Post 552 "The road goes ever on and on...

Although a couple of key members stayed away with colds (thank you!) from WES Group on Wednesday, 14 of us had a fine time hearing Barbara talk about the embroideries of four villages in Gujarat, which she visited several times, and examining a selection of the treasures she brought back.  

We also discussed at some length what we might do to record some of our memories of Lee to ensure her legacy is not lost. No decision as yet, but some possibilities to be further explored. It certainly helps to talk about it. Her funeral is on 27 September.

Nesting season is upon us. There are articles about avoiding being dive-bombed by Magpies (basically stay away from them for the next 4 weeks or learn to speak Magpie) but my balcony is host to less aggressively protective species.

The doves are puffing up to keep warm or feasting on the kalanchoe and a Rosella found a spot of sun above my balcony for a brief rest.

 

On Thursday  after Pilates I grabbed some lunch at Queen St Cafe before helping a friend with an insurance claim and staying for dinner. It was a good day - with more food than usual and great company.

On Friday I finally bit the bullet and got my tax information together. By cob I could email my accountant to request an appointment  (still no reply!) It's not an onerous task, just time-consuming and tedious. As I was on a roll, I spent Saturday sorting the wooden tray of receipts and to-be-filed documents. 

Before heading to family for dinner, I took a break to progress the Shetland beanie, only to discover I had skipped a section of the pattern, so undid the whole 5 rows I had achieved!   

Spring is very evident in Katherine's garden.

Sunday being a new day, I was  a woman on a mission,  summoning energy to don mask and gloves, open doors and pour chemical cleaner down my bathroom hand basin drain, following the instructions carefully, before heading out to the Jam Factory just after it opened. The basin has been draining slowly for a while but it was only after listening to the plumber working at the Guild a couple of weeks ago that I realised what I needed to do. As I had neglected this for years, I needed to leave the solution in the pipe for several hours before clearing with hot water, so figured I was best right out of the way.

At the Jam Factory I was in time to nab one of their four on-site parks,  find the gifts I was after, and visit the current Julie Blyfield exhibition, some of which I really liked, especially her pieces based around corals, a stunning combination of stitching and metal. It's the last week of the exhibition.

Back home I filed the results of Saturday’s sorting, prepared a package to be taken to the shredder, boiled rice to dry out for Monday’s dinner, had a long phone catchup with a Canberra friend, finished the drain process and knitted some correct pattern rows on the beanie. Amongst the discoveries in the filing are the beginnings of an inventory of my paintings, furniture and notes for a book I promised to help my brother with. At least they are now in a safe and accessible place (oh no, not that safe place again!).     

The small dot towards the top right hand corner of the sunset photo (above), taken at 6.50pm on Sunday, is, I'm fairly sure, Venus, the Evening Star, which, of course, put me in mind of Lord Tennyson. An appropriate sign at the end of the last couple of weeks. 

Meanwhile, today’s lunar eclipse occurred during the day here, so wasn't visible. The moon was particularly clear last night (right), while tonight (below) is the  glowing beginning of a super moon.

 

I’m curious to see what the Harvest Moon (northern hemisphere language: should probably be a Planting Moon!) on Sunday - the girls’ birthday.

Today I waited for postal deliveries before visiting friends. One was a Bothy Threads kit for - dare I say it - another cushion cover.  This one is of Bluebirds, for which I have a weakness. I sang Bluebirds over the White Cliffs of Dover and Bluebird of Happiness all the way to my friends' place.

The second package,  Christmas decos, by First Nations artists again frustrated me. The two small boxes would safely travel in an envelope to go through a letterbox, but came in a box big enough for dozen such boxes requiring me to be home. Sigh.

I like the native animal ones best.

 My day concluded with a phone call with a Sydney friend, catching some images of the moon, posting some photos of my father, who would have been 105 today. and getting the Shetland beanie back to the decrease row that I thought I had reached on Saturday. The photo doesn't capture the subtlety of the five colours!                                         The road goes ever on and on...

Post 533 Long Post for a Full On Week.

