Tuesday, October 07, 2014

And more followers! What a week!

Thank you for all the happy messages about the wedding.

Several have suggested travelling by limo. It's a brilliant idea, which hadn't occurred to me. But it won't be necessary. If I had made a day-trip on the 1st of November, I was planning to do it by train – straight from Darlington Station to the church, wedding, a sip or two of champagne, straight home. A limo would have made a big difference. But since I am now able to travel down on the 30th of October, Greek Helen will drive, and similarly back on the 2nd. The journeys will be part of the fun.

[I think the only time I ever indulged in a private limo was the last time we were in Thessaloniki. I went to Philippi while my husband stayed behind in favour of Byzantine mosaics. Christos drove. We had perhaps as many as 100 words of common language, when my Greek was added to his English. We had a splendid day.

And there I was, where Brutus and Cassius were, and St Paul, under that very sky. “One crazy woman”, Christos said as he let me out of the car. It was a wet day and I had the place to myself. I also had one of my broken arms, I remember. Later we went to lunch and ate fish at a little place he knew. On the way back he pointed out the peninsula of Mount Athos.

I wondered afterwards if I had then been to all the places St Paul wrote epistles to – Philippi, Thessaloniki (the Thessalonians), Ephesus, Rome, Corinth. But I had temporarily forgotten about the Colossians. I don't even know where they lived.

The memory is well worth the trivial expense of the limo, whatever it may have been.]

Lynne, that is an absolutely brilliant idea, to take Archie's sweater as my Wedding Knitting. Surely the yarn will be here by then. The trouble with the Carol Sunday scarf, Cam, is all those colours and the constant changes. It would be possible to retrieve it – Greek Helen will be here for all of the last week of October, and we hope to spend two nights in Strathardle at least – finding my keys, if nothing else. James will arrive in Edinburgh late Thursday evening, having travelled up after work. Helen and I should be able to leave fairly briskly on Friday morning. I'm not quite sure how her sons fit into this scheme, but they'll be about.

I have added her to our motor insurance for that week, one thing accomplished yesterday. I also defrosted the freezer drawers and thinned them out a bit to make room for ready meals. Today won't be as productive. My husband has another dental appt concerning his still-uncomfortable gnashers.

I hope we can persuade Mungo to wear his kilt to the wedding. Archie flatly refuses. Alexander will be wearing his, as will his sons, the Little Boys. I think Rachel said that her son Joe (the bridegroom's brother) will have one, as will a couple of the bridegroom's Scottish friends. So Mungo wouldn't be the only chap in a dress.


As for actual knitting, I did yesterday's allotted portion all right, leaving only half of the final side to be furnished with applied i-cord, and the fourth corner to be rounded. I could finish today. There was one more break – and I can see more broken ends in the ball. Very rum. It will go straight into the rubbish when the job is done, although, like Meg, I normally never throw away anything.

5 comments:

  1. Archie! You really should wear your kilt - they maketh the man! :)

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  2. Anonymous12:13 PM

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  3. Ellen1:32 PM

    Isn't it wonderful when the memories of our travels stay with us for a lifetime?!

    If indeed this last ball of yarn was infested with something, it might have also spread to the other yarn it was stored with, even though it doesn't show. The safest thing to do is to put all that unused yarn into a plastic bag and pop it into the freezer for a couple of days. It might not hurt to freeze the blanket as well, as freezing will kill any larvae that might be lurking between the plies (My husband has learned to bear the occasional freezer full of yarn as part of the cost of living with me!)

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    1. =Tamar7:03 PM

      Freezing cold enough may kill larvae, but not eggs. Once the yarn thaws (give it two days in a tightly sealed ziploc bag), any eggs should hatch; then they are larvae and a second freezing should do them in. Or microwave the yarn for ten seconds per ball (watch out for staples in the labels!), twice so the microwave covers all areas (they can leave cold spots). Or, if a completed object, maybe mutliple ten-second microwavings, cooling between to prevent burning yarn.

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  4. I have a wonderful memory of a long conversation with a Mexican taxi driver with no English and my bit of Spanish. Such fun. You always send me off in search of information, Jean. "It was written, according to the text, by Paul the Apostle and Timothy to the Church in Colossae, a small Phrygian city near Laodicea and approximately 100 miles from Ephesus in Asia Minor."

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