Another grey day. We in Edinburgh are getting tired of them. C.  came and got me to Mass. That’s getting harder every week, like the Tuesday bath. (But what a pleasure, to see my nasturtiums on the doorstep! They’re doing splendidly.)

 

And next week will be harder still. It’s Pentecost, of course, and it’s also the day of the Edinburgh marathon. We’ve had instructions from the university chapel which we attend about how to navigate the blocked-off roads. There’s one moment when we have to present ourselves at a checkpoint and tell them we’re on our way to Mass. But what if… And so far we haven’t looked up the entire story of road closures, to see whether C. is going to be able to drive across the city to get me, and drive us back again.

 

I am fond of the liturgy at Pentecost above all the rest of the year – the Medes and the Elamites and the parts of Libya around Cyrene. (Ronald Knox speaks somewhere of the pious woman enthusing to the priest about “that blessed word Mesopotamia”. That’s how I feel, about the parts of Libya around Cyrene.)

 

The university chapel is staffed by Dominicans and I’m sure they’ll get it right. It used to be an annual excitement, in the days when my husband and I toiled up Broughton Street to the cathedral, to see what would happen. At the worst, a pious adolescent who had done no preparation was suddenly confronted with the whole list. There was one year when it had been spectacularly mangled, and the Provost repeated it all in his sermon, being clearly a man who loved it as I do.

 

Comments: Mary Lou, I think that, like you, I’ve heard part of that program about the Georgics. Now that you’ve reminded me, I’ll aim to find and play it the next time I get to a plain knit row. I did no knitting today, what with Mass. And I won’t attempt any this evening, what with not feeling entirely well. I’ve still got that last, long pattern row to do.

 

Wordle: A cruel disappointment this morning. My starter words gave me four letters, in place. I promptly thought of an answer (the right one) but then reconsidered and thought of another, which seemed more probable. But it was wrong, so I scored four. The same thing happened to C. Ketki joined us there. Thomas and Alexander and Rachel scored the three I feel I deserved. Mark, as not infrequently, was the day’s star, with two. And poor Theo floundered, and needed five. No news from Roger – so, is he in London or not?