Thursday September 20, restored, actually

Strathardle today. Helen and Archie will join us on Saturday. Back here Tuesday, if all goes well. I am anxious about it.

We have a tree to plant. I decided not to replace the pinus sylvestris aurea the neighbour’s horses ate – the one our children gave us as a golden wedding present. (I moved the corpse into my vegetable garden and watched all summer for a spark of life. Nothing.) We are going to put a pinus bungeana in the spot, now heavily fortified.

Bungeana is a Chinese tree, much grown in temple courtyards. James suggested it. It is hardy, as it would have to be in Peking winters. It likes sunshine, but will have to make do – at least we hope it will – with what Strathardle can offer. I got it from the Bluebell Nursery. They rang up most solicitously, the day after I ordered it, to make sure I knew how to take care of it and was aware that it would grow very slowly at first.

It’s most peculiar looking. I hope I can keep it alive. There is one in the Royal Botanic Gardens here, so we’re in with a chance.

We’ve had splendid Indian summer planting days recently, but the weather has turned against us this morning and the forecast isn’t good.

I told James we had a bungeana at last. He was pleased, and asked for a picture of it in situ. 

Knitting

All well so far on the second attempt to knit the st st fill-in for the jacket.

 I went into the new local LYS yesterday, Kathy’s Knits, glad of an excuse to do so, and bought point protectors. And a skein of sock yarn, sort of on the principle which prompts my husband to try, at least, to buy something whenever he goes into a second-hand book store. Knitglobal, it’s called. New to me. She is serious about selling British yarn.

I see she is planning to start classes soon. I’ve signed up for info.

I very much like your idea, Mary Lou, of holding stitches on narrow ribbon instead of waste yarn. I will look for some. What I am doing here is taking 2” worth of stitches at a time – namely 11 – and holding them on the end of the circular, separated from the actual back-and-forth stitches with a marker. I know I need to knit together stitches number 3&4, 7&8, and 10&11 to make things lie flat. By paying attention, I find I can manage this without difficulty so I have skipped Glover’s suggestion this time, of marking the knit-together pairs with sewing cotton.