Post590 Do I dare?

         

.

We had another good meeting of the WES Group last Wednesday. The Guild property was awash with activity in preparation for a Garage Sale on Saturday. The library team were meeting as usual but also sorting spare books for the Garage Sale. Phyllis and I snagged the last two on-site parking spaces and several members had to hunt for street parking, not easy with a building site in the block and tradie vehicles parked all along the street. Barbara Mullan showed us maps and photos from her trips to villages in NE India. For me the highlight was the superb collection of textiles she has accumulated along the way. It was no small feat to bring them along and pack them up again at the end.

We did, however, leave the place very clean and tidy. 

That night I captured the moonrise (unrelated fact!).

Because members of the Guild Executive were working alongside our meeting we learned that when the Guild’s new laptop arrives for the Gallery we will not have access to it, but the old one is being gifted to our group. This will work for a while but has spurred me on to explore the possibility of projecting from a laptop to a portable monitor so we can gather more intimately around a table. Much of my week has been spent exploring this, talking it over with our WES computer guru and two knowledgeable OfficeWorks sales assistants.

On Saturday morning I purchased an 18 1/2” monitor which connected to and operated directly from a laptop without needing to be plugged in, obviating the need for electrical testing and tagging, which was proving very difficult to organise. An hour later, while at the Guild’s Garage Sale (with Noisy Miners making their presence felt), I learned the Guild had several tagged and tested powerboards into which it is permitted to plug untagged equipment. After a bit more consultation with our guru, I returned the monitor and swapped it for a 27” one, better for group viewing.

On Sunday I plucked up courage to try the monitor. I got it assembled OK but the connection to my Mac proved elusive. While the HDMI cable fitted, the laptop and cable didn’t recognise each other. I tried the trouble shooting instructions, but no luck. I found it disheartening   

In the meantime, my coffee machine showed the cleaning sign. When I tried to follow the instructions, it displayed both the 'change filter' and the 'descale' signs- contradictory. I changed the filter, but nothing else changed. The manual says these two symbols together mean the machine is cold and needs wrapping in a blanket! The apartment temperature was 23C. I turned it on and off several times. It now indicated the bean container was empty. Nonsense! Further disheartened. Now I had two machines not working and speaking foreign languages. I did get the washing done, a couple of plants potted, chicken Marylands marinating,  rice cooked and in the fridge to dry out. 

On Monday I took the coffee machine back to Jura for service. There were varying opinions from the 2 sales assistants. I refused point blank to take it home to try any of their ideas. The machine awaits a technician. At the moment I don't care if I never see it again, and my plunger is getting a workout.

Last night, after dinner for 7, Fionn enthusiastically tackled the laptop to monitor connection, and achieved it in about 6 minutes. It appears the spare USB converter I keep on my laptop prevented the monitor cord connecting to the adjacent port.  Once we removed the Comsol USB converter, the monitor was happy to connect via the adjacent port and, after a bit of work with an awkward control toggle on the back of the monitor, we were in business.

I was over the moon. Fionn is my hero! I played with it for a bit after the troops left, but haven't yet tried to do it from scratch. Tomorrow Margaret and I are getting together to sort it out, and hopefully finish confident we can reproduce a display at the Guild from both an Apple and an Android machine. I have not as yet removed the clear film from the screen, just in case...

I did, however, after dropping off some Art works at Pack and Send for my brother, trek to Spotlight and buy fabric, webbing and buckles to make a carry bag for the screen.  Am I insane?

Fionn also tried on my supersized beanies for me. He has a reasonably large head. 

With Georgia's help we figured out the largest one (the not-a-teacosy) would be improved my folding the band in half. I'm going to stitch it down so it stays in place.

The 16 ply knits quickly and is certainly warm. These are anticipating more walkers next year.

I found time this afternoon to sit in the afternoon sun for half an hour doing Wordle and a couple of other puzzles. The  balcony is feeling good at the moment.

I feel relieved and thankful that I have support from family, friends, finance and businesses to keep following ideas. I fear (literally) that I am losing my grasp of changing technology and that will limit my output. That's scary, but help is obviously at hand. 

For now I shall try, in my small way, to keep disturbing, in the hope of improving, my little bit of the universe.

Post 589 Bookended

It has rained frequently most of this week, not something we complain about in Adelaide. The back balcony catches the benefit. It was Ken’s comment about this balcony being a perfect breakfast spot that confirmed my decision to buy when he inspected it with me before I purchased in November 2015.

