Post 436 Nature takes a hand

While some of the disruption of last week flowed over into this one, I focused on productivity and put a bit of effort into establishing a routine for the Heart Foundation Walking program. In this second week of the program, my plan asks me to walk for 25 minutes three times.  On Wednesday I walked up Carrington St to Hutt St, then back down Halifax, and around the Square. On Friday I went to Centennial Park, visited Jim's grave and walked around the East section for half an hour, taking photos on the way, using my new phone.

I was delighted with these photos of a butterfly. It is a lovely place to walk. It's calm, well-maintained,  beautiful and quiet, except for the calling of birds.

On Sunday I explored the Victoria Park, Pakapakanthi Wetlands that the 5 Adelaide Councils and the State Government are developing on the site of the old Victoria Park racecourse, partly as a flood mitigation project.  It was opened a month ago. The basic design is clear, but there is a lot of planting and growth to happen yet.  I mostly explored the Urban Woodland section.

 

There are some beautiful trees and it's interesting to see quite a bit of dead wood, in both standing and felled trees, left in place, providing habitat for all sorts of wildlife.

There were quite a few people walking - lots with dogs - or riding bikes,  but it wasn't crowded. I enjoyed the walk and will return. 

I didn't see a lot of birds, apart from a few magpies, but I'm sure there will be plenty  when the plants are more established. It's going to be interesting to watch it turn from bare bones to a thriving ecosystem.  

The repair work to our apartment block roof was apparently concluded on Tuesday last week, but the carpark roof replacement was done on Wednesday morning - mostly in the rain.  This is the new section, finished by 10.30 in the morning, so would not have interfered with the postponed lunch. I have now organised a replacement date for that - realising afterwards that I had a commitment which I had not written into my diary and will now need to move.  Today I had two doctors' appointments - one of which, made a year ago, I thought was tomorrow. Seems I need to take more care putting things in my diary.

On Saturday I helped out at JEMS. Niamh still has a clash with netball, so wasn't there, but 9 other young women were. I was making up the required ratio for a safe child environment. It is interesting - such diverse interests and needs. It's great to see the Junior Embroiderers working on their individual projects, asking for help when they need it, but very self-directed. It's a long way from early days of following a lock-step program.  Margaret and Ellen were busy providing help on request and nudging projects along. It is heart-warming to see. Margaret's apple cake went down pretty well too!

My little horses have multiplied. I've embroidered 38 of them and begun to cover the back of each with an applique. 17 now appliqued. Again, my embroidery blog has the story. for anyone interested in the detail. While stitching I've been listening to an audiobook of Isabel Tree's Wilding, a recommendation from my friend Pat Manser. It's an account of returning an English property to  wilderness - oddly relevant to the Pakapakanthi Wetlands.

I cheated a bit for Monday's dinner. I had a lasagna in the freezer, bought a while ago as a back-up, so I bought another and used them together for family dinner along with a Greek salad. It used up the frozen one and bought me horse time! Fionn went for a run, Niamh had footy training, Brigid a committee meeting and Veronica explored the memory cards on my old cameras. All good. 

This morning I had my annual check up with my dermatologist. I have a new mole on my knee which she is going to remove in three week's time. There's no drama, but it is periodically itchy. I'd rather be safe than sorry. 

This afternoon I saw my GP to set up My Health record. I also now have a referral for treatment of a synovial cyst which has resurfaced on my right index finger. It's been a fairly grey and gloomy week and I'm very glad of these photos I took at its beginning!

Post 435 WES goes well, a few things go wrong, resilience reigns ....

The week began well with a great meeting of the World Embroidery Study Group.  Janet talked to us about Tablet Weaving. This was my request as a result of my delving into Viking Embroidery. Janet was fearful that I would be the only one interested but all 9 of us there were riveted. Three key members were absent, one, unfortunately nursing her 91 year-old mother through Covid, one teaching in Canberra and one touring the Kimberley. They have the notes and PowerPoint. These are some of the pieces Janet wove in her preparation for the presentation. I arranged them to show the two very different sides of each piece. The cards you can just see underneath are the 'tablets' .  Thread passes through several of them. One end of the threads are anchored to something fixed, the other passes around the waist of the weaver. It is extraordinary. 

I was blown away. Brilliant session.

Balcony clean

On Thursday Formex, the company responsible for building the apartment block next door, sent a cleaner to remove the paint and plaster spots on my balcony from the early part of the build. He was an hour later than planned, which made me late (again) for Pilates, but he did do a brilliant job.

