Post 374 Vikings and a Winery

Autumn has been in the air - cool mornings and evenings, mostly pleasant days, but rain on Saturday when the girls were playing and umpiring netball matches. This was my sunrise view when I opened the blind on Sunday.

Sunday was my brother's birthday, falling this year on Mothers' Day as it did the year he was born, a 12lb 8oz baby.  It is a bit of a burden to carry - the story told each time the dates coincide, as they will again in 2027, 2032 and 2038. I'm not a fan of Mothers' Day - it's better as Jim's birthday!

I began my reporting week with a visit to my doctor for my flu shot and to discuss my recent test results. A urine test revealed no protein, which is a good sign. I am now waiting for an appointment with a nephrologist to check whether there is any action I need to take beyond my GP's care. Bone density good, mammogram and bowel cancer test in the coming week. I am also trying to reduce my sugar intake, which involves cutting back the quantity of fruit I eat - as well as buns and icecream!. I need to reduce my chances of developing diabetes.

It's  been a week of frequent dove visits. The pair who have adopted my balcony spent a couple of mornings hanging around the door near the seed container, grooming each other to fill in the time. They are more puffed up than they were in Summer - insulation I presume.

There have also been a couple of crows around - too swift to photograph and no appearance on my balcony - at least when I can see.

The Permin linen I had ordered for the Fisherton-de-la-mer workshop arrived and I cut and tacked it ready for the class next month. I'm glad I made the effort to get the recommended linen. I can see why the Jobelin I had tried was not going to work easily. Some of the stitching is difficult enough without adding issues with the linen. It was also easier to match Perle 12 DMC thread to the linen - though I still haven't worked out which of the two is the best match!

After the class, if I am happy with the result, I might make another in the Jobelin, which is an attractive deeper blue.

Thursday last week was Jennifer's birthday. She, Susan B. and I went to lunch at Seppeltsfield in the Barossa Valley to celebrate.It's a long time since I've been up to the Barossa - a drive with which I was once familiar. There have been numerous road changes so I was a bit nervous. With navigation help from Susan it turned out to be a very smooth and easy drive. 

I did not, of course, attempt any photography while driving, so photos only reflect our destination!

Seppeltsfield is a very large, fine old wine estate at the Northern end of the Barossa Valley, between Nuriootpa and Tanunda. The grounds are extensive, with a family mausoleum, an art gallery, Jam Factory fine art shop and a restaurant as well as cellar door sales. 

The colours were spectacular.

The estate is full of little historical touches. I rested while on Geoff Hood's seat while the others were still shopping.

We had along, pleasant, relaxed meal in Fino's, the Seppeltsfield restaurant.

Around 3pm we headed to the other end of the Valley and winery spectrum to Nelly's Mill About Vineyard to return her Bulgarian embroidery collection. Again, it was a lovely drive. I'm afraid I was concentrating on the route and the embroidery return (I hadn't been there before) and forgot to take photos. It was however, great to see Nelly's lovely garden and to see the embroidery safely home. We got mildly lost on the way home, but it in no way spoiled a lovely day.

We were back stitching together on Friday afternoon. Saturday brought dinner a Katherine's place with plenty of food and stories of netball and football. By Monday evening the injuries were largely healed and no one was the worse for wear or weather.

Much of rest of my week was occupied with my Viking embroidery presentation. I have been constructing a PowerPoint presentation as I've been reading. Silk for the Vikings was very helpful. There is a lot of evidence and analysis of Viking textiles from archeological excavations. . It makes an interesting story I think. This week I've been reading Ed West's book as a refresher course in a period with which I was once familiar and well-versed. It's a fun way to remind myself.

  

I have also added a bit more to my family history story from the amazing research of my new-found researcher friend Melanie in Portsmouth.  I've begun to write up something of the family story of my maternal grandmother.   It is going to be a challenge to organise it in a way that does justice to her, her lineage and numerous side stories of connected, but not direct, relatives.

My knitting is coming along nicely. It looks as if I might be able to turn this into a cloak! I have used two-thirds of the yarn, so it is going to be substantial. The ruler is 40cm long, so I think the finished piece will reach around 80 cm.

