It never rains but it pours: another great-grandchild! Thomas rang up today – Rachel and Ed’s elder son, oldest child. He and his wife Lucy are also expecting a baby in May. (They already have two little girls.) ("Also", because that is when his brother Joe's first child is expected.) The scan was slightly delayed because their nanny tested positive recently, so they were all in strict isolation. So who is going to get the boy?

 

I’ll have to rev up my knitting. For this one, I think, Mary Lou’s wonderful Pollywog again – the sweater which can easily be pulled over an infant head. I think I’ve done enough Baby Surprises, although it’s endlessly fun. I’d have to toil back through the blog to see what Thomas and Lucy have had in the past: the Dunfallendy blankie, I’m pretty sure, was for them. My notes in Lotus Organizer are inadequate. A shawl for the second? I think but am not sure.

 

Otherwise there is little to report, although that’s a lot. Not much knitting. I’ve been very feeble. Plans are afoot for celebrating the Queen’s 70 years on the throne, in June 2022. Her father died in February of that year, but she prefers not to have a party on that anniversary and anyway June is nicer. We are to have an extra public holiday. And if she, at her age, can look forward that far, I ought to be able to manage something similar. I was terribly pleased when she passed Victoria’s total of years on the throne, and became the longest-reigning monarch since William the Conqueror. Especially as Victoria inherited the crown at a younger age, and took years off to mourn Albert, and wasn’t much use in extreme old age, whereas our Queen has kept her nose to the grindstone throughout, including extreme old age.

And as for the election, it begins to sound as if a Trump's support is crumbling slightly -- a few sensible Republicans have peeled off and acknowledged that the election was lost. But there's still no end in sight, and the BBC says that White House staff are working as normal.

 

I’m nearly finished with Maestro-Don Gesualdo, and hope to polish it off this evening, before my Italian lesson tomorrow. It’s awfully good.