On Friday the lift broke down on the first floor with me and my shopping in it. I had entered the lift on the ground floor along with a 1st floor resident. He got out on his floor and entered his apartment but the lift doors did not close. I knew there had been some issues with the lift and a service call had been lodged. After several minutes I got out, with my shopping and called our Pod rep. In the end, she reported the problem, I knocked on a door and a generous and helpful young woman helped me carry my shopping up two flights of (fairly narrow, metal) stairs to my apartment. A bit scary - but I'm very grateful for the help I got. The lift was working three hours later, but the problem recurred on Saturday morning and the service provides was called back in. They were working on the problem when I went down via the stairs just before midday to meet a friend for lunch at Unley Shopping Centre. It was declared fixed before I returned. 

I wore my warming stripes scarf to Unley - and asked the florist to take my photo outside her shop - part of Tony and Mark's Greengrocery - so I could meet Sandy's request. 

On the way home I stopped at the Hameji Garden to do my 3rd 20 minute walk this week.  It's lovely at every time of the year, and there  were people enjoying picnics, or discussing clearly serious matters, 

as well as families with kids in prams, people sitting quietly - and visitors taking photos. It's well loved and used. I asked one of the photographing family groups to take my photo, which they were happy to do ('we are photograph experts!'). 

Sandy can now choose which she likes. Neither are as glamorous as Veronica would have achieved, but  it is dark by the time I get there now on Saturdays.  I tried to display the scarf to its full extent (She chose the florist one).

When I called the lift to go to Katherine and Anthony's for dinner, the lift did not come. After 5 minutes I reported it, Maureen recalled the serviceman and I cancelled going out. Going down the stairs at 5.45pm is fine, but I did not want to risk coming home after 9pm and finding I needed to go up 3 flights of stairs relying on the sensor light.  At 7.30 pm Maureen reported it fixed. I didn't try it out until Sunday morning - when it worked. 

Apartment inconvenience continued with notice late on Friday that repairs to the roof of our apartment and garage were scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. This involves actual replacement of roofing panels with road closure for a crane on Tuesday and cars to be moved from the apartment carpark. I had friends coming to lunch on Wednesday! The repairers hope is to finish on Tuesday, with Wednesday as a backup. It's still raining.

My phone - iPhone7 - has not been charging smoothly. The connection point is evidently worn or dirty. I've tried different cords but it is quite likely to disconnect on any of them. After being connected all night, on Sunday morning it had not charged at all. For months I've been getting new phone offers from my provider - originally high end phones, gradually becoming more modest. I've been putting off replacement, partly because I like my red, comfortable, adequate phone, partly because I believe in extending the life of tools as long as I can,  partly I'm avoiding the inconvenience of change-over and partly I covet the camera on the iPhone13Pro which is an extravagance. 

On Sunday I decided the time had come. My phone is a lifeline - I can't afford it to fail. It connects me to others; it's a safety mechanism. I carry it at all times unless it is charging. I have bought most previous phones online, but didn't want to wait even days for delivery, so took myself off to an outlet for my provider and bought an iPhone13Pro.  I don't need all its features and it's expensive. However, I use the camera on my phone extensively. I have 28, 511 photos on my phone, 11,768 taken on my iPhone7, 8,311 taken on my previous phone. The limitation is the zoom - which is the feature of the iPhone13Pro that I am after. 

It took about an hour to buy. It was the Queen's Birthday long weekend. There was only one person managing the shop and two couples ahead of me, but I had time to look at the phone and wasn't in a hurry. When I got home, with the 'bundle' deal ( There is no point complaining about new chargers, cords etc. It is what it is. An annoying First World problem.), I got the phone set up quickly but couldn't connect it to my provider. I went straight back. The shop had just closed but he let me in when I knocked on the window. 

I had not realised I needed to put the SIM card from my old phone into the new! He had told me, but I had not understood his accented English through his mask. I've done this before, but had it fixed in my head that you can't take a SIM card out of an Apple phone. There was no instruction to tell me.  I still feel stupid.

I'm glad I went back. He was helpful - and my phone is working well. I'm getting old and forgetful - but I managed it. I'm now adjusting back-ups and iCloud storage.

My test photo - what else but threads! I've since tried a few more. Pretty pleased with these.   

I spent Monday morning - the public holiday - making a big pot of ham and vegetable soup as the basis of Wednesday's lunch, assuming it can go ahead. Around midday I thought I should check whether my two friends had any dietary requirements. One replied that his only restriction was not eating pork! Very glad I asked. I rejigged - digging out a recipe for tomato and orange soup - and I can always freeze some of the original! Just as I was about to head out to get a couple of missing ingredients this afternoon, the other friend, who has rheumatoid arthritis,  messaged that she is now a Covid close contact and not feeling too good! Tomorrow's lunch is now off! I do hope she's OK.  

                          

On Monday afternoon I made up for the missed family visit on Saturday night, and visited for the afternoon. I tried a little slice of Katherine's fabulous orange cake, drank coffee, caught up on news - and got some oranges from her tree for my soup (they'll keep!). 

