I’m sorry about yesterday’s gap. I got my hair washed and cut, and the effort left me sharply impressed with how much ground I have lost recently. One doesn’t notice quite so much, going round and round one’s own gerbil cage. And the hairdresser – new to me – had one sitting in front of a full-length mirror so there I was with my old hands on my shabby knees. (Dear Charles, my hairdresser until he retired recently, had the wit to provide smaller mirrors. All one needs to see is the hair. He also had a daughter married to an Italian and living somewhere near Naples; perhaps inspired by her, he served delicious coffee. And he was very good at cutting hair.)

 

Still, I got there; I got back; and I look much tidier.

 

I went out for my walk early today – 1585 steps so far. But the day is young – I’m writing to you much earlier than usual. It’s wet and windy. They used to say something like “A wet and windy May/ fills the hay ricks with hay”: meaning that a wet and windy May was the preface to a good summer. We shall see. 2479 steps altogether yesterday – I felt there should have been more, given what a struggle it was to walk to the hairdresser’s.

 

Language

 

There was a headline in the Times yesterday saying that the Scottish hotel industry had been decimated by Covid. And in the first sentence of the story beneath, we were told that 10% of  Scottish hotels have closed. I am sorry for their misfortune, but was delighted to discover that somewhere out there, among the Times’s subeditors, is someone who shares my knowledge of what “decimate” really means.

 

I was reminded of the time – and I wish I could remember the context – when I heard a BBC radio announcer say that someone had “literally dropped a clanger”. You could hear the pleasure in her voice. She was talking about someone who had let fall a hand-bell.

 

Knitting

 

I am pressing forward with that Pairfect sock. As suspected, there is no change of pattern. The foot has just got longer. I find from that useful page in my Lotus Organiser that Rachel’s feet – I have chosen Rachel for these socks, because she has the smallest feet I am acquainted with – that Rachel’s feet are 58 rounds, after the final gusset decrease. I am currently somewhere in the 40’s, so, not far to go. Maybe even today.

 

Thank you for all your (conflicting) advice. Tamar:”The socks are very pretty, but the stash is full.” That’s impossible. “Stash” is an infinitely expanding concept. Mary Lou: it’s been so long since I knit socks (=since I went anywhere) that I come to them fresh and delighted, and don’t think I could tire during a 10-day cruise. I found myself wondering, a day or so ago, whether I remembered how to turn a heel (standard vanilla, heel flap, heel, gusset). I’m glad to be able to report that the answer is, yes.

 

KayT, a Majestic Line cruise is interesting indeed, but still leaves plenty of time for knitting. The summit of my ambition is to get aboard next Saturday. The entertainment consists of delicious food, three times a day, and an outing of some sort every day. I will leave that to C. – she’s an energetic walker. If we ever dock anywhere, I will stroll ashore: but on my previous cruise, that only happened once. All the other stops meant going ashore by tender, and the trouble with that is that you have to stay ashore until the tender comes back for you.

 

I plan to take up birdwatching. I have the RSPB volume on the birds of Scotland (there are an awful lot of them) and a pair of binoculars James gave me. That will still leave plenty of time for knitting. And C. can tell me about the local points of interest when she gets back. I think one of our stops will be Inverewe Gardens: I’ll go ashore that day if strength allows.