Post 459 books and bats

The bats are once again visible in the dusk, as they return to feed in the Moreton Bay tree (left corner of the photo) overnight. They come, I think, all year round, but the long dusks at the moment make it easier to photograph them.

I've been walking around the Square in the day time and noticed that their tree is developing off-shoots on the trunk, as well as fungi.

Fruit bats love Moreton Bay figs - and are a major distributor of the seeds. I imagine the guano also helps the tree. There's certainly enough in this tree to make a difference!

It's been a relatively sociable week. My medical results on Wednesday were fairly positive. Creatinine is the lowest it's been in 18 months, no protein, sugar just under the pre-diabetes range. I need to do a bit more work on that - along with weight. I had dinner with friends on Thursday, lunch with friends on Friday and Book Club met at my place on Sunday.  The last JEMS meeting was on Saturday - a very happy gathering from my brief observation. It has been abnormally wet and windy - more power outages and wind damage throughout the city - and other parts of the State.

I finished my brother's vest and sent it off, hoping it fits. We're in luck - the happy photo came this morning. Woohoo! It is really satisfying to make something wearable. 

I'm back on the Shetland Wool Week hat for a while, then Brigid's jumper. My brother sent me a collection of vintage patterns, which I will share with friends. Today another pattern book arrived, with 18 knitting patterns based on the Finnish Kalevala, a 19th century collection of epic poetry based on chants, folklore and stories originating in the ancient Kalevala region of what is now Finland. 

This, I am pretty sure, is another rabbit hole for me to disappear into in the near future. It has a couple of very tempting patterns, linked to some history. What's not to like!

My Christmas cards arrived and I've been writing them. It seems sensible to get them out as soon as I can, given ongoing hitches with postage. I'm really happy with the cards. 

While my Book Club was meeting on Sunday Katherine and Veronica picked up the trunk by a series of clever parking manoeuvres that didn't involve me, so that has found its happy home. We had a full house for dinner on Monday, which was lovely. With Fionn having made his last required visit to school, full house is likely to become a rarity.  

Also on Monday, I dropped into Target to buy copies of Jane Harper's Exiles and Gary Disher's Day's End, two of the recommended books for Book Club in December. I had already downloaded an audio version of the third book, The Tilt, by Chris Hammer. It's great to see so many Australian books being published.  Of the three we discussed on Sunday, two, All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien and Black River by Matthew Spencer,  were Australian, while Michael Bennett's Better the Blood is set in New Zealand. All worth reading.

My copy of my brother's latest book also arrived this week, and although I read them all in proof,  I've been steadily dipping into it. There are some great stories in it - and really easy to dip!

The weather continues cold, wet and windy. It's jacaranda time in Adelaide, not yet in full bloom, but purple clouds emerging in our streets. This is the one behind our apartment. Hopefully the blooms will get to emerge in all their glory before the wind turns them into a carpet.

I'm delighted to see the day lily bulbs emerge on my balcony. I didn't lift them and wasn't convinced they would survive the wet winter, but they are looking very promising.

This morning I walked in the wetlands again and found this interesting blossom on a tree overhanging the carpark. I don't know what it is, but it has lovely clusters of bloom .

Also in today's mail, was my 40 year membership badge from the Australian Library and Information Association. I had turned down an invitation to have it presented at a meeting. I was a practising teacher-librarian for about 5 years, but owe quite a lot to the skills and experience I gained through training, practice and membership of the Association. I am pleased to retain my membership, even if I can't see myself wearing the badge.

Back to bats, cricket has been on at Adelaide Oval, and the Adelaide 500 Supercars race is on next week for 3 days, closely followed by the Australia vs West Indies Day-Night match, so lots of blocked roads and diverted traffic. Hope the weather improves for the sake of all involved. I, however, will be busy getting myself ready for Christmas.

Post 458 Challenging weather and lots of activity.

It's been a week of appointments and service. medical work, Vergola have finally appointed a technician and he's coming tomorrow! I've had dentist visits, blood  and eye tests and checkups. I have more dental work next month and I won't have blood  test results until tomorrow. I do, however, now have a fairly good report from my optometrist. My eye condition is under control, I passed my driving vision test and I have a new pair of glasses on the way.

My dentist is close to the Hameji gardens and I managed a visit after my treatment. It is a calming and meditative place. I love the way individual flowers, or rocks, or  plants, are given space and position. These two stood out.

There were also a couple of cockatoos and a duck feeding on the grasses outside, the duck silent and the cockatoos very noisy. 

We had an electrical storm on Wednesday night. Thunder. lightening and rain around 8pm but apparently most of the action was between about 2 and 5 am. Several friends lost power, which was restored just in time for an even bigger storm on Saturday.

