Post 400

Amazing - the 400th post in what was meant to be a 28 day travel blog! Little did I guess how long it would be when I agreed to continue until we were through the Covid disruption! 

On Wednesday evening, after I had written up the report of our WES Group meeting, I went to close the balcony doors and heard a racket of 'Ark, ark" noises. It turned out to be 6-8 birds in one of the trees on our apartment block. Roughly half of them were black and half mostly grey. I assume it was some kind of territorial dispute.

The black birds were, I'm sure, Australian ravens. 

I wasn't sure if the grey ones were also ravens, or butcher birds. The calls were definitely raven calls, so I reckon they were all ravens.

It went on for a good ten minutes, with various members of the group flying away, returning, flying away again. This black one stayed put throughout and only left after all others had gone.

If s/he was defending territory, or holding his ground, s/he won.

The WES Group meeting went well. Members engaged with the issues around Viking embroidery, several bought some of Peter Sanderson's lucets to try and there were lots of contributions and questions. It's a great group.              

I had duck soup for dinner, using the stock from the bones of Monday night's duck and the bok choi I forgot to add to the stir fry. Delicious.

On Thursday my Pilates class was cancelled at short notice, so I was able to upload Conversations with Baby Boomer Teachers to the National Electronic Deposit website and fulfil a couple of other commitments I made to friends before doing a bit of shopping for Monday's family meal. 

I also worked out a way to finish stitching the Christmas gift that caused my wrist problem last week. I stitched it to a piece of cotton by overstitching the edges, cut the back of the cotton away in a cross shape and folded back the resulting triangles to expose the back and mounted it in a hoop. Now I should be able to stitch it without holding it. With a bit of luck the cotton mounting will be reusable for the other three pieces in the kit.

I haven't got to it yet, but will try it soon.

On Friday Susan and I sat and stitched, then we went out to dinner at Port Adelaide with other friends.  On Saturday I picked Brigid up from school when she arrived back from assisting at a school camp and took her to her Surf Lifesaving duty. We all met up at Grange for a meal. Niamh missed JEMS because she had two teeth removed. Katherine was at Synod all day. Busy lives.

The cards I ordered from Officeworks as an experiment were also ready and I picked them up. I'm very pleased with them. I called at the Guild to discuss whether the shop would like some. These are close-ups of the Agave plant at the Guild. I've now ordered some cards of the full plant. The Guild shop has rather too many cards already but I think some members of WES will like them anyway.

In the meantime, Conversations has been arriving for those who ordered a copy. The response is very positive. My brother, bless his little cotton socks, is organising a book launch dinner among his friends who participated, now that they are emerging from lockdown.

Sunday was my last formal Guild class for the year - Christine Bishop's Punto in Aria starfish. It was slow going, because there's no way around completing the whole edge before moving in row by row. In class I  almost completed the second- and hardest- row and moved into the needlelace at home. I finished it on Monday night. I thought I might have to make a box to put it on. Alison Cole no longer has the fabric covered boxes I was planning to use.

One suggestion was to mount it on an abalone shell, but it needs to be glued, so I think I'll give that a miss even though I have a shell. Then overnight it occurred to me that I could add it to the Kantha cushion I made a few years ago.  

I washed the cover this morning (a good drying day!) and added it this afternoon. The loops needed to be stitched down securely but it's a good result. Voilà! 

Looks like it's always been there, and belongs.

It's been a week of medical treatments for my grandchildren. Niamh had teeth removed, orthodontic bands restored and she and Veronica had their second Covid vac today. Fionn had an operation yesterday to reset an old break in his wrist which was not picked up in the scan when it happened a couple of years ago. His wrist will be in plaster and various forms of immobilisation for eight weeks - a significant trial and setback for a budding athlete. However, he's a determined and persistent young man and will come out strong.

This afternoon I finished the colourwork on the Leadlight Counted pouch. I've now got the borders and edges to do before lining it.

While stitching it I've been thinking about having some bookshelves made for my living room. I'm hoping to pay a visit to Nordic Furniture at Norwood to discuss my idea with them. It would be good to do something with the piles of books on my chairs and table. I also need to get rid of a cupboard I'm using for storage in my carpark area, against Strata rules. Looks like a storage reorganisation week coming up.

Post 399 Three lunches, three embroidery projects, and a lot of books.

Last Wednesday my grandchildren and I had our school holiday lunch at the River Cafe   It was relaxed and now fairly predictable - which at the moment I think we all like. They are such interesting company. 

