A dull grey day out there. Archie came at lunchtime and cooked one of my Mindful Chef packages – ostensibly they are (expensive) meals for one but in fact there was plenty for both of us. Very tasty. I did the vegetable-chopping.

 

Despite that welcome visit, the morning seemed long, and I put it to good use by finishing four scallops on my Shetland shawl edging, bringing me to the second corner. That’s half-way! I should manage another scallop tonight. I finished a ball of the grey yarn I am using for the edging. The new one is not quite right, shade-wise. Adding to the ragbag look of the whole shawl.

 

I watched/listened to maybe half of the new Fruity Knitting episode about Di Gilpin, and I think that’s probably enough. I couldn’t begin to say why it’s less interesting since Andrew died, but I find it so. I’ll certainly go on being a patron while I can afford it.

 

My reading for the last few weeks has been entirely restricted to Wodehouse. He is truly wonderful. But it’s time I picked myself up and edged back into the real, hostile world.

Shandy: Thank you for your comment (Monday), hinting that I would excel in any care home for my intellectual sparkle. It's all very odd. My mother lived for a while in a retirement community in New Jersey. A lot of the residents were retired Princeton faculty; the conversation was stimulating. My sister and her husband have been in such a place near DC for the last few years. They, too, seem to enjoy the community.

When I was in that very expensive Edinburgh place for a fortnight last summer, the number of talkable-to co-residents was certainly small. My sister thought maybe the main dining room was somewhere else. I don't think so. Why is this? Don't believe Richard Osman: there may be such places Down Souff, but they are rare. There are plenty of  purpose-built apartments for old folks, with hand rails to hold on to and someone to call at night. But no communal dining or theatre outings. The difference is (I think) that here you own your apartment, flimsy though it be. In the US you have signed over your capital, or at least a substantial amount of it. 

 

Wordle: A three for me today. You will remember that I lost my stats when I recently fell for the NYTimes’ appeal for me to subscribe. My new ones, as of today, show the threes and fours neck-and-neck, with the fives lagging well behind. That’s worth the price of the subscription in itself. In the old days, the fives were well out in front.

 

I was the first to log on this morning, as not infrequently, with my three. Mark had another, almost at once, but Ketki spoiled our fun by producing a two very soon afterwards. By the time all the returns were in, Alexander had logged another three. Roger and his son Theo and my daughter Rachel were the outliers, with five. The rest had four – I think the rest consists only of Thomas.