We are privileged to be able to travel to lunch with friends. We have overseas-contracted Covid cases in hotel quarantine and a couple of community cases in Victoria and NSW believed to have been contracted from hotel quarantine. It's a discipline to manage quarantine, distancing, contact tracing, vaccination and the economy. The danger is that we will tire of the discipline. I remain cautious. 

Post 373 Mostly books, with a little knitting and a milkshake.

It has been mostly sunny during the day this week, a bit cool in the mornings and evenings but sunny spots during the day. I spent some time one afternoon sitting on the Western balcony in the sun, noting that the spider, or a descendant of the spider whose web I photographed last year, has been busy again.

I still love the web structure and gossamer.

Last Wednesday I had a ticket to see  the SA Theatre Company production of The Gospel According to Keating at the Playhouse at 1Morgan1.00am. I have not subscribed for the last 3 years because of building work at the Festival Theatre Complex. There is no car park, and access is very limited. I can get there and back by bus during the day, but not at night. This year's subscription included an 11.00am performance for most plays, and distanced seating so I took a punt and booked. A week ago, restrictions were eased and the theatre opened up all seats to booking. The day before the performance I received a notification that masks must be worn for the whole performance and that the bars, restaurants and food suppliers would be closed. I decided not to go.  I'm sure it was a great production and interesting play. 

I'm a fan of Paul Keating, a former Prime Minister. However, the effort of getting to the theatre, through the building works, without food or drink and wearing a mask, not just in the foyer, but through the performance, was too much.

I stayed in, progressed my shawl, had a nice long phone call with my friend Vivienne in Canberra and did a bit more Viking embroidery research. This photo is of a stem-stitched warrior from the 970AD Mammen Gravesite in Denmark.

Late in the afternoon my Guild friend Margaret phoned. She was heading to the southern NSW, where she lived until a few years ago,  to attend the funeral of an old friend. who had asked her years ago to sing at his funeral. I do hope it went smoothly for her and the family. 

Another Guild friend has sent for an alumni library card for Flinders University so she can borrow the Margarethe Hald book to further our Viking studies. WooHoo!

The Guild has also been given a large number of books relating to World Embroidery. The surplus will be offered to the WES Group next week!  More WooHoo.

At the end of last week, before Pilates,  visited the Yarn Trader at Port Adelaide to pick up the book I had pre-ordered. I have moved the cover slip up on the photo to display the title fully. The slip extends about 5cm beyond the top of the book, which is about 25cmx30 cm. It has some marvellous, and quite varied shawls, in a variety of yarns, weights and difficulty. The photographs are somewhat muted in colour, very clear and often close. There's no way I would contemplate knitting one a week, but I'm sure I will try some of these.

On Saturday I took Niamh to JEMS where about 5 girls seemed to have a good time talking and stitching. We just had time to go for our usual milkshakes afterwards before getting Niamh to the Netball Stadium where Brigid was playing in the A Grade team for the first time. She played for two quarters, immediately after umpiring a game and was very happy with the quarter she played as Goal Defence.                                                                                                                                                                                      I was excited because the cafe owner had given in to my frequent requests for lime as a milkshake flavour. Made my day. 

Our Crime Bookclub on Sunday discussed Greg Woodland's  The Night Whistler which all of us liked. It is an Australian small town mystery set in the 1960s - and felt very much as I remember those times. I didn't live in a small country town, but my brother did and I had a friend who moved to a country town as a policeman in 1968. The Night Whistler was a good story and resonated. 

I also finished reading The Dictionary of Lost Words  by Pip Williams. I found it very interesting and engaging, though sad, especially in the context of the family history I've been doing. I have a slight discomfort with some aspects of the blending of history and fiction particularly as it relates to the contemporary. It is nevertheless very moving.

Yesterday's dinner was another traybake with potatoes, multi-coloured carrots, coloured beetroot, shallots, fennel, broccoli, capsicum, parsnips and 2kg of tiny sausages. It worked quite well for an evening with the younger girls coming after school then returning to school for parent-teacher interviews and back with their parents for dinner. I think next time I will use larger sausages. The cooking time for the vegetables, especially the potatoes, is longer than the time needed for the tiny sausages.

