A Sunday in York with Sarah and William

As I was in York for the Sloggers & Betters Event, I arranged to meet up with Sarah and William for a while before heading for home.

Sloggers & Betters Weekend York

This weekend I was off again to York for John Henderson's annual crossword bloggers and setters get together, known as the Sloggers & Betters do. I really enjoyed them in both 2018 and 2019. And this time I qualified as both a blogger and setter! This was the original invite....

Jumbo Time

Times Cryptic Jumbo 1522 - 16th October

I found this an entertaining Jumbo of about average diffculty; (almost) nothing to frighten the horses and a number of clues that had me smiling. I was finished all bar 1 in about 37 minutes, but then got stuck on 47D, where I knew neither of the two definitions and after another 7 fruitless minutes staring perplexedly at it eventually had to look for help. I don't know if it was just me, but there seemed to be a lot of letter deletion clues. Maybe that's what 1A was trying to tell us! Ticks went on my copy for several clues, and there were a few where I enjoyed teasing out the wordplay (e.g.17D) or I word I didn't know (e.g. 42D), but my favourite was 49A. Thank-you setter. How did everyone else get on?

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More Pickled Jalapeños

Time to give up on the Jalapeños ripening - only a handful had turned red. And to make some more pickled jalapeños, but this time without the honey.

Green Tomato Chutney

Dawn had harvested the last of the cherry tomatoes at the weekend and a lot of them were never going to ripen., so I decided to try some Green Tomato Chutney.

Devil's Kiss Chilli Sauce

Today I made some Devil's Kiss sauce, another favourite. The name was chosen by the children the first time I made it in 2018 (see here) or maybe earlier

Saffron Walden Walk

Today we had a walk in and around Saffron Walden. I thought I'd been there more than once before, but it seems it was only this Ramblers walk from September 2018.

Shotley Point Walk

It was a lovely morning and Dawn asked, "Shall we go for a walk?". But of course. I had a little browse through my walk index pages (2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 - which is now up to date) and chose this one we had done in October 2018 from Shotley Point.

Chilli Jam

This proved very popular when I made it a couple of years ago (see here), so I thought I'd make some more with some of the lovely red cayenne peppers we have.

Honeyed Jalapeños

 

Pickled on Friday afternoon and labelled yesterday...

Brandon Allen at the Hunter Club

 

Last night we were at the Hunter Club again for some Jazz.

Another good Izetti Quick Crossword

Times Quick Cryptic No 1989 by Izetti

A crossword from our old cruciverbal adversary Izetti today to end this week's series of Times Quick Cryptics. I enjoyed this a lot, particularly 22A and the smattering of cleverly vague definitions that made them not easy to biff. I finished with the historical geographical region at 14D that may be unfamiliar to some, but is generously clued, and 20A, where I needed the crossing letter from 17D to find the animal. All fairly clued, but at the harder end of the spectrum if my time is anything to go by, finishing about 2 minutes over my average time for a QC in just over 7 minutes. Thank-you Izetti! How did everyone else get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Phil's turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the latest crossword here. Enjoy! And if anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to them here.

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Weekend Quick Cryptic 36 - by Phil Jordan

Click here to read about the origin of this series of crosswords.

A brief history of the origins of these crosswords for those who are new to them. As a blogger of the Times Quick Cryptic Crossword on Times for The Times every other Friday, I have often had comments on the blog bemoaning that The Times only provides a Quick Cryptic on Mondays to Fridays. When I finally gave up work at the end of February last year, I decided that I would try my hand at compiling crosswords. It was with some trepidation that I published, in May, the first of these Weekend Quick Cryptics to fill the gap. Well it seemed to go down well so I did another. And then my fellow crossword solver and commenter on Times for the Times, Phil Jordan, volunteered to produce some too. And then, more recently, so did Sawbill. So now the three of us take turns, publishing each new crossword via my Friday Quick Crossword blog. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here.

This time it is Phil's turn to provide the fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic crossword. 

U3A Bury St. Edmunds Lecture October 21

 Today I attended my first U3A monthly lecture in the Apex... 

Razorback Sauce

Yesterday it was time to make some chilli sauce from the first of our chilli crop. The padron peppers are for salads or cooking with and the jalapeños need a bit of ripening, but we have plenty of red cayenne peppers, which will be great for an old favourite - Razorback Sweet Chilli Sauce.

