Saturday, April 18, 2020


A successful day, I guess. I’m ready for bed.

But I had a good Italian lesson – and I learned something. To Roman ears like Federica’s, the Pope speaks with a slight Spanish accent. He sounds utterly Italian to me.

Helen came and cleaned with great efficiency while I had a bath. In the good old days, I would submerge until the water was not far from my nostrils and read a thriller or the Vogue Knitting Book (as it was then called). Nowadays, I don’t dare do other than kneel and wash myself. But it’s nice to be clean.

Here is a picture Helen took of me and the Virus Scarf, for my Instagram account. Which is entirely maintained by her. Whatever wild venture I may or may not embark on next, I must finish 80% of the scarf, at least, before ordering materials.



Then we went for our walk. Drummond Place Gardens are all April-glorious. I harvested some wild garlic and have just had a pleasant supper of macaroni tossed with wild garlic pesto.

Tomorrow after virtual Mass we are going to have virtual coffee, via Zoom. How will it work? For in real life, of course, we don’t all sit around the room with our actual coffee having a committee meeting – we talk in twos and threes and fours. Is Zoom up to it? An interesting experiment.

Things aren’t getting done. I will make a serious list tomorrow morning and see if I can’t work through a few items.

8 comments:

  1. Interesting, the Pope's Italian accent. One might say this is the one way in which you shouldn't emulate him if you seek perfection.

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  2. What a lovely photo of you, Jean!
    Zoom is a funny thing. It's better than nothing.
    I'm glad you had a nice bath and I keep waiting for a new Vogue. I get the digital copy and it's just showing late winter.

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  3. Very good photo of you Jean, and the scarf looks great. I have seen knitting videos (on you tube) using Zoom with 4 people. keep taking carexx

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  4. So pleased to hear you're on Instagram Jean

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  5. Anonymous11:11 PM

    Very nice picture.

    But where are your roommates?

    Beverly in NJ

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  6. I, too, looked in vain for Perdita and Paradox. But the scarf, and you, Jean, look wonderful. Zoom coffee hour is better than none, but in the three weeks I have attempted to join the one at my church, I have never succeeded, because of technical difficulties on the church’s end (I am teaching three courses remotely via Zoom and attending work meeting on it, all successfully). We shall see how today goes. With more than five or six participants, the sessions can become chaotic if people do not either raise hands to speak or use the chat function, the latter of which can be a boon to the more reticent.

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  7. Is your Instagram only for family things? Otherwise, let us know. Fun to see you in action. Ive been reading that all over cities and towns, animal are coming out of hiding, since there are so few people about. Goats in a Welsh village, mountain lions in Colorado. This morning on my walk I watch a Wild Turkey mating ritual, and got close enough to film a bit of it with my phone. Then I allowed them a bit of privacy.

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  8. That's a lovely portrait!

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