Self-isolation Day 7: Halfway; oranges following the sun

Yesterday I listened to the Gesualdo Six while stitching in my living room in the afternoon. I saw them perform at Ukaria, in the Adelaide Hills in February and bought two of their CDs which I hadn’t played. I love the music they make, both the familiar and the less so.

This morning, inspired by Phillipa Turnbull's video in her garden, I decided I would take my stitching outside. I was on a roll with the ribbon on my Muncaster Orange - the topic of Phillipa's video. I rarely sit outside on my back balcony, although I often sit just inside. It was lovely there this morning, very warm without being too hot -not that usual in Adelaide. 

I was stitching happily way when I received a text message from Woolworths, telling me I had been accepted for home delivery from online ordering! Yah! I was so relieved. This had been my major cause of concern in self-isolation. While I am OK for food, I will run out of fresh fruit and veg before the end of my isolation. I have family and friends who will shop for me, but they all have quite enough on their plates without needing to service me as well. If the home delivery works I know I can manage.

I went inside and finalised my order immediately. My first delivery is scheduled tomorrow between 2pm and 7pm. I could take a wide delivery window because I know I'll be here!  I have left instructions that it needs to be brought upstairs and left outside my door. I can't go outside my door, so need it right outside.   Here's hoping it works.

Back on the balcony, I continued stitching - and took another photo of the tree to get closer to the branch structure for a future embroidery.

While I was contemplating the tree,  my immediate neighbour rang. We had a great catch up, the birds, the bats, our concerns, our hopes.  I was pleased to get her husband's opinion that my vine from yesterday's post is indeed a passionfruit. Theo knows this stuff. I've decided the obvious future of the vine is in the garden of someone who likes passionfruit. When we are out of lockdown.

As the day progressed I moved with the sun. It was great light for stitching. I discovered gaps in the rope stitch stems that had not been obvious to me under artificial light. I filled in all the gaps and finished off the stems. By 3.30 I was stitching on the front balcony.

A helicopter seemed to take off from quite nearby in the city and gain height as it came past. Checking helipads in the city, it had to be either from the Royal Adelaide Hospital or AECOM - a private infrastructure company that apparently has a helipad in the CBD - seems a bit upmarket for Adelaide!

There is still a bloom on one of my balcony frangipanis. It isn't a really strongly scented one, but it is lovely.









In the continuous sunlight I made excellent progress on the bow. I went over several bits until I was happy. I was struggling to balance shading for distance (edges behind and in front) and shading for light. It isn't always the same thing. It took me several adjustment to be happy.

There was plenty to look at, including the exhaust trail of the Perth plane from Melbourne - a site we won't, I imagine, see in coming weeks.







I almost finished the bow as the sun went down and the birds came home to roost.

I stopped to call my brother. He's working from home. My sister-in-law is refining her technique of teaching PE to 24 junior primary student via video link in their individual home. 24 separate little screen faces need some getting used to !  There are processes and protocols for online communication that have to be identified and learned. Many people, not just teachers, are on a steep learning curve - but getting there quite quickly. SA is moving to learning from home from the end of term, preferably immediately.

In the hope that my supermarket order will indeed arrive tomorrow, I allowed myself an extra serve of salad tonight. Susan's pasties are delicious. I'm so lucky to have this generous supply!

I finished the bow off quite quickly after my meal. I'm very pleased with it. I think it will fit in nicely with the other pieces on my chair.











It's now out of the hoop. I will block it  tomorrow.

I'm wondering whether my Sydney friend, had her cataract operation or not. I will hopefully find out tomorrow- before or after my groceries arrive!


I am now half way through my self isolation, and doing well thanks to my family, friends and neighbours - not just here but in distant places.  It is heartening to be so connected. I look forward to welcoming Woolworths to my support network!

Self-isolation Day6: Routine - and a bit rambling

I seem to be falling into a daily routine, reading emails and news, late breakfast, check plants, emailing and calling friends, maybe a little reading, late lunch, stitching and blogging, more calls and email, dinner, blogging and stitching.

This morning I focused a bit on this tree,  visible from my back balcony. I like it’s shape and branch structure (the latter not so clear in the photo). It might be useful in an embroidery. 

I have a basket on this balcony that I had planted with herbs, after watching an ABC Gardening program in which Sophie Thomson demonstrated a basket of herbs you could take on holiday with you. (I didn’t want to take it on holiday, but thought it would work on a balcony).




 At the time I was trying to make my own compost, a venture I gave up, when I realised it would take more than 6 weeks from scrap to soil, I had added quantities of my compost experiment to the basket,  The herbs all died but a vigorous vine emerged. I think it’s passion fruit. I’m interested to see how far it develops. Can I bonsai passion fruit?

