I am somewhat better, but a chesty cough remains. I had pneumonia once, decades ago, and remain wary and respectful of lungs. I am well enough for essential shopping and cooking, and am otherwise spending as much time as possible in bed with the seed catalogues. Delicious! I am determined, this year: (a) to have salad stuff in production in August, when people are there to eat it; and (b) to try a number of beetroots, to see if I can find one that suits.

Meanwhile, C. is living at home. My husband and all of our children, separately, have been to see her, and all report that they were surprised how well she seems. We are sure she is comfortable, and not taking anything for pain. She is very frail (and the well-ness will be, in part at least, a conscious effort for the sake of the visitor). She has no enthusiasm for food, but is making an effort to eat.

So we still don’t know whether she is likely to regain any strength as the days lengthen, or whether this is the final downward slope. She has already had more time than some I have known, between diagnosis-and-operation and the end.

Knitting

I was sorry to hear you say, Janet, that you rarely got to see people wearing things you knit for them. It is a great pleasure, and all of my people know it and try to do it – so that I am never entirely sure they haven’t fished the things out from the back of the drawer when they hear me coming. That’s why I was glad to see the Grandson Sweater showing signs of wear, and am always happy when socks are returned to source for darning.

I’ve finished Cathy’s KF socks, but I don’t dare put them in the mail after losing that earflap hat last year. Joe (the Grandson) will be 21 in July and should have a pair of socks to mark his attainment of man’s estate. So now I must look to see what there might be for him in the potential-sock bag.

I have resumed Round-the-Bend. I’m still not sure that sock-yarns-and-Koigu suit the pattern; nor at all sure that the dog’s-dinner approach to blending yarns will work, either. For the moment, I press on. And I have now brought Meg’s DVD onto the scene, and am very glad to have it.

I am somewhere near the gusset phase of the first sleeve. I like those unexpected stripes a lot. The yarn is, I think, Annie’s colorway for Lorna’s Laces Famous Blog series, “Roadside Gerry”. I had two whole skeins and a bit left over from the Adult Surprise Jacket and thus can safely knit on until the first skein is consumed.