Post 588 Nature and Nurture

 

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Sadness and reflection have lurked, kept at bay by routine activity, many conversations and flora. My sincere thanks to friends and family for sustaining messages of support. 

When the window cleaner left on Wednesday, the 11th anniversary of Jim's death, I visited Centennial Park Cemetery. As ever, the gardens are beautiful and the bird sounds around his Banksia Court area are uplifting and life-affirming.

The tree over Jim's ashes (right) is thriving as are the succulents. I take a couple of extra cuttings from my pots each time I visit. Some strike, some don’t.

The tree is laden with gumnuts.

I spent a bit of gentle time helping Barbara with forms, also with my daughters remembering times we spent with Ken and sharing photos. Health permitting, we will attend his funeral later in the week. 

Routines continue. My airconditioning unit was serviced - more thoroughly than ever before, every outlet checked, as well as motor, valves and electronics. The serviceman also checked and clarified how the bathroom extraction fans operate. When his report arrives I shall pass it on to the electrician who is still working on quotes.

On Friday I had Xrays and scans on a lump that has developed on my left foot. It turns out to be a ganglion. Benign - leave alone unless it rubs on shoe, when it can be injected. I seem to be prone to these. I had one removed below my ear when I was about 9 years old as well as the one recently removed from my hand for the second time.  At least I don't stitch or open jars with my foot.

I gave embroidery priority to the Kasia Jacquot bags, written up in my embroidery blog.

I have several more of these to go, and am really enjoying them.

I also bought a yarn pack for this year's Shetland Wool Week beanie. I had resolved to try it in two colours only, but when Yarn Trader offered a Jamieson and Smith pack I quickly grabbed one, but haven't started it.

I have been asked to be the after dinner speaker at the Guild's Country Conference, being held at Guild premises in the city in late July. Organisers are interested in the World Embroidery Study Group talks, so I've provided a list and agreed to do any of them. 

The last Saturday of the month is the St Margaret's Church Market so I headed off early in that direction, but a bit further, to West Lakes, to buy a double contour latex pillow recommended by physiotherapists (and hard to find in Adelaide) before calling at the church for plants. 

I haven't filled all my empty pots, but these (left )went some way towards restoring the balcony garden afree our hot summer. I had to empty old soil into compost bags and dispose of them before I could repot. 

Adding a couple of pots of blooms from a nursery (right) also helped. These have yet to be planted. There's a lot more to do over coming weeks, but recovery is well underway. .

There were interesting discussions at Book Club on Sunday, in particular relating to The Thrill of It by Mandy Beaumont. This is fiction 'loosely' based on a court case in which a man was convicted of murdering 6 'grannies'. The author has said she wrote it to give a voice to the victims and their surviving descendants. I ( and others in the Book Club) thought she gave a much more powerful voice to the perpetrator. I have always opposed censorship. If I had an incinerator I would have burnt my copy of this book. I felt contaminated by it. I do not want to be inside this man's head. I certainly don't want even a fictionalised version of him inside mine. Fictionalising true crime raises many issues.

I had time to think on it as I made moussaka on Sunday afternoon. I used pecorino in the sauce rather than kefalograviera. Pecorino isn't easily available in supermarkets, but kefalograviera is much harder to find. I also decided my usual 6 eggs was over the top, and settled for 4. While most of the dish disappeared, I think it was a bit sloppy. I'll return to 6 eggs in future. It was great to have a full 7 at dinner, and I extended the table with help from Brigid. I had a great conversation with Fionn about what he learned from his recent work placement.

This morning my fortnightly cleaners did their usual thorough and efficient job, before insisting on moving the extended table and quite heavy chairs to remove creases from the rug beneath. They don't like imperfection, and worry about me tripping. What service!

A dove is visiting again, choosing the only eastern balcony planter that needs a new plant. Maybe I should leave it free for doves.

At the hairdresser today, prompted by a discussion about unsolved Adelaide crimes, I explained my feelings about our recent Book Club read. 