Wednesday turned out to be busy as I set about restoring order to my balcony after the re-grouting of the tiles. The tiles needed washing, the pots and furniture returning to position. The first discovery was that my squeegee, the only mop I own, was broken. The sponge squeezing mechanism had come apart, and was missing a connector. I could still operate it awkwardly, holding the disconnected rod. 

I took the opportunity to clean the runners on the door and insect screen of their accumulated grime. The two water dishes were slimy. One contains shells, which in turn were covered in slime. I soaked the shells in a mild solution of bleach, then scrubbed each one with a nail brush. They now look clean and the water clear. I've moved the dish out of the sun in the hope the algae won't form.

I deadheaded flowers, tidied a few plants, swept up petals and reconnected the hose. 

I noticed that the zygocactus is about to flower - so the honeyeaters will be competing with the noisy miner for access before too long.

By the time the balcony was restored and clean I was exhausted. I made a coffee and explored potential replacement of my squeegee. 

I keep a short broom with attached dustpan on the balcony. The broom has nylon bristles, now misshapen and sticking out at all angles. An online search revealed the Frewville Foodland had suitable replacements, so I set off and found what I wanted, a squeegee with a more robust mechanism and a small, handmade broom from Vietnam. 

I already have one of these with a stiff bristle. The new one is soft, and very good at finding fine dust. One on each balcony

When I got home I returned the shells to their dish and finished the job. I decided to replace the hose as well, with one that is tidier and takes up less room. (Yes, this really is tidier!)

Around 3pm, as I was having lunch, a courier delivered the four printed tote bags I had ordered - the Early Women of the Book.

I am delighted with them . Two are for friends in Sydney - fellow students of Early English Literature and Language in undergraduate days, who are as excited as I am.  One is destined for a charity auction and another for the Guild SALA Exhibition - along with the explanatory booklet. 

This has been a very productive exercise. As with the earlier bag, one side has printed the photo as uploaded and the other has somehow removed the white background. It is obviously how the printing process works. I'd like to understand it, but, as they are printed overseas, I doubt I will. 

There was a fabulous full moon that night and I managed to get a decent shot through the slats of my Vergola using my phone. It's the best moonshot I have managed.  A Proud Titania kind of night.

Thursday was ANZAC Day, a public holiday, with Dawn Services and marches of Veterans and service men and women all around the country. I don't attend. I do, however, acknowledge the service of family members and remember their sacrifices - including the mental health issues that followed throughout the lives of those who survived. They needed to forget, but we need to remember.

I had decided not to bake Anzac biscuits. It is school holidays, so no one but me to eat them and  I already had a few left from last month's batch. The point about Anzac biscuits is their keeping capacity. They were developed to last for months on sea voyages to France and Egypt in WWI.  However, when I received this email from a cheeky friend  Dont forget the ANZAC biscuits are in the oven and they burn quickly. WE DONT want them burnt again this year, I got on my high horse and immediately made a batch. That'll show him! No fool like an old fool! At least they will keep.

I had bought fresh prawns on Wednesday, intending to have them in a salad, but in view of the chilly weather, stir fried them with broccolini and peas. A good meal.

On Friday I met a friend in Stirling for coffee and scones. It was busy and crowded, but we did a lot of catching up. She brought me another Alamanda Blue, one that is ready to propagate. Mine is doing well, but isn't old enough to be divided, and I promised one to another keen gardener. Cathy seems to have the Alamanda magic  touch. She has several plants, all excelling themselves.

A balcony isn’t ideal for plant division on this scale, and it has taken me several days over this busy week, but I now have three new plants from this giant, which will grow back over the gap. This is quite a rare local swamp plant and would be best in a pond. It’s important to keep propagating them.

When I arrived home from Stirling there were two parcels in my letterbox. One was a metre of Spice linen - the lining for several bags I am working on. The other was a total surprise - a shawl knitted by an overseas friend as a gift. I was so warmed in every way. An unexpected, personal, perfect gift. It went perfectly with what I was wearing. I feel wrapped in friendship and heather.  

