Post 599 Family, Friends and Textiles

Taken just before midnight, on Wednesday, through the glass of my eastern window. It seemed an appropriate finale to the day. 

Our WES Group meeting had been a stimulating and cooperative effort. Keryn prepared a well-researched presentation on the Huguenot Silk Weavers of Spitalfields, while Margaret facilitated its display on our 27” monitor and everyone pitched in to help out, discuss, contribute and ask questions. 

Keryn had made a bag, and embroidered a design from a 1712 design of James Leman, one of the leading Huguenot weavers.

I spent most of the afternoon writing up and emailing the summary of the meeting. I think, from the response, that we were all on a bit of a high.

On Thursday morning I began thinking about books for our September Book Club meeting. I’m the chooser, and need to have 2-3 titles by our August meeting. I now have one, published in April this year, ordered from Melbourne and another, from the just released Australian Crime Writers Ned Kelly Awards shortlist, borrowed from the library. I  need to read them before 30 August. I’m intending my 3rd choice to be the Richard Osman Thursday Murder Club #4 to be released on 23 September - hoping our meeting date will be after the release!

When I returned from Pilates I noticed  that some soil had been dislodged from my eastern balcony wall garden on to the newly swept tiles. There has been quite a lot of calling and cooing from the doves of late. I put words to their calls - echoing the rhythms as we were taught to do when reading Latin poetry. I’ve heard conversations like I want icecream! No icecream! Can’t do it! It drives me a bit nuts but I can't help myself.

However, on Friday I finally noticed that a pair of doves were hanging around the balcony, and only when I photographed them did it dawn on me that they were showing signs of nesting - in the same spot as last year’s blackbirds, which I thought I had filled in with extra plants!

I was out there like a shot, in my slippers. The doves flew off. 

I grabbed the hose and watered the plants (not sure if that’s a deterrent, but worth a try), placed two pot plants where the two birds sat and a flat stone over the soil in the relatively empty planter on the right hand side. You can just see the stone circled in purple in the photo.

There followed a lot of bird communication, but none ventured back to check it out. One perched on the roof above and called several times what sounded like Our spot’s gone! and maybe She’s a b——. I, however, have no regrets. I don’t want to rear any more birds on the balcony.

Two doves (not sure they were the same two) returned on Saturday and Sunday but didn’t seem to approach the nesting spot. Phew!

I shopped at Frewville on Friday because they have large free-range chicken, which I wanted for Monday dinner. While there I indulged in a startlingly marketed fresh, uncooked pizza. i don’t do pizza often because of carbs. It served me for 3 meals and tasted fresh. I’m not sold on sausage and truffle flavour, but would try another in the range one day.

I was up early on Saturday, getting organised to pick up my old Sydney Uni friend who had returned from his trip to the Flinders Ranges and had about 5 hours to kill between hotel checkout and flight. We drove to the beach, walked the jetty and had lunch before I dropped him at the airport. We had a good time, reflecting rather than reminiscing, on our time at Uni, our naivety, backgrounds, learning and subsequent directions. There are few people with whom I could have that conversation, and having it is health-giving. That we are still on much the same wavelength 60 year later is a gift and blessing.

After dropping him at the airport I had dinner with family as usual, spending some time complying with a school directive that Veronica’s winter school uniform be let down. We gained 5cm in length, hopefully enough to satisfy authorities for the remaining 27 days she has to wear it. Not a battle worth fighting, but one worth remembering. It will make a good and bonding story for decades to come.

That left Sunday to cook lemon chicken for Monday night and progress the left-over-Rowan-yarn-shawl. I started the day with 582 stitches on the needle and ended with 598, so 6 rows added. It’s a long way to the end of each row but I’m persevering to finish with a colour sequence.

The dinner went well. Somewhat to my surprise, the lemon chicken was a hit. The slightly defrosted carrot salad much less so (I really like it!).) The tablecloth was admired and discussed., fulfilling its purpose. 

Today I finally paid my second visit to the Dangerously Modern exhibition at the Art Gallery, this time focusing on the beginning pieces, notably the miniatures. It’s still fabulous, and I’ll go again if I can. 

I also had a look at the Ramsay Art Prize entries, intrigued by the People’s Choice Award I had read about, a huge wall hanging, The Pool, by Emma Buswell. It was amazing. While described as a tapestry, it  is in fact knitted! 

This is not obvious at the distance needed to see the whole composition, but very clear up close. Astounding! It would certainly have my vote.

I spent the rest of the day finishing the shawl. 

 It doesn't compare with the People's Choice example but I'm pleased with it. 30 minutes ago I finished casting off the final 615 stitches. The ends are not yet stitched in. At this stage I don't think I will block it. If I do, I will need to assemble  the hap stretcher. The table is 2.4 metres long and a metre wide.  I don't think I need it any larger!

The purpose was to use up left-over wool - and it has used a fair bit. I will write about it in my embroidery blog over the next few days. 

I may just keep this one for myself.

Post 557 New Life.

On Wednesday I asked Bill, my cleaner, to leave the back balcony untouched because of the nest. He insisted on climbing on a chair to see into the nest (father having flown away). He could see two chicks. 

On Friday I heard them for the first time, and on Saturday managed to snap a blurry photo through the glass of my bedroom. Today I watched the adult male blackbird feeding them and snapped a few photos without going outside and scaring him off. The photos are still not brilliant, but good enough to show.

The chicks have grown in six days, and there is a bit of a flurry when food arrives, the two young competing to get fed first, and the adult trying to serve both in turn.

I'm not sure what it is he is feeding them, but it doesn't go down in one gulp!

I had intended to go the Certificate Workshop at the Guild on Saturday, but ran out of puff. I had shopped on Friday for Monday dinner (7 of us for Chicken Maryland with haloumi and fried rice), because I also had the second day of the pulled whitework sampler on Sunday.

