Another grey, chill day.

 

And an uncomfortable one. My hip gave me a bad night. My sister and my daughter—we might call them Big Helen and Little Helen – both warn me that things might get much worse suddenly, when the hip collapses. My sister is a doctor. My daughter says she heard this from one of the orthopaedic surgeons we consulted, although I don’t remember it. But the thought has made me miserable all day, after the restless night. I made myself a Mindful Chef lunch. That involves tottering around the kitchen a good deal, which I usually regard as healthy exercise.  But today it made me wonder if I was hastening disaster. My sister says that my condition – osteo-necrosis – is very unusual. That’s a boost, anyway.

 

Not much knitting, either. I struck a bad patch last night, after I wrote to you, and again, sensibly, laid it aside until this morning. Everything is straightened out now – but the trouble was that something was wrong in the pattern row before the one I was knitting last night, and I certainly wasn’t going back to fix that. Kirsten, thank you for your comment (yesterday). That’s absolutely it. I’ve done half a pattern repeat today, and will attempt a bit more (cautiously) later on.

Helen was here this morning. She says that my plan won't work -- of making a driveway out through the sheep field (see yesterday) -- because there is too steep a gradient at the far end, and because there is a length of track, between our field and the public road, which probably belongs to the neighbours. You can see why disputes like this so often appear in the newspapers, and why lawyers are so prosperous. 

 

Wordle: Another five for me. Alexander had one too, but he was being a bit silly with his line 4. Mark and Thomas did it in three. Fours elsewhere.