And speaking of heather, Marie Wallin’s new collection was released, and yes, against commonsense, I have ordered a kit. This one is simply too beautiful to pass up. And, from the sublime to the ridiculous,

Even worse,  I also ordered an Uradale (centre) colour way kit for the newly released 2024 Shetland Wool Week hat. 

My Saturday workshop on Glazig embroidery for the Certificate Course went really well. The 12 attendees were enthusiastic, diligent and creative working right up to 2pm. 

I captured 9 of their efforts, thanks to Lee who prompted me to photograph the results before it was too late! The one that looks messy is because I photographed it too close through the plastic bag after it was packed up. I really liked the edging but didn’t want to ask the student to unpack it.

Niamh arrived home from her school trip to Indonesia with stories and gifts. Mine is a pair of lovely filigree silver earrings in a batik box, accompanied by a berry for cleaning the silver. I’ve been to Indonesia a number of times but never encountered these. 

I might just try following the instructions.

On Sunday I had a 2.30 pm concert at Ukaria. It’s a 40 minute drive with my friend Lorraine, and this time also  another friend of hers, in time to secure a convenient car park and enjoy a platter lunch beforehand. The Dudok Quartet of Amsterdam played Mozart String Quartet No.23 in F,K.590, Grazyna Bacewicz String Quartet No4, Tchaikovsky String Quartet No3 in E flat minor. The Ukaria garden is at its very best, and the music was great.

Although school term has begun, yesterday was a pupil free day so no family dinner. I needed a day to shop and recover after a pretty full-on week. Much of the day was spent in a panic, trying to find an example of embroidery a student had given me on Saturday for the next WES Group meeting. I had been too busy and tired on Sunday to unpack my Glazig teaching bag and when I got to it yesterday the example was missing. I searched the car and house and phoned the organiser. I was working out how I was going to explain the loss to the student. Several hours later I worked out where I had tucked it, to keep it safe. Phew! 

Today I had lunch with Panayoula, catching up and sharing our opinions on world problems. At home I finished off making a pot of soup to keep me going for the rest of the week.

I have now reached the sleeve cast-off on the Andes cardigan. It’s looking good. I'm looking forward to seeing the impact of shaping.

It has been a busy, productive week - thanks for reading to the end!

Post 524 A lot happening.

 

On Wednesday I had coffee with Panayoula and an early dinner with Lorraine. Lots to discuss with both. Lorraine and I went to Noi, Vietnamese restaurant at Glen Osmond and it was excellent. I want to go again.

With no causal connection, on Friday I spent a couple of hours at Looms of Greece , an exhibition at the Cowandilla Community Room of West Torrens Council, talking to a couple of the organisers about the weaving, Greek embroidery, community museums and conservation. It was a really interesting exhibition and there are lots of shared interests and concerns to follow up on. This example of the border of a weaving was a rare example of embroidery, done in satin stitch, some of it single, some double sided. I’ve promised to try to find out more. I sent Panayoula off to have a look at it on Saturday, its last day.

At Sit’nStitch we farewelled Jennifer, who is moving back to her home state of Queensland where she will be in the heart of her family. We’ll miss her, but now have multiple ways of staying in touch and sharing our interests..

Back at home, I plugged away to finish the Pulled Thread Mat from Christine Bishop's 2022 class, putting the last stitches in on Friday night and ironing on Saturday. I originally had the good idea of making 4-8 of these as place mats. As much as I like it, I will now settle for one.    

Appropriately enough, Friday's sunset drew a line in the sky. 

On Saturday I was woken from a dream at 5.18am by the door buzzer. I scrabbled my way out of bed,  for a moment fearing it was Monday, when our Strata tradesman was coming at 8am to look for balcony leaks. By the time I answered there was no response. A passing hoaxer? A visitor looking for another residence? I’ll never know. I went back to bed but not to sleep. It did ensure I got to the supermarket in time to do a big shop, with just time to unload and put it away before having my 7th Covid shot, an easy matter at my local pharmacy, followed by a sore arm and bouts of overwhelming tiredness for a few days. 

