Thursday, July 23, 2020


Comme ci, comme ca – mostly ca.

Helen came this morning to chivvy me out, but I was so droopy that she spared me and anyway it was raining. C. is coming tomorrow. I hope she’ll have better luck. No knitting at all. The new clue – the final edging – looks interesting. I hope it will spur me on.

Andrew and Andrea have just turned up – I had almost despaired. Perhaps I could even knit a row this evening while watching some of it.

Reading

I’ve finished “Ralph the Heir”, everybody paired off nicely. There is an interesting page of padding on the subject of how much less care we often take in choosing a partner for life, than a businessman would take in selecting an associate.

And I’ve read much of “The Pursuit of Love” while drooping. Not quite as wonderful as I remembered. Perhaps “Love in a Cold Climate” is better.

You’re right about laughter, Gretchen. One of the very few authors my husband and I gave up on, for bedtime reading, was P.G. Wodehouse. Impossible to read without laughing aloud – and that wasn’t conducive to sleep.

The big news on the literary front is that we are to have a six-part adaptation of “A Suitable Boy” starting on Sunday. Will six parts be enough? There was talk of such a venture, decades ago, not long after the book was published. I remember reading that the BBC had selected an Indian city to stand in for the fictional Brahmpur. Then silence. Vikram Seth himself says that it was all so long ago he doesn’t much care what changes they make.

7 comments:

  1. Well, Jean, by getting me into this MKAL you have apparently opened the floodgates so to speak; I have signed up to do a MKAL with Casapinka. Have you ever knit any of her designs? I was attracted to this MKAL because this shawl is designed by Sharon From Security aka her cat Sharon. She is a stern taskmaster so I expect her to be sure we keep up with the clues. Trust me, there is nothing "cute kitty" about Sharon.

    The shawl is to be rectangular and takes 4 colors. Lots of dyers have sets but I think I am going to work from stash. Maybe. Of course new yarn...Go take a look at the pattern on Ravelry; it's called The Sharon Show. It starts Aug. 7. Once you buy the pattern, the "pre-clue" has information about how to choose colors. It's going to be fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh my goodness, A Suitable Boy in a 6-part series? Hard to see how that could do it justice but I’d watch it. Been thinking about rereading it for a while now. Hope they give sufficient time to the Calcutta family who speak in rhyming couplets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They speak in rhyming couplets! That would be enough for me to start reading Instantly if i hadn't just ordered a copy of An Equal Music!
      Sorry you've had a droopy day but (spoiler alert- I'm reading your posts backwards) glad to hear Friday is/was (now I'm confused as to which tense to use) better.

      Delete
  3. Give yourself a little recovery time after your accident before you assess your level of decline. Obviously healing will take longer as you age but little and often on the exercise should help - a couple of walks up and down your inside corridor, for example, or making a point of not just sitting for hours at a time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous10:15 AM

    My mother guided me to Wodehouse when I was still a teenager. "Jeeves, peel me a grape" sent me into bursts of laughter. I still think think of it is one of the funniest lines I've ever read, although it doesn't make me laugh anymore. Chloe

    ReplyDelete
  5. Allison2:27 PM

    Perhaps a chapter of Wodehouse every morning with breakfast would give you a perk up? That's one of laughter's greatest benefits, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  6. A Suitable Boy in 6 parts might work if each part was as long as a full-length feature! I'm not sure if I'm sad to be missing this, being on the wrong side of the Atlantic. Whatever happened to A Suitable Girl, I wonder?

    ReplyDelete