Dr Who

Here I am in London, where all is well. The new grandson, still nameless, seems a nice baby. We've seen lots of art, with more to come.

On Sunday we saw an episode of "Monarch of the Glen", generally eschewed in Edinburgh as it bears no relation whatsoever to Scottish country life as we know it. The actor Tom Baker turned up in Sunday's episode -- he who used to be Dr Who.

When we knitters speak of a "Dr Who scarf" what we really mean is a "Tom-Baker-as-Dr-Who scarf". Several other actors played the part before and after TB. None of them wore scarves.

I knit one at the end of '03 and the beginning of '04, in the dark of the year, and found it very soothing to do. I was inspired by a fortuitous picture in the newspaper of Tom Baker in his glory days, wearing his scarf. I'll write again one day soon on the subject of Comfort Knitting. Last year's one is on my website, www.jeanmile.demon.co.uk.

Baker, I am sorry to say, has grown stouter with the passing of the years -- he's not the only one --but the wonderful voice is still there, and he still conveys the delightful sense that the role he is playing is utter nonsense so let's ham it up.