I rested and read the latest Dan and Oscar book Murder at the Leaning Tower until it was time to meet up with family at The Red Ochre Grill for an enjoyable meal with plenty of discussion. Food was a bit slow coming, but we had plenty to talk about. I was shocked to discover Brigid and Veronica had only just arrived in Sydney, where they were staying with my brother and going to Monday’s Taylor Swift concert. Storms in Sydney on Friday had delayed flights all over the country and their Friday flight had been cancelled. They ended up flying via Tasmania (!!) on Saturday, missing an afternoon performance at the Opera House. So stressful!  They are clever, independent, resilient young women, now safely in Sydney in time for their main event. Still a shame for all concerned.

My drive home after dinner was interesting. The Festival and Fringe are in full swing: there are road closures, diversions and swarms of people out and about. Strange to remember the days when I would have been one of them! However, my arm was sore, my eyelids drooping and I fell into bed even as the moon lit up my bedroom balcony.

Sunday, fortunately, was recovery day, watering (still over 30C), a bit of food preparation and project organising.

          

Having finished the Botanical Bee cushion, I had dug out the Duftin Cockatoo punch-needle bag kit I had bought a couple of months ago. I loved the bold cockatoo and thought that, if the punch-needle didn't work I could embroider it anyway.  

  

I got going with enthusiasm. The cockatoo figure is printed on the inside of the bag and the flowers (embroidered) on the outside. I dug out needling equipment and got going, working several hours before I realised that what I was doing was needle-felting, not punch-needle! It was too late to go back, too hard to undo, so I had to work out how to turn what I had - a kind of fluffy crested alpaca- into a cockatoo. What an idiot!    Still hearing my mother's voice For an intelligent child you can be very stupid at times.

I did work it out, but had to finish needle felting the whole bird before I could stitch evenly over it. I must say it would have been harder to cover the dark blue background without the layer of white felting. I'm glad to have it almost finished (bit of repair needed on the tail feathers) so I can put it into a hoop and move on to the flowers. 

Christian, our strata tradie came as arranged on Monday morning, quickly deciding my balcony tiles needed re-grouting. It is a day’s work and they will do all the necessary moving, clearing and replacing of pots and furniture.  Hopefully this will fix the problem of water leaking through the ceiling of the balcony below - unless there is another unseen problem, like no waterproof membrane or leaking pipes. 

 

Monday dinner was a quiet affair. With 2 grandchildren in Sydney for Taylor Swift and 2 at football training we had a quiet meal for 3. I tried out the Chicken with Haloumi recipe using duck. Part of my second order from ArteOtomi arrived - the dress. It’s lovely, and very much a statement. It can be worn with or without the accompanying belt. Without a belt I need to wear a heel. 

Today I picked up a collage poster for Brigid’s 21st from the printer. I managed to repeat one photo in my haste to get it done on time but otherwise it’s pretty good. Tomorrow I will try to get cork board to mount it, but failing that I’ve worked out I can pin or staple it to my blocking tiles. I picked it up before Aquafit, which was again vigorous, and rushing home to reserve a parking space for the cleaner, then shower, dress, change the bed, wash sheets and grab food. It reached 36C by 2pm, so aircon now on. For privacy reasons I am only posting this view of the poster laid out for blocking.

Another busy week coming up, with Brigid's 21st Birthday Party, family to stay, friends visiting for the Festival and Writers' Week, window cleaners, JEMS - and temperatures in the 30Cs.  I also have a Glazig workshop for the Guild's Certificate Course coming up in April, which means I need to have a project and requirements ready for the Guild newsletter by 25 March. I have ideas but no firm project, so better get to it this week. 🙄

Post 496 Food, Fibre, Family, Friends - and moonshine.

I missed the super full moon on 2 August. Rising at 4am to see it wasn't a priority. However, last Wednesday morning I woke with a start at 3am. Although my blind was drawn, the bedroom was very light, so I got up to investigate. 

