Post 482 Pass with a Push

Wednesday began with my experiment to get my Crewel chair into my car. Before breakfast (nothing but reading happens before breakfast!) I measured the chair and the hatch opening. When the results were promising I worked out how to put down the back seats in my car. This involved reading the manual (a first), turning the engine on, putting the car into Park, and pulling, not pushing, the buttons on the seat backs. Success!

I then found the old wheels we used to carry with us when travelling, to mount suitcases before they were conveniently made with wheels. The attached bungee cord didn't reach all the way around so had to be held in my hand, but the device worked well enough for me to get the chair down in the lift and into the car.

I'm grateful to Fionn and to Margaret, both of whom offered to help. The chair is now safely delivered and receipted, along with the reversible apron.

Before leaving home I had attempted to retrieve something dropped behind a cupboard and in the process knocked over a standard lamp, breaking the shade. After dropping off the chair I went to a light shop with the neck of the broken shade to find a replacement. They didn't have one that fitted, but directed me to an antique dealer. 

When I visited later in the day, she turned out to have the most extraordinary collection of light shades - thousands. She found 3 that matched the size. I chose one. When I got it home and tried it, I  it fits, but not snuggly. The rim on the original, I realised, had been trimmed with a glass cutter! Untrimmed it wobbles slightly, but won't fall off. I don't use the lamp much so I'm hoping it will pass muster (or, as my mother would have said, 'pass with a push').

From the antique shop I dropped into Create in Stitch, 10 minutes before closing time, and grabbed a packet of the appliqué pins they advertised that day. I then used my phone to book myself into a Covid booster at the Central Market Pharmacy. It seems the vaccine, which was approved as a fourth booster from this week, is in short supply, and only a few pharmacies have it. My regular one doesn't have it. It's a while since I used the Market Pharmacy, which has expanded. They were efficient, meticulous with checking, recording, delivery and follow up.  The temperature was by this time 37C so I went home, made a coffee and stitched, very pleased with myself. 

On Thursday morning I discovered that the vaccine I received doesn't cover the very latest variants. A vaccine that does should be available in a couple of weeks time! I am very annoyed at the poor public information. I had planned to begin swimming again. Now I'm not sure.

The temperature reached 41C on both Thursday and Friday. It was still 31C at 6.50am on Friday when I took this photo. Relief came around 6pm with a cool change off the sea just as I was leaving a friend's place at Grange. I arrived home in time to open up the apartment as the change moved through the city.

I had been to the Grange Hotel for a Salt & Pepper Squid lunch, so had a bowl of carrot salad for dinner and a long talk to my brother about one of his latest research projects. Most of Saturday was followup.  It's been lovely to have the place open again,  breezes through, less plant watering, more energy, reading, research and stitching.

I've finished another cushion for Brigid and another baby's cardigan for the Guild. 

Brigid's cushion has inspired me to start another for myself - using up the last Dijanne Cevaal panel I have.         I need to start the Glazig embroidery soon ready for WES in April.

I've also booked into two Guild classes later in the year - and to three Adelaide Chamber Singers concerts - a toe into the waters of pre-Covid activity.

I'm enjoying the  cooler weather - mid 20sC this week. Along with great company, it made for a pleasant dinner last night. 

I tidied my pots and replaced a few plants today, inspired by this morning's eastern sky, and perhaps also by the gardening theme in the cosy The Village Mysteries I am reading.  

Encouraged by the progress of the plants in clay beads, and the advice of a friend, I'm trying one in water - in a bottle Jim bought many decades ago.  

Here's hoping - and experimenting.

The western sky at sunset bookends the day.

Post 481 Tired but Happy.

Today I drove down to Encounter Bay, 90km and 90 minutes south of Adelaide to visit friends who are currently living in the UK, but are here to prepare their Encounter Bay home for their return later this year. While the temperature in Adelaide today was 35C, it was lovely to sit on their deck and catch the breeze off Encounter Bay - a good 10 degrees cooler.

There were seals diving out in the Bay.