The grey sky seemed appropriate for his funeral on Friday. It was good to be there with my daughters (and about 60 others), reminded, by a series of speakers, of the stages and stories of Ken’s life. 

I dug out some photos.These two reflect something of our association, one taken in the Grampians in January1980, the other Bali in August 2011. 

The joy of the week was being around my daughters.  Alison arrived Thursday night and left on Sunday. After the funeral the three of us met Brigid for lunch — a rare opportunity. On Saturday afternoon Alison helped Barbara navigate an unfamiliar computer - another rare opportunity, as was the lively family dinner hosted by Katherine and Anthony that night. What could have been a very low time was sustaining and uplifting - as, of course, Ken would have wanted.

Wednesday had been another quiet day of desk hostess duty at the Guild. I brought in the bins, got some stitching done and consulted a few books from the library on Molas (reverse appliqué embroidered panels from the San Blas Islands). I was able to read and make notes while on duty. I’m wanting to write up a bit of background to the cushions I made for Brigid. On the way home I visited Bunnings to buy some small plants and punnets to fill gaps. I planted the yellows in the one empty box at the back, hoping the doves will like them. A magpie lark seemed to approve.

I still have four largish pots for which to find plants.

I had cancelled last week’s Pilates in favour of the only available physio appointment. I had a call the evening before to say the physio had Covid - so I had a whole day to catch up on neglected chores and prepare for my guest. I made soup, shifted bags of embroidery projects from the guest room, did some shopping, planted my Bunnings purchases, cleaning away the old soil and pots, and did some mending. I’m specially pleased about the last.

In addition to repairing two merino nightdresses, I fixed the loose hook on  a coat hanger that's been hanging around my sewing cabinet for a couple of years. My grandmother made me 30 of these when I left home in 1969 and I still use most of them. Sometimes the hooks become loose. Often I can screw them back in. If the thread on the hook won’t grip, the wood is often soft enough to screw the hook directly into the wood a bit further along. When all fails (as it did here) I rebind the hook with tape and stitch it to the cover. My grandmother was no perfectionist- her stitches and decorations were quick and crude (yep, I learned a lot from her). She was into usefulness, mending, reusing and making do. I learnt that too.

It was a long weekend here - for the King's Birthday, so no family dinner here on Monday night. I bunkered down to blog, read and stitch a little, mostly trying for (not necessarily achieving) beanie improvements with the 16 ply Bendigo wool. You can read more here. '

I’ve also checked my tension and gone down a full needle size. I made another start while waiting for my car to be serviced this morning.

I arrived home to find these flowers waiting for me from a Guild friend, a response to recent posts.  So uplifting. I love the mix of cottage flowers with the native Eucalyptus cinerea🙏 I am blessed in so many ways, but especially with friends and family.  Gratias.

Balcony views still bring me pleasure every day and fittingly bookend this post.

Post 588 Nature and Nurture

 

 /

Sadness and reflection have lurked, kept at bay by routine activity, many conversations and flora. My sincere thanks to friends and family for sustaining messages of support. 

When the window cleaner left on Wednesday, the 11th anniversary of Jim's death, I visited Centennial Park Cemetery. As ever, the gardens are beautiful and the bird sounds around his Banksia Court area are uplifting and life-affirming.

The tree over Jim's ashes (right) is thriving as are the succulents. I take a couple of extra cuttings from my pots each time I visit. Some strike, some don’t.

The tree is laden with gumnuts.

I spent a bit of gentle time helping Barbara with forms, also with my daughters remembering times we spent with Ken and sharing photos. Health permitting, we will attend his funeral later in the week. 

Routines continue. My airconditioning unit was serviced - more thoroughly than ever before, every outlet checked, as well as motor, valves and electronics. The serviceman also checked and clarified how the bathroom extraction fans operate. When his report arrives I shall pass it on to the electrician who is still working on quotes.

On Friday I had Xrays and scans on a lump that has developed on my left foot. It turns out to be a ganglion. Benign - leave alone unless it rubs on shoe, when it can be injected. I seem to be prone to these. I had one removed below my ear when I was about 9 years old as well as the one recently removed from my hand for the second time.  At least I don't stitch or open jars with my foot.

I gave embroidery priority to the Kasia Jacquot bags, written up in my embroidery blog.

I have several more of these to go, and am really enjoying them.

