Post 561 Plant material in various forms

The bougainvillea at the Pilates studio was at its best last Thursday, spilling over into the street. The road was marked out to be dug up yesterday, so parking will be difficult next week. I've used it as an excuse to cancel, so I can have lunch with a friend's son, working in Adelaide.

On Friday I dashed out to shop before logging into the funeral of a family member in Sydney. It was good to be stitching with a friend in the afternoon.

I opted for the last Certificate Course workshop of the year on Saturday, Cut Work with Carol Stacey. Carol has done a lot of cutwork and her notes are excellent. I have done a little cutwork but it was good to have the information about threads and styles. I enjoyed working bars and being part of the group, catching up with those who were there. 

When I got home, I found the Yukka I had brought in a pot from my Hindmarsh home, had collapsed across the Western balcony. The main stem had died long ago, with a strong pup taking over, in addition to the others now thriving in several other pots.

I had used the strong dead stem to hang pots and a driftwood mobile, given to me by Fionn. The weight had finally snapped it off at the base.

I spent the afternoon cleaning up the balcony, sorting out the containers of useful things on the table behind the Yukka - empty pots, insect repellant, fertilisers bottles and containers - repotting a couple of things and disposing of a couple of others, along with things that have not yet come in handy.

It was hot and muggy, so I stopped a couple of times for ice-blocks and finished by sweeping up, visiting the various rubbish bins and watering. 

The dead stem is light, but I don't have tools to cut it up, and I can't dispose of it in one piece, so took it with me on Sunday for help in cutting it up. Fionn is taking care of it for me.🙏🏼

I am delighted to see a couple of signs of life in the Almanda rescued from the blackbird. I thought I had lost it but keeping it flooded with water seems to have done the trick. Hopefully it will be back to its former glory in a month or two if I keep up the water out of sight of the birds.

I'm also  pleased to report I finished the vegetable bag. Details in my embroidery blog. I also worked a smallish Christmas present that I’ll report on later.

From the same greengrocer where I will mostly put the bag to use, I bought a small Christmas tree this week.  Since being in the apartment I haven’t tried a real conifer. This one looks promising so I’m giving it a go. As yet no decorations. Another week and I’ll work that out.

A lovely Sunday afternoon with family before Veronica was scheduled to fly to Cambodia very early on Monday. It included a phone-in with Alison for her birthday. Altogether the highlight of the week. Back at home I cleared all my plants and curtain from my windows ready for the window cleaner who arrived just after 8am on Monday morning.

By 9.30 my windows were clean. By 11.30 my Christmas cards had arrived and I headed out to pick up bread for dinner and a mug from the Jam Factory (bought with my member’s discount over the weekend). The mug was a bit larger than I had envisaged, but fits neatly under the new coffee machine, so all good. It has the maker (Hannah Varrath-Pajak)’s thumb imprints, and is lovely to hold. 

When students and their families arrived at the airport at 4.30am yesterday, it turned out that their 6.15am flight to Melbourne, to connect to a flight to Ho Chi Minh City, had been cancelled. With some heavy intervention by teachers supervising the 21 schoolgirls, they were transferred to another flight and airline and were on their way by 7.30am. Apparently many Melbourne runways had been closed because of weather. They are travelling without much electronic communication but we do know they reached their destination safely. 

The rest of us gathered for an easy dinner of vegetables, potatoes and pies from the Dulwich Bakery. Most of the family had been at the airport at 4.30am to get Veronica checked in and see her off, so it wasn’t a late night! 

The yucca has recovered but is not yet up to holding a driftwood mobile which is marking time on a wall.

Niamh and I met up again this morning for lunch and milkshakes at Queen St Cafe. I had to divert around several streets to avoid the road closure referred to above. It was good to catch up in a relaxed setting. I enjoyed but couldn’t finish my pork and fennel sausage omelet. I'm now used to eating much later.

On the way home I picked up a couple of parcels, one a Christmas game, the other some new swimming gear, including a water safe bag that I’m hoping will allow me to swim with a car key on my person.🤞🏼

I’ve now started the Very, Very Berry embroidery for the lid of one of the tea boxes. It’s Anna Scott’s design. 

I'm following the stitching instructions but have backed the fabric with cheese cloth for strength and added a strip to the bottom to fit it into a ten-inch, rather than 8" hoop in order to have the whole design visible. 

I’m finding it a joy to doing crewel work again. 

Post 559 When in doubt, stitch and plant

I arrived at the Guild on Wednesday to do my usual, quiet, uneventful hostess duty to find the place abuzz. A group from the Mildura Branch of the Embroiderers' Guild of Victoria, on a bus trip to Adelaide, were due to arrive for a visit at 10.30am. The Museum team were on hand, as were organisers of the shop and trading table. Around 30 arrived, inspected the Gallery display, shopped, visited the Museum, had morning tea, lunch and departed at 1.30, just as someone arrived with a stunning set of embroidered Chinese garments to offer the Museum. In between directing people to the Museum, I sold some books, brought in the bins and stitched the Irish harp (see embroidery blog).

It was, as I anticipated, a good choice of project for the day. The visitors were interested in it, it was relatively straightforward, and it didn’t take long to finish once I got home. 

On Thursday morning I made it into a bag and today added a minor embellishment. It will be a gift bag for someone who, will, I hope, continue to use it.

I launched straightaway into a vegetable shopping bag, which I had bought as a kit from the Royal School of Needlework shop.The RSN is the retailer, not the designer of the project. It has proved difficult. The stitches themselves are easy and, made of sturdy canvas with faux leather pockets, it will be a really useful bag.

The canvas, of course, makes it difficult to embroider. It is hard on hands: I need to wear my left-hand brace and use my long nails to push the needle through above, and a thimble on my right-hand ring finger below. It’s going to take a while.

I did not try to work on it at our Sit'nStitch on Friday, instead knitting the Rowan shawl. It was a busy day. Panayoula and I caught up over morning coffee for the first time in months, since her trip to Greece earlier in the year. I then did the shopping for Monday's lunch at Frewville. It is my go-to place for pork roast but they appear to have changed their butcher or butchering. I usually buy a 3kg slab but the largest I could get was 2kg, trussed differently. 

Sunday was the Guild's Stash Sale - a variation on the usual Christmas Market. This time, members could lease a stall to sell  surplus supplies. The Guild gets the stall rent fee and the seller keeps  what they sell. The Guild, of course, also has trading table, library, shop and Museum sales. I had decided not to go. The last thing I want to do is add to my stash, but I relented and called in on my way to Bunnings for some plants. I spoke to a lot of people but didn't buy anything, resisting the offer of a beading kit with instructions in Russian.

At Bunnings I bought a couple of decent blooms to sit in empty pots, and some small plants to be transplanted - including one for a precious mug I broke a week or so ago. Now I have to keep up the watering!

Our full quota of 7 for Monday dinner. Exams seem to be under control. I added some duck and fennel sausages to the pork roast and there was plenty. The roast on its own, however, would not have quite made it.

Today I resisted the temptation to visit Create in Stitch for some of their William Morris colouring merchandise (but will probably succumb before the end of the week) in favour of  a bit more vegetable stitching and reading Murder in Verona, the latest in T A Williams' Armstrong and Oscar series. 

I'm gathering my energy for tomorrow"s WES Group and learning about Manila Shawls.