Post 369 Easter

It has been glorious weather this week. A few degrees higher than I'd prefer at times, but for the most part a lovely breeze and sunny skies. The succulents are loving it and showing their appreciation. No sign of the Noisy Miner but I did see two yellow throated honey eaters swooping over the aloe, 

The first thing I did at the beginning of this week was to get the extra blood test my doctor ordered. I drove to a different clinic because my doctor wanted the test from a different laboratory as an additional check.  I have no result as yet. My Inspirations Magazine arrived, and I did some food shopping to avoid having to do so on Thursday before the four day break. 

I had arranged to have my air conditioner serviced on Thursday morning in preparation for cooler weather. Previously I'd had my annual service at the beginning of Summer but last year I had some trouble with heating and the serviceman suggested that it would be better serviced before Winter because of the position of the unit in the carpark where pollution can collect on the point the air is drawn in for heating. Once again I found the service efficient, helpful and informative. As the temperature this week has been between 30-32C I haven't given the heating a run!

I progressed the sampler over the week - getting quite carried away, I'm afraid. This is how it ended up - as a roll to keep embroidery flat! The details are in my embroidery blog.                       

While I was shopping on Wednesday I missed a parcel delivery so picked it up from the Post office on my way to Pilates on Thursday - some winter trousers from Ezibuy. After Pilates I called at North Adelaide Village, Metropolitan Fresh still had nectarines, which have disappeared now from most other greengrocers. I explored Romeos Organic Wholefoods shop and managed to find ecycled paper hand-towel  - I had finally run out - as well as some fabulous chocolate with honeycomb. 

When I got home there was another parcel in the letterbox - the Madagascan silk I had ordered from Dale Rollerson. 

This is treasure -  small pieces of different kinds of wild silk tor a friend and I to play with in the hope it will be of interest to the World Embroidery Study Group next year.

There was also a card to say I'd missed another delivery - to be picked up at the large PO Pick-up Centre in the CBD. When I called there on Tuesday the two women on duty did a fabulous job of data mining, working out it was the parcel I'd already picked up last week. Contractor error. 

On Friday, before going to Katherine's place for some of her delicious home-made hot cross buns (photo courtesy of Katherine),  I worked again on my family tree in response to emails waiting for me when I woke up from my fellow researcher in England. 

It's looking more and more as if my maternal grandmother's eldest sister had a different mother (and possibly father) to her siblings and that her very distinctive name came from the family of her 15 year-old biological mother. We are still following leads, but it seems as if the families stayed connected over decades, and at times exchanged surnames as well as passing on first names. There are still mysteries to unravel, but we have made real progress on what has been puzzling me for decades.

First up on Easter Saturday I made the chocolate crackle nests my mother always made at Easter. She used Arctic Mints as eggs but I haven't been able to source them for years. I've even resorted to jelly beans some years. This year the best I found were coconut covered fruit balls but Katherine found some excellent speckled eggs. I added a few of the fruit balls for good measure.

For the rest of the day I stayed hunkered down with Ancestry.com but eventually put it aside to work on the Aesop wood pigeon. I was working on the pigeon herself - using the fine Renaissance wools, which require a bit more accuracy and attention than the Appletons. Today I finished this section. The white is a bit more dominant in the photo than in the real thing.

To help me with this, my dove friends visited frequently all weekend. Getting impatient for me to put out more seed, Black Tips came right up to my door and stood next to (at one point on) the seed container.

I was sitting just inside the door. Although he could not see me through the glass he knew, I'm sure, that I was there and stared pointedly. 

His partner made herself very much at home, exploring the whole space and venturing, for the first time that I am aware, on to the vertical garden, finding edible seeds in unexpected places.

I made a collage, rather than bore you with bird pictures, or waste the shots. It's in rough sequence.

Easter Sunday was Fionn's 16th birthday and I had a really lovely afternoon, late lunch for family and friends at their place. Again the weather was perfect.

Fionn is a fine, fit and considerate young man who looked after his guests. He now towers over his mother. I'm not going to put family photos in this public domain blog, but I can share his cake. He suspended his very disciplined healthy eating regime long enough to enjoy it.

