All's well.

The house is still there, no trees down, not overrun with mice, no burst pipes. We had a grand time, although brief, and Ed went up a ladder and cleared the gutters of a winter's accumulation of soggy leaves, a good job done.

He drove our car (on his insurance) both ways, requiring it to move rather more briskly than is its wont. It, and we, are safely home – but then I began to wonder, will I have speeding tickets in tbe post in the next week? It's not policemen on motorcycles any more, as in the New Yorker cartoons; it's those cameras. In the immortal line from Fawlty Towers, spoken by Mr O'Reilly, “If the Good Lord had meant us to worry, He'd have given us things to worry about.”

It is hard, generally speaking, to track the downward trajectory which I mentioned the other day – but there was an opportunity. My husband is frailer and slower than when we were last in Strathardle, six months ago; there were lots of little ways to measure it.

I had intended to gather and cook “horta” (=dandelions) but never got around to it. Rachel was dubious – she thinks they must have a special kind of dandelion in Greece. But I did come back with a nice bagful of wild garlic. There's a splendid stand of it, discovered only last year, just where the drives to Cnoc Sualtach and the Borland leave the main road. Alexander pinches his from the Duke of Argyll.

I made a succesful spinach soup last night with a generous admixture of wild garlic. I've looked up recipes this morning for the rest of it – there are so many and they sound so interesting that I think we'll have to go back. It doesn't last. A couple more weeks, and it will disappear for another year.

No knitting took place whatsoever. I had sort of thought of starting another pocket square.

There was a new VK on the mat when we got back, however. I like those socks, no 17, except that it is against my religion to knit socks from patterns. I lie back and let the yarn do the work. Meg's article on the fundamental issue of decreasing is interesting, with a little variation on ssk which I mean to try. Debbie Newton's article on oversizing will repay more study. I haven't read Nancy Bush on Haapsalu yet. I think I've heard it all already, but I must try. A meaty issue, despite summer patterns.

Shawls are everywhere just now, aren't they?

Some of the new books sound interesting, too – as if I had room for them. (Ruth Rendell is fine on the iPad; knitting, no.) Amazon reinforced the temptation with an email message this morning – they've got good algorithms down there at Amazon.

“Wrapped in Color” (=shawls from Koigu) Would it get me going on the stash?

“Short Row Knits”, Carol Feller.

“Twigg Stitch”

“Knit in New Directions: A Journey Into Creativity” by Myra Wood. The enthusiastic customer reviews on Amazon make it sound a bit like Debbie New's “Unexpected Knitting”. Archie says – and it's good advice – always to read the bad reviews. In this case, they give it three stars and grumble that it is only suitable for experienced knitters. I guess I'd qualify.

“Knitting Reimagined”, Nicky Epstein. The bad reviews are rather helpful there – they complain of heavy wool and big needles, not my style.

I'd welcome comments on any of these. And that's not all....

I probably won't be back until next week.