My hairdresser's suggestion, which I came home and enacted, was to tear the book up and put it in the recycling to be transformed into something else. A few pages went into the compost bin, the rest to recycling. Job done.

It's been a week full of greenery and flowers. These flowers arrived from the Attorney General’s Department at the beginning of the week to thank me for the beanies. They are lasting really well, brightening my extended table - and my extended contemplations. 

Gratias.🙏

Post 403 Ups and downs

 

On Wednesday early the next layer of the scaffold came down on the Eastern side building next door. I was delighted to have most of my missing view back. There are two levels of scaffold to go.

The rest of the day was peaceful and relaxed. I had a lovely long phone call with a Guild friend and another with a friend of Jim's I haven't heard from for nearly two years. It was terrific to pick up where we left off. I also had a couple of conversations with my brother, trying to rectify the fact that I sent a parcel of books to his long defunct PO Box instead of his current one.  In this case, Australia Post were terrific and quickly found a solution.

At the end of the day I was less happy to discover that the West facing scaffold had also been removed and my view of the twin branched Norfolk Pine is now filtered through a balcony on the adjoining building. Admittedly, this is only visible when I am on my balcony, not when I am in my living room - and I can at least see through the balcony.  When the rest of the scaffold is removed I will be able to see into one end of a lower balcony as well. It's not terrible, nor too intrusive, but a bit of a surprise. 

On Thursday I had a medical day - fasting blood test , then an optometrist appointment before Pilates. The blood test revealed no change in my kidney readings which is a bit disappointing. They are not dangerously high, but higher than desirable. I see the renal specialist next Thursday, so I need to discuss. The optometrist spent 40 minutes examining my left eye which is once again inflamed with Meibomian Gland Disorder . She has upped the ante and moved me to a phosphate-free eye drop at least 4-6 times a day and a steroid cream twice a day as well as hotpacks. After 5 days there is definite improvement.  

Friday I did some shopping, went to Sit'nStitch, came home and cooked the ragu for moussaka. 

On Saturday I had half my front balcony cleaned. I can't reach much of it without a ladder. My cleaner did a fabulous job, tidying and organising as well as cleaning. It's a big job - grime from traffic and weather has not been removed in  more than 5 years. Michael Constantinou's Spanish Mackerel is looking splendid. It was also a JEMS day. It looked like a good turnout. Niamh and I had our regular milkshakes and Katherine and I had a good catch up while stitching. She is covering coat hangers. They look great.

At 8.30 on Sunday morning I took all the front boxes and bits out of my storage locker in the carpark and washed them.  Behind the front boxes is a single layer of boxes against the back wall, mostly labelled. I realised all of these are not going to fit on the trolley I bought. There is, however, no real need to move them. With nothing in front of them, it is  easy to see the labels and not too difficult to get to them.  The trolley will fit in front of them.

Just after 9.30 am Ken arrived and we removed the flatpack for the trolley from the back seat of my car, read the instructions and set to work.

Once we worked out a couple of simple processes it went very smoothly.

By 11 am we had it assembled and began to stack it.  By 11.30 it was in place and we had cleaned up. 

I discovered a couple of bits that should have gone out in the hard rubbish this week, and there are a couple more I can probably do without. 

At least now I can see what's there and get to it pretty easily. I now need to investigate archiving some of it.

It is a very good job jobbed and I couldn't have done it without Ken's help.

When I changed into clean clothes afterwards I discovered the jeans I bought last year are now a size too large for me, so I stitched elastic into the waist band - a fine solution and a pleasing discovery! While I was about it I patched a sheet which had developed a tear. Late in the afternoon I popped over to Ken and Barbara's place for a quick dinner.   A most satisfactory day!