Today the roof replacement workers arrived just before 7am. The crane was in place before 8am and gone by 10.30. The rain held off. There has been stomping, drilling, shifting and what sounds like sawing on the roof above my apartment all day.  I had decided that if the noise got too great I would go to the Guild - there's a stitching group meeting there today. However, I decided to live with the noise, spending the morning making a replacement pouch for my new phone. The old one is less than a centimetre too small - but doesn't fit.  There's more detail in my embroidery blog. 

The roofers worked all day today on the roof above my apartment. The carpark roof remains untouched. Looks as if their back-up day tomorrow will be needed. 

My afternoon was to have been for shopping, baking and a visit to the podiatrist. I kept the podiatrist appointment and paid a quick visit to a local supermarket. At home again I took another plunge and bought some photo management software to manage my  digital photographs. I had owned an Android version before I moved to IOS when I moved 7 years ago and the program didn't transfer. It is a daunting task to organise my library of photos, in folders, discs and apps all over the place. However, without the help of an organising system there is no hope it will happen - so I've bought hope! 

It's been a challenging and to some extent, lonely week. Tonight I've settled in with a large bowl of my ham and vegetable soup and my pretty little horses.       

post 434 It's raining, it's pouring.....

I'm conscious as I write this of family members, friends and friends of friends who are ill and in the hands of doctors and nurses working long hours and applying all their skills to find answers and treatments. While I can't tell their stories, they put my week's trivia into perspective. I  hope their persistence prevails. I'm treasuring moments each day.

Much of the early part of my week was spent getting my blanket project set up and embroidering horses. I am slowly moving from the 'dapples and greys'. I've written about it in my embroidery blog.  It's a pleasant project to work at the moment, because it's cold. Although I keep the apartment heated, it's very cosy stitching the blanket spread over my legs. 25 horses to go.

In Adelaide the rain has kept on coming. There are dry spells in between, but even then it is mostly overcast and grey.  Some evenings the sun sets behind cloud and the light simply fades, but some nights there has been enough sky to provide a show. 

Early in the week some plants I had ordered from Melbourne Bushfood arrived - four native herbs and a couple of succulents. I was waiting for a couple of tiered containers I had ordered to plant them. These arrived on Saturday morning They were simple to assemble - quite natty. They are on wheels and pushing the wheels into their slots was the hardest bit - that just required a bit of strength.  

Netball is preventing Niamh from going to JEMS at the moment, so I had plenty of time to go shopping for Monday dinner items and then to the nursery for potting mix and more plants. 

It took a while in the rain, but I now have one on each balcony, bush plants facing West and flowers facing East - both wheeled to where they will get rain. I'm hoping most of the plastic will be covered with plant before too long.

Also on Saturday, I took possession of my Adelaide climate scarf by Sandy Lepore. Sandy is making a limited number of scarves of annual climate change to raise money to mount and tour the project. I'm privileged to have one- a wonderful talking point.  I've promised her a photo of me wearing it. 

On Sunday morning I had an email from the Heart Foundation promoting their Walk for Heart Health program. Out of curiosity I filled out their questionnaire and received a 6 week exercise plan based on my answers. The first week involves 3 x 20 minute walks, so, in a break in the rain, I walked for 20 minutes along Pulteney Street and around the Square. On the other side of the square there were 3 Adelaide rosellas having a fine feed in a street tree. They let me get quite close. The photos, taken on my phone, are  not the best - the phone doesn't too well on zoom.

They still give a sense of the size. I might just take my DSLR next time! I also noticed for the first time that the orange trees planted in the small front gardens of our apartments have fruit on them.

I'm still restricting my fruit intake, but I do hope someone picks and uses them.

There are lots of leaves about - and more apartment blocks going up on the opposite side of the Square.

The rain continues relentlessly. No one got wet getting here on Monday after school. One of the girls commented that our grey sky was her image of England until she learned it wasn't always like that (Midsomer Murders has a lot to answer for!). Two weeks of grey skies is unusual in Adelaide - but there's no sign of it clearing.

Yesterday I also visited Nordic Design Furniture and ordered two cabinets, one for storing family memorabilia and the other to replace a sewing cabinet that no longer fits comfortably in my living room. I've thought long and hard about these. The main game is to store items I have from my grandparents, my parents and a few from my late husband. I've debated whether to include document boxes, but in the end restricted it to realia to keep the size manageable. I want it to sit beside a sofa as an end table, replacing this trunk. The new one will have generational drawers and a glass top under which I can display an unfinished embroidery of my mother's.  Their current build time is 22-24 weeks

Today Panayoula and I met for coffee at Muratti Cakes and Gateaux on Prospect Road.  While we both resisted the cakes on offer, she brought me a gift of two sweets from her recent family celebrations. We cut our time short when she had a distress call from another friend.

