the time I've done four sides I'll be able to do it from memory. The trouble is I am unlikely to do it again to benefit!



I took my knitting with me to dinner (easy to manage and be sociable). I've now completed another 10 row pattern sequence.







I think I was right to choose a simple pattern that allows the colour of the wool to dominate.



There was a full moon riding high over the city as I drove home.  It is very hard to photograph the moon - but you get some interesting effects.

I've been reading Jennifer Ackerman's The Bird Way  and finding it fascinating. Today's revelation was that, while it has long been assumed that it is the male songbird that sings, female song occurs in two thirds of 1147 songbird species surveyed in 2014, and is equally complex and strong. This is particularly so in Australia from where all songbirds are now believed to originate. It appears that  female northern hemisphere songbirds lost their song in the process of evolution. It is believed that this was because, as breeding migrants, they do not need to establish and maintain territory in breeding seasons as residents do. Birds that remained in the Southern hemisphere retained singing females.

More tomorrow.

Post 159 Mostly cooking - and eating

No bird visitors this morning with the building work beginning at 7.00 am. There was a bit of noise, but, on the whole, sufficiently background to not be disruptive. I haven’t been into the square to check out how they are progressing, but the sound seems to be moving further away. 

The first task of the day was to post the masks to my brother. That done, I could head to the greengrocer and supermarket,

My meal plan for tonight was chicken Maryland, eggplant parmagiana, potoatoes with bacon and broccolini (yes, Ive done it before - I have a very limited repertoire of meals!)l  I had most of the ingredients except the chicken Maryland’s which I wanted to buy fresh. I ended up buying much more than that especially since my favourite ice creams were on special! 

Driving home I realised that the deciduous street trees are finally fully bare. I also noticed for the first time that there are young trees  beginning to burst into blossom along  the restructured Frome Rd bikeway. I’m not sure what they are but they are soon going to be a picture of white blossom.














I managed to prepare,the eggplant without burning it. I haven’t quite got the hang of this oven yet. While everything was cooked, the potato and the chicken could have done with longer to further brown. An hour and a half should have been plenty of time but perhaps so much in the oven requires even longer.

One of the girls’ primary school teachers has a compromised immune system and had health advice that  she must give up work if and when the state have six confirmed COVID cases. That happened over the weekend so she will no longer be teaching. The girls are understandably upset. These are the seemingly small personal impacts of this pandemic that add up to long standing disruption.  

I progressed my knitting a little. The colours in this wool are fabulous.




The delicious chocolate from my Friday goody basket helped a lot.











I also progressed the second side of the counted bag. I’m almost up to the Breton stitch.

Tomorrow.