The view to the right of their deck is of the Bluff.

We went into Port Eliot for lunch, and on the way back stopped at a bookshop with a remarkable stock of current books, including a good supply of Lisa Hannett's Viking Women which is being launched in Adelaide this week. I had been working out where I could most conveniently get my copy. Now I have it.

I drove back this afternoon. It's not a difficult drive, but requires concentration. There are also sections of extensive roadworks along the way. It's been a lovely day, but I am quite tired. The forecast for tomorrow is 39C and I'm looking forward to doing very little - except taking my embroidered chair to the Guild Exhibition. Maybe not entirely restful .

Earlier in the week I visited Barrow and Bench and bought some replacement plants. I'm watering my plants twice a day in the current heat. They dry out so quickly.

My eldest granddaughter was 20 last Friday, and, on a high from the 90th Birthday bag, I made another one with 20 sea creatures for her. Again, details in my embroidery blog.

I'm also making her a couple of cushions. I forgot to photograph one (which is not embroidered) but I'm working on another one that has an embroidered panel.

It's a bit of a challenge. Originally I planned to use beads to give texture to this panel, but that isn't suitable for a cushion. It's progressing, and will, I think, work well.

On Thursday evening I had dinner with friends heading off on a cruise. Katherine made her fabulous pizzas for Saturday dinner. On Sunday I had Book Club in the morning and helped block 2 shawls for a friend in the afternoon. Monday's dinner was a selection of cold meats, party pies and salads  in view of the 35C temperature. Fortunately there was enough left to feed me tonight when I got home to 38C.

This little fellow came right up to my feet as I sat in the Square before everyone arrived for dinner yesterday. Bold.

Post 480 Birthdays, bats, bees and baby cardigan.

Last Wednesday was the first 2023 meeting of WES Group - really engaging talk by Raelene on her visit to the 2016 European Patchwork Festival in Alsace. We had a big turnout of 16, very engaged with the presentation. We are also getting organised for the Guild Exhibition next month. Unfortunately, I was so busy coordinating I forgot to take photos.  That evening the bats were about. The evening star was also visible. It doesn't show up well in photographs but I have inserted a faint arrow pointing to it in the centre right.

Thursday was morning coffee with Panayoula before Pilates. 

Friday brought Lorraine's 90th birthday lunch time celebration at Lenzerheide. There were 13 of us enjoying high tea. One was unfortunately on a delayed flight from Brisbane and another ill in Melbourne. Lorraine was looking relaxed and elegant. I grabbed a quick photo of part of the table.

I took the opportunity to wear the coat dress and the earrings given to me for my birthday by my daughters. Swish. I even bought some foundation makeup - haven't used it for over a decade. I forgot I would need makeup remover - so spent an inordinate time scrubbing my face before bed! 

Sunday was spent cooking for a birthday dinner on Monday. I had considered roast pork but that was to be the family's Sunday dinner, so I settled for Moussaka - more preparation but a smoother run on the day. I'm trying to stitch something for each birthday, and February is a birthday month so I've been busy.  This is from the bee scarf for yesterday's celebration.

I also finished the second baby's cardigan. This one really is for a baby, not a toddler.  Hope it's what is needed. 

Today I visited my podiatrist, whose parents are renting a house in the Barossa Valley, while waiting for the water to go down in their home on the Murray River. Flood waters reached the top of the kitchen benches in their first (not ground!) floor kitchen. From there I visited Bunnings to buy a few replacement plants before joining Tuesday stitchers at the Guild. I'm working on another birthday gift! 

Back at home I have found homes for the plants I bought. I still have a couple of empty pots, so there's room for more. The bad news was a traffic fine in my letterbox- a claim I disobeyed a red arrow, which has caught me by surprise. I have been quite careful - especially at the intersection in question. It's worse if it happened and I don't remember. I don't, however, think I will argue. I was at the intersection around the nominated time.  A bit depressing - but at the moment I am philosophical, confident and resilient. 

