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.

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