I have little to report. Archie is still here, mornings, toiling through piles of paper and making useful discoveries. Today’s was a book I had wanted to show Rachel at the weekend. Now it’s safely back in the first place I looked, and where I will surely expect to find it again. It could have been years before I found it in that pile.

But he still hasn’t come across Lucy Hague’s “Celtic Cable Shawls”.

I have continued to knit Rachel’s sock. Things have improved since that tedious evening spent untangling. It is rather luxurious just to carry on ribbing, with no concern as to how many rounds one has done, until the yarn changes colour. (This is the “Pairfect” system.) But I must get back to that vest. I think I’m feeling strong enough.

Beverly (comment yesterday), that is an interesting thought about my pursuit of Il Gattopardo and achieving my goal in Manaba’s headpiece. An interesting thing I learned, however, that day “Cooking with the Duchess” in Palermo, is that “gattopardo” is not the Italian word for “leopard”. That is “leopardo”, as one might expect. “Gattopardo” is an heraldic, cat-like animal, as best I can tell you.

It is a difficult subject to google, as one keeps being brought back to the book. I’ll try to ask my tutor.

There is an interesting-sounding programme on television tonight about the “Spanish flu” which killed millions in the wake of WW I. For many years I wondered whether, if such a thing should happen again, medical science would be able to mount a better defence. I gather the answer is, no. The programme should advance the sock nicely.