There were plenty of people out and about along Prospect Rd, many with their dogs.

I detoured past Create in Stitch on the way home, getting back in time to eat the slice of lemon syrup cake above (delicious) before cleaning my teeth very thoroughly and heading out on foot to visit my periodontist down Pulteney St. This clocked up two more walks - 18 minutes one way and 14 the other, but quite a bit of waiting at lights. Don't think I can count these as one of my three! 

The sky was pretty gloomy to the East, but the sun struggled through over Calvary Hospital (a view to the Southwest this time, as opposed to the Northwestern one from my balcony).

Andre, my periodontist was very pleased with my teeth and dental hygiene - so I won't see him for a year (provided the Good Lord is willing and the creeks don't rise). 

Before I set to work to finish the 25 horses on the blanket, I wanted to complete the design I started at the Guild's Certificate Course workshop a week ago. I finished it yesterday and am pleased with the result. The detail, as usual, is in my embroidery blog.

My shawl is progressing slowly. I put it aside for embroidery projects - but it is moving along.

I also finished a roll of paper towel this week, and the cardboard roll in the centre was a strong one - so I used it to make another roll to keep embroidery-in-progress. I have 3 of these, and they are really useful. I had a long Japanese fabric waiting for just this opportunity, so I took it.

So now it's back to where I started this week - amongst the horses.

Post 433 Rain, an anniversary, book club and stitching.

It's been raining in Adelaide for most of the week and set to continue for another. We  get most of our rain (such as it is in the driest State in the driest continent) in Winter and this is a little early - and a little more than we expect. Just north of the city there has been wind and rain damage in a tornado-like pathway. 

Here in the city traffic has been slow and tricky, the weather squally. The clouds are moving swiftly, making varied patterns and effects, especially around sunset.  I love the effects.

Saturday was the eighth anniversary of Jim's death. While I think the last year has been a transition of sorts for me in adjusting to life without him, the loss will always be profound. I remain grateful and increasingly amazed at our good fortune in meeting and living the life we had together for 45 years. 

It's quite a legacy.  

There were a few quiet achievements and pleasures that marked the week. 

I saw my renal specialist, who is delighted with my weight loss and improvement in test results. I see him again in a year's time. I need to keep on top of it. I want to stay well - and it would be a betrayal if I didn't take proper care of my remaining kidney.

My repaired blind has been returned and reinstalled by Mark, who took great care and explained the process. For the first time since I moved in, there are no knots in the cords and both heavy and light options work smoothly. I'm still waiting on Vergola repair and carpet cleaning.

I cooked lemon chicken on Monday night, and also tried a recipe for zucchini fritters which was a bit of a success. The fritters need to be eaten within an hour of being made - but they were good. 

I also made another batch of Anzac biscuits. I'm a glutton for punishment, as my mother would have said, but I was determined to produce a good batch. It worked. As usual I was too busy to photograph them when first made. This was what was left after the family went home on Monday.  No black edges, and quite a chewy texture - which I prefer.

It's good to have a bit of energy for cooking - but not so good for my weight program. No weight loss this week. 

Saturday was a Guild Certificate Workshop on Crewel Work Battlement Trellis, taken by Di Kirshner.  Di structured it to encourage experimentation and student design. I tried for a moon motif  using intersecting circles, aiming for a form of goddess symbol - waxing, full, waning imagery. It began well, but came adrift a bit in the middle. I ended up doing a lot of unpicking.

I was reasonably happy with the finished product, but I now need to work out some elements around it. It's proving to be a challenge to keep to my moon concept and stay within the Jacobean crewel tradition that was the basis of the workshop.  I'm playing with some ideas, but in the meantime, have moved on to Brigid's blanket.

While I can't photograph the whole blanket, which now has the words 'when you wake, you shall have, all the pretty little horses, dapples and greys, pintos and bays, all the pretty little horses" around the edges. I've printed the horses Brigid drew as a child on to Sulky Stick'nStitch Solvi and begun embroidering the horses. Here the first horses - dapples - are in place. I've removed the Solvi from two 'dapples' and begun on a 'grey' The dapple doesn't show up well in the photos. I will move into colour soon.

Our Crime Book Club met on Sunday morning. It was a very engaged and interesting meeting. My choice of three books with the title A Spoonful of Murder  worked a treat (whew!). We welcomed a new member and Kerrie's facilitation led to good sharing. 

I also had a post-election debrief meal with friends who go back a long way - and many elections, as well as a Friday Sit'n Stitch, Saturday night family dinner and quite a bit of texting and phone calls with family and friends. All strengthening.  

Tomorrow is officially the first day of Winter. It feels as if it is already here. Not a problem as far as I am concerned.