Post 564 The temperature feels a lot like Christmas

We had an enjoyable WES meeting on Wednesday, 12 of us sitting around a table spread with food and sharing what we are currently working on (or not, in a couple of cases where family illness is requiring full attention). Colleen brought along a folio of samples given to her by a batik master, showing all the stages of batik preparation. A real treasure. Colleen has an exhibition of textiles opening next Friday at the Fabrik Gallery Lobethal.

Glenys brought a mystery object. The base is hollow, a receptacle of some kind. The remaining three sections all come off separately, but are each like a lid with no connection holes for incense or insertion. There was a lot of speculation, but no concrete suggestions.

On Thursday I saw the hand therapist who brought in a surgeon to look at my myxoid cyst. We all agreed it needed operating on. We found a mutually possible day in late January but I needed a referral from my GP., whose practice wouldn’t facilitate it without my seeing him, but managed to fit me in the next day. Fortunately, I had done all the right things to avoid infection, and need to continue being careful.                                                                                                       Friday, therefore, was spent in a GP visit, followed by 95 minutes with my mouth open in the dentist chair, preparing a molar for a crown. A tedious process, but competently and carefully done. I now have a temporary crown, with the permanent one to be fitted next Friday. It seems that an hour after seeing me last week my dentist had a cancellation and I was in the front of her mind. I was very pleased to be able to make myself a coffee at 5pm, by which time the anaesthetic had worn off and the no food/drink period had passed.!  The practice rang on Saturday morning to check that I was OK. Great service.                                                                                                                    

While I’ve been working on the Rita Maria Faleri birds, a spider has been working her magic on my back balcony. I love the pattern and pictures created by these webs. Unlike me, the spider doesn't need a book (for size indication, the book is a little larger than A4).
                                                                  

I woke around 4.30am on Saturday, registered that it was time for the asteroid shower, but could tell from my bed there was too much light around to see it, so went back to sleep. I was, however, up in time to hear laughter coming from the Square.  It emanated  from this group exercising. A great early morning sound.

I spent the rest of the day at home, mostly playing with colouring a cotton bag, incorporating a couple of experiments I’ve been  wanting to try. 

It’s approaching pomegranate season and Katherine's tree is doing nicely. Such attractive fruit to welcome Veronica home from her adventure in Cambodia and Laos.

I was looking forward to the last Adelaide Chamber Singers subscription concert for the year, Resound at the Cathedral on Sunday afternoon. Although it was forecast to be 41C , I still thought I’d go. The cathedral relies on a couple of large fans at the back for cooling and the concert was one hour, with some audience singing. By the time I had watered my balcony plants I was wavering.

At 12.15 it was 38C and I saw sense. I’ve been at concerts before at the cathedral when people have had to leave because of the heat. There is also minimal shade for parking and while I love singing, the thought of the impact of all that breath in the already hot air cathedral decided me. I microwaved a couple of scones I bought on Friday, made a coffee, closed the blinds and turned on the aircon. A pity, but a no-brainer.  I read Eileen Thornton’s A Mystery in Tyneside and finished the experimental bag, 

which I shall probable give to a charity for food distribution. It's interesting and useful, but of limited success.

The heat continued with 38C on Monday and has brought the mandevilla back into bloom. I've also moved the almanda that was attacked by the blackbird back to the eastern balcony. It is struggling, and won't, I think, survive the heat on the western one. I have hidden it behind other plants in the hope the blackbird doesn't find it.

I made a quick trip to Dymocks at Unley to pick up a copy of the 2025 Guide to the Southern Hemisphere Night Sky, then get some supplies and home by 11 to bunker down and read.  I get very tired in the heat. I thought the sky guide would be useful, especially at Carrickalinga in January. Carrickalinga has met the requirements to become Australia's first International Dark Sky Community. 

There was no dark sky here in Adelaide when I went to bed last night at 11pm,  24 hours after the full moon. It would have been a good night for an outdoor performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

 I nearly put myself to sleep in the afternoon trying to read The Serpent and the Goddess which has been on my pile far too long. Very small print and lots of dense, detailed prose has put me off, but the central claim, that ancient serpent creation mythology largely either assigned or incorporated female involvement in creation but was usurped over time by patriarchal structures, is an interesting one. 

Around 6pm yesterday there was a courier delivery, this time the fascinating, populist, well-illustrated history of sail making in the UK town of Coker, the birthplace of William Dampier and T. S. Eliot. Its supremacy in sailmaking, it seems, was down to its unique process of ‘bucking’. This is easy to read, and will be of interest to WES Group.

Today the temperature dropped to 26C.  I got a lovely breeze through the apartment in preparation for cleaning. It won't last, but the 30-33C forecast for the next week is a lot better than 41.  Tomorrow my car is being serviced, and Friday will be taken up with the Crown fitting, both in airconditioned premises. The current forecast for Christmas day is 34C, so definitely no robins, snow or sleigh bells. I'm delighted, however, to have messages from friends via card, email, messenger and sms, and after significant delay from a cancelled plane, Veronica is home from the school trip to Cambodia. So deo gratias.

