Post 249 Food and Food for Thought.

 

The jacaranda at the back is a bit further in bloom - and the marigolds are holding their own.

The white pigface that Margaret gave me is on the left. It has a very slight pink tinge in the centre of the petals. 

The one on the right is the one I bought. It's so interesting to see these slight variations in plants. I wonder what will happen with these two close to each other. Will they blend? Jennifer Ackerman, in The Bird Way, argues that individual variation in birds brings resilience. I wonder if this is also true of plants?

I hung out the washing I did yesterday, and went shopping at Frewville for bakery items for after-school snacks and fruit for my breakfast before coming home and preparing the pastitsio.  

Brigid's Maths Method exam went well this morning and she went home to continue study for the next one on Thursday. Her dinner went home with the rest of the family.

I got a bit more work done on the Rabbits before dinner and moved the hoop.

I was excited by the email from the Crewel Work Company yesterday to say the Aesop's Fable kit - which Phillipa had originally intended to teach at Beating Around the Bush last month, is almost ready for sale. I had booked into the course, and have reserved the back of my Crewel chair for this piece. There is now a bit of an incentive to finish the smaller pieces I have for the gaps in the rest of the chair so I can start straight away on the Aesop. Looks as if Crewel will be part of my life for a while to come.

It was an interesting sky tonight - great sky, with what looks like a giant handprint.

It has struck me several times that the title of this blog, England 2020, is a misnomer. It was appropriate when I set it up for a trip to England in late February, less so for the rest of the year in Adelaide.  Yesterday I was struck by the perversity of the title  when here in Australia we had no new community-based Covid cases and England announced a month's lock-down.  

The title and circumstances of  this blog bind me to England this year. Some of my activities - photo scanning, embroidery and bits of family history also bind me, causing me to think about my heritage. It's not something I've really thought through before and I'm not sure where it will take me. 2020 may prove to refer to vision as well as a visit and pandemic.

I have progressed the Rabbits a little. There's a chance I might finish it tomorrow.

Post 88: Visits

The first thing I saw this morning when I opened the blind was this Black-faced cuckoo shrike. It flew to the flowering aloe and attempted to get nectar from it.  I wasn't fast enough to get a photo. There was another cuckoo shrike hovering nearby and they took off into the trees.

Before too long, Myrtle was there pecking away at the seed I had cast. It was the very last of the seed Katherine had given me when the doves first appeared while I was in self-isolation.  As she pecked, the pair of cuckoo shrikes reappeared and either enticed or intimidated her into flying away. They flew after her, without attempting to feed on the seed. She came back later for the seed.



The trees are looking very elegant as the red tips multiply.

I spent an hour or so making  Pastitsio Makaronia me Feta with Phyllo , or pasta pie as my grandchildren prefer to call it. This was to be the next meal at my place on Monday after my trip to England, but isolation and distancing took over. This is Veronica's favourite meal at my place, so I promised to make one and drop it in. Today I went to their place for afternoon coffee, so wanted to keep my promise. 

I forgot to take a photos. It was very good to see them all and hear what they have been doing. We have agreed to resume Monday dinner at my place for children only on 1 June. I can manage an appropriately distanced meal for 5 but not 7. If we eat early, I can package enough for their parents to take home for their dinner when they pick up the kids.


Back at home I had some cooked pasta left over from last night, so added a bottle of passata, sprinkled it with cheese and baked it. It was surprisingly good - and there is plenty for tomorrow as well.

I managed a couple of hours on my research/writing task this morning. It's still at an early stage, but is progressing.




I  finished the 7 remaining hexies while socialising and watching Julia Zamiro profiling Karl Kruszelnicki. 

This gives me 63. I calculate I need 12 more to finish the job. I will need to cut more fabric squares to achieve this.


Rather than start cutting this evening, I decided to put the first stitches into my first Nicola Jarvis bird. I used silk thread for the red and orange head, a red metallic in the circle around the eye, and a blue polyester thread. The beak is the wrong shape for a rosella, but I'm not going to get too literal. I haven't noticed any birds with feathers in the pattern of flowers.


Now, of course, I have projects going on everywhere.

Nothing like having choice.