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.

Post 396

On Wednesday I had lunch at Mr Nick's again with Dawn and Jennifer. They are both thinking of joining the Guild, and since then, Jennifer, I know, has joined. I hope they get as much pleasure and learning from belonging as I do.

It has been a week of periods of rain and sun. The balcony plants have responded well.  

I got carried away with more Viking work before posting a summary of my efforts on my embroidery blog. I'm not entirely satisfied with my final choice of metallic thread. The exercise has made me consider the whole issue of historic reproduction or representation and the limitations of both. On Saturday I visited Create in Stitch and bought some silver Perle 5 to have another play. In the very least there is a lot to talk about in a workshop!

I was back at Pilates on Thursday, where the class was taken by Leanne and stretched me in a slightly different direction. In the late afternoon I sat on the western balcony, feeling good in my body and the sunshine until it got too hot and I moved inside. The Strata AGM for our apartments is coming up. I mistakenly thought it was last Thursday and had, after some issues with the software, voted online. I had my dates wrong and it's next Thursday. No harm done, I am at least ahead of myself, if not on the ball.

Friday would have been my father's 102nd birthday and I had a whim to gather and post some photos to Facebook. It's good to look back over photos and remember him in the numerous contexts of family that occasion photos. Some of my favourites though, are the ones of him caught in typical, ordinary poses.

I also started preparing my 2020-21 tax return, gathering and ordering the various documents and receipts for a visit to the accountant. I was about half way through when I left for Sit'nStitch. I finished the process on Saturday, and have emailed the accountant for an appointment. I'm pleased to have pushed myself to do this. It's much easier to keep on stitching! 

The process of getting organised encouraged me to keep going and finish the task of gathering my Conversations with Baby Boomer Teachers into a book. I had progressed this a few months ago, but left it at the proof-reading and adding the last chapter stage. I spent all Sunday working on it and spare minutes on Monday. I had originally intended to try creating a cover from a photo collage, so gathered a few possible photos together before deciding it wasn't going to work. I have come up with this fairly crude but simple effort. The photo is a of banner created as part of a Multicultural Community Art Work  by the girls during my principalship at Gepps Cross Girls' High with the help of a group of artists for an exhibition called Threading Our Lives. I thought it appropriate. I also have an offer to design a cover from a BB artist, but it will probably take some weeks. Comments are welcome.

While on an organisational roll I cleaned up my emails - either completed or deleted all those surveys, requests for feedback, articles I'd been saving and got it down to 20. So far I've managed to keep it there or below. Another little goal!

It rained on and off all week, but the plants still needed watering a couple of times. I watered before hanging out washing on Sunday and filled up the water bowl. My dove friend arrived on cue. He/she no longer waits for me to go inside before tucking in.

On Monday I cheated a little for dinner and bought two of Enzo's lasagna trays from Frewville, on chicken and one 'meat' - an interesting distinction! They went down well. Next time I might try spinach and feta.  To offset buying the ready-made lasagna I made another batch of Anzac biscuits. I also finished off this Sashiko napkin to place beneath some of the biscuits.

Late on Saturday I got a message from Ancestry. One of their recent additions is a service that packages data from individual family trees to show progression, or connections. The service had combined these four photos from my tree - me (a long time ago!), my mother Sylvia, her mother Nell and Nell's mother Kate. It gave me an idea that I spent most of Sunday playing with, before sending some experiments off to Officeworks for printing. 

There might be more news of the experiment if and when it works.

I had to stay in today until Chris arrived. He is a building inspector, engaged by our Strata to measure any issue of 'water ingress' since some residents have reported issues on their east facing windows. He was very pleasant, informative and interesting to watch. I had some issues a couple of years ago, but they appear to have been fixed by some flashing and capping work done on the roof. Chris's water meter says there is very little moisture in my walls - and that the building next door is now protecting my south wall from weather and moisture!  It's interactions with pleasant, expert people likeChris that really lift my spirits.

After he left I zipped out to the post office, then came home and finally ironed the alpaca shawl and wove in the yarn ends. The only way I could photograph it was by hanging it on the line. I wished I had ironed it earlier - I could have asked Chris, the building inspector, to hold it up for me!

It is lovely and soft, and toasty warm when wrapped around. I still have another of the Noro shawls to knit for myself, and I already have several shawls. One way or another it will find a good home.

Saturday was JEMS day. Niamh finished her Father's Day gift for Anthony and we enjoyed our milkshakes afterwards. I was delighted that mine didn't interrupt my downward weight trajectory. As of today, I have lost 9.4kg since 27 June - onward and downward!

Post 395 More Birds, Blooms and a bit of entertaining

There was a lovely sunset last Wednesday, after a warm and breezy day. In the morning, the World Embroidery Study Group met. Barbara gave us a good presentation about Native American beading - lots of information about technique, colour and heritage. There were 9 of us there - well distanced, but with no barriers to discussion, which flowed smoothly.

It was timely that, while looking for something else, I rediscovered these badges/brooches I bought as gifts some years ago from the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. I think I bought more than this and didn't give them all away.  Now I've rediscovered them, I must use them on a project or two.

