Might as well start where we left off, with horticulture…

Hedgemom, I will take your advice about chard and cut it early -- I am growing it again this year. I think I tend to let things go on too long, in the rare cases where they grow at all. I might try orach again sometime, and use the leaves small. It came up splendidly last year, and looked great, but was inedible. (I did your Greek goddess test, and came out Demeter, which I think augurs well for the coming season.)

And here is the opening chord of that season – a courgette on the kitchen windowsill. It is a new variety called “Midnight” which is said to be compact enough to grow in a large pot on the patio (for which read “doorstep”). I am a sucker for new varieties. They rarely succeed.

Knitting

The hospital appt yesterday advanced the bedsock nicely. Here it is, and I think you can see the effect of the upside-down gusset shaping (decreases at the bottom of the heel flap). It makes the heel square-er. The first sock seems to have a wee bit of extra fabric around the heel, which one doesn’t want inside a shoe, so this time I made the heel flap slightly less long. On the other hand, extra heel flap means extra stitches picked up for the gusset and more decrease rounds, and these extras may be factors in how easily the sock goes on. One can but proceed by trial and error.

As for the Princess, I am more than halfway across row 32. Row 33 -- this very evening, Deo volente -- will add the final yo’s and k2tog’s to the lettering, so we may have a picture of that soon. And row 34 will establish the final chevron. It’s all very exciting.