A languid day, rather welcome. I slipped getting into bed last night and slid gracefully to the floor, supported by my carer. No harm done, except that I was on the floor. After a certain amount of faffing about, I  sent her down to the flat below. Our neighbour came up and hoisted me fairly easily into bed.

   No harm done, as I say, but I have felt a bit shaken and stirred today. Sunny and cold again. 

   Kate Davies’ club produced an interesting essay about Allingham today, by Julia Jones who recently published a good biography. I knew Allingham eventually became stout, but the pictures with today’s essay make her look fairly hefty from the start. Her characters — Campion and Amanda, at least — are quite remarkably slender into late middle age.

   I haven’t done any more knitting on the MKAL. It’s time I finished that long row— or is it two? — before the next clue arrives.

   I am sorry about Michael Mosley’s death. Mostly, these days, I haven’t heard of well known people. I have only just heard of Taylor Swift by whom Edinburgh is gripped at the moment. But I had heard of Dr Mosley and enjoyed his radio programme Just One Thing where he told us every week Just One Thing we could do right now to improve our lives or, failing that, the world. 

   Mary Lou, thank you for the tip about “Wilding” (comment yesterday).  That sounds just right. I’ll report back.

   Wordle: another three for me.. Same pattern — a green consonant and brown vowel from my starters. A struggle to think of any word for them. My starters contain all the vowels except Y and five consonants from the top of the letter frequency alphabet. And when I finally got one, it was right.

    Ketki was a fellow-three. Rachel and Mark and Theo scored four. Alexander had a five and Thomas six. They both got stuck with the first three letters green. Roger had a triumphant three, after his dismal two-day streak of failure.

   He and my sister are here in Edinburgh, staying with Helen. They had planned to go to London today, I think. That’s been postponed until Wednesday. And our lunch at the Blue Snail yesterday, cancelled altogether. Sadness. But I gather they’re getting better.

 A good day, although still cool.

  The new carer and I are settling down well.

   I’m still somewhat short of reading material. For dozing I have gone on with Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and for the rare moments of attention, Persuasion, but I need a new book. (Tamar, I love your suggestion — comment yesterday — of Sugar, Salt, Grease, and Black Crunchy Bits.)

   Lisa, I read and listened to Fuschia Dunlop’s book about a year a go, when I was in that care home. It’s very good. Maybe I should listen again. And Eileen, I’ve started Tom Lake — Helen and C. are keen — and got bogged down. I couldn’t keep the daughters straight.  I’ll go back to the beginning and start again when I finish or abandon Petsuasion. Thanks to both.

   No knitting, but that was deliberate.

   Wordle: my sister won’t play because she thinks its too competitive. It isn’t. But I can’t resist telling you nevertheless that mine was the only three yesterday. I very much doubt if that has ever happened before.

   A variation on a familiar pattern today. The starters provided two greens and a brown. Titanic struggle. I finally came up with something. Was it a word? Wordle accepted it. Four greens now. I got it on the next line.

   Theo matched my feat of yesterday — he had the only three. Mark and Thomas and Ketki were my fellow-four today. Rachel and Alexander had five, and Roger failed again. I think he must be coming down with Covid. My sister has already been diagnosed with it. They are safely back here in Edinburgh with Helen and have postponed their visit to London for a few days.

   

   

Bright, cheerful-looking sunshine, but cold again.

It has been a busy day, but successful. My sister and Roger are on their way back from their cruise. I haven’t heard from them yet. I think it would be safer if we didn’t meet.

Helen was here for the prolonged carer-handover. We are switching not only carers but also agency. All seems well. Considerable saving.

I didn’t do much knitting, deliberately. But I think I have something mindless on the needles which will tide me over until the next MKAL clue. I’ll look tomorrow.

I’m equally lost on what to read. I have been dozing to Nigella reading her How To Cook. I’ve got the book, and like it. But listening to it straight through, I was horrified at the amount of sugar and fat. Nigella posted a chicken salad on Youtube the other day, and I was interested to note that she has grown rather stout.

For dozing I have switched to Samin Nosrat’s Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, which I also own as a book and which is also read by its author. Better, I think. But I need a novel, now that I’ve re-read all the Allinghamx I want to re-read. 

Wordle:  I misled you the other day. My current winning streak is 32, not 42. That’s less than half of my all-time high of 67. My most recent failure was with SHAVE on May 6. That’s the bad news. The good news is that I scored three again today — that’s twice in a row. The same sort of thing — starters yielded one green consonant and two brown vowels. It was a considerable effort to think of any qualifying word. When I got one, it was right. I no longer subscribe to the Times’ analysis so I have no idea how many possible alternatives I stumbled innocently past. 

 And at the moment — nearly 7pm — mine is the only three.

  Four for Mark, Thomas and Rachel. Five for Alexander and Ketki. Roger failed. And Theo hasn’t been heard from. He’s one of the bright stars and is still entirely capable therefore of equalling or eclipsing my  three.

    Another bright, coldish day. Frost figured in the Scottish weather forecast this morning. Yesterday we had some snow. 

   Helen and Mungo came to see me today. He is her middle son, resident in Cairo where he means to stay for a while. I didn’t really get to see much of him, as I had a house call from Specsavers. I’ve got some macular degeneration — not good news. My father was pretty well blinded by it at the end of his life. When they told him he was losing his sight, he read Gibbon’s Decline and Fall. Maybe I should do that. I’ve read a fair amount of it, but never got all the way through.

   Knitting went well. I have only a row or two to go on the first MKAL clue, and I’ve straightened out the stitch count which wasn’t as far off as I feared. Now I need something absolutely straightforward to occupy my hands until the next clue arrives next week. I’m supposed to revert to Fergus’ Calcutta Cup sweater but that’s too complicated. 

   My sister seems somewhat recovered. Their cruise ends tomorrow. That will also be the day when my current carer — Precious by name and Precious by nature — hands over to someone else, from a different agency, to save money. It’ll be scary. I’m completely helpless.

   Wordle: three for me today. My starters produced four browns and when my subsequent struggles finally produced a word, it was right.

  Mark was with me on three. The rest pf the British team had fours. Theo and Roger — the latter still at sea, or course — both had fives 

 Lovely sunshine. Everybody says it’s cold, however. No more news of my sister, tossing about amidst the western isles with a bad cold. I am worried about her, and about my fragile lungs when she gets back. I’ve got through the whole winter without episode. The dr has given me a prescription for an antibiotic so that I can start it right away when trouble threatens. So far unused.

    Knitting progresses well. I’m now down to the last four long, long rows — and the new clue won’t arrive until next week. What a wonderful club! Except that now I’ve got to count stitches and adjust numbers if necessary. And also find some easy knitting to fill in a few days. I ought to go back to Fergus’ Calcutta Cup sweater, but that’s too much like hard work. 

   The references were to Kate Davies’ summer Margery Allingham club, the related MKAL in particular.

   Fergus had a grand time at the Dior show at Drummond Castle. The young men in kilts, including Fergus, were clearly on hand to hold umbrellas over models if it rained, but it didn’t. Most of them came from a model agency in Glasgow and got paid a lot. But Fergus was the one chosen to open car doors and welcome the famous guests. I haven’t heard of any of them except Emma Raducanu.

   Wordle: today my starters gave me a green consonant and two brown vowels. I struggled mightily — line three is always the tough one — and finally thought of a dim possibility, which Wordle accepted. I now had three greens and two browns so all I had to do was transpose the browns. Four for me.

   I was interested to see that Ketki and I had the same configuration in line three. Our line-three word — it must have been the same one — is a good deal more unusual than the right answer in line four.

   Never mind. My winning streak is now 40 and that’s all I care about.

   Mark had three. He’s awfully good at this. Rachel and Thomas four. Alexander and Theo five. Four for Roger, who of course is also tossing about in the western isles. 

 Another sunny day, although I’m told ii’s chilly in the wind. Helen and David were here this morning. Sister-Helen, on her cruise, has developed a nasty-sounding cold. I’ve been pretty dopey.

  With no knitting. That’s bad. I’m now down to the last 10 enormously long rows of the first clue of the Allingham MKAL and I must press forward with them. 

   I have discovered how enormously soothing it is to listen to the Audible version of an Allingham I know fairly well, while dozing. It doesn’t matter if I fall asleep because I know it well enough to pick up the thread when consciousness returns.

