Another cold day – and another one of non-achievement. I haven’t heard yet that Helen is safely home, but there hasn’t been any great fall of snow in central Perthshire. That’s something. JennyS (comment yesterday) – it’s wonderful that you remember the Blairgowrie telephone box which figured in yesterday’s anecdote. It was set somewhat back from the pavement, with benches on either side I think. On one of which was sitting the drunk woman who was involved in the events which followed.
Many years later,
that dear cat died in Kirkmichael. My husband and I sat with her while it
happened, and he buried her on the brae behind the house.
But
non-achievement includes no knitting. What’s the matter with me? I feel pretty
well, except for the blasted hip. I couldn’t help sympathising somewhat with Mr
Nadal, whose left hip took him out of the Australian Open yesterday. I’m sorry
they wasted the Radecanu-Gough pairing on the second round – Wimbledon would
have managed to avoid doing that – but I’m glad Gough won. I love her.
I have been
fighting midwinter gloom by reading Wodehouse. My husband and I read aloud at
bedtime for all of our long life together. Rather, I read. I couldn’t stay
awake otherwise. We got through a lot, from Tolstoy to J.K. Rowling via a lot
of Trollope, but Wodehouse was a failure. One couldn’t avoid laughing aloud,
and that isn’t conducive to subsequent sleep. Our great success was Ulysses. It’s
meant to be read aloud.
Wordle: I was the
class dunce again today. I got stuck with grn, grn, ??, ??, grn, and managed to
guess wrong three times. Mercifully, I got it on the sixth row. Threes and
fours elsewhere. My ambition is to get my percentage-wins up from 89 to 90
before my 90th birthday. I could set myself to do the arithmetic and
figure out how many more wins that would require, but I haven’t done it yet.
I remember Blairgowrie very well, my grandparents lived nearby for over twenty years . We loved visiting the whole area.I remember Kirkmichael too....
ReplyDeleteJennyS
It’s kind of a common allusion now, but the first time I read “Jeeves, peel me a grape” as a late teenager, I think I laughed for 5 whole minutes. It was such a nice sensation I’ve sought out humorous books ever since. Jean, I think hitting a knitting slump is pretty common. I hope yours doesn’t last too long. Maybe you can think of it as a knitting “vacation” or maybe try an entirely different type of project. Something to get excited about. Your sense of duty about your current WIPs might be robbing you of the joy you usually feel. End of amateur psychoanalysis. Chloe
ReplyDeleteI was introduced to Wodehouse as a teenager (thats a long time ago) and loved his books. They are still so readable.
ReplyDeleteBlairgowrie sounds familiar, maybe from travels long ago to relations in Aberfeldy. From there we took the long trek to Islay where many of my ex husband's family lived, died and are buried. Beautiful island.
My family all read Wodehouse. Also Benchley and Thurber. I have added Pratchett to that list, though the others are not as enthusiastic as I am. It's a rare writer whose books remain as good on the tenth reading as the first.
ReplyDeleteAfter nearly failing at Wordle yesterday, I got it in two tries today. Guesswork. I think the gloom is getting in the way of many of us. I went for a walk with a friend this morning, dodging slippery bits fairly successfully, and we tried to remember how long it had been since we had seen more than a tiny peek of sunshine. I’ll take subzero temperatures for a few days if we get some sun with it!
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