Tuesday, December 24, 2019


I am sorry to have left you in the lurch. Perhaps it’s best to make it formal: I’ll try to be back just before the new year. I’m very glad to know that so many of you will be with me for Royal David’s City in something under two hours now.

I’ve done row 128 of the 144 needed for the centre of Gudrun’s hap. Here it is (or, was, yesterday):




And here’s a close-up of those delicious loops through which the needle will eventually be inserted:



Spring Shawl

Thank you for your help – so far, fruitless. Knitalot, no – the windows on that side of the house, looking onto Drummond Place, are never open. Shandy, I’ve tried offering Archie a Finder’s Prize, so far without success. Knitalot (other comment) – yes, that box is still under that cabinet where you noticed it on 21st October. No luck there.

The only real hiding place in the sitting room is under the chest of drawers which I thought the shawl was on top of:



There’s room under there for a slightly flattened cat, and plenty of room for knitting -- but it’s not there. So if the cats are to blame – that hasn’t been proven – they must have dragged it out of the room.

Totally off the Subject

We had an hour on television last night about Hugh Grant. I’m sure I tell you every three or four months or so that he and James used to live on the same stair at New College, Oxford, and that James once lent Hugh a frying pan. That frying pan occupies an important place in our family iconography. Hugh Grant has probably forgotten all about it. And the TV biopic made no reference to it.

Happy Christmas, all!

23 comments:

  1. Syd T.2:02 PM

    Happy to see you back. Merry Christmas to you and the kitties. So enjoy reading your notes in the morning with my coffee. I had to start putting my knitting in bags to keep the cats and the dogs from playing hide and seek with it. At least this way it is intact whenever it is found.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Merry Christmas, Jean and all the very best for 2020.
    I don't comment often but enjoy reading your blog very much.
    Take care and 'haste ye back'
    Dawn

    ReplyDelete
  3. Merry Christmas Jean

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous2:30 PM

    Merry Christmas Jean! Chloe

    ReplyDelete
  5. Happy Christmas to you and yours. Thank you for sharing a small part of your life with us!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Merry Christmas to you and yours. Ive so enjoyed this blog and hss got me bacl to reading the good stuff as well as the quick. Normally knit and read as TV in South Africa is pretty dire.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Happy Christmas and best wishes for the new year! A Canadian friend has sent me maple candies - arrived today - Oh so good, oh so sweet, eating them could be a Christmas Eve 'thing'!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Merry holidays to you. We’ll spend Christmas day visiting children and grandchildren at their homes. Then we’ll come home and have a simple supper. We like to settle in and keep cozy during the darkest days.
    I hope Santa delivers your spring shawl on Christmas morning. Check your project bags again, (even the ones you’re certain it couldn’t be in).
    We’re enjoying the impeachment greetings: impeach navidad, merry impeachment, etc....if only being hopeful.
    Peace and health to you and yours🎄🎉.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Merry Christmas, Jean! I’m very sad that your Spring Shawl is still missing, and very disappointed in Archie that he hasn’t found it for you. Have you offered a Finder’s Fee to your cleaning lady, or any of the other grands, to search the house for you? We know it has to be there somewhere!

    ReplyDelete
  10. =Tamar7:01 PM

    Happy Christmas to all!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Could the shawl have fallen behind the chest of drawers and be stuck there? Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree with this. Maybe Archie can move it.

      Delete
  12. Adding my best holiday wishes to the chorus of Maureens (and other).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Merry Christmas, Jean, and a happy and healthy 2020. That's such a mystery about your Spring Shawl! Gudrun's hap is off to a good start!
    The weather here in NY is spring-like making it harder to feel festive.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Merry Christmas Jean. A healthy kindness-filled 2020 to you and your family and friends. I read your blog constantly, however do not remark. Thank you for the excellent reading recommendations, my bookshelves and my mind are expanded.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Merry Christmas, Jean! I very much enjoyed watching Hugh Grant - as, indeed, I have enjoyed his many performances over the years.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Merry Christmas, Jean and your followers! Love seeing Gudrun’s hap, which unfortunately was not the mother’s choice for the baby blanket currently growing here.

    ReplyDelete
  17. A very Merry Christmas Jean. As many other have said, I so enjoy reading your blog and I have also embarked on Anthony Trollope with Audible. Thanks for all the literary suggestions.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Merry Christmas!

    Any chance the shawl is between the chest and the wall? (I recently found my son’s bunny between the crib and the wall... where I would not have thought it would fit!)

    ReplyDelete
  19. A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I love reading your blog and have followed it for years.
    My husband and I watched the Two Popes yesterday and enjoyed it very much. I have some doubts as to the accuracy of the portrayals of specific conversations, but it was a fascinating character piece of the two men. I should add that my husband is catholic while I am not, so the movie stimulated a conversation between us.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Cannot believe the frying pan did not figure in the Hugh Grant biopic. Perhaps they are saving it for the feature-length movie version? Would have loved to have seen the show as I didn't manage to see Love Actually this year.

    ReplyDelete