A good day’s vegetable-growing. Vaut le voyage. Now I am tired, and must spend today re-grouping, as far as possible, and resting for the assault on London tomorrow. Knitting is packed – what book to take? I’m too near the end of Hornet’s Nest to rely on it.

(When I read Warrender, I am impressed by how early everybody gets up in the morning. In Steig Larssen, it’s how much coffee they drink, and all that easy angst-free sex. Warrender won’t do for London – too much Sweden, too soon.)

In the eight days I had been away from Strathardle, and despite leaving it under a cover of snow, spring had done that thing it does. Sprung. All the trees faintly misted with green along the motorway, and when I got there I found the seedling weeds. And that sudden feeling of the power and generosity of the earth.

There was not much actually to see, just the baby weeds and the feeling. The radishes are up, good old radishes, and I brought a few sticks of rhubarb back.

I watered in the nematodes. Fortunately the day was wet enough that I didn’t need to follow on with more water – we have to carry water from the house, for historical reasons too dull to go into here. That would have prolonged the job quite a bit. I got the potatoes planted. I stopped at a garden centre in Blairgowrie on the way to see if they had parsley yet, and they did, so that’s in. I planted peas, and some parsnips, and a few more spring onions.

I would have liked to add some more broad beans, and a bit of salad stuff, but time pressed. No pics. I could have showed you the baby radishes, but it was raining gently much of the time and I didn’t think that would be good for the camera.

As for knitting, I have cast on stripe four of the Chevron Scarf. I’ve got the hang of the long-tail cast-on now, picking up and putting down yarn and needles. And I finished a whole ball of Koigu on Monday evening, as hoped.

I was sufficiently alarmed by JeanfromCornwall’s comment about the possible waning of KF sock yarn that I went to my favourite supplier, Modern Knitting, and there found, I am glad to say, the complete range still on offer. There’s many a slip twixt the computer screen and the stash cupboard, I know, but I was glad at least to see no “out of stock”’s listed yet. They’ve got a lot of other wonderful things, too, if you want to be tempted by sock yarn.