   I’m currently doing that with More Work for the Undertaker. I think that’s the last suitable Allingham. Maybe  I could try the same thing with Il Gattopardo next. 

   Wordle: I had a titanic struggle this morning, and was very glad indeed to scrape home with a six. My starters gave me a green and one brown. A good guess (but wrong) for line three turned the brown green. A Jean-word in line four — I was desperate — was no use at all, except to eliminate a couple of consonants. A wild guess in line five added another green.

   Four for Ketki, Rachel, Mark and Roger. Five for Theo, Alexander, and Thomas. Is that everybody? Yes.

 Another summer’s day. Maybe we’re getting somewhere.

   Helen and David came to see me. Their news was that their youngest  son Fergus, who is doing odd jobs for an agency, has been recruited for duty at Dior’s summer show at Drummond Castle near Perth this evening. Perhaps they asked for recruits who could provide their own kilts. We all look forward eagerly to his account of the evening, at least; and at the other extreme, we imagine him swept forward into the mainstream of international fashion modelling. Fergus is tall and handsome. He ran a marathon last weekend.

   KD has released another pattern in her Allingham club, another stunner, a cardigan. And another essay, this one about popular fiction, related to Flowers for the Judge, and very interesting indeed. What a wonderful club this is proving to be!

  Meanwhile I am having a good time reading/listening to Coroner’s Pigeon, a wartime book, not in the club, written next after Traitor’s Purse. 

  Wordle: the usual four for me. Starters provided a green and three browns. Line three was perfectly plausible, but wrong. Four greens. Horror! Was this a Wordle Special? Mercifully, no. There was only one possibility (I think) and I got it.

   Thomas, Alexander and Mark all had the same configuration of four greens. Alexander and Mark scored threes. Thomas had a comforting (to me) five. Ketki had another three, with a different approach, and Rachel an utterly brilliant two.

   Of the Americans, Theo scored five and Roger — it must be that sea air — another brilliant two 

)

   

 I’m pecking this out on the iPad in the kitchen again, but I have noted with interest and gratitude what you say (comments yesterday) about increasing brightness and font size on the laptop.

   Another sunny day. My sister and her husband, cruising the Western isles, are having duller weather, and something of a noisy young crowd aboard which is not a problem C. and I ever had on a Majestic Line cruise.

   C. came to see me this morning, looking very summery. She is off to Sicily tomorrow, happy woman. 

   Helen and David and Fergus just popped in, home from their weekend down souff. It’s good to know they’re back.

   No knitting. Shameful. There may be time for a long row or two before bed. I’ve had a nice time re-reading Traitor’s Pitse.

   Wordle: three for me. A distinguished score, except that Rachel scored two. My starters gave me two adjacent greens and a brown vowel. I struggled for quite a while, unable to think of any qualifying word or even a Jean-word. Nothing. Then I thought of one and it was right,

.   We were spread out. Mark was a fellow-three. Four for Ketki. Five for Alexander and Thomas.  Four for Theo in DC. Five for Roger in the Western Isles.

 

 

June 1, and a truly summer’s day here.. Helen and Roger have sailed off into the western isles, and daughter-Helen has gone to London to meet her husband David and go off to a memorial service, in Waes I believe. Everything is suddenly very quiet here. C. is coming tomorrow. I am typing on the laptop’ in the kitchen. It is very hard to see the screen. I think maybe my eyesight has taken a lurch downwards – it’s very hard to read the screen.

   Knitting progresses. The rows are now unbelievably long. I have eight or nine more of them to finish before I am done with the first clue of the Allingham MKAL. I should just about do it before the next one comes in. I’ve re-read/listened to pretty well all of the books. Anonymous: I think Allingham’s beast are Traitor’s Purse (which you’ve already read), Tiger in the Smoke, and Hide my Eyes. All late, all London. I’ve got a couple more late ones to revisit – More Work for the Undertaker, and the one where Campion comes back from the war and gets held up in London by a murder before he can get down to the country to re-join his wife and the son he has never met before. (What’s that one called?)

   Wordle: My first starter gave me two greens and a brown today. I thought I’d try for a two. The attempt yielded nothing except, of course, one more place where the brown couldn’t go. I meekly  typed in my second starter. Another brown. I got it in four.

Rachel and Alexander did it in three. The rest of the cisatlantic team were fours, like me. In DC Theo was a most distinguished two, the best score of the day. And Roger another four – he, of curse, is not in DC but sailing out past Ardnamurchan Point.

 We’re having a nice time. I’m reading Allingham and knitting the MKAL. I think I will have finished the first clue by the time the next is issued. The only other time I did an MKAL it was a Stephen-and-Penelope number and although I was stronger in those days I was perennially behind and in fact never finished it.

   Roger and sister-Helen are visiting the sights of Edinburgh in the intervals of visiting me.

   For actual reading, I’ve finished Dancers in Mourning (which is in the club) which I didn’t think much of, and have gone on to The Fashion in Shrouds (which is not) and for which I thank you, Kirsten. I actually wonder whether I’ve ever finished Dancers in Mourning before. The beginning was familiar. I’ve been there. I didn’t own it, unlike the others, and therefore had to buy it. Maybe I never finished it. 

   I’ve certainly read The Fashion in Shrouds before, and I remember it fairly well. I think Amanda is about to reappear. She’s pivotal in Traitor’s Purse, which comes next and which is the first (according to me) of Allingham’s truly greats. .

   Wordle: it’s fun having Roger here, who is a member of my little Wordle group. Sister-Helen stoutly refuses to join — I think she’d enjoy it — because she eschews competitiveness. I try to tell her that we’re not competitive, it’s just interesting to compare scores, and indeed never was there a game so remote from competition.

   I must apologise to any of you who have been reading my daily bulletins as competitive. 

Nothing much has happened lately. Threes and fours all round. My winning streak is now 21 or 22. Normal service will probably resume tomorrow, depending a bit on your response.   . 

   

 Sunshine is struggling forth this evening after another grey, damp day. Nothing much happened here. My sister and her husband — Roger and Helen — will be here tomorrow, eagerly awaited.

   I knit steadily on. I am on the verge of a point where I’ve got to knit quite a few successive rows in black. My eyes are failing. It won’t be easy. Otherwise all is going well. I’ve ordered an over-the-seat shelf on which I hope to locate my laptop computer and then at last I will post some pictures

  I finally finished “Look to the Lady”. I had misremembered the “unforgettable” McGuffin I referred to the other day. So much for me. It’s not terribly good, compared to what is to come. It contains the scene where the Bad Guy is about to kill the hero but first explains to him all that has been going on, and also the one in which the hero — who wasn’t killed after all — gathers the rest of the cast around and explains it all to them. When Allingham really got into her stride, she didn’t write such hackneyed scenes. 

   I’m now reading Dancers in Mourning. There was one — and it could still be this one; I don’t know it well — where Campion and Amanda cooperate before they are “together”. We haven’t seen anything of her since Sweet Danger.  No, it can’t be this one. And next on the club programme is Traitor’s Purse. So what was it? It involved an airplane, and a woman who worked in fashion.

   Wordle: the familiar pattern. My starters gave me two vowels, one brown, one green. My line three, arrived at after a struggle, made it three greens. I got it in four.

   And as in recent days, almost everyone else did better.  Ketki needed five, but the rest of the British team scored three. Silence from Mark — we’ve got a big holiday weekend here , too. In DC it was four for Roger and three for Theo.

  No time for a proper post tonight, I fear. Steady rain all day. I’ve ordered a table to go over my chair and hold my computer. I’ve done some more knitting. Some nurses came and assessed my legs for compression stockings. I was tempted to sing to them, The toe-bone is connected to the foot-bone and the foot-bone is connected to the ankle-bone…but I refrained.

   Wordle: I started off much as yesterday, with a green and two browns. And proceeded much as yesterday, too, and wound up with four. But today most of the others got four, too. Three for Alexander, five for Rachel, four for the other four of us. In DC it was three for Theo and five for Roger.

   Roger and my sister will be here any minute — flying out tomorrow. 