While out I  missed the delivery of the proof copy of the book, so dashed to the PO just before closing. It looks good, and it was much easier, with the hard copy to refer to, to find and make the online changes that Pat had identified. I managed to make the changes, upload a new version, then delete the old. The only sustained problem in so doing was with the ISBN. I've now sorted that out with Bowker, who were very helpful. I finally ordered 50 print copies. Anyone wanting a copy can order at here . Selecting your own country at the top right hand corner of the page should ensure printing and delivery from your country. I have put no royalty on the book, so the cost is printing plus postage. You can also read the whole book as a preview, or download a free ebook. Blurb informed me on Monday that they will have a 'small price increase' across the board from the 18th October, but have not specified what it is. They appear also to be offering a 25% discount on printing costs with code GREAT25 at checkout.I don't know how long that will last. 

I finished the embroidery on my coat and wrote it up for my embroidery blog. I'm pleased with it. I like the tapering fall of the design. Now I need to find another project for B2B.                                                                                                                                  Thursday was relatively busy. Before going to Pilates I met with the accountant to submit my tax. He was well prepared and we got it all done - a big relief, and a small refund.  At 6pm we had a Convenors meeting at the Guild, the first in 3 years. It was very efficiently run. The Convenors' Guidelines need updating, given the Covid requirements.  We were invited to bring our meal with us. I had my main meal late in the afternoon, and took coffee and yoghurt at the meeting. 

When I got home I settled down to work on this magnet that I am planning as a Christmas present, while watching the movie Rams as a download on demand. I was a bit disappointed in the film, which I've wanted to see for a while, When I woke up the next morning, my left wrist was very painful - RSI from holding the small plastic canvas in my left hand. I wore my wrist brace all the next day, used cream and cold packs, but it was still sore. I was cursing because I had a two day counted embroidery class coming up on the weekend.

Friday, on the other hand, was leisurely, allowing me to get organised for the weekend, hang out the washing, do a bit of shopping. Partly to stop myself using the hand, I went to Frewville to get a few supplies, and had a late lunch at Mr Nick's - grilled trout with corn and leaf salad. Excellent. 

I had planned on a toastie for dinner, but wasn't hungry enough for anything but yoghurt. The lunch didn't detract from my weight loss although it did fluctuate by 0.6 kg over the rest of the week, for no reason that I can identify.

Saturday's class, Christine Bishop's Leadlight Counted Set, started at 9.30am sharp and went until 4pm.  I had prepared the outline some time ago. The whole design is about 8" across, and folds up to make a pouch. There are. I think, 14 different stitches used.

I found the first day a bit difficult because my hand was still very sore, and my left eye was weepy - the ongoing tear duct problem, but Christine was very helpful. I tried working it in my hand but moved to a seated 6" hoop so I didn't have to use my left hand to hold it. That worked better, but I had to work away from the edge to fit it in the hoop.  I still made fair progress. When I got home I mounted the linen on some sheeting and moved it to a larger hoop.  

This is where I reached on Sunday evening. Pretty pleased with that. It has been interesting working the different stitches. I'm almost disappointed to be in a position to repeat them.

Monday was spent shopping for and preparing dinner - stirfried duck with noodles and vegetables. It worked well, except I forgot to add the bok choi at the end. There were plenty of other vegetables, which is why I was able to forget! We had an interesting discussion about mandatory vaccination - and mandates in general. Our vaccination rates have risen significantly, especially amongst the 12-15 and 16-18 age groups. Fionn puts it down to education. He thinks schools have done a good job of educating kids about vaccines and other safety issues, like driver education. It's a good testimony. 

Today I went to the Retired Secondary Principals' Association lunch. These are held twice a year. Numbers have been down since Covid interrupted the twice a year routine. 

There were only 14 there today, at the Blackwood RSL to hear Deb O'Reilly, Director of New Schools for the Education Department, speak about the current approaches to the built environment of schools and the new schools currently being built.  It was really interesting. My late friend Heather Woods, who took a great interest in advances in this area, would have been delighted to hear of the progress being made for student learning. 

While I was there I received messages to tell me of a couple of deliveries that were coming today and sure enough, they arrived  15 minutes before I got home and had been taken to the local PO. There were three boxes, two of them containing the 50 copies I had ordered of Conversation with Baby Boomer Teachers! It is good to have them and a shame I wasn't able to take them to today's meeting. The third package was a book from my brother in preparation for some research he wants me to help with.  I rang to thank him and we ended up talking for nearly 2 hours.

Altogether a good day.

Tomorrow is the WES Group meeting, and my turn to present - Viking Embroidery. I have quite a lot to gather together to take with me.

All in all it has been an eventful week: a few stresses and obstacles, but plenty to be thankful for. 

Deo gratias.

Post 398 Words, photos, stitches and, hopefully solar panel connection

We've had a fair bit of rain this week and in between showers my dove pair have dropped in to remind me to put out more seed. 

On Friday he (assuming the larger is male) stood very close, waiting as I hung out the washing but backed off when I got within about half a metre of him.