It was really lovely to be able to relax outside, enjoy conversation with family friends I don't see frequently and just hang out.

A perfect way to spend Easter Sunday.

Fionn's birthday is also the anniversary of my mother's death - now 28 years ago. I don't often mention it, as it could be a bit of a burden for a young man to carry, but I see it as renewing. She would have so loved to have known him. 

I've managed to read a couple of books over the weekend. I should have been reading A Dictionary of Lost Words but instead I binged on two of Michael Campling's books.

What's more, I downloaded the fourth in the series and I'm now part way through.

I like the relationships and the setting as well as the mysteries.

Today I had a podiatrist appointment, sorted out the parcel-notification-left-in-error and visited Create in Stitch looking for DMC 12 perle cotton no.160 or 161. No luck of course. I need it to match the linen I plan to use for an upcoming class by Christine Bishop on Fisherton-de-la-mer. I'm not going to find it in Adelaide, or indeed anywhere else. I found an overdyed variegated equivalent thread I'm going to try to substitute. 

Jennifer called today from Queensland, where, in spite of the rain, the reservoirs are not yet full. She's fine and back in Adelaide on Saturday. 

In spite of the continuing warm weather, Autumn has arrived here. The leaves are falling in the streets.  Daylight saving ended on Sunday morning - an extra hour that day.  It was great to have four days of silence on the building site next door.

Here's next week's challenge!

Post 368 The ideas, the tests and the certificates keep coming.

It's been a fairly busy week. Last night's family dinner of Chicken Maryland, Eggplant parmigiana, potatoes with bacon and Greek Salad went well. It was nearly late because Veronica interviewed me for a school project and I lost track of time. With Easter and the school holidays, Monday evening dinners are suspended for three weeks.  

After I picked up my five items from the Guild Exhibition last week I found  a spot for the Owl Service under the barometer just inside my door. I will use one or two of the bags myself and  give two or three away.

On Wednesday a couple of Guild friends and I had lunch at the Glenelg Surf Club. Junette picked me up on the corner of our apartments and I took this photo of the crane working on the building next door. It was lifting the next round of wall panels in place.  

The Surf Club is a great venue - a lovely view over the water and no pressure to leave. We stayed three hours.

You might remember last week I played with the Scheepjes wool to make a shawl. I also ordered a pattern and the Noro wool to make this shawl. It arrived while we were at lunch and I picked it up on Thursday before heading to the Guild.

I planned to go to the monthly meeting of the Guild's Crewel Work Group from 10-12.30 then on to my 1.00 pm Pilates. The Pilates class was cancelled and I was offered a 12pm class, which I refused because of Crewel. However, when I got to Crewel, the convenor had called in sick and I was the only participant/ I ended up minding the Gallery station for members to collect their Exhibition items while those on duty attended a meeting. I progressed the Aesop piece a little but not as much as I'd hoped.

It gave me a chance to talk to Christine Bishop about the requirements for her upcoming classes and also about the kit I'm putting together for the Certificate Course class I'm leading in June. This resulted in Christine bringing me 30 count Belgian linen and a metre of doctor's flannel on Saturday.                                                                                                                                      I will measure up and tack the linen at next month's Basic to Beyond but the kit for the Certificate Course workshop will take a lot more preparation. The workshop is on Icelandic Embroidery and I want the participants to work on wool, either working on a 16th Century couched figure or an 18th Century split stitch piece. The latter was usually on black. A friend has given me some very dark navy wool, which I also plan to use. 

I planned another concession to the twenty first century by using some solvi to transfer the pattern. At Create in Stitch, where I went to buy a metre of Solvi, Samela showed me a new product she has acquired but not yet tried - printable sheets of solvi that adhere to the fabric without ironing. Of course, I had to try it.

I think it is fit for my purpose. I can give students a choice of either the 16th or 18th century design already printed on the stitchable solvi sheets, or they can use regular solvi to design their own. 

My next challenge is to put together some bundles of appropriately coloured Appletons wools to get them going - and to stitch an example of each design.