It's been warm for a few days and on Monday morning I attempted to close the roller shutters on my large back window but nothing moved. I figured the battery had died in the controller. I couldn't get the back off to change it, so took it back to Burns for Blinds. Apparently the controller batteries are not made to be changed and the whole thing needs to be replaced, so they have ordered one for me. By amazing good fortune they are guaranteed for 5 years and this one is two months inside the guarantee, so there will be no charge - but a wait. 

In the meantime I plugged away at the pincushion in the Leadlight Counted Set and finished one side.

The moussaka was a good one. The ragu was thick and rich - down, I think, to the lamb being minced fresh by the butcher and a new brand of passata (well, there was also the half bottle of wine). 

Fionn is preparing for exams, Brigid had a netball committee meeting and the girls enjoying the end of year wind-down without the sadness of last year's transition from primary school.

This morning the scaffold at the back of the building next door was removed. My new view isn't quite as wide as it was before the building, but it's pretty good and much better than looking at scaffolding. 

This is what it looks like from my favourite chair just inside. I'm not complaining. 

I had intended to go into the city today and collect some restrung jewellery, but it was strata window cleaning day and I had organised for the contractor to clean my interior and exterior balcony windows. He did a terrific job and warned me that water from the plants is staining the windows in a few places. That doesn't worry me too much, but I'm going to try moving the plants on the front balcony away from the windows.

To my surprise, Burns for Blinds rang to say my controller had arrived, so late this afternoon I drove out and picked it up. It is currently on the charger, and I was nervous about whether it would work. If the problem isn't  the controller, it may mean a lot more work to fix it. I was right to be worried. After 5 hours on the charger it is still not working, so I need to ring Burns for Blinds tomorrow and ask for someone to look at it. It may mean getting on the roof - and scaffolding!

By this afternoon the scaffolding on the front of the building next door had gone. This is my new view looking south.  Left is the view from the edge of the balcony. Top right is the view from my usual chair and bottom right is the view from the dining table.  Not too bad.

I've finished the Leadlight Counted Set pincushion. I used a slightly darker cotton for the second side, just for variety. I played with leaving spaces to create a pattern (top left) but stitched over it.

So it's been an up and down week. The roller shutter not working is a worry, but there's quite a bit to be thankful for. I have also reached 14kg weight loss. 

Tomorrow is WES Group and on Thursday I see the renal specialist with a list of questions. I'm hoping the week follows the weather forecast, which is mild all the way.

Post 144: Layers

This morning was the monthly meeting, in a coffee shop, of the Crime Book Club I joined two months ago. I apologised.

As interested as I am, I did not feel comfortable in meeting with 5 or 6 people outside my usual 'bubble', around a table in a coffee shop without 1.5 metres between chairs. While the shop has tables set well apart, and only admits the regulated number of clients, last month there was no attempt to distance people around each table - no doubt assuming they are a social group. Even though there are no known active cases of Covid in South Australia, I don't feel like taking risks - or disregarding the rule. 


Instead, I spent most of the day making moussaka for tomorrow night. It's a bit of a risk. I make it frequently, but haven't made it for the kids. I'm hoping at least some of them take to it.

Last night I sliced and soaked the eggplant in salty water overnight. This morning I rinsed them, laid them out on a tea towel, rolled it up to dry them off, then spread them on trays in the oven for about 40 minutes.



While that was happening I made the ragu






and cooked half a dozen zucchini.


I usually stage this over a couple of days, but there was time today to do it all.

When the ragu was ready I layered the meat, eggplant and zucchini







then had a rest with a coffee and knitting.  The knitting seemed to resemble the moussaka - layered. I finished the dark lace layer I was working on last night before making the cheese sauce layer for the moussaka.







Finally came the grated kefalograviera cheese and the grated nutmeg.

It's now in the fridge ready to bake tomorrow.

Back to the knitting, I was not sure I would have enough of the light grey wool to finish, so I have shortened the second to last band by four rows. I'll kick myself if I end up with enough left to have avoided that decision.  I don't think it is impacting the design adversely.

Inevitably, sunset was yet another layer.