Post 310 Mostly buried in a spreadsheet.

 

My library booking for an electronic copy of this came up yesterday, so I downloaded and began reading. This was drawn to my attention by Ann Borthwick. She and my late husband worked with Natalie Conyer on the Myer Committee in the 1990s, working on a national set of key competencies for high school graduates.

This is Conyer's first novel, a crime mystery set in Cape Town. It creates a strong sense of time and place, is well-paced with memorable characters and no stereotype in sight. While it is a legitimately described as a police procedural, it is overwhelmingly an exploration of state corruption, more comparable to Le Carre's Cold War espionage novels than traditional police procedurals. I found its world hard to come to terms with and wanted the plot to move faster. I will be very interested to see the series develop - there's a sequel in the pipeline..

While I was reading there were visits from a dove or two, then two Magpie-larks turned up. I think my friend Vivienne may be right when she suggested they find spiders on apartment balconies. They paid attention to a railing container that has a web on it. They didn't stay long.

I spent several hours throughout the day on my spread sheet. By the end of the day I had completed it and made a summary of some of the statistics. I'm very pleased to have done this. It is fairly tedious work, but makes the next writing task possible - and more enjoyable. It's been a reminder of how good some of these stories are. That's where the strength lies, rather than in analysis.

It was a very pleasant day in Adelaide - or so it seemed from my windows, which was the only way I saw it. It is lovely to have the doors open on to both balconies and get a breeze through. I'm grateful for this comfortable weather.

My 2019 Christmas poinsettia, which is doing quite well on the Western balcony, has a single red leaf that catches the sun and the eye in the last rays of the sun. I don't mind that the other leaves are all green. One red leaf is enough.

On Thursday, when I missed the parcel delivery I had been thinking that Monday, as well as Friday, was a public holiday. It isn't, of course, which means I can pick up th e parcel tomorrow.

It hasn't been a big stitching day, but I did make some progress on Lady Anne's Flowers. I'm now well into the tree trunk, which will occupy time tomorrow, when I am not picking up parcels

Post 305 Mostly birds and bras

It began with a visit from Turtle. He walked around a bit, drank water and pecked at the seed. Before long, Black Tips arrived and did the same.  Turtle retreated to the rail and ignored the intruder.

When Turtle flew off, Black Tips replaced him on the rail, keeping watch.  The flapping sheets were ignored.                                                                

 Then Blush arrived.

It was a bit of a rendezvous. Blush and Black Tips kept their distance and silence, eventually dropping down to drink and eat seed before one flew off. Thoughout the day, one or another came back for a relaxed walk around. Do they just like the view and ambiance or are they nesting nearby? Why did Turtle tolerate Black Tips? Are they related? 

In the early afternoon, a Magpie Lark visited briefly, hopped around the rail and flew away. They eat insects and worms so have no interest in either the plants or the seed. After I'd taken the photo I realised Black Tips was also there, eating seed, seemingly uninterested in the Magpie Lark.

There is a great deal about the bird world that I don't understand.

A parcel arrived this morning, two bras I had ordered online from Taking Shape. They didn't fit. When I was managing The Orphanage Teachers' Centre in the 90s, the female staff were very amused that I ordered bras online. I should have learned my lesson, but it's worth trying something again after 30 years!  

I needed to go out to get the milk and grapes I couldn't get yesterday, so went to Unley and returned the items to the Taking Shape shop for an in-store credit. The sales assistant was most helpful. The best bra-fitter in the State, she told me, is Kaz at the Taking Shape Mount Barker store. She fits most of the Taking Shape workers. The idea is to go to Mount Barker to be fitted, choose the perfect bra, then order online thereafter. Sounds like a plan if I feel like driving 34km to Mt. Barker.

It was another really lovely day in Adelaide and I spent a good deal of if working on Lady Anne's leaves. This was the progress by dinner time. 

I had, by then, moved from the Eastern to the Western end of the apartment, not before I'd captured a bit more of Blush's exploration and Black Tip's drinking.  Oh, and I did bring in the washing.

Tonight's moonrise was more interesting than sunset.

This is where I got to just before I finish this post and head to bed.. No crochet today.

Post 71: Friends

First up today is the mystery of  the plant on my balcony that a friend suggested was a the Lachenalia, unusually flowering in Autumn. Another friend contacted me this morning to suggest it is in fact a Aloe.  I've checked it out and it is Aloe ciliaris. Many thanks to both friends for their help. I love the way information gets shared in the blogging community.














I had another identification challenge when a new bird came to investigate my balcony (Yes, that is two photos of the one bird). It ate a few grains of seed, but not many.  This, I think is because it feeds on insects and worms and there were none on offer.

This is a magpie lark or peewee. It is a smaller relative of the piping shrike, or white-backed crow shrike, which appears as the emblem on the South Australian flag, but has never been officially declared the State bird,

It had a good explore of the balcony before taking off.

My two doves have settled into a daily routine. The smaller, (I'm assuming femaile) waits on the edge of the roof, calling for me to get up in the morning. More often than not she stays there while I throw down some seed and comes for some of it as soon as I go inside. She returns several times during the day. The larger (I'm assuming male) comes around midday for his share. 


My songbird embroidery was not quite dry this morning, so I set to work to make what I could of the bag without it. I got the back, sides and bottom of the bag machined, the handles and the lining. 







By early afternoon the blocked piece was dry, so I added it in and completed the job. I had to do a bit of adjustment to the lining.

Here it is in all it's splendour.










I realised as I blocked it that a red thread had run. I managed to prevent disaster, but have been slowly and carefully removing the offending thread - the over-dyed Mossipots that I was so pleased with. I haven't removed it all, but may do so.


It's a decent bag.



The news from Jennifer in hospital in Perth is pretty good. Her two tests for Covid19 infection were negative. Jennifer has her piece of get-out-of-jail paper! The tracheotomy is out. She can speak softly and croakily, but should not be doing too much of it. She stood up beside her bed several times and a physio is helping her sit in a chair. Tomorrow she moves to a respiratory ward where she will have a physio program. Doctors are saying 4 more weeks in hospital. Susan can visit her tomorrow - her first visitor since she went into hospital a month ago today. I don't have exact dates, but I think she has been in ICU for close on 24 days and with a respirator for probably 20. She has been the longest time of any patient in the Royal Perth Hospital Covid ICU. She's alive, standing, sitting - even speaking - and Covid-free.

I had bubbles tonight to celebrate, quietly, while enjoying a Live Stitch with Phillipa and Laura Turnbull and  3 of my fellow Stratford retreaters. Phillipa was in Cumbria, Laura in Spain, Genevieve in Brussels, Margaret in Brisbane and Tamara in California. There was lots to talk about. Those who are working are stretched, keeping families and fellow workers well and operational in addition to their own work. It's easy to make no time for your own sanity. No one expects this to be over soon. We all have at least one piece of stitching going and lots of stitching hopes and dreams.  There was more talking than stitching but I did tack papers to 30 I inch hexies. It lasted two hours instead of one - and worth every minute.

This is my tribe. Not all of it - but a vital part. To borrow a term from a local funeral company advertisement, it nourishes the soul.

This post is  a bit short on photographs. Two parcels were successfully delivered to me today. One contained two cooler-weather tops and the other a book. I had forgotten I had ordered it, second-hand from England. It's the Martha Grimes detective novel set in Stratford around the Black Swan Inn, where Melody and I had a drink on our second day in the town, before the retreat began. It's years since I read it The book isn't available electronically in Australia, because of historical publishing agreements and it's out of print, so I ordered a second-hand print copy

How appropriate that it should arrive today!

So much to be thankful for.