I was also delighted to find Bravo apples back in my greengrocer. Their season is May-September. These apples were developed in Western Australia and released to the market in 2016. They are now being grown by 80 growers around Australia. I'm not a huge raw apple eater, but these are fabulous.

I have made little progress on family history, but today a parcel of books arrived from the British National Archive. It containing a book for recording family history facts. I'm wanting to use this as part of a back-up to my online tree and to accompany the stories I intend to write.   

The second book from the British National Archives is about the folklore of rural crafts and I'm already about 40% through it. The first chapter is about Wool, Thread and Cloth, and the second about Telling the Bees. I have Blacksmithing and Metalworking, Beer and Brewing and Milling and Baking to go. Knot magic is one of the most interesting ideas new to me so far.                                          

The two books on Viking and Anglo Saxon embroidery I had ordered a few weeks ago also arrived today. I'm quite excited about these and looking forward to reading them and learning more. I'm on a bit of a roll.

The Scheepjes wool shawl is progressing. This is not quite half the balls. I'm enjoying knitting it. 

Tomorrow is my flu vac - and a drink with a friend to celebrate the completion of a long, tedious task we undertook together. Over the next week I'm hoping to make a lot more progress on the shawl and to read and write more about the Vikings. Maybe even begin to write about my grandmothers and their ancestry.

For now, it's time to finish my glass of wine.

Post 372 Anzac Day and school holidays.

Last week began with a visit to a craft group at a friend's retirement village to show them Nelly's collection of Bulgarian embroidery and talk a bit about it. I was too preoccupied with setting up and ensuring the PowerPoint would work to take photos until the very end, after we had packed up.

 

It was, I think, a success. There was interest and enthusiasm.  A number said they had never seen anything like it. One woman was very excited because she made the connection between the monk Cyril, tasked with developing a script, and Cyrillic script -a connection that I had missed myself (duh!).

On Thursday I took the grandchildren to the River Cafe for lunch. We had a good time. It's a lovely venue - light and airy, near the weir that ensures Adelaide has a riverside. I was too engaged to think of photographs. This one is courtesy of the restaurant website - and captures it well.The food has bit of Italian flare and always good. 

Sunday. was Anzac Day At one time this was a public holiday only if the day fell during the week, but some States, South Australia included, now give a public holiday regardless. Marches occurred without onlookers and dawn services were limited in numbers with many people lighting candles in their driveways at dawn instead.

My brother posted this tribute to our father, Leading Torpedo Man Leonard Haynes RN, whose service in WWII took him to Sydney where he met our mother and stayed. The background view is of Botany Bay where he spent the rest of his life.

The research into my grandmother's sister, Mahala Eliza Talbot Bearcraft has led to some extraordinary stories, as Melanie, my fellow-researcher in Portsmouth, and I continue to unravel the mystery. This week Melanie followed Mahala's cousins, the only niece and nephews of Mary Jane Talbot, the newsagent in Marylebone we believe to be Mahala's mother. These three children were orphaned when the eldest was 10. The two boys, aged 10 and 7 were sent to Canada as Dr Barnardo's boys and separated on arrival in 1907. Harry Elbon Noble, the eldest, enlisted in WWI on 7th May 1915. In May 1916 he was deployed as part of the 38th Canadian Battalion to Portsmouth via Bermuda.  While in England he seems to have made contact with his aunt and named her as his next of kin.  He was  deployed to France in August 1916 and killed on the Somme on 27 October 1916.  He was 20 years old. 

Back in Canada, Herbert, his younger brother, married. His marriage certificate registers his parents as unknown. One of the saddest things about this story is that Melanie and I appear to know more about the two brothers than they knew about each other following their separation on arrival in Canada.

I spent quite a bit of time working up a little narrative embroidery using the stitches and techniques of traditional Icelandic embroidery as part of the Guild's Design Online Course and also for the workshop I'm giving in June to the Certificate Course group. 

The photo is a bit dark, but it shows the stitches - and also the use of the printable, stick-on Sulki. I've now packed away the kits, notes and samples for the workshop until I need them in June.

On Friday we had our first Sit'nStitch for a while. Susan has made great progress on her Margaret Light piece, which I didn't photograph. Jennifer made strides on Sophie's Universe . It's really beautiful - the textures are remarkable.

Susan and I have been giving thought to what we might do with the box of wools that Jennifer bought us. 

