Non-knit

1) Don’t miss the latest blog post from KristieinBC – she’s one of us. And don’t fail to follow her link to CTV. I could watch it here in Drummond Place, so it ought to be manageable anywhere.

2) The friends who were staying with us last weekend went off to Dunkeld on Sunday and actually saw the nesting osprey through binoculars. The webcam available to all gives a much better view. It’s now time for the eggs to hatch, and nothing is happening. The tone of this morning’s blog entry is less hopeful than before.

I’ve been looking in ever since our friends told us about their day. I have been surprised, every time, by the attitude of Mrs Osprey. I would have expected her to use the time to read a good book, or get some knitting done, but she is constantly restless (as far as one can be, sitting still) and constantly alert.

Knitting

All went well with the Aran sweater yesterday. Perhaps, after the disaster, I am paying more attention.

When I had it off the needles, I used two different systems to calculate how much yarn I would need altogether. I’ve got enough, although not much to spare. I tried again this morning, with yet another system. I’ve still got enough. I worry, and it’s a good reason to press on as hard as possible.

A serious temptation to deviate:

My madeleinetosh yarn, colourway Cosmos, is here. I need to knit a great big swatch and send the particulars – perhaps, better, the swatch itself – to the cyber friend who is going to write a pattern for me based on the Japanese shirt I so much admire. That is to be the next Strathardle project, once I polish off that final sleeve on the pink Araucania. I bought enough that I don't have to worry -- thus are stashes built.

I think we’re going there today, although my husband made an ominous remark at bedtime last night about a letter on his computer which he just wants to finish and dispatch. Everything takes time in old age, and there is the further complication that our movements are circumscribed by the need to plan ahead for food.

“Ten servants waited upon the household, but in a desultory fashion, for they could spare very little time from the five meat meals which tradition daily allowed them.” [Evelyn Waugh, “Scoop”] There’s only one of me, but the result is much the same.

I am very eager to get started mulching, and I note your comment, Tamar. I am sure, from previous experience of grass cuttings, that I know what you mean about “rot anaerobically”. Mix with sawdust? Wood ash? I have neither straw nor, at this time of year, leaves.

Our friends who stayed recently have a house in France, and I was eager to ask them about sorrel, which is said to be much more common there. Once we had tracked down the word, oseille, they agreed – it is a familiar soup and sauce, not a stand-alone vegetable, and not much found in the market. In the course of my Google’ing I found a recipe for sorrel pesto, and I’m eager to have a go at that, too.