I think my Christmas shopping is finished.  I might make gingerbread for the Summer solstice. 

Post 424: Books, a bird, booster bookings and St Brigid.

Who knew there was an Orthodox monastery on Mull? It wasn't there when I visited 50 years ago! My Viking Embroidery research reminded me that the Celtic monastery and church of St Cuthbert and St Ninian, established in the 6th Century on the site of Ninian's Holy Well at Kilninian on Mull, had been abandoned as a result of Viking raids in the 10th Century. The church was rebuilt in 1755 and had since been deconsecrated.  I then discovered that the Orthodox Monastery of All Celtic Saints has been founded there in 2010 and is now operating as a community. One of their fund-raising ventures is the production of Embroidered House Blessings featuring the blessings of Celtic Saints on wool tweed cloth from both Mull and Harris.  

Of course, I ordered one. This is a house blessing from St Brigid, on Mull tweed, now hanging just inside the entrance to my apartment. It arrived this week, bearing this extraordinary sender address . It seems those who join the order take the title 'Seraphim'.

This is my last nostalgia photo for a while - March 2017 in Keswick, catching up with cousins and drifting along Derwent Water. I haven't given up hope of seeing either my cousins or Derwent Water again, but I am, as ever, so glad we got together when we could. 

On Thursday morning I finished the second attempt at the Mosaic Carpet Bag. I'm pleased with the result - and also pleased to have finished it. There's an account of the finish in my embroidery blog.

I'm sure some readers will have noted that I am posting more frequently to my embroidery blog. I've returned to my pre-Covid habit of using it as a record of my embroidery projects (for my own benefit as much as anything) rather than filling this blog with embroidery detail.    

While I was stitching the lining on my machine, I appliqued a couple of motifs over the holes on a bamboo top (those pesky zip holes keep appearing!). The motifs were embroidered on silk by WES members and not claimed after a display. I like the look.

On Wednesday I had coffee with Zoe from the Uni SA fundraising branch. I'm interested in the innovative work in remote learning now underway. 

I was back at Pilates on Thursday and a bit sore on Friday. My instructor and her daughter have had Covid in the two weeks I was isolating. The daughter ended up in hospital and is now recovering. I did a bit of food shopping on the way home, Adairs were having a sale so I called in to buy another plant stand and pot, then filled it with a philodendron from Barrow and Bench on Friday. I really like these bamboo stands which sit so lightly on the carpet. I now have three of them.

I also bought a cactus euphorbia and 

an Ascot Rainbow euphorbia - which look nothing like each other, perhaps not surprising as it turns out there are over 2000 species in the genus.

On Saturday I attended the Guild's Certificate Workshop where Arrienne took us through some Turkish stitches. Like most things, it took a while to get the hang of it, then became fairly straightforward. 

I haven't worked on the Aesop Frame since June of last year and haven't posted a photo since May 2021 when I finished the peahen.  This week I have finished the green woodpecker and am now on the hare, in the bottom left hand corner of the frame. 

On Sunday the Crime Book Club successfully met at my place - after last month's postponement due to water works in the street. We covered a wide range of books and generally enjoyed ourselves. I'm the picker next month (for what we read for May) so I'd better get my brain into gear.

Monday's dinner was a bit of a relay - 6 people coming from and going to various work, school, sport and church commitments. A lot of fun for me - it's what dynamic families do.

I keep getting notifications from Academia, a service I don't subscribe to, notifying me of mentions of the half a dozen papers I wrote between 2000 and 2009 while completing a Masters. I have, it seems, just had my 100th mention. Since I don't subscribe, I can't view the mentions, so have no idea if it's positive or negative. 

That was then. I'm glad others have found it useful as they build knowledge.

Sunsets here are my regular Vesper doxology, it's less frequently that I open the blinds to that first blush of a new day with all its promise. Yesterday I reread 'East Coker', the second of Eliot's Four Quartets which begins In my beginning is my end, and finishes In my end is my beginning.  I still find it profound. 

Today that promise was amply fulfilled as Panayoula and I spent two hours reflecting on Life and the Universe as we do each month. We've agreed to learn about 'sovereignty' before we meet next month.

My original mandevilla is loving its larger pot, rewarding me with both height and flowers. I might end up moving the others to the eastern balcony. Morning sun seems to be more to their liking than afternoon.

On Saturday the Australian Government authorised a second 'winter' booster from 4 April for those with underlying conditions and over 65s, so I immediately booked at my local pharmacy for 9 April.  Today I booked my flu shot for 20 April. My weight loss has slowed but not stopped. I've now lost 22 kg, and am losing about 1kg per month.