 A dull, grey day. I didn't go out. I didn’t do much of anything, except knit. Ten rows of my MKAL shawl is very ambitious — too much, in fact. And the achievable number will continue to diminish. One can but knit on. The next clue is due on Wednesday the 12th. I won’t be finished with this first clue by then, but I’ll be forrader if I keep at it.

   I’ve just watched the Prime Minister call a general election. In the rain. I hope he wins and fear he won’t. I can’t vote, not being British. They say Mr Sunak is richer than the king. He could stay home and collect pictures and grow vegetables if he wanted to. Whereas the king is obliged to struggle on.

   Otherwise not much. C. came. 

   When I actually read, as opposed to dozing to Audible, I continue with Look to the Lady. It’s time I finished it and got on to Dancers in Mourning. 

   Thank you for your comments yesterday. You’re absolutely right, Cam and Knitnance, that I need a table with wheels which will fit across my chair. I got one for my husband when he was more or less at this stage of decline, but gave it away after his death. I’ll get on to that.

   Wordle: my starters produced a green vowel and two browns, a v. and a c. I struggled. I won. But my fully qualified word had four greens and a blank. A wordle special. Mercifully I got it in four.

   Most of the others did better. Thomas joined me on four. The rest of the British contingent all scored three. In DC, Roger had three and Theo four.

Not too bad a day, although chillier. I wasn’t required to go out. 

   I still haven’t solved the problem of accessing the laptop.computer. I’m too tired, first thing in the morning. There’s not time enough, between morning visitors and lunch. This time of day, between afternoon nap — essential, because the carer has 2-4 off —and supper, is also on the short side. What I need is a means of accessing the laptop when I am sitting in my chair in the sitting room.

   Helen came this morning and we got some paperwork done. It’s endless. Then the carer and I made a rather tasty soup for lunch out of some of the contents of the chill drawer. I can have more of that tomorrow.

   Knitting moved forward. (the MKAL associated with KD’s Summer of Mystery club) I sort of worked out that ten rows a day would probably be enough, and I’m sure I’m doing fewer than that, but at least I’m moving forward. I’m continuing to read Look to the Lady, a pre-war Allingham which doesn’t figure in the club (and which has an unforgettable McGuffin) but I’d better polish it off and get on to Dancers in Mourning if I don’t want to be left behind.

   Wordle: another real toughie, except for Thomas who polished it off in three. And not a word that everyone would know, I thought. My starters gave me three browns. After a titanic struggle — line three is the crux — I gave up and entered a Jean-word. It yielded another brown, and of course more positions in which one or another letter couldn’t appear. I hope I’m not giving too much away if I say that I  had one letter that could only be in position one or three; and another that had to be in one or five.

   The breakthrough was when I realised that neither had to be in the first place.

   Line four was fully qualified, but wrong. I got it in five. 

   Ketki and Alexander had fours.Rachel was with me on five. Six for Mark. Five for Theo in Dc, and the not-unusual silence from Roger.

   

   

 Another May day. Maybe the tide has turned. I got out this morning — it’s a struggle. Helen and the current carer and I  made a circuit of the garden and then walked along London Street to the roundabout and back. Not much else today, although I’ve done some knitting.

   I’m now repeating the colour sequence on the stripes — this is for KD’s Allingham MKAL. The rows are now seriously longer, but on the other hand the colour sequence is easily to be read from the first set. That saves a lot of anxious time looking up the pattern and figuring out where I am in it.

   We also have the next pattern — a jolly two-colour hat. It’s too complicated for me. And an essay about Little Venice, the part of London where our second book, Death of a Ghost, takes place. I can begin to think of re-reading the fourth, Dancers in Mourning. After that we move onto the war years and I am on more familiar ground.

   The essay was very good. kD has worked hard on all this. She was an academic before her stroke changed her life.

  Wordle: another toughie. My starters produced four browns. I thought of a really good word — can’t remember it now — perfect in every respect except that one of the brow letters hadn’t moved to a new place. I struggled on and finally thought of a dim possibility which at least was fully qualified. I typed it in. It was right. Three for me. 

   Ketki also had three. Four for Mark and Alexander. Five for Thomas and Rachel. Theo in DC was another three. Silence so far from his father Roger, as not infrequently.

   

 And yet another May day. Helen and Fergus are safely back from their  overnight camping trip to Strathardle. They brought me pictures. Isn’t outdoors wonderful? Above all, isn’t May wonderful? 

   Little to report. I had another restless and uncomfortable night (sore hip, incipient bedsores on bottom — I have to sleep on my back— sore heels) and spent much of today sleeping in my chair to catch up. I’m never going to get out if I can’t get up some courage and stamina in the morning. Helen and the current carer are determined to get me out tomorrow.

   Knitting, however, went well. I finished the first repeat of the stripes on my MKAL shawl, and have advanced five rows into the second and much longer repeat. I should look up some of the stripes some of you must have posted by now. I am listening to an audiobook of Pride and Prejudice as I knit. Mercifully the reader does accents well.  Gosh, it’s good.

   C. came to see me, back from a successful visit to London.

  Wordle: four for me and Rachel and Mark (the day’s best score), five for Thomas, six for Alexander and Ketki. Five for Roger, six for Theo in DC. C. Isn’t a member of our little group, but we always compare Wordle scores when she comes to visit. She beat us all today — three.

   McPhee on Wordle in the New Yorker is only mildly interesting (see yesterday).  He doesn’t allow for those Wordle Specials — not infrequent — when you have three or four greens and too many possibilities and the result is pure luck. 

   

 Another May day. I didn’t go out. More effort tomorrow? 

   Knitting went forward successfully. I shouldn’t have claimed the first run-through of the stripe sequence so boldly yesterday. I now have 10 rows left to do, and then the whole sequence again, which will obviously take much longer. (I’m talking about the Margery Allingham MKAL.)

   I think I actually took out a new subscription to the New Yorker yesterday in my eagerness to read the article about Lucy Letby. Now I will have to see if I can open it, to read McPhee on Wordle. I thinkhe came to see us once in New Jersey long ago — his father and mine had known each other in the Associated Press office in Detroit. But I may be muddled about that

   Little else to report. Helen came this morning, with her youngest son Fergus. They were on their way to Strathardle. They planned to strike off into the wilderness and camp somewhere tonight. They’ll

 call in tomorrow on their way back if they’re still alive. 

   Wordle: I would say it was a toughie again. My starters gave me a green and two browns. Line three put them in order — three greens — but added nothing new. Line four made it four greens. Line five was right.

   Rachel, Mark and Thomas were fellow-fives. Six for Ketki.  Alexander and the Americans Roger and Theo all had four which has to count as distinguished today. 

   

 Another proper May day, still with a touch of cool. I didn’t go out. We had a carer-handover, which my original agency (which is still in charge) does once a fortnight. Always slightly stressful.

   I knit industriously onwards. I am getting close — for those of you who are MKAL’ing with me — to the end of the first repeat of the colour sequence. The second repeat will be much slower, of course, as each right-side row adds two stitches and they soon add up.

   Jenny and Anonymous (comments yesterday): I certainly remember those shawls we knit. Was it called the Dathan Hap? I did it twice, and one of the results used to hang over the back of the very chair in which I sit. The trouble with being crippled is that you can’t take the few steps necessary even to look around the room. My feeling is that that yarn was slightly thicker than Milarrochy Tweed, more like sock yarn. Or I might have knit it from stash (unlike me). Anyway, on I go.

   Helen came this morning. Otherwise I don’t think there are any events to report from the Outer World. C. has been in London of late. She’s back now, and I’ll see her on Sunday.

   Wordle: a green and three browns from my starters. My first guess was a rather gloomy word, and it was wrong, but it got everybody into order — four greens. I got it in four.

It was the same for everybody else over here except Thomas, who needed five. Theo was another four. Silence so far (it’s sort of early) from Roger in DC and Ketki, usually a very early contributor.

  

   

 A May day, at last! I didn’t go out, but I am enjoying it. 

   What I did was knit my MKAL. I’m getting on fine. It’s a plain-vanilla triangle, I think I said. The increases are on either side of a central 3-stitch strip. I’ve now got upwards of 30 stitches in each half and the rows take longer. I still don’t know where the pattern is — somewhere in Ravelry, clearly. But I’m having no difficulty in producing it every time. 