I have been in touch with several Guild friends today and  contacted the members of the Guild’s  World Embroidery Study Group. There is sufficient enthusiasm for sharing some of our studies online. I was also able to organise to mail some information to one member with email difficulties. Many thanks to Chris, who is working alone in the Guild office and organised and executed this for me.

One member who returned from NZ in the last few days has managed to organise home delivery from Woolworths. As I am still waiting to hear from them, and I applied 5 days ago now, I have reapplied. Not sure what else I can do. Coles are promising to set up a service late this week, so maybe I'll have more luck there.

Another friend in Sydney was booked to have her second cataract removed tomorrow and the PM announced this morning that all elective surgery is to cease from midnight tomorrow. When she phoned the operating doctor’s surgery to ask about arrangements, she was told surgery was banned from today and surgery was off. A few minutes later the hospital rang to confirm arrangements , since she would just scrape inside the ban! She was still trying to sort it out, although we both felt it was unlikely to proceed. 

I was interested to observe, this afternoon, the Council gardening staff in the Square, holding their meeting and carefully observing social distancing. The meeting was followed by the lovely smell of mown grass.

Late in the day I heard briefly from my friends on the Costa Victoria. There was also a segment on their situation on the evening news. The ship is currently heading to Rome, without any idea of what will then happen. They appear in good spirits. 

I can’t do anything for them, but pray. I feel on stronger ground where I can organise online presentations, or regular communication, or make a coffee and talk - or stitch. 

I made a small start on my hexies, digging out my papers and beginning to tack my fabric squares to the paper hexies.  I don't glue them but try to just catch the corners with tacking stitches. I haven’t produced a lot yet, but I’m organised and have made a start.











I switched, however, to my Muncaster Orange to see if I can make my bow work for me. Last night Melody posted her progress, which uses blues to really good effect. I had already started my greeny-yellows. These should be a good colour fit for where I want to place it on my chair. The other embroideries on the chair are in the browny-green dominant pallet and I think the bow should blend with them and let the magnificent oranges dominate.

This is my start. I’m not sure yet, but I think it might just work.







It was a lovely afternoon here for stitching. My living area faces West, which is a pain when it’s 40C, but lovely when it’s 23C as it was this afternoon. The light was lovely, especially when I sat with my back to the window. I got a lot better sense of the colours than I do at night under artificial light.


For lunch I has the raisin bread from the neighbour’s welcome home parcel and for dinner two of the pasties made by another friend, with lettuce, tomato and cucumber delivered by my daughter. I feel so very privileged. There are uncertainties and I do every now and then, feel afraid. Those moments, however are usually overcome either by activity or by counting my blessings - and remembering the strength of connection, community, ideas, adaptation - and resilience, qualities in abundance in my family and  community of friends. Connected we are very resourceful, and I am very connected. Deo Gratias.


There were not a lot of birds around during the day today, but as the sun went down there were noisy flocks over the square. I didn’t get to my phone quick enough, so had to settle for a more solid view of day’s end.


I am  thankful there are so many  sharing this experience with me in one way or another. We don’t know a lot of the answers to our questions, but we have shared values and we are refining our knowledge of the connectedness that matters, and the connectedness that has to be avoided. 

Self-isolation Day 5: Hexies galore

I have been sleeping pretty normally since my return home. Last night was the first I did not take a melatonin tablet before bed. I fell asleep around midnight, was awake for about half and hour around 4 am then slept until around 8am. At 8.15 I had a call to say my Adelaide family was 5 minutes away and would buzz to come up and collect the package I had left outside my apartment door.

The package contained the little gifts I had bought in Stratford. Before they dispersed to work, school and home, we had lots of waves and they opened the gifts as I watched from the balcony.

It was a nice moment.

A bit of a let-down to then hang out the towels I had washed!


This is where I got to last night with the Muncaster Orange. I now have to decide on the colour and style of the bow.

My first priority today ( admittedly after finishing Martha Grimes' The Knowledge!) was keeping in touch. I was delighted to hear from a couple of friends from whom I had not heard. I also managed to deposit the Ort Pot money from Stratford into the Guild account.

I heard from Lori, one of the members of the Guild's World Embroidery Study Group that I convene. Lori has been studying two contemporary embroiderers and was due to talk to us about this at our April meeting.  She has prepared a presentation which she is offering to turn into a pdf file to send to the group at the meeting date. Bless her!  I had intended to send out an email to the group tomorrow anyway, but there is now an added offer! I am also phoning members who don't have easy email access to keep them in the loop.

