Sloggers & Betters Weekend

From one hobby to another. No sooner home from walking in Marbella and I was off again to York for John Henderson's annual Crossword bloggers and setters get together, known as the Sloggers & Betters do. I went last year and it was lots of fun. As before there was a pub crawl on the Friday night, with a quiz which had a new round in each pub.

This was our route this year.

It had started raining on my way up the A1 on Friday and it didn't stop until yesterday afternoon, so I needed my waterproof and umbrella.

I joined a group of Neil, Richard, Helen and Sid to take part in the quiz. We had great fun identifying the themes and hidden messages in the answers for each linked group of questions, but we came a bit unstuck with the pictures, so we didn't win.

Then yesterday the main event was at the Fox & Roman pub again. Last year we had a fiendish themed crossword to solve. This time John had provided us with a jigsaw style crossword, where the clues were laid out in alphabetical order of the answers. There was also another little twist - each answer had 1 letter missed out by the wordplay. Very tricky. I teamed up with Tim from Ipswich (aka Encota, a setter for the Listener, Enigmatic Variations, Inquisitor and The Magpie) and Nora from the 3D Crosswords team, and we managed to crack it before turning to the other puzzles of the day. But conversation and lunch stopped us doing more than a couple more.

I enjoyed meeting a number of other bloggers, quite a few setters (including Puck, Tramp, Vlad and Hectence) and other solvers, several of whom are regulars at the Times Crossword Championships. I look forward to meeting several of them again at this year's, on the 7th December.

You can get the other crosswords we were provided with yesterday here.

QC Blogging Day

Times Quick Cryptic No 1469 by Jalna

My first Jalna Quick Crossword to blog today, and just the second from this new setter after his/her debut on 20th August. Many found that one tough and there are a few tricky clues here today, I think, including one (23A) that I have difficulty in getting to work. But there are some lovely surfaces, clever misdirections and neat wordplay. I had several candidates for Clue Of the Day, but I vote for 7A as the pick of the bunch. Thank-you Jalna. I was surprised to find I got through this in a well-under-average 4:46. How did everyone else get on?

( Read all about it... )

Marbella and Puerto Banus

Today was our last day in Marbella before a late night flight home from Malaga. It was quite breezy today but still pleasantly warm. Joyce had mentioned that you can get a catamaran trip to Puerto Banus from the harbour, so we went to see if we could find it. Yes we could. It is called Fly Blue and it was running every hour so we got some tickets.

It was a great way to see Marbella from the sea and we got just one-way tickets so we could walk back along the sea front. The sea was rather choppy, though, which made for an entertaining ride. Here are some photos and a video.

There are lots of fish in the harbour.

 

Here comes the catamaran

Here is a little video clip...

... and some more pictures.

Fortunately this passed us by out to sea as we walked back to the Marbella.

William still had one thing on his list of things to do, to find some churros, which we did here...

That wasn't a proper meal, though, so we then went to my favourite eating place of the week, The Marbella Patio and ate on the eponymous covered patio with this rather odd water-feature.

The salad was nice.

Then, after a bit more sight-seeing, it was a taxi to the bus station and the bus to Malaga airport for the plane home.

Well that was a lovely week in Spain. I'm already looking forward to Mallorca in the spring again.

You can see more of my photos today here on Flickr.

Sutton Heath Walk

Today we have a guest post from Joyce. On one of her walks recently somebody commented that if I wasn't on a walk then there was no record of it to remind people. Well I couldn't be on this one as I was still in Spain on a day trip to Setenil de las Bodegas and Ronda. So Joyce took some photos and wrote up today's. Over to you Joyce...

Hi everyone….while John was enjoying a few more days exploring Spain our usual weekly walking group tackled a new route near Woodbridge. This was the invite:

"Tuesday 22nd Oct I'm offering a different (and later) walk at Sutton/Rendlesham in the hope of some sandy conditions underfoot. We will meet at Sutton Heath Car Park, Woodbridge Road, B1083. Nearest Postcode IP12 3TG at 11am and we will do a 10 mile walk towards the River Deben."

This was the route...

Sutton Heath is a special place for many people and the miles of paths are very popular. Lowland heath is rare in Britain and provides a home for numerous animals, insects and plants. We used some of the iconic Sandlings Walk route and it provided us with broad, sandy tracks.  Scots Pines are a feature of the Heath and are native to Britain. These trees have orange flaky bark and produce lots of small cones. They provide a home for many insects and birds. Even the wood from dead trees is important as it provides a home for insects and fungi. We certainly saw lots of fungi.

Here are some photos.

We all agreed that a short stop at The Sorrel Horse pub at Shottisham would be a good idea before we tackled the muddy part of the walk.

 

[Note from editor: What has Roland been up to to deserve this?].

We passed Wood Hall Manor – popular as a wedding venue.

We were heading Westwards now towards the River Deben and we were rewarded with some spectacular views. The River Deben never fails to disappoint and in particular the Tide Mill at Woodbridge looked fab in the sunshine. We passed lots of vast fields on which turf is grown for prestigious sports pitches.

Our last section took us through Sutton Hoo. This is the site of two 6th- and early 7th-century cemeteries. One cemetery contained an undisturbed ship-burial, including a wealth of Anglo-Saxon artefacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance, most of which are now in the British Museum. You can read more here (and John's post from a visit earlier this year, here).

A lovely 10+ mile walk for an Autumn Day and one to be repeated asap

Thank-you Joyce! I wish I could have been on it. And a lovely job with the photos and write-up. Give us some more soon.

Setenil de las Bodegas and Ronda Day Trip

Another day excursion from Marbella to day, another full day  tour with Julia Travel to Setenil de las Bodegas and Ronda. Lovely views from the coach as we travelled through the mountains and then just a short time in the picturesque white village, built into the rocks, of Setenil - just time to walk up the shady side and back down the sunny side. Then it was on to Ronda, with spectacular views... and the sight of rain heading toawrds us from the mountains. And then it rained. Never mind. We still got to visit the bull ring, had a wine-tasting and lunch in a local restaurant before returning to the Costa del Sol, seeing snow lying by the road on the way!

Here are a few of my photos.

We stopped at a service station in the mountains. It was definitely a bit cooler than Marbella.

Some photos of Setenil.

From the terrace in the botanic gardens in Ronda we could see the rain coming.

The town is a long way up from the valley floor.

By the time we got to the Plaza del Toro, it was raining steadily.

We crossed the "new bridge" above the gorge.

We got a wine tasting here...

 ...and had lunch here.

On our way back, there was some snow at the side of the road. It wasn't there when we went the other way.

A pity about the weather in Ronda, but it was still a great day trip.

You can see more of my photos here on Flickr.