   I’ve never been wildly keen on tweed yarn. I wonder if I’ve ever knit with KD’s Milarochy Tweed before? For this purpose, it’s ideal. I’m enjoying the fabric being produced. I continue to be anxious about the thinness of the yarn. It’s going to take me more than the sliver of lifetime I’ve got left, to knit it all. I am knitting hopefully on, as EZ prescribed. 

   Helen came this morning. We are struggling with the paperwork involved in dropping our present carers in favour of somebody very substantially cheaper. I am a bit anxious.

   Wordle: my starters gave me one green vowel and two brown consonants. My line three turned that into three greens. Line four made no change. I was afraid that I was about to go down to a Wordle special. I thought of another qualifying word — not at all likely, I thought, but there was no reason not to try it. It was right. Five for me. Whew!

   That gets my new winning streak up to ten.

    Rachel had my same three-green configuration and squeaked home with six. Roger had a totally remarkable two. Mark had a splendidly commendable three. Thomas and Alexander and Theo had fours. Ketki was with me on five.

   

   

 A busy day. Grey this morning, brighter this evening. Helen came — disappointed when I wouldn’t go out.

  I was in a state of feverish anxiety this morning, waiting for the first MKAL clue. It finally came, and I have happily embarked on it — but I don’t know where it is. There is a message from KD that I can click on — there it is. But what’s its address? It doesn't seem to be in the KD section of my Ravelry library.

   It’s very easy, I am happy to report — a garter stitch triangle, beginning at the apex. The colours are working well. I cast on nine stitches. I’m now up to 33, and I hope to add more this evening. Alas, I don’t seem to have a functioning computer printer any more. I’d like to have it on paper.

   Today’s other excitement was the pursuit of the New Yorker article about Lucy Letby, the nurse convicted of killing all those babies. I have recently re-subscribed, but when I asked for that article it wouldn’t come up. I later learned that it has been withdrawn in Britain on the orders of the justice dept or some such. But Helen can get it! Rachel in London sent me a link that worked. I read it with intetest.

   Wordle: a toughie again. My starters gave me three browns. I struggled mightily, resisting Jean-words. I wound up with a perfectly legitimate word which achieved nothing but to add another brown. But the subsequent struggle wasn’t all that bad: four for me.

   However, that was undistinguished by today’s standards. Alexander joined me on four. Mark, Ketki and Thomas got it in three. Rachel and Roger and Theo all had totally brilliant twos.

 A dull, grey day. I disappointed Helen by being unwilling to go out. I’ve promised to be more energetic tomorrow. I’ve felt limp all day.

   The MKAL begins tomorrow. That’s something to feel energetic about. Real-life knitting advanced somewhat today. Anonymous (comment yesterday) how I envy you, making your first acquaintance with Allingham. You ain’t seen anything yet.

   I’m afraid to read ahead on the club list, for fear of forgetting what I’ve already read before they are discussed. But I think there are some early, pre-war Campions not mentioned in the schedule which I could safely indulge in. 

   Kenji on salads turns out to be good. I am listening to him again in the hopes of picking up on the bits I slept through the first time. I didn’t know that you put mustard in a vinagrette to emulsify it — I thought it was just for flavour. The trouble is that I tend to drift off while he is discussing the different types of salad leaf — most of them unknown in Britain —  and miss the exposition of the different types of salad dressing.

   Wordle: distinctly tough again today. My starters gave me two greens. My guess at line three added another. And there I stuck for a long time, near despair. Then I found a possibility, and it was right.  Four for me.

    It was the same score for all the rest of us in GB except for Thomas, who scored three. Theo was another four. Nothing from Roger yet.

 A less-good day than the two preceding , but dry, at least, and the carer and I got out all by ourselves (=of course, her strenuous efforts) and we got to the butcher’s. The place has been fancied up a good deal since I was last there. But there I was, with a kent face behind the counter. It was wonderful.

   I asked him about wagyu. They had some, frozen, labelled “Japan” without any further detail. It was wonderfully marbled (as wagyu should be) and cost twice or three times as much as the steaks I gave those boys last Thursday (which weren’t wonderfully marbled). Maybe one day.

  After all that, as I sank gratefully down in my chair, my carer said she was feeling ill and was leaving. A replacement arrived promptly. Helen is switching us to another, much cheaper company. Will they be able to handle these not-infrequent crises as seamlessly?

  Knitting moved forward, slowly. 

   Thank you for your helpful comments about diet (comments, Saturday). Protein: I have an egg for breakfast every day. Mindful Chef, which feeds me three or four days each week, is strong on balanced diet. I tend to shy away from pulses. My sister — three and a half years younger by the calendar, but seeming more like 20 — will be here next week. I will consult her.

   And I take a strong daily dose of vitamin D.

   Thank you for your Mother’s Day wishes yesterday, too. And, Eileen, thank you for agreeing that KD has put an extraordinary amount of research and energy and creativity into her current Margery Allingham club. She richly deserved her happy surprise when we signed up in droves for the MKAL. First clue this week, I think.

   Wordle:  my starters gave me two greens plus a brown vowel. I struggled mightily to think of anything. I would have been grateful for a Jean-word, but the two greens made it difficult. Eventually I thought of a possible English word. Not at all likely, but it qualified. I typed it in. It was right. Three for me.

Thomas, Mark, Theo and Roger were my fellow-threes, although I wouldn’t have said the word had an American slant. Four for Ketki and Rachel. Five for Alexander. 

I seem to have managed to delete an almost-complete post. I will re-do it, but it will lack a certain spontaneity. I must get back to my laptop in the catalogue room.

     I didn’t get out today — another fine May day, with a burst of rain at the end. But if tomorrow isn’t much worse, I mean to attempt to go shopping on Broughton Street. I quite enjoy shopping. 

     Sleep was curtailed again last night. I spent most of today dozing while listening to Kenji (see yesterday). I’m glad I didn’t buy the book. A disproportional amount of it, it seems to me, is devoted to cooking beef. I don’t do that very often. He says, at the end of a chapter on roasts, that Americans don’t eat lamb very much (and actually import some of that little from Australia), why so? I loved lamb chops when I was growing up, and regarded them as a great treat.

   The promised essay from KD turned up this morning. How hard she has worked on this, quite apart from designing knitwear! This essay is about Tolleshunt d’Arcy, the village in Essex where Allingham lived. The house looks much more substantial than I expected. Allingham’s husband never provided much support. And there were also a number of hangers-on, and their horses. For some years there were also a handful of elderly relatives in a nursing home over the way. Margery Allingham and Albert Campion bore the whole burden, not without anxiety.

   My own knitting moved forward at its usual snail’s pace. I’ve finished the decreases on the first Spalding sleeve, and made a guess at how much more I’ll do before the cuff. Top-down, remember.

   Wordle: I got all five letters from my two starters this morning.  I could not think of ANY word that fit. I finally gave up and put in a Jean-word — two letters wrong. That yielded no greens, but at least for the three letters I had used rightly, I now knew one more position in which each of them couldn’t be. The succeeding struggle was fairly brief. Four for me.

   Three for Mark and Thomas. Four for Ketki and Rachel. Five for Alexander and Theo. Six for Roger.

    

     

 Another May day.  God hasn’t forgotten how to do it. If it continues another day, I’ll go out, no matter how badly I sleep tonight.  That problem remains to be solved. If lying awake and uncomfortable involved some means of locomotion, I could try going to the window and peering out in hopes of seeing the Northern Lights. But it doesn’t. I’m stuck. 

   Knitting has progressed, however slowly. I did get the balls of yarn for KD’s MKAL  labelled with their letters, A to E. I had forgotten that Milarochy Tweed involves a generous admixture of alpaca. That’s going to be nice to knit. But even if it’s garter stitch all the way, it looks like there’s going to be a lot of it. We shall see. I finished another skein for the Spalding today, too —  that always feels like progress.

   And I continued listening to Kenji. Today it was mostly a chapter about cooking meat. He went on and on and on about beef. If he mentioned lamb at all, I slept through it. Pork came in briefly, and chicken only slightly more. My diet is very low on meat these days, and I trust my butcher — that is, I utterly trust his sausages. I sometimes eat lamb cutlets or even chops. But that’s about it. So that chapter was of small interest. I woke up in the middle of one on vegetables, and have gone back to the beginning of it. But Edinburgh potatoes are not  California potatoes.