It was a half-moon (not evident in the hastily taken photo) with a star above it. I don't know why it woke me up. I sleep pretty soundly and thought the least I could do was to take a photo.

I went back to bed and slept a couple more hours. The star, it turns out, was Jupiter.

I'm tempted to say it's a once in a blue moon event, but there is blue moon on 31 August which rises at 11.08 am, so that's unlikely to wake me up. It remains to be seen if the sky will be clear enough to see it.

Wednesday was our WES Group meeting, and Barbara shared her collection of tribal textiles from West Bengal and Gudjarat. It is a fabulous collection and was accompanied by an illustrated account of her several trips to the area, developing links to the producing communities. There were 13 of us there and there was a lot of interaction and engagement with the topic. 

I had to rush home to let the cleaners in. Fortunately fortnightly cleaning will not fall on the second Wednesday of the month again until December.

On Thursday morning I had my annual skin cancer check. The dermatologist I have seen for the last 25 years or more has retired so this was my first visit to the new, young, dermatologist she referred me to.  I don't enjoy these visits, but was very impressed with her manner and thoroughness.  She identified two growing moles on my back that need removing. I have an appointment for this in early September.

I went on to Pilates, grabbed a milkshake at the Queen St Cafe,  and then visited friends who had invited me for dinner. As always, we had a relaxed and refreshing time. I undertook to further mend the pants one of the friends bought in Indonesia a few years ago. He wears them to travel in - especially on planes. When the pants split (also several years ago) I offered to mend them, and have been continuing the tradition ever since. I enjoy the challenge and he enjoys the pants and the narrative. They are travelling again soon, and the pants had developed yet another tear.

I finished mending them on Saturday. The  detail  is in my stitching blog.

My granddaughters roll their eyes. Their idea of fashionable, respectable, or even acceptable, clothing, does not include orange pants, with or without patches.

Rowan magazine 73 arrived on Friday. It is a beach-focused issue with some inspiring patterns. I already have more projects than I can handle, but I do hope I can make some of these. 

 As if that weren't enough, yesterday this book arrived with another fine selection of things I would like to make.

Guess I just have to  keep on being highly selective or find the one or two people in my circle who get attracted to one or other of them.  

A friend living in England sent me a link to this article about favourite knitting projects. I don't think I could name one favourite project, but the enthusiasm these knitters express is familiar to me. It continues the discussion kicked off by the Kate Davies quote I used last week. In December the World Embroidery Study Group will be discussing knitting and I'm hoping we will explore this aspect.

It looks like the trainer who works in the Square has returned. Perhaps this signals Spring is on the way. This group was working at 8am on Sunday as I was preparing to go to my Book Club. The cafe we used to meet in has closed due to a major shopping centre renovation. We have been meeting in homes, waiting to see if it reopens, but that, alas, is not going to happen. On Sunday we tried a new place, called Foliage. It is a lovely venue, with plants and all sorts of interesting bits for sale. It got a trifle noisy at one point, but was pleasant and convenient so we will give it another go.     

From there I went on to Katherine's birthday bash, which she had at home. The food, catered by Jesse, was fabulous, disappeared quickly and seemed to be endlessly replenished.  Everyone was occupied, kids drawing, playing games, visiting the park, adults engaged in catching up with each other. It was good to catch up with quite a few friends I haven't seen for a while.

I prepared Monday night's moussaka on Saturday, which gave me a relatively leisured Monday, extending into the relaxed dinner. 

Perhaps a little less relaxed, I cut the steek on the alpaca shawl. The cutting went well. 

The next step, however, was to pick up a further 320 stitches around the two cut sides, giving me 772 stitches on which to work a 12 row border.  I knew that was coming, but hadn't registered that the pattern requires this to be repeated on the inside, as well as the outside, to form a double border joined by an i-cord. I'm on my way with the outside border - but am not yet committed to the double border. It is taking me 70 minutes to knit each row. I've done three rows.

I will record progress in my stitching blog - and hopefully report on the outcome next week.