I have also had a message from my friends on the Costa Victoria. There has been one Covid19 diagnosis on board so they and all passengers are quarantined in their rooms with meals delivered to their door by masked and gowned staff. They are expecting to be quarantined on the ship for 14 days and have no other information.

After keeping in touch, my project today was to cut out 78 hexies to add to my quilt.

I got out my bin of small pieces of left-over cotton fabric and dug out the bits that are suitable.

I ironed  batches of the chosen fabric - a task that I often avoid!
















I wanted to avoid too much repetition so went for the widest range I could. I also went first for pieces that were in strips close to the 2 inch size I needed. This is a really good way to use up such pieces.























Once I had the fabric ironed, I sat down and cut it into roughly 2" squares, placing them in bundles of 6.


I now have 76 bundles, ready to be turned into hexies. I don't think I'll work on this exclusively over the next weeks, but I can work on some each day, then add them to the quilt in batches. I also published an account of the quilt adaptation on my embroidery blog which I have neglected while overseas. Gradually catching up.





















While writing this I have been watching our Prime Minister report on the latest restrictions agreed tonight. I must say, this is the clearest I have heard him. Someone has been giving him good advice about communication.

It was a grey, grey day in Adelaide today. I managed to catch the very last of the sun.

Now to dig into my stash of Appleton's wool to see if I can come up with a colour to try on the bow of the Muncaster Orange.

Self-isolation Day 4: phone calls and writing

Most of my activities today were not photo-worthy! I had planned a stitching day, but in the end I had lengthy phone discussions with a couple of friends - kind of coffee by phone, make a coffee and settle in to catch up, sort out our concerns and laugh.

I spent a bit of time replying to emails and staying in touch with my daughters.

I was in touch with our Guild employee, who is still working, and with Gay Sanderson, who prepared the Ort pot kits and product that I took to Stratford with me, to let them know the result. The $180 I will deposit with the Guild tomorrow as a result of the sales will offset what the Guild is losing in attendance fees at the moment. I also wrote up an account of the interest in the kits for our Guild newsletter - need to keep the stories coming.


Early this afternoon it was, oddly, sunny and reasonably warm (23C) on my back, East-facing balcony, but cloudy and dull from my front, West-facing balcony.  It felt a bit like a metaphor for our time.

Many of us are trying to work out how to avoid being overwhelmed by the cloudy view. The dot in the top of the sky just to the left of centre in this photo is a plane taking off. A site that will become less and less common.

balcony blooms.

Here in Australia we entered a new stage of lock-down last night with closure of all cafes, restaurants, clubs, gyms and, for some states, schools.

SA is keeping schools open. These are not straightforward decisions. There are unintended consequences either way.

The decision to close gyms will hurt a lot of young people, as essential as it is.

I am resisting the temptation to spend much time following the news. I do keep up, but am choosing not to watch or read endless analysis. I had planned to do several circuits walking around the apartment but focused instead on the coffee phone calls and emails. Tomorrow.

I need to begin thinking how to use this sample of sequinned net that Nicola Jarvis generously sent me. I had been discussing with Nicola an idea I had for our Guild's exhibition in October this year with a theme of Nature by Needle, and mentioned the difficulty I had found in last year's exhibition, creating both dead and live fish. Nicola got excited about the possibility of using the sequins on this piece of clothing she had bought in a vintage shop. She sent me a piece before I left England. So generous with both expertise and supplies!  I now need to work out if I can make the idea work.




This evening I made a salad with the duck fillet I cooked the other night. I finished my Qantas bottle of wine last night, so back to Chain of Ponds Pinot Grigio.

I still have no response from Woolworths regarding my home delivery application. I suspect they are overwhelmed. I can manage without at the moment, and I am heartened by the conversations today with my non-isolated peers who are managing their shopping without too much difficulty.







I'm finishing this day on my Muncaster Orange. I realise, as I photograph progress, that I should have embroidered the half-leaf before the orange!

Like fellow students, I now need to decide on a colour for the bow. In the light of the place in which I'm hoping to place it on my chair, I think I'll go for a slightly greeny-yellow. Or maybe a yellowy-green.

I shall try to produce a more visually interesting blog tomorrow. Talking, reading and writing keeps me going, but doesn't make for much of a narrative!

Self-isolation Day3: friends, family, food and another finish

It was good to hear the bells of Adelaide's Catholic Cathedral ringing today. It's a lovely city sound - and a way of knowing what day it is, since it's otherwise hard to tell in isolation!  Our governments have tightened lock-down today. I'm not yet clear what this will mean in South Australia, but it won't get any easier to move around.

