Sadness

Kristieinbc and I have been scheming for months to meet in K*rkmichael on September 24. She and a friend are walking the Cateran Trail and will be there that evening. Now it turns out my husband and I will be in London.

I’m not at all sure my husband is up to London any more – he’s not sure either. I thought we had agreed that we would go in November, when the big Leonardo show will be on at the National Gallery. But he has been getting restive about all he is missing. We haven't been to London for a long time. So we agreed to go October 1-2. But Rachel, on whom we will depend, is going to a wedding that weekend. She would prefer to have us before or after. Several shows my husband wants to see will have closed by October 8-9. And so September 24 it is.

A crushing disappointment. I hope Kristie and I can at least contrive to speak by telephone.

On a more cheerful but still art-related note: a friend recently spotted a picture “attributed to” my husband’s artist at a forthcoming sale in a pleasant provincial English city. “Attributed to”, in a sale catalogue, means that the auctioneer doesn’t think it’s by the artist named. This one, in addition, has got a hole in it. The auctioneer’s estimated price is so low as to indicate that he thinks it’s practically worthless.

You can’t tell much from an image on a computer screen, but my husband is “inclined to think” it’s genuine. We’re going to try bidding for it by telephone, if the auctioneer rises to such sophistication. You must have seen pictures on television of banks of people off to the side at an auction sale each connected by telephone to a distant punter. That’ll be us except that I will be hiding under the bed.

It’s not great art, even if we could prove conclusively that it’s by Leonardo. And we will rapidly be outbid if a dealer decides to snap it up on spec. We will have to hope that no such dealer rings my husband up between now and the sale. He cannot tell a lie, although he can (and would, in such an eventuality) be economical with the truth.

Knitting

The Mourning Shawl is finished, except for a few loose ends. I hope I will get it blocked this morning – pic tomorrow, if so. That process will no doubt reveal an additional spot or two requiring attention.

I had a stressful day yesterday, including an unsuccessful attempt to buy our train tickets at Waverley Station. I waited 40 minutes. At that point there were still 19 people ahead of me (it’s one of those systems where you take a number) and one of the two girls selling tickets abandoned that task in favour of counting money. I have often bought tickets at Waverley Station and have never before seen anything like it. It wasn’t even Christmas, just a Tuesday in September. I came home and got our tickets on thetrainline.com.

But in the evening I needed comfort, so I abandoned the shawl and cast on a swatch cap in madelinetosh dk scarlet. I’m going to enjoy this. It’s wonderful stuff.