I also bought a yarn pack for this year's Shetland Wool Week beanie. I had resolved to try it in two colours only, but when Yarn Trader offered a Jamieson and Smith pack I quickly grabbed one, but haven't started it.

I have been asked to be the after dinner speaker at the Guild's Country Conference, being held at Guild premises in the city in late July. Organisers are interested in the World Embroidery Study Group talks, so I've provided a list and agreed to do any of them. 

The last Saturday of the month is the St Margaret's Church Market so I headed off early in that direction, but a bit further, to West Lakes, to buy a double contour latex pillow recommended by physiotherapists (and hard to find in Adelaide) before calling at the church for plants. 

I haven't filled all my empty pots, but these (left )went some way towards restoring the balcony garden afree our hot summer. I had to empty old soil into compost bags and dispose of them before I could repot. 

Adding a couple of pots of blooms from a nursery (right) also helped. These have yet to be planted. There's a lot more to do over coming weeks, but recovery is well underway. .

There were interesting discussions at Book Club on Sunday, in particular relating to The Thrill of It by Mandy Beaumont. This is fiction 'loosely' based on a court case in which a man was convicted of murdering 6 'grannies'. The author has said she wrote it to give a voice to the victims and their surviving descendants. I ( and others in the Book Club) thought she gave a much more powerful voice to the perpetrator. I have always opposed censorship. If I had an incinerator I would have burnt my copy of this book. I felt contaminated by it. I do not want to be inside this man's head. I certainly don't want even a fictionalised version of him inside mine. Fictionalising true crime raises many issues.

I had time to think on it as I made moussaka on Sunday afternoon. I used pecorino in the sauce rather than kefalograviera. Pecorino isn't easily available in supermarkets, but kefalograviera is much harder to find. I also decided my usual 6 eggs was over the top, and settled for 4. While most of the dish disappeared, I think it was a bit sloppy. I'll return to 6 eggs in future. It was great to have a full 7 at dinner, and I extended the table with help from Brigid. I had a great conversation with Fionn about what he learned from his recent work placement.

This morning my fortnightly cleaners did their usual thorough and efficient job, before insisting on moving the extended table and quite heavy chairs to remove creases from the rug beneath. They don't like imperfection, and worry about me tripping. What service!

A dove is visiting again, choosing the only eastern balcony planter that needs a new plant. Maybe I should leave it free for doves.

At the hairdresser today, prompted by a discussion about unsolved Adelaide crimes, I explained my feelings about our recent Book Club read. 

My hairdresser's suggestion, which I came home and enacted, was to tear the book up and put it in the recycling to be transformed into something else. A few pages went into the compost bin, the rest to recycling. Job done.

It's been a week full of greenery and flowers. These flowers arrived from the Attorney General’s Department at the beginning of the week to thank me for the beanies. They are lasting really well, brightening my extended table - and my extended contemplations. 

Gratias.🙏

Short Post 587 🕯️

As I was finalising this post, on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Jim’s death, our dear friend Ken,  probably Jim’s closest male friend, died of cancer in the Mary Potter Hospice.  I’m mourning and remembering. My daughters, who have known him all their lives, are mourning and remembering. He and Barbara blessed and shaped our lives for over 50 years. Our love goes out to his family. He was such a good man. His suffering is over. 🕯️

I was privileged to spend time with Barbara today. 

I considered terminating the post here. Instead, I edited it down around a section I wrote on Thursday after  I visited an Eco Store  and found a puce-coloured, long-sleeved top I've been wearing every since, paired with gifts from friends. 

Left is the top with a shawl recently knitted by an overseas stitching friend of the last 8 years,  held in place by an Anglo-Saxon replica brooch given to me in the 1970s by a long-standing high-school friend with whom I am still in touch.

To the right is the top under a cover-all I bought recently while with another friend. I've been wearing it with a Murano-glass necklace given to me for my 60th birthday by a uni friend from the 1960s and a scarf knitted for me by a friend constant since primary school in the 1950s. I am clothed in friendships.

On Saturday I attended a Guild workshop - to learn a new technique, but also to stay connected to my embroidery tribe.

Dinner last night, a long phone call and a visit today wrapped me in the love and continuity of family.

The time to talk of Ken's life will come. Rest in Peace my friend.

Here today I want to acknowledge the  threads of family and friendship that  hold me together, often in joy - but also through sadness, loss and grief.

Thank you .

