Tamar and Ron and Mary Lou, I was terribly touched that you remember Sam the Ram. That must have been in 2007. I won not only the Knitted Toy class with him that year, but also the Glenisla Shield upon which my name is permanently inscribed, for best-ness in two or three categories overall. He has lived ever since on the shores of Loch Fyne – when we got back home at the end of that afternoon, one of Alexander’s sons asked me, “Can I have your sheep?” As with many of us, his legs aren’t as firm as they used to be. Otherwise he’s fine.

 

The categories were a bit different this time: Knitted Sheep, on the one hand, and Knitted Toy, on the other. There were only two sheep, smaller than Sam but cleverer, I thought.

Tamar, all I can tell you is that the hole you've got to get the pole through in Tilt the Bucket is not very big. The bucket is poised on top of a sort of gibbet arrangement, attached to a paddle in which the hole appears. That hangs down below the beam on which the bucket rests, and when disturbed, swings upward as the contents of the bucket swing down. 

 

Knitting moved forward today, too. I did two more stripes on the second sleeve of the Evendoon pullover.

 

And I had my Tuesday bath. I don’t know how much longer it will be possible for me to get in and out of that bathtub, but it’s grand while it lasts.

 

Reading: Robert Galbraith’s “The Ink Black Heart” turned up today. I had ordered it a few days previously. Galbraith is of course J.K. Rowling, a remarkable writer. Wellington lies neglected. So far I am not enjoying it as much as I did previous Galbraiths. Too much social media. In quantity, fictional social media can be as boring as the real-life sort. However, it’s a very long book and there’s plenty of time for it to improve. And in a few days’ time Richard Osman’s third “Thursday Murder Club” will be here.  

 

Wordle: I was the dunce today – I scored five. Four for Thomas and Mark, three for Alexander and Ketki. My started words gave me five brown tiles – a pure anagram to solve. That’s never happened before. And I thought of a possible answer – alas, a Jean-word because one of the browns was in the position it had occupied before, and that’s not allowed. It told me nothing, that word, except to provide positions that letters couldn’t occupy. Then I thought of another anagram of my five letters. This time I got a green, and by now I knew three places – plus the spot where the green tile was – where each letter couldn’t be. Except for the one that hadn’t moved in line three, and even for it I knew two wrong places. The answer was workable-outable from there.