Wordle: a lucky three for me today. My starters gave me a green consonant and two brown vowels. It was a considerable struggle to think of any qualifying word, and when I did, it didn’t seem at all likely. But I typed it in, and it was right.

   Mark and Thomas joined me at the head of the class. Rachel, Alexander, Ketki andTheo had four. Five for Roger.

 A beautiful spring day. I didn’t go out — too tired and sleepy. I must somehow contrive a better night’s sleep, at night in my bed, if this most glorious moment of the year is to be appreciated.

  The yarn for KD’s MKAL has arrived, as I confidently predicted it would. Sometime between now and next Wednesday I must label each ball A-E. Since I have bought a pre-selected colourway (called Jeanette, I think) all I have to do is find the page on which it is described. I am sure the pattern., when it arrives, will express itself in terms of letters.

  I have stumbled upon the perfect book for napping to — J. Kengi Lopez-Alt’s “The Food Lab”. Audible makes it available on its Free list, which is a good start. I am a big Kenji fan on Youtube. This book tells you everything you need to know about the science of cooking. But if you fall asleep during the list of Essential Kitchen Kit (an instant-read digital meat thermometer is top) and wake up during How to Cook an Egg, there’s no great difficulty in picking up the thread. Perhaps when I finish, I’ll start again, and hope to catch the bits I missed this time.

   I’ve nearly finished Allingham’s “Flowers for the Judge”. Far from her best. There I’ll leave it, until we move on in the club — staying two titles ahead, but only two,  in the hopes of remembering what I’ve recently re-read.

   Wordle: three vowels again from my two starters — horror, horror. I struggled mightily but finally put a Jean-word in line three. One of my brown vowels was in its original position. It was useful, as Jean-words often are. I now had a brown consonant. I got it on line four.

   Thomas and Mark were today’s stars with three. Rachel, Ketki, Theo and Roger joined me at four. Five for Alexander.

 The wagyu was a disappointment. That’s where I’ll start. Archie and Fergus ate it nobly and said thank you, like well-brought-up young men. Mine has largely been thrown away — too tough. If I ever try again, I will hold out for imported Japanese. I had also ordered some cheese from the Fine Cheese Company — I’ve used them before — and that was sensationally good so all was not lost.

   Good weather. Has May started at last?

   And news from KD: my package has been dispatched. That will be the yarn for the MKAL. I thot they’d get it here in time.  Clue One is scheduled for next Wednesday.

 But I”ve done no actual knitting, what with spending the morning on anxious preparation for my little lunch party, and sleeping it off in the afternoon. I’m sleeping badly these days in bed at night — aching hip, incipient bedsores on my bottom, heavy, affectionate cat on my chest. My hip doesn’t allow me to turn onto one side or the other. So by day I sleep in my chair.

   I forge ahead with “Flowers for the Judge”.  Perhaps significantly, it is unusually, for Allingham, in the format of a conventional thriller. I’ll get it finished in time for its appearance in KD’s club, I’m sure. And it’s here in my Kindle library, so I must have read it before. I don’t remember much of it — perhaps significantly.

   Wordle: a toughie today. My starters gave me two browns, a v. and a c. I could think of a million Jean-words for every line, but genuine entries were harder to come by. Success in the end: six.

   Ketki was a fellow-six. Fives for Thomas, Mark, and Rachel. Four for Alexander — that counts as brilliant, today. Except that Theo scored an even more brilliant three. Roger had another five. At least nobody failed as could so easily have happened.

   

   

 A day of what might be called mixed weather — sunshine and shade. That’s progress, I think.

  However, I haven’t time for such fripperies. Tomorrow Archie and his brother Fergus are coming to lunch and we’re eating wagyu. It has been delivered and disappoints slightly in the amount of marbling. We’re also having some nice cheese to finish with, and that has been delivered too. I have but to make a salad and cut up some potatoes for oven chips.

   I’m not making much progress with “Flowers for the Judge”. I  must press on. I have been listening to an Audible “Tiger in the Smoke” while napping, despite the reader’s irritating voices. It’s a good book.

  And knitting moves slowly forward. I have one more sleeve decrease to do, and then a certain amount of sleeve before the cuff. I may shorten it somewhat. But I still hope to have it finished before KD’s MKAL starts.

Wordle: three for me. My two starters yielded three v’s and a c. I stuck with it until I thought of a possible word, and it was right. Mark was the only other three. Fours for Alexander and Ketki. Five for Rachel.No news from Thomas yet.

   Similarly in DC -  nothing from Theo. Roger got four. 

   

   

 Another grey day. This is getting ridiculous.

   Several visitors this morning, including Helen. No knitting. Limpness this afternoon with the same result.

   I am sorry, Elaine and Anonymous (comment yesterday) that I spoiled “Traitor’s Purse” for you by revealing that Campion and Amanda wind up going off to get married. Don’t give up: there’s lots more in the book than that. I’ll make it worse: Campion, at the beginning, is in a hospital and can’t remember even who he is — no spoiler there; it’s right at the beginning. He has the sense that he has something important to do; that’s all.

At some point early on, the clouds part enough that he recognises her and knows her name. “Amanda”, he says. It is my favourite love scene in all of Eng Lit. That’s all there is to it: Amanda.

    But that still leaves the book, and its brilliant McGuffin. I’ve probably said here too often that Allingham was criticised for it  when the book was published, during the war, as being too far-fetched. And then afterwards it turned out that the Germans had the same idea. I don’t know why they failed.

Wordle: tough sgain.  I scored four. My starters gave me two v’s and a c, all brown. I struggled forcquite a while, and finally put a Jean-word in line three. That yielded another brown vowel, and useful information about where letters couldn’t go. But I was lucky to get it in four. There were other possibilities, Wordle-fashion. But mercifully I hit it.

   A spread of results elsewhere.  A brilliant two for Alexander. Three for Thomas. Four for Ketki.  Five for Rachel. Six for Mark — who got mired in the “other possibilities” I mentioned above. The DC contingent, Roger and Theo, both scored five.

   

 Grey, again — but the forecast is better. This is really a bit depressing.

   Lots of quiet event. Knitting went well. I’ve got two more decreases to do on the Spalding sleeve, and I’m halfway to the first of them. 

   KD’s club began as promised. The first pattern is a sweetie — a short-sleeved, short-waisted little loose-fitting jumper for popping on over a dress, or wearing over an impressive shirt, on a slightly-in-between summer’s day, of which we have many. Named for Amanda.

   I enjoyed the first essay, too, about the electric cars of the late 19th c.  Amanda had resurrected one when we first meet her, and was driving it about on power she generated at the family mill. 

  I’ve already re-read the second book, Death of a Ghost, and now feel free to embark on the third, Flowers for the Judge.

  I read an interview with JKRowling this morning. She had the relationship between Cameron Strike and what’s-her-name planned from the beginning. So must Allingham have done, to some extent, with Campion and Amanda. She appears in Sweet Danger and then disappears for a while, although a future alignment is clearly promised. Except  that no author could have anticipated WWII, the necessary background to Traitor’s Purse at the end of which they go off and get married.

   And, oh! I’ve had an email from Melanie Read, hoping that I read her article!

  Helen and David came this morning, on their way to the airport to send him back to Thessaloniki. He is getting pretty tired of this life but doesn’t want to retire while all three sons are relatively unsettled.

   Wordle: a Wordle classic today — four greens and you could keep guessing until the cows come home. Rachel and I failed; Ketki, Alexander and Mark scraped home with sixes; four for Thomas.

    In DC, it was five for Theo and a totally brilliant three for Roger. Everybody except Theo wound up with my conundrum: four greens, and the fourth slot empty. 

 Grey again, although there are gleams of sunshine this evening as the day subsides. We need a bit more May.

   The Alexander Mileses came to see me. Ketki left her husband here and went on to St Andrews to fetch Jade. They were back in good order as a unexpected amount of cleaning and packing had been done before Ketki got there.

   Knitting progressed well, including another decrease round. I began to feel for the first time that I will finish this sleeve. If so, I’ll finish the sweater. I have never suffered from Second Sleeve/Sock Syndrome. I’m glad I knit the somewhat tedious collar first. The pattern does it the other way around.

