I  continue to strengthen a bit. I got to lunch again self-powered and mean to attempt it again soon for supper. I sat in the library again for a while — it furnishes a convenient break between my room and the dining room. There was no company this time, but a kind soul who had observed my struggle after lunch came in to advise me to choose a chair with arms. I shall certainly do so this time. 

  Knitting continues well. I am now halfway across the third side of the shawl, attaching edging. And I have chosen a KD pattern to embark on if I should find myself in the awkward position of having nothing to knit while I am still here at Cramond. There’s plenty at home, beginning with Fergus’ Calcutta Cup sweater (half-finished) — but that would be too complicated to ask Helen to find and bring.

  She and Daniella (!) came to see me this morning, Daniella newly-returned from her summer in Romania looking very fit and glamorous. She can’t come back to work for me because she has her family to think of and I really need someone in the house at night. She will not have any trouble finding work but we are looking for someone who would want her every day, as I did.

   We are similarly worrying about Paradox. She has an offer of a brilliant place a long way away. I would prefer to lodge her near here so that I could occasionally visit her but there seems to be no hope. And I am frightened — the word is not too strong — that if we saw each other she would show, as Perdita did on my birthday, that she remembers and loves me, and I couldn’t bear it.

   Wordle: Four for me today. Threes for Theo, Ketki and Rachel, fours and a five elsewhere. Four of us, including me, had four greens with the first spot wrong on the line before the final line.