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.

Zite is full of the work of Anna Mo at the moment. I love it!