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. 

Post556 Farewells and Welcomes

Not only is my coffee machine home and working, but as of Thursday my old bed is gone, and the new one in place. The old base had to go down the stairs, but the old mattress and new bed went in the lift. The photo is the deliverers taking the old, and the packingmfrom the new, to their truck, which they managed to park in a loading zone two doors down. I had reserved a parking space for them right outside, but they were concerned they might damage a tree! Fabulous service. 

I made up the bed with one set of double bed linen I had from way back when and the summer quilt, which works fine. There is about 30cm of extra space beside the bed, so I swapped a bedside cabinet for a slightly larger one in another room. I had a big pile of washing  to do over several days. I also discovered that some companies are no longer manufacturing double bed linen! Queen size is now standard. I got the last pair of double bed high thread count cotton sheets at Adairs. The saleswoman told me to buy a lottery ticket!

I had cancelled my Pilates class when the contractors informed me on Wednesday that delivery would be the next day, probably late morning. In fact they were gone by 10.30, having rearranged their schedule so I wouldn't miss Pilates! My spot was still vacant, so I did, indeed, get there, even buying the spare sheet set on the way! In the evening I went out to dinner with friends - a really delicious Feed Me menu at Noi. So quite a day.

On Friday I was home for a delivery of rose quartz earrings and stitch markers - a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness Day. I wore mine to the first Sit'n Stitch in several months that afternoon. We had a great time catching up and eating Susan's fabulous cheese scones. Luckily she gave me some to take home. My brother phoned as I finished bringing the washing in and we talked for the best part of an hour, after which, since I was into my fasting time,  cheese scones seemed like the best dinner, which they were.

Our apartment block is made up of four pods, each with its own entrance. Apparently other pods have plants and/or art works in their foyer, so we have followed suit with a new pot plant, there when I got home on Friday.

On Saturday morning I picked up the necklace I had taken for repair - costing less than quoted because it turned out to be threaded in sections, only one of which needed to be replaced. I took more in to be fixed, ranging from replacement of hooks or clasps to a remake of a pair of broken earrings and a broken garnet necklace. 

The replaced fittings were done on the spot, but the remaking has been left and will take a couple of weeks. I'm likely to find some other broken jewellery in time, but for the moment I think that's it. I'm glad I got organised enough to get these done.  They can now be put to good use.

Last night's dinner was a bolognese pasta bake, which I haven't made for a long time, mainly because I have cut back on my own pasta intake, and Fionn was also, at one point, avoiding carbs.  There were only 5 of us, so there is a lot left over, ironically divided between Fionn and I - the two who stopped the pasta menu!

On Sunday I did Carol Stacy's pulled thread work class at the Guild. The project is a lovely little leaf sampler. While I love the project, I had difficulty by the afternoon with my back and my eyes.  I was using magnifiers, and a seated hoop, extended so the work was close to my face, but I still had eye strain and a very sore back by the afternoon. I left a few minutes early, came home and rested a bit in a supportive chair. 

Once my eyes recovered, I picked up the Chaffinch. It’s an interesting contrast to the counted work. Although I was using the same size seated hoop, it didn’t need to be so close to my eyes, so my posture is better. I was by then past the detail of the bird itself, which might have required closer work, but only for very short periods. I finished the Chaffinch and mounted it the next day. It now hangs on my door and the full story is in my embroidery blog.

I returned to the counted sampler on Monday, limiting myself to about an hour at a time. Even though I can get more comfortable at home, and avoid the back issue, my eyes feel the strain and need frequent rest. Three hours at a time is out of the question.

I spent the best part of today at, or focused on, the 1pm funeral of my friend Lorraine. On Monday night I was asked to read Psalm 121 as part of the service, which took me by surprise but oddly made it easier for me. Nothing like a sense of purpose. I learned afterwards that she had, at one point in her illness, threatened to write her eulogy herself and get me to read it!  

While the photo of her on the order of service was very much Lorraine the Burnside matron, the photo on the screen throughout the service was the one I had taken of her in her Frida Kahlo outfit when we went to lunch in December last year!  There were singable hymns and  a beautiful rendition of Faure's Pie Jesu by a member of the congregation,

It was clear that I wasn't the only one puzzled about Lorraine's early life.  It was equally clear that we all  respected her, and valued her friendship, too much to intrude.

After the service, Lorraine’s friend who had accompanied us to Ukaria late in April took me to her car to give me the Christmas present Lorraine had left for me, a Morgan and Finch tote bag containing two scarves and a bottle of wine! Not even I am that far ahead on Christmas presents, and Lorraine had left them for six of her friends.

The church yard was full of stories and energy. The funeral processed the 20 minute drive to Centennial Park where, at 3.45pm, her body was interred in the same grave as her 11 year old son who died of cystic fibrosis in 1977. Stayers returned to St Theodore’s for afternoon tea!  

I came home to let my cleaner in. He, however, was delayed and is now coming tomorrow. It was too late to join the interment and a bit strange to turn up again at the Church Hall for a very late afternoon tea! The spirit of the occasion, however, was such that I was tempted. Her funeral service did her proud, and left me grateful to have been part of the community that called her friend.                          

Finally, an update on my blackbird nest. On the weekend I glimpsed the male putting food into the mouths of three upturned chick faces before flying away. Since then, both adults have been absent a lot. The male has been back often, but until tonight, I had seen no further sign of young. This evening I once again saw an open mouth being fed before the adult flew away. 

The photo I snapped of a chick wasn't good enough to be of use. This is the best I can do of an adult. As young fledge within two weeks, I should have better evidence next week.