I'd like it to be something that does justice to the colours and variety so I've been experimenting. 

I thought a stripey shawl might work,  but abandoned it (right) after figuring it would result in  too many joins on the very short rows at the ends of the shawl. I tried a basketweave but this didn't seem to work well with multicolours. Then I came across a pattern for an Entrelac scarf which looked promising. 

I tried it out on a small sample (left) and thought it promising. I then worked it on 140 stitches, which should give a width of about 75cm. 

I'm working one ball at a time and this is where it is up to. I'm really happy with this (at last!). I'm hoping it will work out long enough for a shawl (I'm calculating about 1 metre long) or if not, a shrug. 

Now that I've got the hang of the pattern it is pretty easy knitting - and hugely satisfying.

Yesterday I went to Basics 2 Beyond at the Guild. There were 9 of us there and it was a really pleasant time. Most of the others are working on one of the five projects in the Basics Course. I took along the linen and thread for three of the classes I have enrolled in this year - all counted projects that require preparation of the base fabric. I'm not good at this preparation, which involves tacking the guide lines for each project - with stitches that go over and under 4 fabric threads. By the end of the session I was querying whether the Jobelin fabric I had chosen for the Fisherton-de-la-mer class was suitable. I came home and ordered some blue Permin linen online, even though the Jobelin colour is great. I'm pleased I went to the group. Much better to work this out now than in the class itself!

Today I went to a Retired Secondary Principals' lunch. The group meets twice a year for lunch but didn't meet at all last year. I was a bit uncertain about attending. It was a new venue, at an RSL (Returned and Services League) Club in Blackwood - about 25 minutes drive away and I had no idea if any of my mates would be there. 

It turned out well, even though I got lost twice on the way there and had a bit of trouble parking. There were 22 there, of whom 5 were women. One member, now working as a university researcher,  presented some of his research. 

There was lots of socialising, strong interest in Chris's research and plenty of discussion. I was very pleased I'd gone. The ranks are a bit thinned, but there was a lot of care. I am, after all, it seems, part of this tribe. 

The building next door continues to rise and yesterday a crow made a claim to the view, if not exactly to a crows nest.  

It didn't keep the doves away. They have been frequent visitors, ruffling their feathers, soaking up the sun and hoping for food.

On my front balcony my three frangipani trees are looking at their best even as they begin to shed their leaves

while at the back the succulents are putting on a bit of a show.

The most spectacular sunset was last Friday. I was home from Sit'nStitch just in time to capture it.

We continue to go about our business cautiously. Western Australia has had a short lockdown and we have stopped flights from India in the light of the numbers of Covid cases from that country now in hotel quarantine here.

It may seem that things are pretty relaxed and normal here in South Australia, but there is still 'an abundance of caution'. There's no room anywhere in the world for complacency.

post 371

The Guild's Crewel Work group was due to meet on Thursday this week, but there is still not much interest so I worked this next section of the Aesop Frame at home. It was an interesting one to work, with Renaissance Wools as well as Appletons and a little silk.

 I think I can say that the World Embroidery Study Group meeting on Bulgarian Embroidery was a success. People were very interested in the background information and in Sheila Paine's books, but mostly they loved the chance to see a collection of genuine examples of such high quality. 

There was a lot of discussion and engagement. We rarely get the chance to see so many varied examples of what we study and members made the most of it. I'm so grateful to have had this opportunity.

After the meeting I went to the Tennyson Centre for a bone density scan, my first in eight years. I have the preliminary results which mean little to me. I will get full results when I see my doctor early in May.           

On Thursday some rain was forecast and my feathered visitor was bunkering down in a few rays of sunshine when I left just before nine to get my first Covid vaccination at a Respiratory Clinic opposite the Frewville Foodland Shopping Centre. On the advice of my doctor, I parked in the shopping centre car park and walked across the wide, busy intersection to the clinic. It was very organised and controlled. Patients are told not to arrive until 5 minutes before. Signs on the door warn not to touch the door. On cue, the door swung open, a young man appeared and called my name. Inside he inspected my Medicare card and drivers licence and put a sticker on my poncho. 

