Weather on the edge of summer again. I have largely devoted the day to tennis again— a memorable match, the first I’ve seen this year. 

  Helen came to see me, and (separately) Archie, briefly. He is hoping to come back next Thursday when we will face up to the Computer Question. I can’t go on like this, picking it out with one finger and showing you no pictures.

  The tennis was between Djokovic and a total unknown who not only comes from Edinburgh but went to the same school as Archie.  Djokovic won, but it was a close-fought thing.

   No news from the princesses, but plenty from poor Mr Biden. I watched some more of the infamous debate and it remains true that I don’t entirely see what the fuss is about. Biden didn’t do well, but he tried to address the questions. Jill’s encouragement afterwards — “You answered all the questions” — is not entirely as idiotic as it sounds. Whereas Mr Trump rarely or perhaps never made the slightest attempt to answer the question.  But lots of people seem to have despaired of Biden while still watching the debate.

   It continues to serve well to keep one’s mind off politics here.

   Wordle: I didn’t even finish today. My starters gave me three browns. A Jean-word,  in line three, turned one of them green. Another, in line four, achieved nothing. I got no further. The two remaining browns are both vowels. Someone will have to tell me the answer, after midnight.

  Ketki had three. Five for Mark. Fours for the other British-based. Four for hRoger in DC. No news from Theo so far. It’s a big holiday there, of course.

 Another not-quite summer’s day. Things were worse at Wimbledon, where it’s been raining. I watched a lot of it again today, but have been frustrated in my desire to see Mr. Sinner. There were too many British Girls in the way. 

   C. came this morning. She had solved Wordle and I hadn’t but there was no cheating this time. See below. Helen also looked in. 

   No knitting. I think, in decades past, I might have knit while I watched tennis, but that is more than I would be capable of now. 

   Franklin is faithfully logging on to Facebook almost every day, with photos and sometimes videos and brief reports on life in Paris. Sometimes I don’t understand, but it is always nice to hear from him, and I’m glad he’s well and has made a whole new life for himself.

   Wordle: I found it really, really, really hard. My starters produced two browns and a green. Line three — it was easy to find something — turned them all green. After that, I found it impossible to think of anything, even a Jean-word. Eventually I did. It was nearly lunch time.  Four for me.

    Rachel and Ketki had threes. Alexander and Thomas and I were the fours. Mark needed five (at last!)  Roger was another five, Theo another three. 

   

 Another somewhat-summer’s day. I have spent another pleasant afternoon at Wimbledon. I have still to see Mr Sinner in action. I was glad to watch Mr Djokovic’ easy win. The most disagreeable of players gradually becomes sympathetic as he becomes old.

   Helen was here. She finally found a nurse in a&e yesterday who gave Fergus some antibiotic — no doctor.  (See yesterday) And he seems fine this morning and the oozing wound has largely dried up. They can always take him back to Thessaloniki if all else fails. David is coming on Thursday and they hope to spend the weekend in Kirkmichael.

   Wordle: success today! My starters gave me three browns. Line three was a most unlikely word. I more or less made it up. But it turned one of the browns green and added another brown consonant. And I got it in four.

   So did almost everybody else, except for Thomas and Mark (again!) who had three, and Roger who hasn’t been heard from.

 Another summer’s day, albeit grey. I have had a nice time watching Wimbledon. It looks to me as if there are far more people these days. The last time I was there was the famous year when Smith and Psmith fought the men’s semi-final to a fifth-set score something like 27-25. Since then, and because of that match, the tie-break has been introduced into fifth sets.  So I saw tennis history being made. Nadal was on next but it was late and I was exhausted.

  Helen came this morning. Fergus’ wound is oozing a bit. He is the one who had an emergency appendectomy in Thessaloniki last week. He is travelling home as planned, but Helen will meet him at the airport and take him straight to a&e. 

   No knitting, for shame.Kate Davies has released a new pattern in our club. The current book is Traitor’s Purse, one of my absolute faves. The new pattern is very nice, too, but I have too much to knit already.

  I have been thinking, I don’t know why, about Sunday lunch at my grandparents’ house in Dallas in the old days. I think it possible that everything on the table except salt and pepper were home-grown. My grandfather had a cow, and kept chickens, with an extensive vegetable garden. I remember the live-in servant who kept it all going killing chickens and also making ice-cream in the proper old-fashioned way where you put ice and salt in the ice-cream maker, and then the cream mixture, and turn it (by hand, of course) until it becomes ice cream.

   I don’t remember any of this tasting particularly nice. I’m sure it was cooked to death before it reached me.

   Wordle: I failed again. That’s three in a week. I wonder if it is time for me to retire from Wordle? Today’s failure was especially humiliating. Starters gave me two green vowels. An easy guess for line three contributed nothing but to eliminate three more letters. A Jean-word in line four eliminated another and gave me a brown consonant.

   And here’s where mental incompetence comes in.  My guesses for lines five and six omitted the brown consonant.

   Three for Mark (that keeps happening); four for Alexander, Thomas, Theo and Roger; five for Ketki and Rachel.

   It is interesting, in a melancholy way, how the news media have shut down entirely on the three big stories I am interested in: 1) Princess Anne, now out of hospital and presumably conscious. There were no photographs of her leaving hospital. 2) The Princess of Wales; and 3) President Biden. Maybe tomorrow.