While all this was occupying hours of my time, my newfound family history collaborator Melanie and I have been working on our shared family tree, examining the certificates of births, deaths and marriages we ordered last week. This week we discovered that one of Ada's brothers spent time in an asylum with significant mental health issues. From the case notes it appears this might have been related to syphilis. It also seems that at least one of his children was impacted and that his (and Ada's) father may have had similar issues. Ada was the youngest of her family. She was only 5 when her father died. There are more death certificates to come. It testifies, however, to a lot of suffering, perseverance and resilience.

It also looks as if we may be very close to solving a major mystery around my other grandmother, Nell, whose family baptised and married under one surname and used another on decades of the census. This photo of her was taken in 1917 when she was 25.

Melanie has done some extraordinary detective work to come up with a very likely explanation. We have ordered more certificates and I will report when we have some more information. 

Both my grandmothers' stories are worth telling and I am hoping to write about both of them later this year.

So far the aloe flower is too small to attract the Noisy Miner. I'm considering covering it with a net bag when it begins to open.

As a follow-up to my doctor's appointment two weeks ago I had my  fasting blood test. My GP has followed up with a phone call this morning to ask me to have another one, without fasting, to check electrolytes again. She would not be concerned, she said, if I had 2 kidneys, but since I have only one she wants to double check. So another test tomorrow.  I also have an appointment for a bone density scan and a mammogram - and, yes, my first Covid vaccination appointment on 15 April, to be followed by a flu vaccination on 5th May.

Last Saturday's Certificate Course Class was by Di Kirshner on invisible hem finishes. The instructions were to bring a piece of homespun 110cm x 25 cm. I was well out of my comfort zone - measuring, ironing, folding, ironing, tacking, ironing, then finally stitching, to create 6 pleats which we then stitched. To my horror, when I asked why the fabric piece was so long, the answer was because we might want to keep going and do more!  I thought she had rocks in her head.  

Di had brought along a steam station iron. I, who am at best an indifferent ironer, was impressed. 

I went home, finished the six examples, marked up the rest of the piece of fabric - and ordered a steam station iron! I have now finished 12 rows. The iron arrived today and I have just quickly tried it out on the piece.

I marked the names of the stitches in archival pen. I've got an idea for using the sampler. I will write this up for my embroidery blog and post a photo of the finish next week.

At Saturday's workshop I also discussed my Design Online idea with Barbara Mullan, who is running the course. I've now got an idea that relates to my Icelandic class. 

The Embellish magazine issue on Madagascar arrived. It is really inspiring. I think this will make a great study and presentation for the World Embroidery Study Group in 2022. Dale Rollison has an article on wild silk - so I ordered some for a couple of us to play with and test out. 

Finally, along with the iron, these half-metre pieces arrived from the Aboriginal Fabric Gallery in Alice Springs. They had a 15% discount offer and I thought these would come in handy.

So ideas everywhere - and not a single finish this week. Looks like a goal for next week. 

Post 367 Birds, Building, Blooms and Bag-

This has been a  bit of an Embroiderers' Guild week. I spent two half days on duty at the Exhibition, took Niamh to JEMS on Saturday, worked with a friend to finalise the Guild's Child Safe Environments policy, called out to drop in my enrolment forms for three of Christine Bishop's classes later this year and today called in to pick up my pieces from the Exhibition which was demounted yesterday. I haven't heard the final attendance figures but I think they were down on previous years but respectable.

In between times I finished Sienna's squirrel (bar a few highlights to come later) and moved my hoop on to the next section, the wood pigeon.I've decided to move clockwise around the frame.

I spent a bit of time getting my threads in order, using double-sided tape to put them in number order on card. It has made it much easier to work.

On Thursday I dropped Ken's mended trousers in at their place, as they were off on a road trip on Friday. I happened to arrive at the same time as a magpie taking advantage of their birdbath.

On Friday, after Sit'n Stitch at my friend's place at Grange, I stopped at the Jetty Cafe  before heading home. It was a lovely evening and I watched the birds returning across the water while eating my Seafood Medley.