Today a friend baked pasties and banana/date bread and dropped some in to my apartment door. I was able to wave from my balcony, and talk to her by phone through the process.


While we were talking on the phone a neighbour was calling to drop off a treat for me.  

This turned out to be fresh bread and hot cross buns. 

I had a delicious lunch of pasties, a banana and banana bread thanks entirely to friends.

I'm about to have a fresh egg roll for dinner!




I also had a long phone conversation with my immediate neighbour. It's great to know they are OK and to share our circumstances. I don't see how we could set up the Italian singing routine here - but being in touch and encouraging each other is critical. My brother called again. So good to be in touch.


In the afternoon I got to work on turning my Kate Barlow black and goldwork piece into a pouch. The black fabric from the RSC proved to be perfect as lining.







I'm getting better at inserting zips into pouches and was very pleased with the smooth line I achieved with this.

I haven't decided whether to use this to keep my goldwork tools, or my metallic threads.


I now have two of my Stratford projects finished and am working at a relaxed pace on the third.

I have registered for home delivery with Woolworths and constructed an order. Their delivery options however are currently closed. I am assuming once they approve customers, myself included, for home delivery, the delivery options will open up on their website.


I have also managed to order a paperback copy of Martha Grimes The Dirty Duck from England. Martha Grimes writes crime fiction centring around English pubs, this one the Black Swan in Stratford-on-Avon.  It isn't available electronically to Australia and my interest was aroused with a reminder from Melody in Stratford. I gave away all my Martha Grimes books when I moved.  Goodness knows how long it will take to arrive! In the meantime I managed to borrow her The Knowledge from Overdrive, so I'm well into that.


















It was a bit chilly this morning, so I am here today in the top that Genevieve helped me choose at the Edinburgh Woollen Mill. By late this afternoon the sun was out, so I've included these shots taken around 6pm rather than the sunset.

My egg roll is nearly ready. When I've eaten I'll continue on the Muncaster Orange.


I hope my readers are safe and busy. Stay in touch when you can.  Friends and family are what keeps us all going.

Self-isolation Day2: Quilts & Midsummer Pouch

After posting my blog last night I progressed the Muncaster Orange a little. It is so relaxing. Thought I'd leave the Midsummer's Pillowe additions until the morning.

I got to bed  and sleep around midnight, waking, inevitably, around 4am.  I read a little, and realised I was just a little cold, so put my dressing gown over the quilt, thinking it might be time to move from the summer to the winter quilt.  One of the articles I read in this waking interlude was a doctor's advice on staying healthy in face of the virus threat. Her first advice was that those getting 8 hours sleep are more likely to resist infections than those getting 4 hours sleep.  I put away my iPad.

Next thing I knew it was 10.30am!



Clearly my first job was to change over to my winter quilt.  I washed the summer one and, eventually hung it out to dry.

My Winter quilt is in the process of being repaired. The wadding began to work its way through the rows of quilting on the black overhang, so during Summer I have been covering the overhang with more hexies. I have finished two of the four sides and begun the third.

So the Winter quilt is now on my bed partially renovated.


This is another possible occupation for the next 12 days' isolation!



I had a lovely long conversation with one of my daughters and spent some time trying to register for an online grocery delivery. I seem to be registered and have compiled an order, but need to wait until the company confirms I am a priority customer by virtue of my isolation. It wasn't an easy process, with long delays as the site was evidently under pressure. There is nothing urgent about this, but I thought it wise to see if I can organise a grocery delivery service - in case the Australian government extends home isolation to all over 70s for a longer period, as in UK and NZ.

A neighbour, via email, has been helping me work out how to deal with my rubbish disposal as well as advice on alternate home grocery deliveries. Again, it's great to know help is at hand.

I am also glad that I spent the last 15 years of my working life doing most of my work and interactions online. I am very comfortable with online connection and community. I don't feel isolated when I have constant online interaction.

By mid-afternoon I has added the last embellishments to Nicola's Midsummer's Pillowe and was able to begin the construction of my pouch.

I added the zip first, then stitched the sides to create the bag.

Then the lining.







I'm pleased with the result.

I think both the backing and lining fabrics work well.





For the moment I have stored my filament silks in the pouch.  It keeps them together and means they are more accessible to me than in the Yazzii bag with other silks and metallics.




I heated duck breasts for dinner - one hot tonight with salad and another to have cold tomorrow.

Sunset tonight began with little promise but then turned quite spectacular.

Sometimes that's how it goes.
Now for more Muncaster Orange!