We had a grand time, and I drove us safely there and back.

We prefer to take the motorway to Stirling and then go cross-country. The alternative is to take the horrible M8 motorway to Glasgow. Either way, you eventually drive up the west side of Loch Lomond for a long time, and then over the Rest and be Thankful to Loch Fyne.

Coming back, our way, is a bit hard on the nerves. One doesn’t have to drive into Stirling. One just negotiates a series of roundabouts, four I think, connecting the cross-country road to the motorway to Edinburgh. At the last two of those roundabouts, one must bravely choose the exit marked “M9 Perth”. “M9” is fine; “Perth” is in the wrong direction.

Last year I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and wound up toiling through Stirling for half-an-hour. This week I was stouter of heart, and fared better. Somebody ought to tell them.

Here I am on the evening of Good Friday, wearing a lovely cosy snood which Joe’s girlfriend’s mother knit for me -- Joe had just delivered it when the picture was taken. Hellie put the picture up on Facebook. I am surprised that I look so bemused so early in the evening. (Cider, you're right, Meg.) The red face will be due, I think, to the fact that the kitchen was very warm, for the sake of the ducks.

They are Khaki Campbells, a breed famous for egg-laying. If you look them up you will find that the breed is so-called because they are khaki-coloured, but Alexander and Ketki believe that theirs will be white.  They are bigger than I expected, the size of six-week kittens at least, and growing prodigiously fast.

Hellie and her boyfriend Matt, with duck:

Here is the Relax, not on Lizzie, the youngest, but her elder sister Hellie, who is the slighter of the two. It looks good, I think, and I will send it off as soon as it has been tidied and blocked. Will I then knit another for myself, the right size?

I gave the Microsoft Surface to Joe, who turned out for some reason to have nothing of his own in the computer line. Lizzie – the American Studies student who is going off to Kansas for a year’s study very soon now – has a perfectly serviceable Toshiba laptop. Joe was clearly delighted; a very happy ending to the story.

Alexander cuts his sons’ hair himself. We pressed him into service to give his father the onceover, with very happy results.

And as for actual knitting, not much. I am nearly finished with the first of the green Zauberball socks for Greek Helen. She will be here in a fortnight. We’ll all go to Strathardle.  Can I polish off the second sock by then?