Wednesday had been a busy day with WES group - giving the talk as well as running the meeting. Lots of discussion, plenty of sharing and things to discuss as well as the talk itself. A few members sick, a number caring for partners or family, fitting in between commitments. A really great group. The meetings and follow up take quite a bit of my energy - and gives me great satisfaction.

Saturday was the Christmas Pageant - a big event on the Adelaide calendar, signalling the arrival of all things Christmas. More important to me was the phone call to tell me the two cabinets I ordered 20 weeks ago from Nordic Design Furniture were ready to  be inspected on Pageant day. There are road closures all around me, so I planned my escape. It certainly rained on the parade and for much of the day. It didn't deter the crowds. The city was abuzz, families everywhere, and traffic crawling. I got to Nordic Furniture, signed off on the two pieces and paid the residual. To my delight they were delivered on Monday.

Leanne, the owner and manager of the Pilates studio I attend, has been making plants in clay pebbles for sale. I am hooked. I bought a couple more this week, now that my front balcony is restored and I don't have balcony plants inside.  

So far they are doing well. I'm looking forward to seeing how they go in the long term.

I organised the printing of my Christmas cards and spent a few hours redoing my list of address labels so I could have them printed at OfficeWorks. I picked up the  labels on Sunday and went for another walk in the Hameji Garden. There was a group of Magpies occupying one area and occasionally disturbing the peace.

Most of the flowers I had photographed earlier in the week were wilting but this new one had burst open along a path. 

At home I cooked up a couple of pies for Monday dinner - since I had my lengthy optometrist appointment,  late Monday morning, and the two cabinets being delivered Monday afternoon.

In the light of the delivery, I emptied the Indian trunk which has been storing some of my family history treasures and moved it so the new cabinet  can be put in its place. I discovered a secret section in the trunk that I had not known about. It was (fortunately, I'm inclined to think) empty. The trunk is going to Veronica, who is quite excited about it. Both she and Niamh found the secret compartment with little trouble. It isn't difficult once you know there is one. It's hard to believe I have used the trunk for about 15 years without noticing the space oddity. 

I spent this morning at the hairdresser and this afternoon transferring things into the family history drawers.  

There is a drawer for items from each of three generations 

 -  my grandparents, my parents, and mine. The fourth drawer at the moment is holding a variety of documents. 

I need to do a lot more work to determine what goes in the drawers and what goes into archival folders. There are more Bibles in the grandparent drawer (although they were not churchgoers in Australia) than the others!  There is satisfaction in the task, but also sadness. I'm happy for today to have got this much sorted and the drawers closed.  My main frustration is that I can't find the unfinished embroidery of my mother's, which I planned to put on the top of this cabinet, under the glass I had made for the top. Yes, it is in that safe place. I'm trusting it will turn up.

 

The other cabinet is a replacement for an older, elegant sewing cabinet which opens by the lid sliding in two directions, meaning it needs to be placed with plenty of space on either side. I think the drawers will work better for me.        

It's been a busy and eventful week. My thoughts with friends in NSW in the line of floods yet again, and those still without power in SA. I've nearly finished my brother's vest - and planning my next project - a story for another day.

                                                       

Post 457 Birds, beach, balconies - and a blood moon.

This week's bird is the Noisy Miner, managing to dominate the native frangipani for much of the time, although the lorikeets are not too deterred, sometimes insisting on staying while the miners are screeching. These belong to the same family as Bell Birds - Bell Miners - but are not as pretty, nor as melodious.

 

I had a plumber come on Friday morning at 8am. He did a great job, fixing the mixer tap that had come apart, installing a new water filter under my kitchen sink and cleaning out the bathroom sink that was draining a bit slowly. He was done in under half an hour. I decided to roll with the early start and wrap my balcony wall pieces in plastic. 

It looks nothing much but took me over an hour. The  smallest are covered in tape, the others have plastic over them, tucked right under the edges ( handy to have long nails!) and the edges taped.

The Balinese mask on the back balcony looks a bit creepy.

I also moved all the pots on the back balcony into the middle, and added any tools or supplies into the spare bathroom.

I ended up doing quite a bit of cleaning - including  a dish of shells and stones that act as a water source for the birds. and the brass candlestick that belonged to Jim. The brass is taking quite a bit of cleaning to restore its shine. My Brasso was ancient. I did try it, but have assigned it, unfortunately, to landfill. I'm currently trying vinegar. I've added three brass pins and a brass hook to the soak. There's a way to go to get them all into a shiny state!

I invited Theo to inspect and advise, which he did on Sunday morning.  He thinks it's all OK. He brought his ladder and covered the dish mounted too high for me to reach.

 

Saturday was a JEMS day. I had promised to help, and Niamh was able to attend for the first time in several months, since netball has switched over to the Summer program and she no longer has a clash. There were nine JEMS there, five in the younger (8-10) age group - lots of activity, lots of requests for help, lots of sharing. Really good - but I reckon Margaret, the convenor, will have slept well on Saturday!

