I wrote something last night, but it has vanished. Start again.

We lived in Leicester for a while – four happy years at the end of the ‘60’s, before moving on to Birmingham. My husband founded the Art History dep’t at the university there. We have no interest in football, but enough in Leicester that we rejoice this morning in their success.

I continue happily with the Neap Tide shawl. I have nearly achieved the desired width – length is still a long way short of target. If I had been paying attention to gauge from the beginning, I could have achieved a gentle curve and a relatively short centre section (knit straight) as the designer intended – but I didn’t. The centre section will have to be fairly long. Never mind; I’m going to love it anyway.

The colour might be described as “olive drab” and, together with the style of the shawl, suggests a BBC costume director’s idea for a Sunday night serial of Tess of the D’Ubervilles.  But then you see the other colours, and the shine of the silk. Very subtle, very satisfactory.