It really was a lovely evening. I was conscious of how fortunate I was to be able to sit there at this time. 

Our Covid vaccination program is meant to move into Stage 1b this week - over 70s and those who are vulnerable. It will be, however, several weeks before sufficient doses arrive and switchboards were jammed in the practices nominated to deliver the injections. My doctor, who I saw on Wednesday, has suggested I have my flu vaccination early in April, then try to organise a Covid vaccination 2-3 weeks later. I am now organising a bone density scan, a mammogram and a blood test.

To continue the bird theme, the dove pair have been daily visitors, soaking up the heat in the tiles, 

spreading seed around 

sharing amiably

and providing interesting silhouettes. 

They appear unaffected by the continuous upthrust of the building next door, which is now up to six storeys. My neighbours are fed up with the noise and dust. I haven't noticed the dust. The panels arrive by crane and are bolted on. The motor of the crane required to lift them into place is noisy but the construction process itself is much less so.

Before long I won't be able to see the top of the panels from my balcony - no bad thing. 

I'm still feeling it will be OK when built and the scaffold removed.

On the front balcony, the frangipani have continued to bloom in their small way. It's lovely to see the flowers emerging. Hopefully, they will continue to grow and bloom next year. My friend Vivienne has posted a link to a Frangipani Growers Australia, a group on FB. I've considered joining, but there were 22 posts to the group today and 812 in the last month. I'm not sure I can cope with that volume.

Yesterday I shopped at Frewville and took a photo of their wall garden. This density of cover is what I'm hoping to achieve with mine. They do have a watering system, whereas I water by hand.

As I predicted last week, the aloe flower disappeared during the week. Reckon I had a raid by the Noisy Miner.

I did finish the Turkmen Pouch. Detail of the finish can be found in my embroidery blog.

I've also been playing with the box of Scheepjes yarn that Jennifer bought for herself, Susan and I . I've been playing with a shawl pattern Susan found, just to see how it might be managed. It's promising. Today Susan and I discussed how it might work. There is a challenge carrying the yarn from row to row when the rows are so short at the beginning. I'm going to keep experimenting.

The book of the last 85 days of my daily blog arrived late last week. I had inadvertently ordered it in black and white, which is a shame, but I won't reorder.

I've spent hours and hours this week exploring further my grandmother Ada's family tree. I've now ordered some birth and death certificates. I expect it will be a while before I get them, even by email. I'm on one of those obsessive rolls that come when you find someone else working on the same bit of family as you are. It pushes discoveries forward.  

There will be more. 

The days have been warm. The floods in the Eastern states and historic sexual assault claims in Parliament House have dominated this week's news. As they should.  These stories are also far from over.

Post 366 Stitching, family history, blooms and sunsets

This week began with a morning of duty at the Guild Exhibition. The photos shows a small part of it. There are just under 300 exhibits spread over the gallery and the house. You can just see my bags on the back wall. We were quite busy on Wednesday morning with a group from the country driving up together to visit. We had plenty of helpers.

I did another three hours on Sunday, which was much quieter. This is the small garden between the house and Gallery. Helpers had time to sit and talk.

The exhibition was planned for last year. Numbers of both exhibitors and attendees are down on previous years, but still respectable.  Exhibition regulars came and clearly get joy out of  the work. Some go away quite excited, with an idea or two. There are also a few visitors who are new and also get excited. On Wednesday I met a young woman from Brazil who has an Art business in Adelaide and is interested in the World Embroidery Study Group.

I've been working steadily on the Turkman pouch. It's almost finished. The corner tassels are not yet done. I'm playing with using some gum nuts I've gilded a little, (resting there in the photos). I'm not convinced. I'll publish the story and result in my embroidery blog in the next couple of days.

Sunday morning was our Book Club meeting with lots of good discussion and ideas. I had chosen the books - Aaron Elkins' Gideon Oliver series and Sujarta Massey's Murder at Malabar Hill. Everyone liked the latter, and most liked Aaron Elkins.