Afterwards Niamh and I went down to Grange. I had left a bag behind after Friday's Sit'nStitch (ditsy!) and wanted to retrieve it, which I did. As we were there we had our milkshakes at the Jetty Cafe. It was a lovely day. I'm not sure the milkshakes are as good as those at Queen St Cafe, but they are larger, and you can't fault the view.

Katherine was away at a hen's weekend for the wedding of a friend. Anthony got back from Queensland on Saturday morning, but still managed to shop and cook a barbecue, for which I stayed. Great to catch up with everyone. It's exam time.

On Wednesday the wood rounds I had ordered from Stringybark Supplies, arrived. They were much better than I expected. The ready-made set of Christmas ornaments are really bright and cheerful. 

Most exciting, however, were the plain rounds. These are made from radiata pine, old plantations which are now being removed and the land restored to native forrest. An enterprising farmer is creating these rounds from the radiata pine, sanding and selling them - and in some case printing them for corporate merchandise - or as tokens or souvenirs of special occasions.

I found them inspiring, and, by Friday had created 8 of my own, using photographs of lorikeets and Adelaide Rosellas.

I traced the outline of a bird from a photo on my ipad screen, resized it on my printer, then retraced it on to the wood. Then I used either coloured pencils of fine line pens to colour and contextualise the birds.

 I found it utterly addictive. I just wanted to keep going. I was a bit restricted in the birds I could use, because I didn't have a good white colour in either medium, so couldn't try a magpie, or seagull, or raven. 

I have played with Brolgas, to pick up on John Wheeler's The Carol of the Birds. which I learned in Primary School. The white pencil almost worked. I might try acrylic paint.

I've left some with Veronica to see what she can make of them. I am tempted to order another box.......

Monday morning saw me preparing potatoes, broccoli and chicken Marylands for dinner before heading off to the Guild to talk about Bulgarian Embroidery, dashing to buy the bread then home by 2.30 when Niamh arrives from school.  

The painters were already at work - hosing the front balconies down at about 8.15 am.  By the time I got home around 1.30pm  they were working on the overhang above the apartments. To my surprise they had finished my balcony. They apparently painted the ceiling while the first coat dried on the wall, then did the second coat.  I could, the boss told me, remove the plastic sheeting. So I did! 

I was prepared for 5 weeks, and it took 1 day! There is, of course, the back to do, but they now say that won't happen till January! I've reconnected the hose! I might also remove the plastic from the mask.

The Guild session went very well (apart from a few glitches with the technology - fault of the Guild computer setup which needs attention) and there was a lot of interest in both the information about Bulgarian embroidery and the pieces acquisitioned by the Museum.

The footpath outside our apartment entrance has been blocked off - very confusing for visitors, but easy to navigate when you know how. I waited outside for Niamh and Veronica to help navigate. 

Today I was up early to begin the move back. I washed stands and pots as I moved them and (repeatedly) washed the floor. At 10.30am I stopped and went to the Guild to finish labelling Maureen Holbrook's folders. They were in Margaret Morgan's car boot, and she was stitching there today, so it was a good opportunity. I got the job done and had a good time with the group. The folders are now  in my boot, ready to be handed over to Christine in a fortnight's time.

Back home around 1.30pm, I tackled the rest of the balcony restoration. It was fairly heavy work - moving and cleaning a lot of plants. The windows are very dirty, but my efforts with Windex mostly resulted in smears so I think I'll give up on that for a while. 

Probably best to wait and get a window cleaner. I'm now very tired . I'm not used to being on the go all day - and it's 33C today. The plants need a good water (so do I) - and I'm back at the Guild for WES Group tomorrow. 

I watered the plants, had dinner and a big drink before photographing the beginning of the luna eclipse. The blood moon will be at its peak in half an hour - and beyond my photography skills.

A calm end to a busy week.

Post 454 A lot of productive time waiting for car services

The big news this week was that the painting of the exterior of our apartment building is about to begin on 7 November. It will take 6 weeks and includes our balconies. The bad news is we are asked to clear our balconies! My balconies are gardens and I have art works riveted to the walls. Removing either plants or wall art is a major undertaking. The alternative is to move the plants to the centre of the back balcony, or the window side of the front balcony. I have, of course, chosen this option. 

Theo, my neighbour, very kindly knocked on my door and offered to help. That is immensely kind. He also came up with the idea of covering up the pieces on the walls. That made me feel a whole lot better.

On Saturday, Ali, my cleaner offered to move all the plants - and we rearranged the front balcony. The two cane chairs are now stashed in the spare bedroom. I've decided to only put one cane chair back when it's done, and to put the other on the back balcony. That means I can dispose of two mesh outdoor chairs. I never use more than one on each balcony, so this minor downsize should work. 

