Vicissitudes

My sister, who is a doctor, is working in Africa. It was she who brought the alpaca to London recently, on her way out. She has been helpful and sympathetic about my eye questions this week, as about many family medical crises and anxieties in the past.

On Friday she woke up with the very symptoms of retinal detachment she had been describing to me. She told herself not to be ridiculous, but the symptoms persisted. Her husband drove her for six hours to Pretoria (they started from Maputo in Mozambique, I assume) where it was put right. Not retinal detachment, just a tear. An unnerving experience for all, especially for her, and one which proves that God is watching us and that He has a black sense of humour. Which I think we knew already, although we sometimes forget.

My sister is younger than I am, and not so near-sighted.

Knitting

No picture of the alpaca scarf after all, I'm afraid. It's lovely to knit, like knitting the cat, and brioche stitch is pleasant and easy. BUT I failed, after several attempts, to master the two-colour version. I hope I would be able to get it in the end if I stuck at it, but I'm not going to. I've frogged it, and I'll switch to the similar two-colour fisherman's rib, which I knowI can do. So maybe there'll be a picture tomorrow. Both brioche stitch and fisherman's rib involve, effectively, doing two rows' work for each one row forward, so it's slowish.

Here instead, for today, is a picture of some

Peas

Peas


The smarter supermarkets are selling little growing pea plants this year for consumption whole in salads. (They are not to be found in our local Sainsbury's, however -- Edinburgh must be deemed not chic enough, or too conservative.) So I thought I'd try, using last year's left-over seed, and here you see the result. I harvested this first sttempt yesterday, after taking the photograph. They were delicious, but there weren't enough of them. I must sow more thickly next time.