Post 429 Bookended by lunches.

There were plenty of birds present at the beach on Wednesday when our quarterly lunch group met at HNLY restaurant.   My order of Yellow Fin Whiting got messed up - maybe I said 'tuna' when I ordered (quite possible), maybe the waitress got it wrong. In any case I ended up with battered fish and chips, which I enjoyed!.

  

It really was a lovely day at the beach - pleasant breeze, sunny without being too hot. 

The birds were enjoying it.

I finished the second bag-from-jeans and have started on the third.  As usual, there is more in the blog link.

I spent a few hours organising my new furniture.  My books are now in some sort of order and findable. I have sorted and labelled the containers in the sewing room cupboard. I still have the files in the filing drawers to cull, sort and label.  I had planned to do it yesterday but when I couldn't find a tube of ointment in the bathroom, I was distracted into cleaning out and reorganising the bathroom drawers and cupboards.  Definitely on a roll!

After the files I have to tackle the boxes of papers and folders of  knitting and embroidery notes in the spare bedroom - and my family history archives. 

Sunday was book club and we had a very productive and engaging time sharing our reading.  It's stimulating, supportive and sustaining. Outside the home in which we met there was a jacaranda tree laden with inspiring seed pods.

I'm the book chooser for next month and have chosen three books called A Spoonful of Murder.  I began with one by JM Hall, a UK school deputy principal whose recently published first novel was recommended of Prof. Pat Thomson who has worked with him. While I was trying to source a copy in Australia I came across the same title by Robin Stevens and another by Connie Stevens, so got all of them. It will, I think be an interesting exercise.

Over the weekend I also made my first pot of soup for the year. It's a variation on those my mother made - the Christmas ham bone defrosted, swede, turnip, parsnip, carrots, pulses, tomato and celery. There's a lot of it! It will help boost my vegetable intake this week. 

I've had a few challenges in the last few days. The cover of my mini iPad is disintegrating. The Officeworks replacement I bought yesterday after much discussion with staff  turned out not to fit.  This morning one of the 5 cords in my 180cmx250cm bedroom blind broke, producing a kind of hernia in the blind, and there was no signal on my Vergola controller so I couldn't open it. I find all of this stressful, but took a deep breath, returned the iPad cover (easy, no hassle), ordered another one from Apple online,  and made phone calls to Vergola and to a repairer of blinds. One impact of Covid is that such businesses are short of staff and take longer to respond and to deliver.

Someone is now coming to collect the blind next Monday and the Vergola people are scheduling a service visit - all organised before  11.45 a.m. when a friend picked up me and a kitchen chair, and drove us to Nairne, in the Adelaide Hills to visit another friend who had prepared a delicious, healthy lunch of cold rolls, soup and lemon drizzle cake with strawberries. The chair matches others she has. We had a brilliant time - relaxed, loving, renewing, nurturing. I came home feeling renewed and very connected. 💪.

I didn't take photos in the Hills, where autumn is very much on display, but this is the evidence around the corner from my apartment. Lovely pleasant days in Adelaide.

Although it appears from this post that I am a 'Lady who Lunches', I, and most of my family and friends, are still operating 'from an abundance of caution' - avoiding crowds and events, wearing masks indoors in social settings, eating outside, monitoring ventilation, socially distancing. Covid cases are slowly increasing in Adelaide, as are hospitalisations and deaths. Schools returned today with masks mandated, although they are not mandated more generally. I've just refused an invitation to a 70th birthday bash.  With only one kidney, even with 4 vaccinations, I will do as much as I can to avoid any contact with Covid.  

For the most part, I am sticking to my knitting and embroidery.

Post 428: Vaccination, vaccination, vaccination

On Wednesday I saw my doctor and had my flu shot and a pneumonia shot. I wasn't aware I was due for the pneumonia one, but my doctor keeps good records and is on the ball. I also got a referral to my ENT to have wax removed from my ear. Good job jobbed, and no reaction other than a sore arm from the pneumonia one.  My doctor does not do Covid vaccinations, so that had to wait a few days.                                                                                                                                                                                                         

On Thursday, as I was getting ready for Pilates, three honey eaters arrived on my balcony, attracted to the aloe. I was lucky enough to be able to grab my DSLR and get some shots, first through the glass, but then, very carefully opening the screen door, through the open door. I was pleased with a few of them. We used to get a lot of these in our garden at Hindmarsh, but its the first time I've seen them here on my balcony. A good sign, I think.                                  

On Friday my new pieces of furniture were delivered. I was worried about the delivery, as they are large pieces and our lift is small. They would be awkward to carry up the (fairly narrow) stairs. Parking outside is also at a premium. I needn't have worried. The deliverers were fantastic.  They found a parking place, checked out the apartment, disassembled the furniture in their van, carried the long top plank up the stairs, and the rest in batches in the lift, then reassembled them in situ.  They took such care and were so skilled and adaptive.

It took 2 1/2 hours, but they just kept on until done. 