   KD’s new club is scheduled to begin tomorrow — at last — with a pattern. The first MKAL clue won’t be until Wednesday of the following week. I suspect my yarn will have been delivered by then. And also that that first sleeve (see above) might be finished.

   Wordle: the usual struggle today, although fairly brisk. My starters yielded only two brown vowels (horror, horror). However, a relatively brief struggle produced a possible word — harder than it might sound — which, although wrong, turned one of the vowels green and yielded two brown consonants. I got it from there: four.

    Alexander and Theo were tops, with three. Thomas, Ketki and Rachel joined me with four. Mark and Roger needed five.

 A good day, although grey. Helen and David came and we got over to the garden again. It looked as though the gardener was about to cover the paths with loose stones. If it happens, it would prevent my going there. There was no gardener about to remonstrate with, just sacks of pebbles.  A few had already been deployed in a particularly damp patch.

   Mild excitement: I emailed my favourite columnist a few days ago. She is in a wheelchair since falling from her horse ten years or so ago. Melanie Read. I asked her to write about fashion for the wheelchair-user, or at least advice on what-to-buy. “I have been asked by some readers…” she says today, followed by a most useful article, with addresses, which I have saved of course and will re-read carefully and often. It is in the Magazine section of today’s Times.

   I think she is slightly more mobile than I am, but has the use of only one hand.

   I’ve got two, and got knitting to the very verge of the next decrease round. Each such round eliminates four stitches and their lack is beginning to be felt.

   It can’t be long now until Kate Davies’ club actually starts. I am keeping myself going by reading Tom Lake by Ann Patchett and by listening to Avocado Anxiety by Louise Grey as I nap or knit.

   Wordle: another five for me. My starters landed me with three vowels, two browns and a green. I was completely baffled. I resorted to Jean-words for both line three (omitting one of the vowels) and line four — this time everybody was there, but one of the brown vowels hadn’t changed position. Jean-words aren’t entirely useless when I’m desperate.

   Mark got three (that counts as brilliant, today). Rachel. Thomas, Roger and Ketki were fours. Alexander and Theo joined me on five.

   

 The foray into the outside world went well. Our new machiine does its job well, getting me up and down the six stone steps between our front door and the pavement.

   There were some unforeseen difficulties, starting with the step between the front hall and the front step. Once that has been surmounted and I am on the pavement in a wheelchair, next is the problem of how to get across to the garden. The road is cobbled. So is the pavement on the garden side. So it makes sense to stay on this side until one is opposite the garden gate. But if you do that, there is no easy way to get down or up the curb.

   And the garden itself is, so to speak, tipped, so that the simplest circuit involves an appreciable uphill bit.

  My carers surmounted all this. All I had to do was sit there. But it has left me exhausted.

  Knitting has progressed. I’ve done another decrease round on the first sleeve. This pattern looks easy (Brooklyn Tweed’s Spalding) but it isn’t. I would almost say that it’s too much for me in my old age.  I hope KD is planning something really easy for our MKAL.

  Thank you for your comments yesterday. I am sure my children like having me around, too. But money would be nice for them as well. 

  Wordle: five again for me. The starters produced three browns, two v.’s and a c. I struggled for quite a while and then made a mistake in line 3 — it was fine except that one of the browns was still in its original position. It didn’t help much either. Line four was much better.

   Roger shared my five. Theo and Rachel and Alexander were the fours. Three for Ketki and Mark. A most uncharacteristic silence from Thomas.

  

 A busy day, learning how to get me up and down the front steps with our new magic wheelchair.  I didn’t participate. I’ll have a go tomorrow if the weather holds — for we have had something like a May day and it would be grand to visit Drummond Place Gardens if that happens again. 

  Knitting went forward well. I haven’t reached the next sleeve decrease, but I”m not far off. I now know how to start a new needle with a sl1 yo without either winding the yarn round and round the needle or not winding it at all or purling the stitch. Slip the stitch purlwise, and finish that manoeuvre completely before putting the yarn over, is the answer which all of you probably know anyway.

   We’ve been having a lot of agitation here recently about assisted dying. I feel sad and uneasy because I have reached a pretty thoroughly useless stage of life and am spending a great deal of money I would rather leave to my children, on my care. But what I want to say at this point is that I am old enough to remember when abortion was legalised and then, too, we were assured about safeguards and two doctors being involved and such. It doesn’t last.

   Wordle: five for me today. It was exactly as I told you yesterday. My starters gave me a green vowel and two browns — a v. and a c. A brief struggle, a perfectly plausible word — but it was wrong. It did provide four greens, however. I guessed wrong for the missing letter (in the fourth position) on line four. Rachel was another five, with the same configuration.

   Roget and Theo had it, too, but were luckier. Three for Roger, four for Theo. Meanwhile, over here, Alexander scored a brilliant two, Thomas and Mark were threes, Ketki a four.

 

  

 May Day. Grey and dull. Will this never end? Tomorrow we are going to have a lesson in getting up and down the six front steps in my new, expensive magic stair-climbing wheelchair. Once that has been achieved I can go across to the garden.

Not much knitting. Such as there was, straightforward. I finished reading “Death of a Ghost” and now must switch to something completely different until KD’s club actually starts.

Helen came for a while this morning. It’s wonderful having her back from Kirkmichael. She couldn’t find the trowel to perform a necessary operation on the doorstep, namely potting on some sweet peas that I’ve grown indoors. Home looks familiar, as I sit here in my wheelchair, but other people are operating it and I don’t know where they have put my trowel.

Another thing I have grown indoors is tomatoes. They are coming into flower. The RHS and Alexander agree that I don’t have to worry about pollinating them. I have recently started some chilli seeds in my salad factory but they are disappointingly slow to do anything.

Wordle: three for me. The procedure is the same every day. My two starters, TRAIN and HOUSE. Then an agonising struggle, usually, to think of any word that fits the result. I don’t allow myself a Jean-word unless it’s getting near lunch-time and I’m desperate. Sometimes, like today, line three is right. More often it isn’t. Today I had the glory of being the only cis-Atlantic three. Four for Ketki, Rachel and Mark; five for Alexander and his son Thomas. C. was here this morning — she was another three, and we enjoyed feeling a bit smug together.

  Now Roger has logged in from DC with yet another three. No news from Theo.

‘ 

 Kate Davies has had a great rush on her MKAL kits. Her husband has been pressed into service in the mail room. They are starting with New Zealand and working inwards.

   This couldn’t be (entirely) because of a groundswell of enthusiasm for Margery Allingham. In that case, they would have noticed the unusual number of subscriptions to the club.But KD has never done an MKAL before, that I remember.

   I have knit resolutely on. Maybe I should resolve to reach a new decrease round every day? (Sleeve, top down from dropped shoulder.) I think I have resigned myself to coping with four dp’s. 

  Comments yesterday: Maureen, it would seem very likely indeed that it was Jeanette’s shop we went to. Shandy, thank you for the news of her BEM. 

  Wordle: another five for me, and again I don’t care: I got it. I try very hard not to use Jean-words, and again today managed to confine myself to genuine guesses. Theo was my only companion at that lofty score. Ketki and Mark were the threes. Fours everywhere else.

 Grey, rainy. It’s brightening up a bit as the day draws in.

I’ve progressed somewhat with the Spalding sleeve, but there’s a long way to go — and after that, another sleeve. I’ve never cared for the “magic loop” but maybe I had better face up to it. I don’t think a teeny tiny circular would help — hard on the wrists. Longer dp’s, perhaps. And I could shorten the sleeve somewhat.

   What I did successfully do was order yarn for KD’s MKAL. I went for Jeanette Sloan’s colourway. She used to have a yarn store here in Edinburgh, over on the other side. Always fun to go in and talk to her. Then she wrote for Knitting magazine for a while, answering people’s questions. I don’t know what she does now, other than collaborate with KD. However it was not past acquaintance that prompted my choice, but a liking for her bright colours. 

   Shandy (comment yesterday): I went back, on your advice, and re-read the appendix to Jones’ biography of Allingham. Extraordinary, indeed. Especially, perhaps, in conjunction with “The China Governess” which I have now finished reading and which greatly concerns lost or overlooked sons who nevertheless take after the fathers they have never seen. (Mothers scarcely figure.)  Allingham must have had some sense of what was going on. 