Post 586 Mostly knitting

Three personal events dominated this week, with Pilates on Thursday and dinner on Saturday providing sanity breaks. The three events were the World Embroidery Study Group meeting on Wednesday, 70 minutes in a dentist chair on Friday, and today's deadline for my Walk for Justice beanies.

In between the sun and the moon rose and set, the carpet was strewn with scraps of wool and biscuit crumbs and the coffee machine worked overtime as I knitted beanies, while listening to the radio, or to the television. I haven't read the Book Club picks for next Sunday, the pots haven't been fertilised or repotted, I bought Dulwich Bakery pies for Monday's family dinner, and there are knitting and embroidery projects waiting attention.

The Evil Eye had a go at stopping our WES meeting. The  Guild Office Manager, tasked with setting up the laptop and projector for us, notified me at 7.30am that she was ill. One regular member of our group has a key to the equipment cupboard, but when I contacted her at 8.15am, her car was out of action and she couldn't get there. I offered to pick her up along with the key. 

When we arrived just after 10 and opened up the cupboard,  an essential connecting cord was missing.  Our tech guru could find no substitute anywhere on the premises. Fortunately I had my laptop with me - operating on battery only. We reorganised ourselves around the lunch table, me in one corner with my 13” laptop pointing towards the 15 gathered faces. We managed. It was a lively meeting - some said the best we've had. People loved the intimacy, the ease of hearing, the sharing and discussion. I'm now considering buying a 17 1/2" smart photo frame to conduct future meetings in a similar way.

In summary, the Evil Eye is a concept at least 4000 years old and consistent across cultures of Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania and the Americas. It is the notion that evil can be transmitted by a glance, from eye to eye and always derives from envy. The concept that envy is dangerous underpins the Evil Eye in all cultures. Not only does it mean the envious might seek to take what they covert, but if you allow envy into your heart or mind, it will harm your very being. Amulets, symbols, materials and placement protect from the Evil Eye. Basically they distract so the evil will not focus on, and enter, your eye. They often take the form of an eye - frequently blue in southern Mediterranean societies, because blue eyes were rarer and therefore more likely to attract the Evil Eye’s attention, deflecting it from its target. In some societies red was the predominant distracting colour.

Mirrors (including shisha) not only distract the evil eye, but reflect the evil back to the transmitter. As with other amulets, they are placed above doors , entrances and around the openings on clothing.  It is envy as the underlying evil that distinguishes the Evil Eye from other sources of evil and associated  amulets.

Seafaring nations have long used opercula, or Cats Eyes, as amulets to ward off the Evil Eye. I wear one in a ring. It was given to me when I was 8 by my Uncle Sid, amongst a shell collection he brought back from New Guinea after WWII. My mother put it aside because it was such a good example and returned it to me on her deathbed. I wear it most days, to honour both my mother and my uncle- and just in case.

It, and the power of community, served me well on Wednesday. We overcame the obstacles thrown in our path, to have a most successful meeting.

My 4 root canals are now clean and disinfected. There were no complications and I return in 5 weeks time to have them filled.

The Walk for Justice took place this morning, an all-round success. The AG's team was fully equipped with beanies to deal with the 7.30am 6C temperature.

I've had a rewarding time knitting the beanies. Now the walk is over, the details are in my embroidery blog. I've learnt quite a lot, thought healing thoughts for my friend ill in hospital, staying warm and in the moment. 

I'm feeling protected, blessed and engaged.

Post 585 Mostly Marta and Medical.

I’m not sure what it was my camera caught in the sky over the slate roof of the old Rymill coach house on Thursday morning : perhaps it was a glitch in the glass of the window through which I took the photo; or a drone. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a UFO...

Wednesday didn’t turn out as planned. When I arrived at the Guild right on 10 am for my Desk Hostess duty, the place was still locked. I waited 10 minutes to see if the office manager was just late before making phone calls. Eventually I got hold of the President who asked me to open up as the office manager was waiting with a sick grandchild until the mother arrived, and would be late. At 11.25 the office manager sent me a message that I should go home as she was taking the child to an urgent care clinic and would not be in. I locked up and arrived home in time for a parcel delivery (Christmas presents!).

This meant I could walk the 3 blocks to my 2.30pm appointment with my orofacial pain clinician. She was hugely helpful in making sense of my recent and upcoming dental work. The pain that led to my proposed root canal work has gone, leaving me wondering whether to proceed. She removed my doubts. She also discovered I have already cracked the mouth guard I had made in January! She adjusted it a little and it should last a year, but we have made an appointment to make a new one next year, this time entirely of hardened material. Apparently a mouth guard with softer material on the inside is prone to breakage by serious biters! 