However, with a concert at the Cathedral on Saturday afternoon and dinner on Saturday night, I decided to skip the workshop. Instead I tidied up and worked on a project for Christmas - which I can’t write about just yet.  

The concert was terrific. Called Organ Fireworks,  it featured a couple of organ solos and numerous organ duets by Anthony Hunt and Joshua van Konkelenberg. A treat. Nothing like the sound of a pipe organ in full throttle. The day was rounded nicely by meeting Max in the evening, the 8 week-old son of family friends, who visited for dinner.  The blessing of new life beats most things.

I had spent hours during the week working on the pulled thread work sampler, taking breaks and sitting in chairs that support my  back while allowing me to get close enough to see to count threads. Carol's instructions were clear enough for me to follow on my own, so I planned to leave the workshop at lunchtime this Sunday. The plan worked and I turned the finished sampler into a bag on Monday morning. Details in my embroidery blog.

On my way home from the class I stopped at Bunnings and bought some plants to refill the pots I emptied last week. I will do it gradually. This afternoon I connected the hose to my kitchen tap for the first time in about 7 months to give the Western balcony plants a good water, and repotted two of the empty pots, one Veronica painted and gave me probably 8 years ago. Until recently it held a Tradescantia Zebrina. I've made several new plants from it, but the original finally died, so I've planted a cheerful daisy in the pot. It will probably need replacing but will look good for months to come.

While I have numerous very happy looking snake plants, this one looked insecure, so I've given it a new pot and position.

Tbere are another half a dozen plants to be potted up, but I shall take my time.

Many of the established plants are thriving on warmer days.

This morning I had my haircut, having put it off for a couple of weeks because I was enjoying the length.

My next appointment is on Christmas Eve - not sure that was a good idea, but provided the City Loop bus is running I should be OK.

On the way home there was a blackbird feeding on a young jacaranda in the Square. Was it, I wondered,  the nesting blackbird? Would it fly over the building? Chances are, it's not, but interesting to speculate.

I was home in time to open the door for the postman to deliver my copy of my brother's latest book, which is, I think, a winner.

Although it's over 500 pages, it contains 110 self-contained stories, making it easy to pick up for 10-15 minutes at a time. Some are very short indeed. Most of them are worth talking about, many worth reading aloud. 

Both Lee and Lorraine would have liked it, which makes me sad, but there are others I'm looking forward to sharing it with.

It's been a week of new life, new growth, new projects, as well as completions and sorrows. C'est la vie. 

Post 427 Eastertide

It has been an odd week. I've spent much of it emptying a cupboard, desk and filing cupboard in readiness for my 2 new pieces of furniture. That has been quite physically demanding but satisfying. It has, of course, been Easter. Our Covid restrictions were eased at midnight on Thursday, in time for the weekend. Masks are no longer required except on public transport, aged care facilities, hospitals and gyms. Our schools are on holidays and no decision has been made yet about masks when they return.  

I am not changing my cautious habits. No music or food festivals,  or even movies or theatres for me.  

I did a bit of shopping for the weekend treating myself  to some prawns for Good Friday, and yes, I did buy, and eat hot cross buns (in lieu of lunch). 

Some of my succulents burst into Easter bloom. 

There are promising buds on one frangipani, so I haven't given up hope yet.

The doves put in several appearances on Easter Saturday. I don't have seed for them at the moment, but it doesn't seem to deter them.  I keep the water dish topped up and they do drink each time they come.   

I made my usual chocolate crackle nests, my mother's tradition, to take to Katherine's on Sunday. This year I found some tiny chocolate-filled candy-coated eggs.  

We had a wonderful, relaxed and delicious late lunch on Sunday. Absolutely fabulous pork and vegetables followed by two of Katherines' amazing chocolate deserts. The only photo I took was this distant one of her chocolate and apricot tart. I suspended my diet long enough to have a tiny slice.  Worth it!

There was a gentle sunset over St Francis Xavier's Cathedral as the moon rose at the other end of my apartment. 

I have prepared the sewing room for the incoming long cabinet. Delivery is Friday afternoon. I'm nervous about the delivery. Both pieces are quite long and may not fit in the lift. The deliverers (contractors) will then decide whether one or both have to be brought up the 3 flights of stair or taken apart, brought up in pieces and reassembled. I'm trying not to stress. 

I have piles and a trolley of files and plastic containers in the spare bedroom, ready to go into the new cupboards and shelves. I have slightly rearranged my living room in readiness. I managed to move the old desk and filing cabinet down to my carparking area by myself but needed help with the cupboard. Late on Monday my neighbour called me to ask if she could have the desk! In return, her husband Theo got out his shifting trolley and moved my cupboard.  This can now stay in front of my car until the curb-side pickup, when he will help me move it out.

The desk has come back upstairs and is in Di's workroom next door. My friend Susan helped me assemble this from a flatpack I bought online, so I'm really pleased to find a good home for it.

In between shifting, storing and sorting I have been working on my bag-from-jeans. The first one is finished and has been a lot of fun to work on.

One side, with a tilt to the Housman poem, is wearing white for Eastertide.

The other side is simple summer fare. Both owe their design and colourway to the Beautiful Botanical Embroidery book. Details are again in my embroidery blog.

I've started on the second one.

Today I called at the Guild to pick up some more of the white cotton from the trading table and to catch up with a committee member. I went on to Bunnings to drop a magnifying lamp into their electrical recycling. 

Of course, the postie came while I was out so I had to visit the PO to pick up my copy of How to Knit Beautiful Bags.  Good to know that I won't run out of ideas for bags when I finish the ones from my old jeans!

To complete the week, here is the Easter moon about to set over Adelaide this morning.