   I’ve now given up and started reading “Death of a Ghost”. No extravagance, here. I’ve got them all on my Kindle. “Sweet Danger” is the first title in the club — not long to go, now — and I’ve re-read that. I didn’t want to burden my failing memory with another but finally decided I’d have to risk it. It seems to me, from the first few pages, as if she’s really hit her stride here. It was published the year after “Sweet Danger”.

   Wordle: five for me again, after something of a struggle. I don’t care. As I said yesterday, all I want is a winning streak. Roger was another five. Ketki had a brilliant two. Alexander and Thomas and Theo were the threes, Rachel and Mark the fours.

 Pale sunshine, much grey. Cold. But the spring flowers are forward as usual, indefatigable.  Helen has sent me pictures of curry dumplings (primula denticulata) and primroses and daffodils — for which we’re famous — from Burnside.

   C. came this morning. No new news. She has a busy spring ahead, including 10 days or so in Sicily, happy woman.

   I haven’t done much.  No knitting yet. I’m reading Allingham’s “The China Governess”, now nearing the end. I’m having trouble keeping characters and their relationships straight. I don’t know whether to blame Allingham or my own senility. It turns on blood lines and inheritances, and I keep feeling sorry for her, for having no children.

‘   I haven’t ordered yarn for KD’s MKAL, as I promised I would have done by now. I’m still promising.

   Wordle: three for me this morning. My two starters served me well. For a while I hoped to be the day’s best, but eventually Thomas and Mark logged in with fellow threes. Pretty well everyone else scored four, including the DC pair, but excepting poor Ketki who got five.

  All I really care about is my winning streak.It’s currently 5. My max was 67, back in the days when I used Jean-words shamelessly and scored five more often than not. I haven’t got near that since. My last failure was at 49.

   

 The weather is improving. Sunny, dry, even a bit warmer. Helen and David — safely back from Thessaloniki — were here this morning, on their way to Kirkmichael. Back on Tuesday.

   And knitting has progressed. No more disasters. One thing to be said for sleeves is that the diameter is a good deal smaller than that for bodies. I’ve reached and successfully navigated the first decrease round (sleeve being knitted from top down). Still a long way to go.

   I continue reading “The China Governess”. Yours is an inter3sting theory, Tamar, (comment yestetday) that these last two bools were earlier mss which Allingham only sent off in late life, ill and tired. I doubt if that would do for “The Mind Readers”. I think that there she was gambling on the idea that there would be mileage in Extra-Sensory Perception. You might be right about “The China Governess”. But the references to 1939 sound absolutely right, and consonant with Allingham’s own experience of that year. And the action of the book has to take place 20 years later. She always did root her books very firmly in their soil.

   Eileen, comment yesterday, I haven’t ordered my MKAL yarn from KD yet, and I am impressed by the flair with which you have chosen a set of colours for yourself. I’ll do it this evening, and report tomorrow. Promise. 

   Wordle: All I care about is not failing. I got stuck on ???, grn, grn, grn, ??? today. Ketki had one such line. Poor Theo had three. But we all got through.

   Three for Thomas, Ketki, Mark, Rachel and Roger. Four for Alexander. Five for me and Theo. 

     

 Good weather, including warmth, according to my carer. Maybe we are going to have May after all.

   Knitting: I took that wretched Spalding sleeve back to the very beginning again, and this time I think I’ve got it. I understand what I’m doing. I can spot mistakes — at least minor ones — as they happen. Despite yesterday’s resolutions, I’m knitting in the round again. I think my dp’s are a bit too short but of course, knitting as I am from the shoulder down, the stitch count will soon diminish. The brioche decrease will be the next problem.

   Eileen, bless you (comment yesterday): I will join KD’s MKAL and we will have our own little club-within-a-club knitting it. I’ll tell you my colour choice soon. I’ve narrowed it down to a couple.

   Meanwhile, I’ve been reading “The China Governess”. I don’t think I’ve ever read it before, although the first violent scene in a London tower felt familiar, as did the news of Luke’s bereavement. Extraordinary that Allingham could have written two such weak novels — this one and “The Mind Readers” — on the heels of “Hide  My Eyes”. 

  Wordle:  back to a peaceful day or threes and fours. The threes were Rachel and Alexander and Roger.  Poor Ketki needed five.

   

 Thank you for your comments about buying more yarn. I could do with some . I’ve had a tough day with the Spalding sleeve and am tempted to throw it away in a fit of petulance.

  I corrected the original mistake (see yesterday) and was proceeding happily on my way, indeed mentally drafting a message to you about how I had solved the various problems of knitting half-brioche in the round on dp’s, when I realised I had done no such thing. I’ve taken it back, although have not yet fully recovered the stitches. When I succeed with that, I will do it back-and-forth on the too-long circular. Brioche prefers back-and-forth, I think. When I get to the cuffs, st st, I’ll switch back to the dp’s. That’s the plan.

   We’ve had a bright day, although still cold.

   I’ve finished reading Allingham’s last, “The Mind Readers”. Perhaps— nay, probably— I will go back now to the penultimate one, “The China Governess”. Might as well do this thoroughly. I am listening to slightly more weighty tomes as I nap. What one wants then is something interesting enough to think about, and boring enough to sleep to (and not to mind missing chunks when one actually falls asleep). Currently something about evolution. Perfect.

  Wordle: I had a happy hour this morning when I thought I might be the only cisAtlantic three. Alas, no.  Mark and Rachel joined me. Fours for the others. Theo had five — it was a tough one, despite all of our threes. Silence from Roger.

   

. 

 Serious sunshine today, although still seriously chilly. C. came in the morning.

   Knitting went well. I finished the collar of my Spalding sweater, and embarked on a sleeve. I did the first round wrong — knitting a round which I should have purled, after picking up the stitches. I am currently employed in unpicking my way around. Everything is harder than it used to be.

 Maureen (comments yesterday) I read Franklin every day on Youtube, and that’s where I saw  the picture of you and your husband. I probably saw  it on Monday.

   Speaking of comments, I was slightly disappointed that nobody lept in to tell me to buy one of KD’s MKAL kits. (Maureen had already advised me to do so, a quatr’ occhi as we say in Italian.) I still haven’t decided. It would be ridiculous.

   Wordle: we were back to the old threes and fours today. Except that my clever daughter Rachel scored a resounding two. Mark and Alexander were the threes. Four for everybody else, including the father-and-son pair in DC.

 A busy day. Sunshine and showers again.

   Maureen from Fargo came to see me this morning, on her way home after a successful knitting retreat on Shetland.  We have a history going back decades, and I hope there will be more episodes to come. She was wearing stunning Fair Isle of (of course) her own making. Franklin posted a resume of his knitting life recently — including a picture of Maureen and her husband.

   In the afternoon some lingots were delivered (at last) for my salad factory. I have planted chilli seeds. They’re awfully small, as I should have realised they would be after dealing with them on a daily basis in the kitchen. I’ll keep you posted.

   As for reading, I persevered with “The Mind Readers”. I still don’t think it’s very good. I’ll have to think of something else to read before KD’s club launches at the beginning of May.

   This time, for the first time, there is to be a KAL associated with the club, based somehow on “Hide My Eyes” (Allingham’s last seriously good thriller). Today we got the colours for the kits KD is selling, although she encourages us to dip into stash. I’m seriously tempted, although it would be a silly extravagance, now that I knit so little and so slowly. 

   KD promises to give us plenty of time between clues. The only other KAL I ever joined in on was one of Stephen West’s. That was exhausting. I reached the final clue more or less in time, but never finished the shawl. I’ll keep you posted on that idea, too.

  Wordle: another failure for me. And Roger: some consolation.Rachel scored a brilliant three. Theo and Thomas were the fours. Ketki six, Alexander and Mark five. 

 I’m back in the kitchen, poking with one finger. The day has been off-and-on, shadow and shade, yet again. Evening sun at the moment: that’s welcome. But no warmth. The long-range forecast offers no hope  much before  mid-May. If then.

   On the other hand, I had a delivery of cat-litter from Amazon today, and the carer didn’t spot it on the doorstep when she got back from her break. I looked at Amazon’s your-package-has-been-delivered, and there was a most glorious photograph of aubretia in bloom in my tripod. It’s not very good aubretia, colour-wise, but it’s having a wonderful time out there and I would never have known but for Amazon.

