Action on various fronts. The problem with my group mail, I gather, is that a virus has got hold of Yahoo, and Demon is blocking incoming messages, so Yahoo has me down as bouncing.

The print-out of Liz Lovick’s article for the Lace Symposium which Sue had offered to send me, arrived yesterday. It really is an impressive piece of work, and Sue has gone to the trouble of putting it in a binder for me, so that after a certain amount of reading and re-reading, it can go straight on the shelf.

The June “Knitting” turned up, too – still no sign of the May issue. There’s a feature on the Edinburgh LYS, HK handknit. I must have another look. They’re over on the south side of the city – we pass the door on our way to visit my husband’s sister, but it’s not near anywhere else, and we never seem to have time to get off the bus. When I did visit them, a couple of years ago now, they stocked Rowan, Jaeger, Jamieson’s, and Paton’s, as offered on the rather inadequate website, and it really didn’t seem worth the trip. I could do as well with John Lewis and mail order to Shetland, and save myself the bus ride. But the magazine article says they now have Noro, South West Trading Co., Lana Grossa and Opal as well. That could be another story. Their founder and original owner, Julie Marchington, died suddenly (DVT?) within the past year, but the future of the shop seems assured.

My sister’s shawl continues to advance. At the beginning, there were 75 stitches in the centre panel, and 205 or so in each of the wings. The centre is unchanged, but the wings are down to something in the 80’s. It would be nice to get the patterning finished and the long final edge picked up, before I put it aside in favour of shrug-knitting around the beginning of June.

And I plucked up courage at last to order some Jade Sapphire lace-weight cashmere. The plan was to have it sent to a cyber-friend who will be in Edinburgh in July and has kindly offered to bring it in for me, circumventing what could be quite a lot of customs duty. But the shop website wouldn’t process the order because my address and the recipient’s address were in different countries. I have emailed them to ask if there is workaround available. But I am beginning to wonder if it is Kismet.

Comments

Donna, “The Constant Gardener” is by John Le Carre, who has a distinguished career as a thriller-writer and must be getting on a bit by now. Run don’t walk to the nearest library.

Thank you to all for the dandelion comments.. Your remarks about calcium/eggshells are very interesting, Aarlene, although I have a residual and probably unwarrented fear of attracting vermin. You make dandelions sound formidable and fearful enemies, Lorna. We have an old gardening book by the appropriately-named Mr. Weathers. He is very thorough, and discusses dandelions with other salad crops. I quote from memory, as the book is in Kirkmichael: “There is no difficulty in growing fine dandelions until you try, and then they won’t grow.” The sunshine has gone away: there won’t be quite so many of them to pick.

Politics

We plow through what seems like a lot of newsprint on Saturdays. Everybody seems to think that the appointment of Margaret Beckett as Foreign Secretary – the Mrs Meirs of GB? – is pretty funny, but only the Telegraph mentioned the balls-up in the Rural Payments Agency. Apparently she was adroit in fielding a junior minister to answer questions on that subject in the House of Commons, while turning up herself when Green Issues were discussed. The Telegraph thinks she was lucky to get out before the farmers start baying for blood.

There was an item on the radio news on Friday morning, a couple of hours before her elevation was announced, to say that GB will be fined 20 million pounds by the EU if the farmers aren’t paid by the end of June – and no one really seems to think they will be.

She is clearly the spiritual descendent of Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B.:

I always voted at the party’s call.
I never thought of thinking for myself at all.
I thought so little, they rewarded me
By making me the ruler of the Queen’s Nav-ee.

Mr Ahmadinejad doesn’t have much to worry about in that quarter. Except that he does, because stupidity in high places is dangerous.