After several days of pleasantly cooler weather, the temperature is rising again. From 29C today, we go to 35C tomorrow and 38C on Thursday. After a couple of high 20s over the weekend, the forecast is for 30+again next week. I'd rather it were cooler, but it is fairly usual for February, and could be worse. I need to keep the water up to those plants. 

Post 479 Doves return to the new normal

In the last few days I have been sitting out on my back balcony for a morning coffee. I haven't done this before - preferring to sit inside looking out. However, the morning sun, the more comfortable chair I moved there in November when the painters were working on the front balcony and the summer plants have finally drawn me out.

As I was sitting there yesterday, one of the doves arrived and stayed for a good 20 minutes. I couldn't resist taking photos, some closeup, some against the sky.

It is  a privilege to be so trusted. If I were a marketer I might call it my coffee experience!

The week has sped past, with a return to some routines - Pilates last Thursday, a quarterly lunch with friends, JEMS on Saturday, and the return of Tuesday Stitchers at the Guild.

The lunch was at Sho Sho, on King William Road - really lovely food and great company. JEMS seems off to a good start, and the proprietor of Queen St Cafe was very pleased to welcome Niamh and I back for our milkshakes afterwards.

My big achievement of the week was the completion of a tote bag for a friend's 90th birthday. Her celebratory lunch is this Friday. The bag has ninety embroidered stars and the details are in my embroidery blog. I've ordered some more of the fabric since it worked well.

Since finishing it, I have embarked on another baby cardigan, this time choosing the smallest of the 7 sizes in the pattern. I did have a 200gm ball of slightly off-white cotton in my knitting bag, ready to use, but have mislaid it somewhere along the line. I'm hoping it will turn up, but in the meantime I'm using ecru.

I've finished the back and one front, and am  working on the other. It is a LOT smaller than my first effort, which had 13  rows of motifs, compared to 9 here!

I had coffee with Panayoula in my diary this morning, but she had it in her diary for tomorrow, which is WES Group - so now we are meeting on Thursday!

We have a bit of reorganising to do tomorrow at WES, since our program for the year did not take into account the March Exhibition, which will close the Gallery for a couple of weeks. The request is that we staff the exhibition for that morning. Tomorrow will tell if we agree.  

I began another embroidery project at the Guild today - an idea that occurred to me this morning - but I'll save that to next week.

I will finish as I began, with the pleasant coffee corner on my back balcony. I should, of course, have taken the photo without the washing!

Post 478 Almost back to routine after Holiday period

I never tire of the view from my balcony at all  times of the day, but especially as and after the sun goes down. As I write the sky is pale apricot and bats are wheeling, too swiftly for me to capture in image. 

This was the view of the Square and St Francis Xavier tower on Thursday evening. I love the play of light.

Thursday was Australia Day. I have never celebrated the day. It was not part of my youth (aside from marking the end of the school holidays). Even my mother, whose local knowledge of Botany included all the details of both Cook's arrival at Botany Bay, the First Fleet, and the connection to local landmarks, was more likely to celebrate Wattle Day on 1st August, than Australia Day on 26th January. 

I spent the day in the apartment, reading and working on my apron for the Guild Exhibition.

The sunflowers have continued to open slowly and bring joy and cheer. I continue to play with the removal of backgrounds. On Friday I called in to the Camera Shop in the Central Markets to buy a new card reader and card for my DSLR as the old reader had a bent pin, which likely damaged the card. Over the weekend I discovered a chip in the cover of the lens on my phone camera - so managed to buy a new cover today. Can't do without my cameras!

The regular routines are resuming. Saturday was the first Certificate Course Workshop of the year - a look at metal threads, taken by Jennifer Beale. There was a good turn-out and lots of catching up conversations. We were given a table of threads, with a blank space for a sample and a plastic bag of some 15 threads to match to them. It was an excellent exercise, taking a couple of hours to complete.  I also handed over the baby cardigan - and bowed out at lunch time.

