Grey, chilly. I got a bit of knitting done, and continue to be satisfied that I’ve got the Calcutta Cup the right way around. Another day’s work should make it certain, if I can ever persuade myself to do another day’s work. 

Thanks for interesting remarks about. wellingtonias. I assume they’re called that here in honour of the greatest 19th century Englishman. I was particularly interested in your news, Mary Lou, that they won’t “do” where you are. Strathardle is pretty cold, but the show garden attached to a big house further up the glen (=colder) has a successful one. So does the Edinburgh Botanic Gardens. Ours has only been in a year, and is very happy, I think. I’ll get Helen to take a picture the next time she is there.

   You suggest an interesting addition to my food list of yesterday, Tamar: namely rhubarb. I love it. How did I ever taste it? We never had it at home, nor at Oberlin, and I sailed off to Glasgow assuming it was a rare and expensive growth like artichokes. (It grows almost like a weed.) 

   I don’t eat it nowadays because I try to avoid sugar. And for 2024 I fear I have already missed its best moment — the forced rhubarb of Jan and Feb. It will be available here in some form all year round, always pretty cheap. I was interested in your remark that it is not always available in US supermarkets.

  Wordle: The British contingent was evenly split between threes and fours — I was a three. In DC, Theo was another four, and his father Roger flattened us all with a two.