As usual these days, not much was done. No blocking. I went on with the Foldlines square, and this time, found that I was back in the saddle. The secret – you won’t be entirely surprised to hear this – is to stop, when something is clearly wrong, and count: count the stitches on the needle, count the squares on the chart. Tink when required. Works wonders.

I continue to have an open (=vacant) mind about the future. I haven’t ordered the yarn for Foldlines. The EYF is now fairly immanent, and Jared will be here again. (Or, at least, Brooklyn Tweed will be.) I could perhaps buy Arbor from his very hands. Money spent at the EYF marketplace doesn’t count as extravagance, either.

Meanwhile, there would be time to make a good start on a Polliwog.

Reading 

Kirsten, thank you for your reply. I read Woolf’s “A Room of Your Own” last month. I’m not attracted by the Communist Manifesto – that might be a good reason for reading it. During the war, when I was growing up, Mein Kampf was available on my parents’ shelves and I don’t think I ever even opened it, although I learned a lot from other of their books.

Re-reading Alice in Wonderland is a delightful prospect. It’s here, and often dipped into, but I haven’t read it straight through for decades. And “Anne of Green Gables” – what a glorious prospect! But where is the website for the book-a-month, and why haven’t they emailed me about it?

Shandy, yes, I’ve read “Parade’s End”, and found it rather heavy going. It’s interesting that you say it improves on re-reading. Maybe I’ll try again. I’m finding “The Good Soldier” depressing to a degree I didn’t expect.

Life

Archie came this morning to help with chores, and with sorting piles of clutter. He insisted that we did our two circuits of the Garden, although I had already been to Waitrose and thought that might count. We took a plastic bag and some scissors and harvested some wild garlic.

His cousin Alistair (James’ and Cathy’s son) has got a job with a major games programming firm, here in Edinburgh. That's today's news. It will pay him less than he is earning at the moment in his first post-degree job. But I gather being a games programmer is what young programmers aspire to, like being a premier league football player for the more athletic.