School resumed yesterday and the girls' adjusted uniforms were a success. Whew! Monday dinners are back on and the first went well. It's good to be back into a routine after the messiness of January. This week I will also get back to Pilates. I should now be able to remember which day of the week it is!

Today I finished the apron I was making for the Guild Exhibition. It's useful, but not very striking.  I have moved on to a bag for a 90th birthday in 10 days time. I wanted to make something appropriate, so when Ink and Spindle send out a message about a sale on their Shells linen I had an idea, and ordered enough for a bag.

It arrived yesterday. I have now cut out a tote bag, about 45cm square. I plan to embroider 90 starfish - 40 on each of the front and back, and five up each side. I think I can get it done in time for the Birthday Lunch on 10 February.

Better get on with it.

Post 477 Home again, home again

These are the beach photos I couldn't upload last week.  I didn't venture on to the beach, but everyone else did. Several days were very hot, others windy and a little rainy. It was just lovely to be away, near the beach and with family - uplifting and renewing.

 

On my last day Katherine and I visited the Yankalilla Second Hand and Book Exchange hoping to see Emanda. She wasn't there, but we snagged a few bargains. 

That night we visited friends staying nearby in a house packed with mementos of the sea and an eclectic collection of art and oddities - a true beach shack. It was lovely to see the friends - and the house!

I came home on Friday. It took quite a while to unpack and to return plants to their places. The indoor ones had been sitting in the sink.  The weather had not been quite as hot as forecast and everything had survived - a couple only just. Oddly, my thriving pig-face on the balcony was covered in scale. It's about the toughest plant I own.

I took myself over to the pub on the corner for dinner - salt and pepper squid, of course.

The bats came out in force to welcome me home.      

                  

On Saturday morning I added the buttons to the baby cardigan I had finished at the beach. It's a little bigger than I envisaged, but I'm happy with it. I have another 200gm ball of cotton to make another. Once I've checked with Christine, I'll make that one smaller I think.

Sunday was Book Club. I had read 2 of our options - The Maid by Nita Prose and The Bleeding Heart Yard, by Ellie Griffiths, both good. Afterwards I detoured to pick up four summer uniforms to alter for the girls before school returns next Monday. They needed taking in at the waist and hems. That occupied Sunday and Monday (interrupted by Garry, the electrician replacing a light). 

Today I returned the uniforms - and they fit!

I'm now working on the apron for the Guild Exhibition - a bit mad, but interesting. I've also been playing with removing photos from their background - something my photo hints has been telling me to try for a while. I could remove the background - but not save it anywhere. I have now figured it out!  You can expect to see a lot more disembodied images! 

They will prove, I think, very useful.

These are the sunflowers I bought on Saturday. I love watching them open.

The coming week transitions out of summer holidays - Guild operating, school resuming, Monday dinners - and a public holiday.  Another adventure.

Post 467 Bulletin from the Beach

 This is a short post from the beach at Carrickalinga where I have been since Saturday, staying close to where this photos were taken. There is no wifi here, and very poor connection with my phone provider, so I am uploading this using a hotspot from my two-bar phone connection - a very slow process. I have tried unsuccessfully to load 4 low res photos. I'm not trying one photo only, but if you can't see it, the bandwidth is insufficient.

 I am relaxed and lazy with my daughters, their partners and children close by. It is hot - low to mid 30sC - but a sea breeze and cooler than Adelaide.I hope my plants are surviving. I watered them thoroughly, left upturned bottles of water in some of them and hope for the best. I'll be home again on Friday. 

Last Thursday was my birthday and I had a fine time with messages from friends, lunch with Katherine and the kids at River Cafe, and a visit to Albox to pick up some archival photos for the Guild Samplers project. I had a photo of some fabulous presents I received but that will need to wait, or be discarded.

Many thanks to everyone who made it a great day- relaxed, cocooned in love and support.

                                                        

Today I finished, except for the buttons,  the baby cardigan requested for the Guild shop.   That too will need to wait until next week. 

It's currently raining - great for comfort inside, but less so for the beach. I, of course, like it!