Above is the bookcase in my living area. There are now probably twice as many books on it. Left is the cabinet in my sewing room. It is more cluttered, but absolutely fit for purpose. The open shelves at the end are for books. At the moment the books to go there are in the containers - aids for the Viking, Celtic/Anglo-Saxon and Bulgarian presentations I have yet to do this year at the Guild. Eventually they will be books rather than boxes.

It was a long weekend here, as Monday was Anzac Day. Top priority was getting my 4th Covid jab on Saturday, which went well. With my Australian Government sponsored bandaid on my arm I awaited signs of the aching joints and overwhelming tiredness that followed the 3rd jab, but none appeared. I stayed awake and entertained throughout the family dinner and slept well.

On Sunday I was up to making the Anzac biscuits and alert enough not to burn them!

I managed to get the bookshelves sorted between my now 3 bookshelves, so that I now have a very good idea of where I can find any book I want. A breakthrough!  This photo merges views of two sides of my small sewing room.  I can move around, find what I need and stitch something quickly on my machine. I've removed the rug that was on the floor. There are still files and containers to go through, label and reduce, but I can see and get to everything.

On Monday, Anzac Day, I got up at dawn to light a candle and remember those in my family who went to war, from the top of this photo, Ted Ray and James Haynes, my grandfathers serving in WWI, my father, Len Haynes on HMS Formidable in WWII and Lionel Dellit, my late husband's uncle who died when his plane was shot down over the Timor Sea in WWII.  It's more important than ever to remember what they did. And the cost.

My friend Susan called in on Monday afternoon to see my new furniture. It was lovely to be able to share it over an Anzac biscuit and coffee and also to discuss our current projects, hopes and fears. 

This is the progress I had to show on the next bag-from-jeans. I'm now working on the other side.

Now that my furniture is in place I have contacted a carpet cleaner who is coming in the morning to quote, and Artic Air who should have serviced my Aircon this month. I also applied a clove oil solution to mould on the hinges of my bathroom door. Seems I'm Spring Cleaning in Autumn.

Post 427 Eastertide

It has been an odd week. I've spent much of it emptying a cupboard, desk and filing cupboard in readiness for my 2 new pieces of furniture. That has been quite physically demanding but satisfying. It has, of course, been Easter. Our Covid restrictions were eased at midnight on Thursday, in time for the weekend. Masks are no longer required except on public transport, aged care facilities, hospitals and gyms. Our schools are on holidays and no decision has been made yet about masks when they return.  

I am not changing my cautious habits. No music or food festivals,  or even movies or theatres for me.  

I did a bit of shopping for the weekend treating myself  to some prawns for Good Friday, and yes, I did buy, and eat hot cross buns (in lieu of lunch). 

Some of my succulents burst into Easter bloom. 

There are promising buds on one frangipani, so I haven't given up hope yet.

The doves put in several appearances on Easter Saturday. I don't have seed for them at the moment, but it doesn't seem to deter them.  I keep the water dish topped up and they do drink each time they come.   

I made my usual chocolate crackle nests, my mother's tradition, to take to Katherine's on Sunday. This year I found some tiny chocolate-filled candy-coated eggs.  

We had a wonderful, relaxed and delicious late lunch on Sunday. Absolutely fabulous pork and vegetables followed by two of Katherines' amazing chocolate deserts. The only photo I took was this distant one of her chocolate and apricot tart. I suspended my diet long enough to have a tiny slice.  Worth it!

There was a gentle sunset over St Francis Xavier's Cathedral as the moon rose at the other end of my apartment. 

I have prepared the sewing room for the incoming long cabinet. Delivery is Friday afternoon. I'm nervous about the delivery. Both pieces are quite long and may not fit in the lift. The deliverers (contractors) will then decide whether one or both have to be brought up the 3 flights of stair or taken apart, brought up in pieces and reassembled. I'm trying not to stress. 

I have piles and a trolley of files and plastic containers in the spare bedroom, ready to go into the new cupboards and shelves. I have slightly rearranged my living room in readiness. I managed to move the old desk and filing cabinet down to my carparking area by myself but needed help with the cupboard. Late on Monday my neighbour called me to ask if she could have the desk! In return, her husband Theo got out his shifting trolley and moved my cupboard.  This can now stay in front of my car until the curb-side pickup, when he will help me move it out.

The desk has come back upstairs and is in Di's workroom next door. My friend Susan helped me assemble this from a flatpack I bought online, so I'm really pleased to find a good home for it.

In between shifting, storing and sorting I have been working on my bag-from-jeans. The first one is finished and has been a lot of fun to work on.

One side, with a tilt to the Housman poem, is wearing white for Eastertide.

The other side is simple summer fare. Both owe their design and colourway to the Beautiful Botanical Embroidery book. Details are again in my embroidery blog.

I've started on the second one.

Today I called at the Guild to pick up some more of the white cotton from the trading table and to catch up with a committee member. I went on to Bunnings to drop a magnifying lamp into their electrical recycling. 

Of course, the postie came while I was out so I had to visit the PO to pick up my copy of How to Knit Beautiful Bags.  Good to know that I won't run out of ideas for bags when I finish the ones from my old jeans!

To complete the week, here is the Easter moon about to set over Adelaide this morning.