I'm sorry to have let you down. 

Helen is here and I am dictating to you this morning. I haven't heard from my sister since the election. I miss it as a source of irritation. Now I have nothing to think about except the dreadful state of British politics. I think I can remember a previous occasion longer ago than most can remember when a new Labour government was hoping to put everything right on the profits of 'growth', only there was no growth and things went on as bad as before if not worse. I fear that's where we are again. 

Oh dear, dictation is not a substitute for actual writing but I really can't see very well these days. 

Wordle: 

Even that has deserted me. The Loch Lyne Mileses are on strike, something to do with the newsaper guild. My father, who was a newspaper man, didn't entirely approve of it and never joined. Just as my husband, who was an academic, never joined the association of university lecturers so I have no scruple whatsoever in crossing this virtual picket line. But the three Loch Fyne Mileses have dropped out,  Alexander giving up a winning streak of 104. My current streak is 17. Four today and Rachel Miles was the same but we haven't heard from Mark or the Americans. 

 I’m sorry to have left you in the lurch.  The main problem is failing eyesight. That doesn’t help with knitting either.

Wordle seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel. I suppose there are only so  many five-letter words in the language. Yesterday Rachel and Ifailrd, with high scores elsewhere,  Today Mark and I got twos

I heard a little talk on the radio about children’s books. The speaker was younger than I am and mentioned some authors I don’t know. She omitted two: Beatrix Potter and Lewis Carroll. How is that possible?. How did an editor fail to catch it? Alice is more quoted than Shakespeare these days.

   I’ll try to write again soon. I’m expecting new glasses. That might help.

.?

I failed .

All well. I am sorry to be so unreliable. I’m feeling pretty well. 

I’ve done some knitting — indeed am near the point when I will divide the work at the armpits. I must send you a picture soon, MaryLou. My eyes are bad, and won't get better but I think I can hold on and finish it. There’s a good stripey  shawl in KD’s shawl book. I could knit that again.

Helen came this morning. We agreed on being bored with constant news stories about Mohammed al Fayed’s predatory ways. (Why is he all over the news of a sudden?)  And puzzled as to why nobody mentions Dodi and Diana who must be on everybody’s mind.

   Helen believes they were murdered because they threatened a major embarrassment to the royal family. I am a devoted follower of William of Ockham whose prime tenet is that the simplest explanation is usually the best, so my vote is that it was an accident. 

  Wordle: four for me today. I’ve got my winning streak back up to 19, after a double failure on the first and second of the month. 

  Nothing to report. I’m comfortable but  increasingly sleepy. I have been prescribed something based on a very modest dose of morphine but have resisted taking it (a) because I don’t need it; it is possible to manoeuvre the hip into a comfortable position; and  b) because morphine seems a step too far at this point in my general decline.

  I’ve finished Waugh’s Men at Arms and proceeded to Pinker’s famous Language Instinct. I think I must have read it long ago because I am assailed by the feeling (and it feels familiar) that Pinker himself doesn’t know enough languages. Is he just talking about English?

   I still haven’t figured out a way to resume knitting.

   Wordle: i am currently in the happy position of having scored three for four successive .days. Yesterday, at least, was pire fluke. My starters gave me three greens.  I thought of a word. I typed it in. It was right. It was only afterwards that I realised there were at least six other possibilities .

   Today I had two greens and two browns and may well have come up with the only answer. Everybody else on the home team had three as well except for Rachel and Ketki who both scored two.  Theo was another three. Roger was today’s dunce with four.

   

   

 I’m sorry.for the gap. Nothing much is wrong — just feebleness. I lie here and listen to Audiobooks, which have improved out of all recognition in recent years. Much is available, intelligently read — often by the author — and unabridged. 

   I’ve listened to Brideshead recently — I don’t think it works any more as Catholic apologetic — and have gone on to Waugh’s WWII trilogy, Men at Arms. There’s lots of Church in that, too. We’ll see if it works. Book 3 is weaker than the other two

   No knitting. I don’t think this chair is quite suitable. I must think of a solution.

   I was disappointed not to have the presidential debate on the World Service, which I listen to all night. Never mind. I’ve got the flavour of it this morning. Harris did well, and may have moved the dial a notch or two in her favour

 Wordle: i failed on both the first and the second of the month. My winning streak is now up to nine. The secret is line three. If I can think of a fully-qualifying word for that one, all is well. This morning I had three browns and a green. I hate anagrams, but got it without too much difficulty. Yesterday I had two browns, a v and a c. I struggled to think of any word (my starters carry off five very useful consonants). When I got one, I typed it in with no confidence at all — and it was right.

   

Every day I resolve to get my keyboard-and-,mouse organised. Every day I fail — more accurately, I don’t start. Here I am pecking with one finger again. Fortunately there is little to report.

   I have been singularly sleepy today. I don’t know whether it’s the sleep of the moribund or just making up for another uncomfortable night. Nights are fairly grim. No knitting, I’m afraid.

   And to add to this litany of woe, I failed at Wordle today. The winning streak was just over 40, and now it’s gone. I used a jean-word in line three. I must avoid that at all costs. Then I got stuck in a Wordle sprcial — four greens with the first letter missing. Pure luck. That’s no comfort.. 

   Three for Thomas and Rachel. Four for Mark and Alexander.Ketki nearly fell into my trap, but clambered out in time: five for her. No news from DC yet. 

 Am I slightly bettter? I hope so. I have been much hovered over by doctors today. Nothing much is wrong. Some of my numbers are slightly raised. They have stopped my “water pill” which certainly makes for a more comfortable life, but probably can’t go on

   Helen and David were here this morning, with the doctor. They will still be around tomorrow, then off to visit Davod’s mother in England somewhere.

   Wordle:  I cheated today — anything to keep the winning streak alive. I had two greens, in positions three and five, and a brown which had to be in position one or two. Most of the others had those two greens.

   Back and forth, up and down I went through the remaining letters, to no avail. So when Helen and David arrived I handed him the iPad. He saw the answer at once.  We scored four.

  Rachel had those two greens on line one and had to struggle all the way through to line five before she got it. Ketki and Mark did it in three. Fellow-fours from Alexander and Thomas. 

Three for Theo, four for Roger. Like Rachel, he had those two greens on line one.