Snow!

Holy moly, did we get snow.  Last night when I went to bed it was raining.  This is what I saw when I opened the drapes in the morning.  That conical lump lying on its side covered in snow is the birdie tree.  When I went out to snowblow the driveway (thanks again for fixing it, LJ!) the weight of the wet snow convinced me that I wouldn't be able to lift the tree and stand it up all by myself.  





So I asked my renter to come over in the afternoon and he got it where I wanted it and tied it to the posts that the honeysuckle grows around.  I knocked most of the snow off the tree before he came out because, as you see, it was well-covered with the stuff.


 



Since it snowed most of the day I spent the day knitting.  I cast on and knitted the second white-and-black yarn to see if it's more what I was thinking of for that single Christmas knit.  It might be.  To be honest I think I'll finish them both, at least the body of them both, to see which one is the right one.

01 December--Barbara Malcolm, Spies Don't Retire. 

Enough procrastinating, George thought, and held the paper up to begin reading.  There was no salutation, no return address, just a date, and then the letter started right in.

     It has come to our attention that living on the island of Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles, is a former Soviet agent (Cover: university professor) by the name of Dimitri Roskova.  Roskova was the lead suspect in the investigation into leaking of information concerning the Army’s research and development of an anti-gravity propulsion system being conducted at a facility outside Tilleryton in Windsor.

     During our investigation after the discovery that vital formulae and the diagrams of prototypes had been leaked, all trails pointed to a senior technologist on the project, a woman named Talia Shoreham.  It was determined that Ms. Shoreham (37 years of age & unmarried) was the sole member of the group, aside from the principals, who had access to both formulae and diagrams.  The investigation revealed that Ms. Shoreham, a lonely spinster according to co-workers, had taken a night class offered by her local university in Russian Literature taught by Dimitri Roskova.  Roskova (aged 49 years at the time) was in Great Britain on a faculty exchange from Moscow University and living in Aldenham.  He was retained to teach sixteen hours per week while doing research in the British Museum on  papers bequeathed to them by Feodor Dostoyevsky.  This research was corroborated by Mr. Amery Chirchpatrick, head curator of ephemera, of the Museum and copies of the logs of Roskova’s visits and requests for files are on file.

     After the sudden (non-suspicious) death of the adjunct slated to teach a night course in Russian Literature, Roskova was asked to step in.  Friends of Ms. Shoreham indicated that she, by virtue of having had a Russian great-grandmother whose life she romanticized, signed up for the class and was excited that the substitute teacher would be, to quote her directly, “an actual Russian.”  Friends expressed fears that Ms. Shoreham’s contact with Roskova would be a great disappointment to her, as few could live up to her romantic dreams.

     It was proved that Roskova was seen in a café near to the university on several occasions with a group of middle-aged women, including Shoreham, after the first weeks of class.  As the term went on, the population of said group diminished until finally, approximately half way through term, Ms. Shoreham and Roskova were meeting alone.  Employees of the café (Mrs. Lebnen’s, corner of Broad and Front in Aldenham, closed in 2001) reported that Ms. Shoreham and Roskova engaged in lively discussions pertaining to the material covered in the course and not much else.  One young woman charged with clearing tables and washing up soiled dishes did mention that she overheard Ms. Shoreham quizzing Roskova on current life in Russia.  The young lady remembers thinking that to her Russia didn’t sound like a place she’d want to live in or even visit, so she thought Ms. Shoreham was daft to be so interested.  No other meetings between Ms. Shoreham and Roskova were witnessed or reported.  Close questioning on numerous occasions of Ms. Shoreham’s acquaintances did not produce any further information on their relationship.

     Shortly after the discovery of the leaking of the project information Roskova’s faculty exchange term ended and he returned back to Moscow.

     Ms. Shoreham was questioned along with the rest of the people involved in the development of the anti-gravity propulsion system.  She came to the head of the suspects list when it was learned that in the week afterwards she met a final time with Roskova, again in public at the café, and upon the day after that meeting, she ended her life by her own hand.”

I finished drizzling the fruitcakes with boozy syrup this morning so they can go downstairs now to mature for a couple weeks before they're ready to be eaten.  I've been going over the list of people I want to give it to and I think I have enough.  There's the cleaning lady, the renters, my trainer, my hairdresser, my writing partner, the Friday Night Knitters (5), my children... and me.  Which adds up to 13... uh oh.  Maybe there's only 4 FNK and maybe one kid won't want any...  It'll work out, it always does.
--Barbara