The headache-causing  tension in my shoulders has eased, but I need to find a physio.  I walked home with a lighter step.

It’s a week for medical appointments. By 10 the next morning I was staring at the stone wall of the Heritage-listed Rymill Coach House through the window of my Renal physician’s waiting room. I was interested to see the iron capping - evidence of the popular old Adelaide method of dealing with leaning walls - inserting rods through the building and periodically tightening them. Our Gawler house had them. I also photographed the slate roof,  capturing the strange object at the top of this post.

Half an hour later I left elated. All pathology readings were good, we had a helpful discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of Ozempic and I heard about progress in the astonishing  blood type conversion research in which he is involved.🙏🏼

I was sufficiently buoyed to have the lunch special at Queen St Cafe  after Pilates, slow cooked lamb shoulder with spiced sweet potato and barley, with, of course, a lime milkshake. Quite delicious, nutritious and very filling.

It gave me the energy to cut out and stitch the Mola cushion covers when I got home.

On Friday I began with a GP appointment, scheduled to discuss the renal results from the day before and get my flu vaccination. We did that and quite a bit more. I got advice on a physio, exercise, bone density and weight. Because I now have a health plan, there was no charge. Deo gratias. My flu vaccination arm ached mildly for a couple of days. 

From the GP I headed to Dillon’s Bookshop in Norwood. They had reserved  a copy of a book I thought would be useful for my Celtic Embroidery talk later in the year. I noticed it in the Can Do Books catalogue but it was sold out by the time I tried to order. Parking was a bit of a trial at Norwood but I had a fine time in the bookshop and found one of next month’s Book Club reads as well. It’s a couple of years since I’ve been in Dillons because major building work removed most of the car parking. I will visit again but try to do it earlier in the day. All I have to do now is read the books.

On a roll, I headed back across the city to Kent Town and a shop called Pillow Talk. They found me inserts for the two cushions. I’m very pleased and  hopeful they will meet with approval.

I was close to Bunnings, but resisted the efficiency of stopping there to buy plants, recognising the inefficiency of being too busy to plant them!

It's been sunny but cool for most of the week, just the weather for the zygocactus to bloom. I'm aware this is commonly called Christmas Cactus in the northern hemisphere, but we don't go for that here in Australia! At the moment, however, I'm a bit inclined to allow Thanksgiving Cactus through my censorship net, in a general, rather than a festival sense...

It took a while, but we are now truly in autumn. The best images are from the car, which I can’t take while driving, but this one from the my eastern balcony as the waxing crescent moon rose on Friday evening, gives an idea of the gradually changing colours by moonlight.

It doesn’t convey the racket the birds were making at the time.

The colours are clearer at sunrise.

I had the weekend to myself as the family were attending a 21st Birthday in the Barossa. I shopped for Monday’s lamb shanks on Saturday morning, checking for white flowers along the way.

It seems white flowers no longer dominate Mothers' Day! I did, however, find an interesting bunch of Australian natives that I thought would do justice to the vase. While I was right, it also showed me that native greenery would work as well. The white banksias work, but are not necessary.  That should simplify things in future!

I finished another beanie in the afternoon and evening, some of it while sitting in the late afternoon sun on the Western balcony. While there I trimmed and tidied a few plants. , itching to do more, but resisting.

I did, however, make the effort to cook the sweet potato and zucchini fritters for my dinner, this time in one piece - I guess it amounted to an omelette! I enjoyed it - and ate almost all of it. I think this will become a staple. On Sunday I tried it with mushrooms in place of the sweet potato. It wasn’t as good.

I knitted another beanie on Sunday while the lamb shanks cooked. That bought the beanies and registrations once again in harmony so I went back to working on Kasia Jacquot’s Marta. My friend is still in hospital, so I think of him and stitch good wishes.

Today, taking my GP’s advice, I made an appointment for next week, with a physio at a clinic at Calvary Hospital, a block away . They have a hydrotherapy pool which I will be exploring too!

In between routine chores, I finished the Marta panel. I have machined it on to the craft bag, but haven't embroidered around the machined edge.  I thought of leaving it, but think it would complete it.

When I checked this afternoon, there are another 5 registrations for the walk, so I'm knitting more beanies. Fortunately I'm more or less prepared for WES Group tomorrow, so time to pick up the knitting needles.