A much droopier day. No garden.

But not without event. James’ and Cathy’s younger daughter Kirstie got a place at Oxford to read English. She tried last year on maths and physics and they turned her down. It’s a funny world. Her A-level results in all three subjects were stellar.

I knit industriously on with the edging of Gudrun’s “Hansel” hap. Here’s where we are:

I have two more bumps to do before the first corner. Fortunately I have some stitch markers in the form of little plastic safety pins, so it will be possible to keep marking the corner after I have turned it, and still to remove the marker at the end.

And here’s today’s avocado picture. There is still some hope. The foil has been effective in preventing Perdita from peeing there, but I began to worry today about whether it is good for the tree to have the soil closed off from the air. Will it get muddy and miserable? Helen and her family were at Kirkmichael just after Christmas – I should have had her bring back some wire netting. All country houses have odd bits of wire netting lying around:

I’ve got some decrepit plastic netting that I grew peas up last summer on the front porch. Perhaps I’ll try that tomorrow.

Reading

“The Three Clerks” is rushing forward to the denouement, as exciting as any Ruth Rendell. Undecimus Scott remains very bad.