I spent most of last week buried in BookWright software reloading, editing and finally uploading the book to Blurb. I found it an intense and stressful time. It required numerous adjustments to get the pages to fit and run smoothly. I was expecting it to crash any minute. I figured out that one of my problems was not saving regularly. I have become accustomed to software which saves automatically and realised I needed to manually save after each change. When I thought I had it done and began to upload I got a message to say trade books needed to be in page units of 12, or extra pages would be added to the end of the book. As I didn't want 8 blank pages at the end I had to do another round of adjustment. I'm happy to say I got there. 

As recommended, I have ordered one print copy to check. I'm waiting anxiously for it to arrive before I make the link to the print version live. There is a free ebook version available here  for anyone interested. I'll report on the print version as soon as I have it.

I'm very grateful to my friend Pat Manser who jumped through hoops to access and read a copy for me. She found a quite a few typos and two clangers which I need to try to correct. I think I've figured a way to do that relatively safely. 

It was the Labour Day long weekend here. I had a really lovely evening at Katherine and Anthony's place on Saturday but spent the rest of the weekend at home, either engaged with the book, stitching or playing with family photos.   Left is me, my mother Sylvia, her mother Nell and Nell's father George Bearcraft.

Right is me, my father Len, his father Jim and Jim's mother Caroline Parker.

I've been putting together photos for each of my grandchildren with generational sequences. It's more revealing than a family tree. I have photos of all 4 of my grandparents and 5 of my 8 great-grandparents.  That means I can do 5 of 6 generations for each grandchild, plus 1 of 5 generations. I managed to get them set up and printed late on Monday.

 

The exercise, especially in a week where I have worked so hard on a book, has given me the opportunity to reflect on what my lineage has given to me. Words and photographs stand out. These photos are only with me because of the Box Brownie camera given to my uncle for his 15th birthday four months before the family left England for Australia in 1928. His parents could ill afford it, but he used it to photograph all their family before they left. He also went on to become a photographer in Sydney - not an easy journey. The family valued photography. However, both my parents valued words above most things - Dad, though himself a reserved man of few words,  through a commitment to books and 'the classics' as a path to understanding, Mum through story, poetry and recitation. I see her now as a bard - creating knowledge, clarifying ideas, maintaining values, shaping our world through story, repeating, adapting, adding, interpreting. It was a huge gift to my brother and I - and to our descendants. I would have it no other way. I've begun to think of an embroidery design that encapsulates some of this.

A couple of lorikeets were back on Friday evening. I was only quick enough to catch one on camera.  

My balcony flowers, easier to capture, are responding well to the rain.

In spite of my intention to only work on embroidering the lapels of my purple coat at B2B, I decided to move it forward. Because it can't be worked in a hoop I needed to wear my wrist brace on the left holding hand. I decided to stop pushing the needle through with my finger nails after I pushed the wrong end of the needle and put it right through my nail.

I did make good progress though, and finished one side on Sunday night. That, of course, was incentive enough to keep me going.  It's not, I decided, a good project to put away for a month at a time.

I now have all the purple and some of the green done on the second side. I shall write this project up for my embroidery blog once finished.

This week I was grateful for the Australia Post rescue service. My copy of Rowan Knitting 69 finally arrived - inside a large AusPost plastic bag. The original paper packaging envelope inside was in a sorry state and open on 2 sides. The contents had been put inside another plastic bag along with  a letter from the Netley PO depot in Adelaide, telling me the package had arrived in this state, had probably been soaked in water and providing contact details for compensation. Inside the second plastic bag were two sheets of corrugated cardboard taped together (by the shop) and inside that was - another plastic bag containing the magazine.

I'm torn between gratitude for an undamaged magazine and horror at the plastic it took to get to me - from Sydney. Better make sure I make something from it.

Today was the day our electricity was to be out while our solar panels were being connected. I decided against going away and settled in to read and stitch. I made a thermos of coffee before the 8 am starting time  - my base level requirement.  It was a sunny day, lovely to have balcony doors open. Not sure that the solar panels will begin working until tomorrow - when rain is forecast!

My electricity did not go off until 2.30 pm and was back on at 3.15. Glad I didn't go away!  I spent much of the time correcting the errors in the book, using a laptop copy of the file I have uploaded. I now have a fairly correct version which I'm hoping I can upload to Blurb before I remove the existing one. 🤞 I might wait to see the printed version, in case there are page issues. The print copy has arrived in Adelaide, so shouldn't be long.

The best news of the week is that all four grandchildren have now had their first vaccine. Fantastic. I'm looking forward to lunch with them tomorrow. 

Post 397: Family, friends, feathers and a few frustrations.

The best parts of this week were the twin's birthday dinner last Wednesday, Pilates and stitching with friends. In between those I had a few frustrations.

