Tuesday, July 05, 2016

My sister has been and gone – leaving behind the beautiful madtosh “Tannehill” DK for my husband’s new sweater (or at least to swell the stash). Why did they discontinue that one?

It was a good visit, constrained by the limitations of life here. We had a fine lunch with a friend in an excellent local restaurant (L’Escargot Bleu on Broughton St.: recommended) and a nice walk in the ever-remarkable Royal Botanical Gardens. Other things I had hoped to achieve fell victim to my general lack of peppiness. (I’m surprised the spell-check passes that one.) In particular, I had hoped to get to Dr Neil’s Garden in Duddingston which I never seen.

My sister has recently moved from CT to a retirement community near DC. A wise move, which her husband (more than herself) is enjoying a lot. But it meant giving up her garden, and that’s been tough.

Not much knitting got done while she was here, but a bit. I’m steaming down the second side of Gudrun’s hap, edging-wise. It’s easy enough that it can even be combined with Wimbledon-watching, at least sometimes.

My poor husband doesn’t like watching tennis; my sister tries to join in but hasn’t much grasp. It was difficult for me being isolated with two such idiots the day Djokovic went out – and indeed, the day before, when he was two sets down and rain suspended play. It means Murray has a real chance (he’s playing very well) but I love Federer too, and have a special place in my heart for fading great ones.

If Murray should win for a second time, he will forever rank with the greats of British tennis, going right back to the days when they played in long trousers.

I am interested in the Williams sisters too, but will give my husband today off (both Williams’es are playing) to build up his strength for the rest of the week.

Back to knitting – I had almost forgotten that I have subscribed to The Knitter: one of those late-night purchases; better, at least, than another stash-enhancement. A first issue has arrived and I like it.

Non-knit

Archie is here, and will be for a while. He finished school forever on Saturday, and went straight back on Monday to take part – for pay – in a drive to raise funds for a new sports centre. Archie and several others from his year will be ringing up Old Boys for the next fortnight, soliciting funds.

I think this method of fundraising – where an outside organisation moves in and teaches the local organisation (church, school, whatever) how to raise money from its own constituency – was pioneered by a distant cousin of mine, Lewis Wells (“Cousin Lewis”) who with Cousin Bert founded the Wells Organisation in the ‘50’s. Archie spent yesterday and today being taught how to make the phone calls. My sister says with scorn that any claim the Wells Organisation might have to priority in this field lay in the fertile imagination of our mother, herself a Wells by birth.

Google doesn’t have much to say on the subject, but that little suggests that our mother was right.


Pioneers or not, Cousin Lewis and Cousin Bert got to be very rich. Mother visited headquarters once and was amused to see a representation of the Crucifixion with pictures of Cousin Lewis on one side and Cousin Bert on the other.

7 comments:

  1. Lol at the school fund raising methods. Merchiston has Old Boys rich enough to solicit enough money from to build a sports centre (!) while state school pupils hold cake sales and sponsored hair cuts to buy desperately needed football strips that the council can't afford to fund. It's real Them and Us stuff, isn't it?

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    1. =Tamar5:50 PM

      The Wells Foundation was founded in 2001, according to their website. It's not quite the same thing, but in the 1960s United Way sent an outside professional to run local fundraising efforts for their company, and in the process the locals had the chance to see how it was done - assuming, of course, that the pro had a clue. Sometimes they tended to, e.g., hire a typist and go off to the next town, assuming the locals would pick up the slack. I'd say that actually training people might have been a first.

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  3. I admire the Williams sisters, but don' particularly enjoy watching them play. I will laugh several times today at the idea of someone painting themselves into the crucifixion scene. Not Roman soldiers, I imagine.

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  4. Oh what TENNIS there was this past weekend! I would love to watch a good match with you! I was SCREAMING in my apartment... having warned the cats with a little scream so they darted out of the den - literally SCREAMING at the end of that match on Saturday. WHAT a Triumph for Sam! Not to take away from Sam but it was obvious that Nole was not 100%. His press conference was aired (unheard of and the whole thing)in double screen while the next match played. He said but would not elaborate that he was not healthy.

    I am thrilled for ROGER - yes it would be nice for Andy to win but Roger deserves this one and sadly (whispering this) it may be his last. I have the blind passion of a fan for Roger. My dream is to see him play live but as the US OPEN prices are exorbitant that probably wont happen. Anyway, his Wed match is not going to be a walk in the park - Cilic had a bye and so is as rested as Roger and a threat. I am anxiously awaiting the schedule. i hope he plays first so i can see most of it before work but if he is scheduled in the second or third spot i will have to avoid the news and watch it later. which will be agony.

    As Mary Lou, I admire but dont like to watch the WIlliams sisters. I am ready for some new faces in the women's field.

    If Roger makes it to Sunday, we could set up a chat session. Actually if anyone else is interested I would be glad to set it up. I chat via FB with another woman in England who hates Roger so that is hard we do all other matches when we are both watching.

    So glad you had the visit with your sister and that you were able to get out with her!

    onward Roger!

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  5. I'm so glad your visit with your sister was a good one. I'm sure she was happy to spend time with you, and didn't mind a bit that you didn't get to everything you had wanted to. And now you've got Archie to cook for!

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  6. update Roger is playing at 1pm (8 am EDT) so i will get to see some of it and listen on my commute... oy vey !

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