I also bought 4 packets of eco-friendly Glad Wrap and plan to encase all the wall pieces before 7 November. I might need Theo's help for a couple. l I feel much more relaxed.

On Sunday morning, before the rain  I moved the hose, potting mix, fertiliser and tools into my spare bathroom and a couple of pots from the back balcony inside.

I now have a couple of pots right next to my bedroom chair. My bathrooms have no windows, so not an option for plants for 6 weeks. Next weekend I'll finish stacking the plants in the centre of the back balcony and, hopefully, cover all the wall art with plastic.

A friend and I had plans to visit St Dominic's Priory on Sunday when their embroidered cope was being exhibited. It turned out to be only from 10.30am -12.00 noon, and my friend was rostered on for her church service at the same time, so we cancelled. 

Possibly a good thing, given the rain that was bucketing down by 11. 

It cleared up a bit in the afternoon, so I went for a walk in the wetlands. There were quite a few dog walkers and a family of ducks assessing the water. 

While I was waiting for my cleaner to arrive on Saturday,  a pair of Adelaide Rosella's began feeding on the native frangipani. I managed to get some photos to brighten up this post.

I spent last Wednesday morning waiting while my car was serviced - no hardship, there is decent coffee and a wide open, well-ventilated waiting area with wifi. I read an article in a  New Yorker sent to me by a friend, caught up on emails and didn't get any knitting done. All is well with my car, although it was due for new tyres. These were replaced today - a 4 hour job. Once again I chose to wait, rather than chance spend time walking in the rain and catching buses.

I finished off this post, worked on my WES presentation for next week, and had a surprise visit from a friend from Melbourne, passing through on her way to Ardrossan. The time passed very quickly.

Last week I also finished off the pouch I was making from last week's Certificate Course. The detail is in my embroidery blog.

The New Yorker article I read while waiting for the car last week  (thanks Pat) was "On the Rocks: A hundred years of The Waste Land" by Anthony Lane, When I got home I found my copy of The Waste Land  and read it aloud, not as well, I'm sure, as Benedict Cumberbatch, whose reading, accompanied by an orchestra and Anthony Burgess's score, Lane had attended, but enough to retrieve the rhythm and some of the nuance.

I had to go back quite a way in my archive of photos (not, of course, back 100 years!) to find any that were remotely suitable for discussion of The Waste Land.  Oddly, those I found were taken on a visit to the Flinders' Ranges in 2009, with the friend who sent the article! We were flying over Lake Eyre on one of the rare occasion it was in flood. Obviously these were taken outside the flood area!

One thing Lane discusses is the different context to which generations apply the poem - more environmental today and more political in its early years. 

At the moment, Eastern Australia is experiencing severe flooding, while the west is in drought.   The Murray River System is as full as it's ever been - while, I gather, the Mississippi River is barely navigable in places. We maybe need the Ancient Mariner alongside The Waste Land.

Eliot's words are still powerful - and say far more than any photograph. 

I think I'll stick to my knitting, embroidery - and the birds, all life-affirming.

I had a request a few days ago to talk about Bulgarian embroidery at the Guild's General Meeting on 7 Nov, using the newly acquired Museum items. I'vs agreed. I don't usually go on Mondays, as I am  preparing for dinner, but I'll have to get organised in advance. 

Sunday's excursion was cancelled, but Saturday made up for it. Dinner was at Grange Jetty Cafe because the surf season has begun and Anthony & Brigid spent the afternoon on surf patrol. After our relaxed, pleasant meal we had coffee at their place, did the crossword, and I picked up my year's supply of Who Gives a Crap toilet paper which is more easily delivered to a house than an apartment.

Also on Saturday, an old friend, now living in Darwin, was in town and called in. I haven't seen him in years and it was wonderful to catch up. He is still trying to convince me to write with him! Maybe.

I've put in a bit of work on my last PowerPoint for the year which began as Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Embroidery but is morphing into English Embroidery in the Early Medieval Period, for the November WES meeting. This has been a long and wandering journey, which I reckon started in my undergraduate course. I had planned to do my honours work on Culture and Society in the Middle Ages, but the option was pulled a month before my final year. Embroidery - or even textiles - would not have featured in research back then, but I'm making up for it. It is now a rich mine of information and has led me unexpected places and conclusions . 

A friend sent me a clever and amusing article I had missed on the joys of knitting, Thanks Peter.

Meanwhile, my brother's vest has reached the arm holes. I am delighted to be now working the top in sections, knitting back and forth - no steeks! What a sensible pattern! 

I haven't progressed it as much as I hoped while waiting for my car, but I'm back on it between wrapping the balcony in plastic.