A pretty good day. Helen came, and we circumnavigated the garden. There is a moment in the year, no longer than 10 days at the very most, when it’s all about to start. Like the moment when the conductor raps his baton on his music stand and raises his arms. And this is it, for Edinburgh, and the sky was blue again.

I got through to Sunday Knits with no delay at all today – increasing my suspicion that my previous difficulty was due to her server, not to mine. I suspect I will do some stash enhancing before I go to bed. I feel one is doing one’s bit for the world economy by spending one’s dwindling reserves on small businesses – but since Carol doesn’t have a shop she has presumably been relatively unaffected by all this unpleasantness. Kathy’s Knits, around the corner from here, is offering some innovative on-line services. I have been worried about her.

Meanwhile the Virus Scarf progresses well. I fear it will be finished long before any stash enhancement could arrive – not that I’ve not got plenty of stash to hand. It’s getting to be more fun, too – the colourful bits at the further end are a relief after the long passages of base colour in the middle. Who would like it? I don’t think it’s quite Me. One imagines an undergraduate grandson – and that doesn’t quite work, with the universities closed.

Non-knit

Meanwhile I’ve been eating the Wrong Cabbage kimchi. It tastes fine. It’s certainly a bit chewy – not that there’s anything wrong with chewing. But that’s a strong incentive to make the kimchi soup that you recommended the other day, Mary Lou.

Even the glossy cookery magazines have caught up with what’s happening by now, and I am greatly taken with the idea (toyed with before) of sourdough. The drawback is that I don’t eat much bread. But Helen is interested, and also about-to-become-a-father Manaba (who is a serious cook): so maybe I could make some sourdough starter and pass it on.

One of the downsides to sourdough starter is that you keep having to throw half of it away and “feed” it anew. Alexander says not to throw anything away – add egg and milk and chopped vegetables and make sourdough pancakes. I feel inspired. And I have succeeded in booking a supermarket delivery slot for later this week – and they’ve got flour! (Which has become as scarce as lavatory paper.)