   Knitting has progressed, but I still haven’t finished that second collar.

   I’ve been reading Allingham’s “Mind Readers” — her last book. I must have read at least part of it before. It’s not terribly good, but it’s nice to hear the authentic voice one last time. Entry for KD’s club is closed, but we still have to wait a fortnight or so for any action.

   I’ve decided against Lourdes. I need too much intimate care.

   Wordle: even Queer Joe failed yesterday. Today we all picked up the load and started to trudge forward again.Two for Theo and Rachel. Three for Alexander and Mark and Ketki.  Four for me. Six for poor Thomas who got stuck with the middle letter missing. Silence, as often, from Roger. 

   . 

 

Here I am back in the computer room. I failed to turn the laptop off properly last time, with the happy result that it was remarkably quicker to boot. All well here. I have spent much of the day wondering whether I should apply for the diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes. Would they be up for the amount of care I need?

C. came this morning. She is all for it. Helen is in Greece with her husband this week. I have run it past her by email. 

   I’ve been reading Allingham’s “Beloved Old Age” edited and augmented by Julia Jones' whom we will soon get to know as a contributor to Kate Davies’ new club. I’m afraid it’s boring. Old age is tough – no doubt about that. Both authors dance around the question; Do I invite them home, or do my best to make them happy and comfortable elsewhere? I have moved on to The Mind Readers, Allingham’s last thriller. Campion’s last outing. And I am not letting that awful man read it to me.

Wordle: Roger, Theo, Alexander, Ketki and I all failed today. Ending a streak of 49, in my case. It doesn’t look all that difficult a word, looking at it in the list. Thomas scraped home with six. Mark and Rachel were today’s luminaries, with fours.

 

  

 Brighter, warmer — although not what you’d call warm. A good day’s knitting. Another day might even finish that collar. I like the new carer. 

  And for reading, I went on with Allingham. I bought not one but two audio books to accompany knitting, and regret it. “Tiger in the Smoke” and “The China Governess”. They may even be read by the same man. Why didn’t I check?

   The trouble is, he’s proud of his accents. Inspector Luke speaks pure, unreconstructed London. Campion and his family speak posh. What I would enjoy would be if both spoke Standard English with just a trace of the originals. I’m sure Luke didn’t sound like that. 

   His rendition of women’s voices is also irritating. 

   Speaking of peevishness: the leading editorial in the Times today is headlined “National Malady”. The BBC in the early morning tells us what the newspapers think. Twice, the announcer pronounced it “ma-LAH-dy”. I thought maybe it was a joke I didn’t understand which would become clear when I read the actual newspaper over breakfast. Not so.   

   Wordle: pretty harmonious today. Mark and Thomas scored three; four for all the rest of us.

  My parish newsletter, which arrives every week, is advertising for cripples today, to be taken to Lourdes in July. I must check the dates and think seriously about it.

 I got into the Catalogue Room this afternoon, where my laptop is. I wrote a blog entry for you. But where is it?  I’ll find it tomorrow and post it on. It’s been a tough day. Helen is in Thessaloniki.

 A straightforward day. A successful bath — that’s an event these days. Helen came in the morning and re-potted some more of my cactusses. (Goodness, is that how you spell it?) Archie came, and we scraped together a lunch for him. The weather, yet again, sunshine and shower and shadow. 

   The rest of the day has been spent reading Margery Allingham’s biography. I’m nearing the end. She’s desperately trying to keep up with the Income Tax in those austere years after the war. Evelyn Waugh had the same problem. Genius (and success) provided no escape.

   Anna (comment yesterday): I didn’t know/had completely forgotten that Dorothy Sayers had a husband. He seems to have appeared on the scene (Wikipedia) after the birth of her son, and was not his father. Allingham continues to have difficulties with hers. He earned his own living after the war, but did his living in London apart from his wife. The income tax situation was much complicated by the fact that they were married.

   Wordle: I think we’re on the same day. The members of my little group who live in DC always to be in sync. You’re right, Fiona, that when I refer to v. and c. I mean “vowel” and “consonant.” But your remark, Heather, is interesting and I wouldn’t entirely discount it.

   Again today I was entirely baffled after my starters, and resorted to a carefully-chosen Jean-word. It wasn’t much help, but some, and at least I managed a fully-qualified word for line four, and the right answer for five.

   Ketki was today’s solitary star with her three. Theo, Rachel and Alexander were the fours.Thomas and Mark joined me on five. Roger needed six. It wasn’t easy.

   

  

 Great excitement today. Somebody came to the door during the carer’s   break. She wasn’t even here. He was, fortunately, patient — and I, miraculously, got to the door. He was bringing a new, magic mattress which promises to be more comfortable. (Nights are tough.)

   Sunshine (quite a bit) and showers today. I’m told it’s still cold. Helen came and we ordered some pelargoniums for the front doorstep. I’d like “Lord Bute” from Sarah Raven — because we knew him, and because it looks like an interesting flower — but went instead for cheaper and more abundant from Thompson and Morgan.

   Otherwise not much. Some knitting, and I hope to do more this evening. I’ve gone on with Allingham’s biography, which is interesting. Maybe I’ll finish it and read the three more (besides “Sweet Danger”) pre-war books before the club starts. At the moment, poor Margery is sinking under the weight of life, writing rubbish for the women’s mags to keep the household in coal and cabbages, in between her real books with Campion in them.  Her husband was pretty well useless. And yet her best thrillers were still to come.

   I don’t think either Christie or Sayers, at the height of their careers, had a husband to support.

   The introduction to one of my reads, quite likely this biography, says that Campion had buck teeth. Rubbish. He had a famously vacant expression, misleading to friend and foe. But not buck teeth.

   Wordle: I found it enormously hard this morning. My starters gave me two greens, in the first and last positions, and two browns, a v. and a c. Easy, one might think, but I struggled and could think of nothing. I finally gave up and put in Jean-words, taking care at least that the browns were in new, possible positions. It took two goes of that, but I got it right in line five.

   Rachel and Mark had threes. Four for Alexander. Ketki scraped home with six — some comfort for me. Theo was another six. He had four lines, 2 through 5, in which the pattern was ???, grn, ???, ???, grn. No browns at all. Then he got it. Nothing from Roger yet

   

 Thank you for all your comments yesterday. I didn’t deserve them. I’m glad you saw the eclipse, Tamar. James went to see one once in China, and is eloquent about the effect it made, approaching over the desert. 

The closest I ever got was a partial eclipse here in Edinburgh, goodness knows when. I took a bucket of water out to the doorstep and saw reflected the sun with a bite out of it. It got just dark enough for the birds to start crying in anxiety. 

It has been another day of sunshine and shadow. No knitting, I am afraid. I am reading “The Adventures of Margery Allingham,” a biography. Its author will be contributing to KD’s club-book. I’ve got it here in my Kindle and must have read it before, although I don’t remember a syllable. Maybe I fast-forwarded through the early years.

  The club begins the first of May — with a knitting pattern.

   Wordle.  My starter words did most of the work for me, and I scored three. For a while I hoped I might be the only one — but then Alexander came along.Thomas, Ketki, Mark and Roger were the fours.  Five for Theo and Rachel. 

 A better day, although I have lost a temporary carer who had made herself very dear in only a few days. No knitting, because Perdita is lying on my work and has been there for hours and there’s no arguing with a cat. The weather is off-and-on — sunshine through the windows, much appreciated by me and the cat, but actual human beings who venture out say that the wind bites. 

I’ve finished listening to Allingham’s account of village life during the war, not without interest. And also finished reading “Sweet Danger”. I am now driven back on the biography, “The Adventures of Margery Allingham” but I hope KD will take over soon with the new club. I’ve been sent the dates but I’ve forgotten them.

Wordle: my starters served me well — two greens and a brown, and I remembered in time one of my few — perhaps my only — rules for Wordle, and got it in three. Thomas joined me there. Four for Alexander and Mark. Five for Rachel and Ketki. We haven’t heard from DC yet. I’ll try to remember to tell you my rule tomorrow.

Bedtime: a five for Theo. Silence still from Roger.