Monday evening brought back the lorikeets to the trees in front of my back balcony. I grabbed the DSLR, zoomed in and shot away. Very hit and miss - mostly miss. There were 3 pair on the tree, one pair out of my sight.

One pair performed all sorts of acrobatics to get at the juicy bits. They didn't appear to be competing, but going hell for leather to consume the best bits.

The other pair were equally engaged.

I had spent much of the day at the Guild. It was a Basics2Beyond day. Jennifer and Dawn joined the Guild, came to B2B and seemed to be enjoying themselves. 

I didn't get there until nearly 12. I stopped off in town on the way to drop of some jewellery that needed repair at Gerard McCabe. It is a long time since I've been into the city and there's a lot I had forgotten. I used to be there frequently. I had also forgotten about the repair jeweller in the Da Costa arcade. I had quite a bit repaired there once upon a time. Gerard McCable are quoting to replace an opal in a 5 opal ring but suggested I take the rest to the repairer. 

The most interesting piece is a duet brooch that belonged to my grandmother - one of those that is made up of two matching clips to put on the corners of square-necked dresses to hold straps in place. It has lost most of its stones but I'd love to see it restored. The repairer had a couple of suggestions and is going to see what stones they have and send me some photos.  What I had thought would be a 15 minute visit to Gerard McCabe turned into and hour visiting two places. It will, however, be quite satisfying and exciting if the brooch, in particular, can be repaired.

At B2B I worked on the embroidery on my purple coat - the design I did for Design on Line. It is going to take me a long time to do it at B2B but I don't need to wear the coat until next winter.

Gay had brought along the lucets that Peter made many years ago for a Guild class. Someone told me about it and I had asked Gay if Peter still had any. She thought there might be one lucet hanging around Peter's workshop. On Saturday she told me she had found 24! She also found two marudai and brought them in for me. Marudai are looms  for kumihimo - Japanese braid making. I see the connection, but it's a long way from Vikings!  I'll hang on to them for the WES meeting on 13 October. The lucets, however, are very relevant and will, I suspect, be snapped up.

While I was at the Guild, a parcel I had ordered from Taking Shape was returned to sender because it 'had the wrong address'.  It had the street address, but not the apartment number. It clearly wasn't delivered by my postie who would have known my name.  There are only 6 apartments at the address, Nuisance. 

There are new owner-occupiers moving into the apartment two floors below mine. They sought Strata permission to undertake renovations to the bathrooms and kitchen before moving in, which we granted. This is now happening. Because the kitchens and bathrooms are aligned in the centre of the apartments, the sound carries up the service shaft. As I write this there is a drill going. It started at 7.45am this morning. It isn't constant, but annoying when happening.  We also received notice today that the long awaited and much reorganised connection of our solar panels is to happen next Tuesday. This means no electricity for most of the day, and perhaps some of Wednesday, so I need to decide if I, once again, go away for a day or two.

The succulent at the Guild that I photographed a few weeks ago in bloom has progressed to the seeding stage and still looks spectacular.

as do the seed pods. 

I might make some cards out of these.photos. 

I spent most of the week working on editing my book in the BookWright software of Blurb. For several days I spent hours adjusting text and formatting to get the page flow as I wanted it. On Sunday was finished except for two headings that I needed to bold, but they kept slipping whenever I selected them. Then suddenly the pages slipped out of the template, introducing a whole range of problems. I haven't been able to retrieve the formatting I had. The only solution I could find was to copy the text, screen by screen,  back into a Word document, reformat, convert to .rtf file and start a new BookWright document! I am now in the process of doing just that but I am beginning to wonder if I am up for this. I have made several books with BookWright, but they were stories with loads of photos.  77,000 words is another matter altogether. One more try, then I look for publishing help.

I also decided to go for a typed heading on the cover.

The fabric I ordered from Missy Rose's print-on-demand service arrived today. These are the three designs, for which I have bag ideas.

I thought this blurred photo of a lorikeet would make lovely fabric - but I'm not going there!

I spent the afternoon talking and stitching with 2 Guild friends at the home of one of them. She also provided a lovely salad lunch. It was a very relaxing break from the book.  

The final frustration was another error I made - intending to upload 3 photos from my iPhotos to my computer, I managed to upload the whole of my iPhotos collection - 27, 551 photos, which I now have to delete, since they take up a lot of room. Deleting is also time consuming,  I have figured a way to choose and delete about 300 at a time. I'm not feeling clever this week. 

I am, however, feeling pleased with my weight loss, which is at 10kg today. This is the goal the renal specialist set me for mid-November, so hopefully I will be well ahead of the goal by then.

Also very pleased that come Monday all four grandchildren will have had their first Covid vaccination. Now that's good news.