I’ve got the computer in radio-mode, about to listen to the President’s interview with the BBC.

We’ve decided on a mercy-dash to Strathardle today, for a two-nighter. We have to be back on Thursday, so that my husband can vote. So I should be here on Friday.

All went well, yesterday. The dentist has affixed what he called a “temporary crown”, although he’s put it in to stay. That was because the state of my remaining teeth didn’t justify the expense of a proper one. Oh, dear. But that’s fine with me – I was almost more worried about the time-consuming repeat appointments than the cost. And now I can smile.

(Mary Lou, I don’t understand how dentistry fits into the NHS. I know that it’s not entirely a successful arrangement. Some dentists are wholly private, like ours, others wholly NHS, some do a bit of both. It’s hard to find a good NHS dentist. Often, it’s hard to find an NHS dentist at all.)

Our dentist is a Dutchman, quiet, not exactly taciturn but his job is dentistry and he gets on with it. We think he is the best dentist in the world. But I discovered yesterday that a question to Mr van S. about his vegetables renders him positively chatty. He lives and gardens in Perth, not entirely irrelevant to Strathardle. He has had a lot of trouble this cold, wet spring with things that simply don’t come up. Just like me. Most encouraging.

And then, in the afternoon, I learned that my blameless life has reduced cholesterol to an entirely acceptable level, and most of that is “good” cholesterol. So no pills. I’ve got an appointment to have the wart frozen off. He said it was a straightforward, innocent wart.

All this charging about yesterday deprived the Princess of some of her time, but progress was made. 53 1/2 repeats of the top edging done. The centre stitches are waiting on lengths of yarn, in 50-stitch bunches. It works well. I have just finished the antepenultimate bunch – so seven repeats, more or less, will finish edging the centre, then there will be 13 or 14 on the second edge of the border. I am even giving a bit of preliminary thought to the footwork necessary to make the whole edging finish on a full repeat.

That bump between the centre and the border will smooth itself out sufficiently -- don't worry. It has also become obvious, only in the last couple of days, that I'm going to need that extra ball of yarn.

I will take the Surprise to Strathardle, and knit like mad with any strength left over from gardening, to justify Princess-time on our return.

So: did the runner beans, French beans, and courgettes survive being planted out? What about the seedbed roll? And the salsola soda? The excitement is almost too much.

(The interview with the President is over. He was good. And what should the following item on the famous “Today” programme be – just as I reached out to turn the sound off – but vegetable-growing!)