Helen is on her way back to Athens,
much missed already. I'll take Archie back to school this morning,
before the hospital visit – although he hopes to get permission to
stay a few days longer, commuting to school for some necessary
conferences. Lessons and exams are over.
On Friday Helen spent a long time at
the hospital, and I didn't go in at all. Life has sort of gone to
pieces around here, and things are Not Getting Done. On that free Friday I
applied for a new driving license, as we Oldies are required to do
every few years, and caught up with a package DHL was obstinately refusing to deliver except during the hours I spend in hospital visiting.
And this morning – that's something –
I spent half an hour or so opening mail. There was more of it lying
about even than I had feared. Needless to say, much shreddible paper
and four or five things I've Got To Do. It never ends.
My husband is slightly improved, we
think, still calm and relatively cheerful. There are a few minor
problems, overlooked in the general misery, which now need to be
addressed – his right hand is virtually useless, perhaps because he
banged it when he fell at the beginning of all this? And he seems
unwilling to wear his dentures – which, attentive readers will
remember, have been an ongoing problem in recent months. I worry
about whether it is going to be possible to struggle on here on our
own, even with much help.
Knitting
Not even much of that, but I have
nearly finished the 16-lozenge rank of the Fantoosh, and am enjoying
myself, so to speak, worrying about whether I am going to have quite
enough yarn to finish the whole. (The old Chinese remedy for toothache, I read
somewhere, is to shoot off one of your toes. Same principle here.)
When the 16 lozenges are done, I will
still be six lozenges short of the halfway number –and there is a
10-row edging at the end, over a great many stitches, which has not
been included in the “halfway” count. The first skein of yarn
will finish the 16-lozenge rank, but it won't get much
further. I must give some thought to the question of whether simply
to omit the final rank of lozenges, or whether it would be acceptable
to break it in the middle.
Lucy Hague's beautiful “Celtic Cable
Shawls” has turned up. Oh, wonderful! All the more so because some
have been inspired by the Meigle Stones, very near us in Strathardle.
Still, first I've got to finish some,
at least, of the current FO's. Then I've got a dog to knit.