The weather has been quite variable, 31C one day, but down to 19C and 20C on others. I'm not complaining. 31 is far more tolerable when followed by the low 20s. We had one night of rain so the plants have needed regular watering. The dove pair, especially Black Tips, have spent a lot of time visiting, even when I haven't put out seed - although no doubt the hope is still there!

Like me, they now indulge in a lot of sitting!

There's a new flower on the aloe, so I'm keeping an eye out for the Noisy Miner, who seems to have a grapevine that notifies of this bloom.                                                                   This Schlumbergia is also blooming, I think for the first time. So far there is only one flower but  a couple more coming.

The marigolds are going great guns and very cheering. I like to watch the buds form and open - such a contrast to the extravagance of the flowers.

On the front balcony I have two frangipani blooming, the red one for the first time. Unfortunately neither of them are scented but I'm still pleased to have them.  Hopefully the one I added a month ago will bloom with scent next year.

The building continues its steady upward rise. It is now, I think, probably 5 storeys high (four more to go).The white strip of wall close to the scaffold is the new building, the darker wall is my balcony.  There's a bit of noise, but still not enough to distress me. I avoid my living area when there is a concrete pour or the crane lifting panels into place. I can no longer see the work from my balcony except for a very rare instance of a worker climbing the scaffold.

I've spent a lot of time this week sorting out the the family history conundrums presented by the work of Melanie, whose contact I mentioned last week.It's amazing (and quite exciting) what can be achieved when we pool our work. Most importantly, Melanie has been able to visit archives and obtain documents not available online. It now appears that my paternal 3xGGrandmother, Sarah Attesley, was the sister of John and Henry Attesley who were convicted of larceny in the Cambridge Assizes in 1821, and sentenced to 7 years transportation. Sarah had two children out of wedlock, one of whom was my 2x GGrandmother.

By this morning we worked out that the two brothers were never actually transported. They appear to have served their sentences on the hulk Leviathan, Henry serving the full 7 years and John released on parole after 4 years. Their gaolers gave them reports of good behaviour which may have been the reason they were never transported. The UK Hulk Registers and Letter Books 1802-1847 for Henry and John Attersley show a few others with similar outcome. I did not know some sentenced convicts stayed on the hulks. It's a bit of a toss-up whether they were better off.

This is my grandmother, Ada whose ancestors these were. It now looks as if her line can be traced back through the Attesley's to Philip Attesley (1541-1572) and his wife Alyce Drawton (1542-1579). I have very little information about their lives except that two of their seven children survived to adulthood and by the 18th century their descendants were small-hold farmers. At no point in time does it look like an easy life.

Last night I cooked another variation of the tray-baked pork sausages . Once again, it was successful. Brigid had a 7pm netball committee meeting, so the kids and I ate just after 6. Katherine and Anthony picked them up in time to drop Brigid at her meeting and took the small cooked dish home to eat. I still didn't remember to photograph the cooked version! 

Yesterday was also the day of International Women's Day marches around Australia, focused on 'Enough is Enough' a version of 'Me too' triggered by some recent prominent cases here. I decided it was too difficult to go to the local march today but my spirit was there.

Last night's dark and brooding sunset seemed appropriate to the day.

I have changed my mind about using the Bushfire project for my Design Online project. I think it's too ambitious for the course, so I''m working on doing something with one of these linen pieces from Ink and Spindle. Not sure what yet, but using the river motif.

The post today included two books from separate sources. Each was packaged neatly in a padded paper bag that fits in the letterbox! Bravo!  One is, of course, the paper copy of Pat's book which I have already read on Kindle. I wanted a copy I can lend to people. The other is another of Shiela Payne's books. I haven't had a chance to browse carefully but it does have numerous index references to Bulgaria.

Finally, I did a repair job this morning for a friend. I have repaired these before - favourite orange trousers bought in Indonesia that split. Last week Ken sent this photo (left) of another disaster to befall them, above a previous patch. 

I stitched the tear to a piece of batik on the inside then stitched another batik patch over the top. 

They will soon be more patch than original - but that's OK.  I come from a long line of repairers! 

Later this year the World Embroidery Group is having a couple of sessions on Mend and Make Do. I might borrow them back to take along!

Until next week.