Helen and I got around the garden again. I think we’ve reached the point where it can be said to be a good week. James and Cathy’s younger daughter Kirsty is here for a bit of Festival Fringe – I will walk with her tomorrow.

 

Today’s knitting time has been devoted, pretty well entirely, to trying on the new Evendoon – which I completely forgot to photograph. As far as we could tell, everything is all right. I spent a tedious hour getting the stitches back on the needle, and am forging ahead. The moment of separating off the sleeve stitches (I’m knitting top-down) is not far off.

 

I have heard from Misa Hay that the new issue of Shetland Wool Adventure is ready for dispatch. What I can’t remember is whether I ordered and paid for it, or just noted it as something I would like to have. Time will tell if I just sit tight.

 

Cats: thank you for your comments. I can assure you that unplanned motherhood is rare among the cats of the Second New Town, and perfectly ordinary kittens sell for big bucks on Gumtree. I went to a shelter once – why on earth? – and there were no kittens there. There is a belief to which I tend to subscribe – I am sure it would be fiercely denied by our vet – that the personality of a cat who has had a litter of kittens is less radically affected by spaying. Certainly poor Perdita (who has never known motherhood) is a much reduced creature since her operation. Although we still love her the best.

 

Wordle: Four for Alexander and Thomas. Both of them lept straight from one coloured tile to the right answer. Ketki and I both needed five, and Mark required all six. Rachel in London, harassed no doubt by the need to pack for a holiday in France, reached the same point I did on line three: two greens at the beginning of the word and one at the end. It defeated her.