Where to start? With the vegetables, I guess.

We're back from a very happy four days in Strathardle -- driving was positively pleasant, with my new eagle eye. We were six adults and six children in a little house, and all went well. I didn't contribute much except to cook the evening meal, and that worked. Recipes turned out as they were meant to. Quantities were about right. And there is little more wonderful than setting a bowl of plain boiled potatoes on a table in front of hungry people, and having it be a dish fit for gods (because the potatoes had been dug in the previous hour).

There are yesterday's pictures. A vegetable garden can't really put up with the amount of neglect which has been enforced this summer, and rain has been sadly lacking too. But I'm glad, in the event, that I kept on recklessly driving with my sightless eyes long enough to get it planted. At least I'll be in position for next year. The potatoes are wonderful, and so are the broad beans, and there are small crops from some of the other stuff.

Medical

Foot still sore. I will get it x-rayed today.

Knitting

Not much progress in the country. Here, Sharon's Wedding Ring Shawl pattern was waiting when we got back, and it's terrific. Maybe I'll knit it when I've polished off the Princess. Ha! On that, I'm four rows short (out of 20) of finishing repeat #57. And I think it's time to attach the Wallaby pouch this evening.

The Haliban

James and Cathy, out of fecklessness rather than insolvency, had let their current account get into such a state that it had been blocked, with a Visa account unpaid. They were afraid of running out of cash before their return to China next week, and we had plenty of money in an account in the same branch (of the so-called Bank of Scotland) to bail them out. It took more than an hour, of choosing from menus and listening to music and being put on hold, with James and I alternately shouting down the telephone when we were connected to a human being. The difficulty was that the account was blocked, so I couldn't pay money into it. He finally got put through to someone senior enough to unblock it. Poof.

I had a birthday recently. I discovered that Madhur Jaffrey and I share that birthday -- not just that she was born on the same day, but also in the same year. There's a factoid for you. I feel younger already.