Here we go – although we’ll be back some time next week to touch base and regroup before the Games. I must have my hair done – can’t go to the Games looking like this – and would like a wander through M&S in search of a new shirt, if circumstances allow. And five young Ogdens and their followers will be sleeping here the night before. I must lay out beds and bedding for them.

Rachel says that her son Joe will not be defending the Webster Cup – he has been injured in some unspecified way. He and his brother Thomas, a former holder, are two of the five who will be in Edinburgh on the Friday night, so I had despaired of taking a picture of the cup with its three Ogden winners. (Rachel’s husband Ed also won it once.)

But Rachel says the cup is ours until the baronet (with drawn sword) leads the pipe band over the bridge at 12:45 on Games Day, so we will take the picture mid-morning when the Edinburgh contingent arrives, and only then go down to the field and hand it back. One of the things I must do is polish it.

Lisa, you shall have pictures of children’s entries and vegetables. We probably won’t be competing in either category this year although who knows? perhaps I will find a cornucopia of vegetables when we arrive this afternoon. “Selection of four vegetables” is one of the possible categories, and the entries aren’t in yet.

The 2007 video of the Games (beginning with the baronet and his sword and the pipe band) is still available on YouTube. We were there in vast quantity that year and did brilliantly in a number of respects, none of which appear in the video except for a brief appearance from Sam the Ram, winner of the Glenisla Shield.

Knitting

The Italian yarn is producing a very jolly little sock. You must be right about it, Anonymous (comment yesterday). I thought I bought it from a flags-of-all-the-nations selection, but it includes both grey and a dark green, neither of which figure, I think, in the Italian flag. I am very tempted to take it along. Sock-knitting is peculiarly comforting in times of stress. And its wearer will be there and I could check for size…

Until next week.