Empty Nest Syndrome

The osprey chicks are gone, on their way to Africa. Their mum left over a week ago, before they had learnt to fish, but they've been seen with muddy feet so presumably they mastered it without her. Neither of them brought a fish back to the nest but that's maybe because they didn't want a hungry brother or sister to take it from them. You can track them here: you can see that Deshar (the male, who is a few days younger) made a big loop out over the sea while Nethy, his big sister, headed south right away. Maybe he was looking for something to eat.

Icarus is progressing: this was yesterday afternoon. Since then I have finished Chart 3 and am one third of the way through Chart 4.
I've just started the fourth ball of yarn. I'm not too worried about running out because I've almost decided to finish off with two or four rows of plain black -well, maybe not too plain; Kidsilk Night comes in a black with little twinkles in it which I think I like. I've ordered the beads, but it's a holiday weekend in the south so I expect they won't get here for ages.


In the ball the Graphite is very grey but the black and white are more pronounced when it's knitted up. I think the twinkly black will add definition to the edge.

It doesn't look like much at the moment but blocking will work wonders. Honest.

I have been asked to provide a stripy hat and scarf for my youngest relation so I think I might try brooklyn tweed's Turn a Square hat: it will give me an opportunity to practise jogless stripes. The colours will probably be purp and pinkle.

BBC4 has recently repeated Sleepers which I must have missed first time round in 1991: I can't imagine why I missed it because I had a television that year and I like the actors - Warren Clarke and Nigel Havers - and it's a lovely script. It's about two Russian deep cover spies who got forgotten in Britain for 25 years and then go on the run and are chased by MI5, the KGB and the CIA. The comedy arises from the three agencies misinterpreting each others' actions, and the fact that the two spies have absorbed the prejudices of their adopted classes, and it's very gently done. I've watched most of it and am saving the last half-hour as a treat.