Look what Elizabeth found! It’s a video of last year’s Games! It captures, amidst much else, the essential tedium of the day. Sam the Ram makes a brief but easily-recognisable appearance. I’m there too, later on, very briefly, in a group of prize-winners. I’m holding the Glen Isla shield, which unfortunately obscures the image of Dolores on my sweatshirt. My granddaughter Rachel is standing in front of me, to my right (the viewer’s left), with the Mandy Duncan Cup which she won for the best entry in the children’s sections.

Wonderful!

Although it's a bit disappointing that none of the rest of our party appears. There were dozens of us, literally, as it was our Golden Wedding celebration. The camera must have been deliberately avoiding us. In the opening sequence, as the local baronet leads the pipe band over the bridge, you can see the old Kirkmichael Hotel behind him. It is now self-catering apartments and we filled the entire building, that weekend.


Health-and-safety will no doubt soon forbid baronets to go about with drawn swords.

All went well yesterday on the dusting-and-bed-making front. All that remains to do is the spare room itself, and a quick passage of a mop over the kitchen floor wouldn’t come amiss. Then attention can be turned to food.



Thinking of that reminded me that it would be nice to make Jamie Oliver’s “Pappardelle with wild rabbit, olives and marjoram” one evening. That depends on success in the field. Rabbits should be rather tasty just now, the spring litters grown to rabbit-hood but not yet tough and stringy. I can do all the herbs from my garden, too, but I don’t grow olives or pappardelle.

Renewed thanks for encouragement with the dinosaurs. They went well yesterday, too – I’m halfway up the next pair. If today affords normal knitting time, I might even finish them.

I heard promptly from Get Knitted, and my “Franklin’s Panopticon” yarn is ordered. It won’t be soon, she warned me – they’re not due to send an order to Lorna’s Laces for a while, and Lorna’s Laces are never quick to fill an order. If, as you suggest, Angie, the yarn won’t actually be out for a while, that’s just as well. I’m happy to wait, anyway. I am inspired by the knowledge that it’s on its way probably more than I would be if it were actually coiled around my ankles.

If all goes well, my grandson Alistair will be bedding down here in the computer room tomorrow morning, and then we’re all off to Strathardle. So perhaps no blog for a while. See you soon.

P.S.: I found this in the NY Times yesterday, in my insatiable reading of presidential-campaign stories: “Perhaps the thorniest question — what to do about Bill Clinton, who friends say continues to refight the bitter primary fight — has yet to be raised by either side, advisers said.”

“who friends say” is right; it shouldn't be “whom”. Not many people know that – I’ve seen that construction wrong in the Economist.