On the way home, I stopped off at Bunnings to buy some potted colour for my back balcony. I also bought another bowl planter. The shape seems to work quite well for me on that balcony. 

I did a bit of cleaning up and rearranging on the front, West-facing balcony too.  There's more to do and it's the time of the year to do it.   

The finishing touch was to replace the palm, barely hanging on in the indoor position, with a bromeliad. I am not good with palms. I had tried following the advice of the receptionist at Pilates, who tends the fabulous palm in the studio, but to no avail. She did tell me that her palms at home don't thrive at all, so maybe there are other factors operating!

My wool fabric from Sweden was also waiting in my letterbox for me on Wednesday. I've now got most of my props for the Viking Embroidery workshop in February. I need to put it all together in a way that makes sense for the WES Group next month before preparing the projects for the Certificate Course in February 2022. The WES feedback and advice will help.

On Wednesday evening there was a bit of drama with the carpark door jamming, meaning that cars could not come in or go out. Katherine and Anthony, who park in one of my spaces, had to get a taxi home. I didn't know until they contacted me. My phone was (unintentionally) on silent. We eventually got notification that 2 parts were needed to fix it and it would be out of action until Thursday afternoon. I cancelled Pilates.

Just after midday on Thursday I got a message it was fixed. In fact, when I took my car out, the doors were fixed open. More work needed tomorrow but the door would be left open. I drove to the Guild to give my Bulgarian samples and notes to Margaret Adams who has generously offered to chart it using her software program.

I did a bit of supermarket shopping then went home and worked on my Viking Embroidery presentation and notes.  As well as embroidery motifs, I found some useful maps of tribal divisions in Britain before and after the Romans left, and before and after the Vikings arrived, then a contemporary map of population by DNA, which corresponds closely to the original Anglo-Saxon map. Interesting.

I have cut a piece of brown wool twill and traced the design from the Mammen cloak on to Solvi. I'm hoping this will be my workshop example. I largely finished the student notes and I am now working the samples.

This is where I'm up to. I'm documenting the process on my embroidery blog, and will include a link next week.

On my way to Sit'nStitch on Friday I called at the Hamra Gallery to see the Guild Exhibition. The Gallery is attached to the West Torrens Council Library. I had difficulty finding it, not helped by the Gallery not being open! It is managed by the Community Centre, not the Library, and no-one had opened it up when I got there at 12.45pm (opening hours are 10am-6pm!). Eventually the Library staff obtained permission to open it and I was able to browse.

It is a really lovely gallery space , with curved walls and a large central open space. The photo is a composite of two wall sections.

These are some of my favourite pieces - Lori's bushfire, Margaret A's seahorse, Margaret M's  Aotearoa punga (hope I got that right, I cut it off when I photographed it), Raelene Draheim's The Shawl Weaver, and Gwen Deare's extraordinary blackwork depiction of the Adelaide Oval scoreboard.

It was Susan and I at Sit'nStitch and we had a very fine and restful time, stitching, pondering and talking. 

I got home to find a flock of about 12 lorikeets feeding in the tree near my back balcony.  

My DSLR yielded several good photos, but I'll only inflict a couple on readers here.

They make quite a lot of noise - a cheering sight and sound. 

I went to the Markets on Saturday morning to get some fresh chicken livers to cook for friends coming to lunch on Sunday. I also picked up cream, milk, duck and truffle pate, and a tart for desert. It's a long time since I've wandered the markets on Saturday, and I did enjoy it. The rest of the day was spent working on the Viking embroidery. 

On Sunday I dashed out to Unley for bread before my 3 guests arrived. We had a very pleasant and relaxed afternoon. The food worked well and we grazed all afternoon.

I had intended to buy Enzo's lasagne ready made for Monday dinner this week, but the chicken liver shop also had duck legs, so I bought ten and planned Monday's meal around them.  I dug out a recipe for duck a l'orange, which I haven't cooked in decades.  It worked out reasonably well. I made too much sauce and didn't thicken it enough, but the flavour was good. Lots of broccolini, bok choi and potatoes with bacon. Again, I was too busy serving it to photograph. 

In between taking parent-teacher interview calls from Fionn's school Anthony drained my dishwasher for me and explained the process. I was panicking a bit because it hadn't drained properly from the last use. I thought I might need a plumber. It appears to be fixed and working again as I write.

 While I was out buying the bread for Monday night's dinner, I missed the attempted delivery of my parcel of kits from Marie Wallin, so dashed back out to pick it up as soon as I got notice it was at the PO. It was a pretty big parcel - just fitted in the boot of the car. 

Inside were three boxes. Inside each of those was a compostable bag. Inside the compostable bags were the kits, packaged in the distinctive (and to my mind, attractive) Marie Wallin bags. I had hoped to finish my shawl before these arrived. I'm on my last ball, so it shouldn't be too long now.

This is where I'm up to as of today, with one 25gm ball to go, It's pretty big, easily 6ft long.  It will be finished just as soon as I resist fiddling with Viking embroidery!

Thanks everyone for the feedback on the email service. It seems it will continue, but without any maintenance by Feedburner. I am posting a bit earlier, so I can see that it has worked before I go to bed. That should enable me to manually post if it fails.