Pretty droopy, but atleast I have taken a step or two forward today. I’ve done some knitting, and – in a sense – straightened out that mistake in the first row of the final pattern – Clue Five – of the Stillness Shawl MKAL. It’ll be perfectly visible as a mistake, but future rows (and there are TWELVE of them to go) will be knit correctly all the way across – k3tog, k3, yo, K1, yo, k3 – and that in turn will make a subsequent mistake slightly less likely.

 

Needless to say there’s a stretchy bind-off at the end which won’t be quick.

 

Despite droopiness, I have made a circuit of the gardens most days, in variable weather. Helen’s sons Fergus and Archie flew off to Greece this morning to join their father and their brother Mungo for a fortnight or so. She is going to Strathardle this weekend for a house party with some school friends.

 

I’ve read a lot of “A Suitable Boy”, perhaps enjoying it even more this time. It’s a novel about India (not just set there) – and there’s a lot about politics that the television series will have to omit. The fictional time is not long after Independence and Partition. The new nation is finding its feet. There were flags at half-mast and official mourning when George VI died (the Queen’s father), and the counting of ballots in the general election of 1952 was suspended for a few days  – that’s rather touching. He was, of course, the last Emperor of India.

 

Another thing that will have to go are some fascinating passages about shoe-making. One of the candidates for the title role is involved in that trade, which is rather infra dig for an upper caste Indian because of the necessary association with leather. Vikram Seth has taken the trouble to find out how it’s done.

 

Today is of course the 75^th anniversary of Hiroshima. I think we were right to drop that bomb. The end of the war with Japan would have been infinitely prolonged and infinitely ghastly otherwise.