The venue was, until last year, a physiotherapy and pilates studio - part of a very large medical practice on the site. The studio has been moved out to another venue to accommodate a dedicated Covid clinic. There are 3 small injecting rooms (or, in the afternoon, testing rooms) each staffed by a nurse who asks questions, checks ID, gives information, then waits for the doctor who circulates between the three rooms. The injection is only given in her presence after she has checked and asked more questions. It was friendly, helpful, cautious and professional. On leaving the injecting room, you go to another desk in a large waiting room to be given  information about the next steps before taking your seat and waiting to be timed and called with permission to leave.

I noticed the photo board which no one was using. The assistant was only too happy to take my photo as I left - sanitising his hands before and after touching my phone. 

I went on to Officeworks to get some acid-free tissue, to Create in Stitch for a frame, North Adelaide for some fruit and lunch before going to Pilates. I got home to find the letter with my $634 fine for using my phone while driving last week. I paid it straight away - hope that is now behind me.

It wasn't until 12 hours after the injection that I felt suddenly tired, then achey and shivery. I couldn't get warm in bed, so put on socks and took a couple of Panadol. I slept well and woke up a little achey but fortunately that passed because I had arranged to meet Jennifer for lunch at Louca's Fish Restaurant two blocks away. I took this photo of the next door building work progress on the way.

We had a very nice lunch and a good catch up. Jennifer is back from a month in Queensland visiting family - and says she has come home for a rest! She is now on a roll with a book about the 

acre of land on which her family reunions take place. 

In between this activity and the Aesop I have finished  examples of Icelandic embroidery for the Certificate Course workshop in June.                       

I finished the sample of 18th Century Icelandic embroidery and removed the Sulki. It worked really well. 

I have included a counted design, although the workshop is not focusing on counted work. Some students may wish to practice long-armed cross stitch, so I worked the examples for good measure.

This workshop is now, I think, fully organised and I can pack it away until June.

I spent much of the weekend researching on two fronts, more family history and my next embroidery study on Viking embroidery. On the latter  I have begun my PowerPoint as a method of getting organised. I have quite a lot of information, but am  trying to figure out how to borrow Margarethe Hald's Ancient Danish Textiles from Bogs and Burials from Flinders University library without having to drive there and navigate the sprawling, outsider-unfriendly parking. No luck so far, so I might have to plan an excursion. In the meantime I ordered this book and another on Anglo-Saxon embroidery. 

Small steps.

On the family history front, my fellow researcher Melanie and I have hit a bit of a wall in my grandmother's mystery. We  have a lot of it worked out but our newsagent ancestor seems to disappear around 1935 with no death records fitting. Melanie is still in pursuit. We've had more success with the 1820s connections of my paternal grandmother Ada. We now have numerous links between my 3xGGrandmother Sarah Attlesey and the Isaacson gang, 7 of whom were transported to either NSW or Van Diemen's Land between 1798 and 1840. Melanie is doing more of the heavy lifting on this than I, but we continue to work and share our finding in relays dictated by time zones.

I've also done some proof-reading for my brother, had dinner with family on Saturday and tonight with friends after having my hair mercifully permed this afternoon.  It has become lank and oily, needing to be washed every day. The strange stare is the result of taking a photo in the hairdresser's mirror.

 

Perhaps my biggest achievement this week has been to reduce the emails in my inbox to 25, from around 270 a fortnight ago. I've attended to overdue subscriptions, read articles waiting for a rainy day, filed useful embroidery bits, unsubscribed from numerous retail companies, replied to way-out-of-date emails and requests for family tree information. 

I read Dr Basil Willing Golden Age book by Helen McCloy for NetGalley. It's a fairly engaging read for Golden Age tragics. I also finished Campling's Devonshire Mysteries series, which I like a lot .  I'm now reading another Ann Cleeves Ramsay series mystery.

I've had notice from Feedburner, the service that manages the email distribution of these blog posts that they will be discontinuing their email service in June. As recommended, I have downloaded all the email addresses of subscribers and await information about a replacement service. I'll let you know as soon as I have more information.

Till next week.

Through the download exercise I discovered over 1000 spam subscriptions to my embroidery blog, all taken out in 2017 when I was not paying attention to it. I have deactivated all of them - one at a time! Fortunately it  has a good spam filter.