Boudica is Innocent!

When we did the first part of the Boudicca Way (sic - there are various spellings!) recently I meant to take along my historical notes from when we did part 2 of the walk last November to regale people with when we had our lunch stop. But I failed to print the right page. Grr. 

Subscribing to Blog Updates

Some people have asked how they can get updates to my blog. If you would like to subscribe to get an email when there are new posts (there will never be more than one email a day), this is how to do it... 

Ickworth Park Walk

Today we did a familiar walk at Ickworth House starting and finishing at Chevington Church.

More Sax Please

Having had the piano tuned for the first time in years (see here), I've started playing it again. And that has encouraged me to start addressing a remaining goal I set when I retire...

Halloween Postbox

We had Laura and Lawrence here for the day on Sunday and went out for a short walk after our Sunday Roast Beef lunch. Look what we found on top of a local postbox!

The Demon Barber...

...of Tassel Rd.  After all her work in the garden over the last few weekends, Dawn finally got time to give me another haircut yesterday.

Chilli Harvest - First Crop

 Yesterday Dawn cropped most of this year's chilli harvest, so look what I've now got to do something with...

That's a washing-up bowlful on the right and colander full on the left.

Photo Count Competition

At last night's meal at the end of Day 4 of our East Devon Holiday, I was told of a competition Joyce had organised. Everyone was invited to guess how many photos I had stored on my memory card in my camera over the 4 days, before editing or deleting. These were the guesses...

A Feast of Anagrams from Mara

Times Quick Cryptic No 1979 by Mara

A great Quick Cryptic from Mara today to end the week if you are a fan of anagrams. Blimey! No less than 10 of them (if I can count that far correctly)! Nothing obscure or too difficult, I think, but I found I didn't know how to spell the country at 5D and there are a couple of tricky clues that might give some a bit of head-scratching. Thumbs up or thumbs down to the homophone? (I won't spoil it by naming the clue). Thumbs up from me for eliciting a groan when I saw it. A little over average time of me of about 5 1/2 minutes. Nice one. Thank-you Mara! How did you all get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword, entitled "Berried" (based on the horrible pun that is my username and a related homonym) here. Enjoy! And if anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to them here.

( Read all about it... )

Sid Valley Ring Walk

Today was Day 4 of our East Devon trip and our longest (and hilliest) walk of the week, the Sid Valley Ring. It is meant to be a 13 mile walk with options to cut it a bit shorter and we chose one of the options, the Byes Link which should have made it 9 miles...

Weekend Quick Cryptic 35 - Berried by Johninterred

Click here to read about the origin of this series of crosswords.

A brief history of the origins of these crosswords for those who are new to them. As a blogger of the Times Quick Cryptic Crossword on Times for The Times every other Friday, I have often had comments on the blog bemoaning that The Times only provides a Quick Cryptic on Mondays to Fridays. When I finally gave up work at the end of February last year, I decided that I would try my hand at compiling crosswords. It was with some trepidation that I published, in May, the first of these Weekend Quick Cryptics to fill the gap. Well it seemed to go down well so I did another. And then my fellow crossword solver and commenter on Times for the Times, Phil Jordan, volunteered to produce some too. And then, more recently, so did Sawbill. So now the three of us take turns, publishing each new crossword via my Friday Quick Crossword blog. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here.

This time it is my turn to provide the fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic crossword. As is hinted at by the title, there is a theme. It is based on the terrible pun that is my username plus a related homonym that results in a different theme in some of the across clues from some of the downs. Can you work it out and spot the thematic answers?

Darts Farm and the Exe Estuary to Exeter

Today was Day 3 of our break in East Devon. We were to meet at Darts Farm, walk to Topsham Turf Ferry, take the ferry across the river and walk into Exeter up the other side of the river before returning to Topsham by train.

Lord Lieutenant of Somerset Award

I mentioned that sister Kirsty had joined us for Day 1 and Day 2 of our East Devon trip. And here's why. She was the nominated guest for sister Sue at an award ceremony in Ilminster, just 20 miles from where we were staying last night so was able to come down in her camper van and stay over the night before.

Exmouth and the Exe Estuary

Today was day 2 of our East Devon break. Today we were going to Exmouth to walk along the Exe Estuary towards Exeter and take the train back.

Sidmouth Walk

 Today was the start of Joyce's Weekly Walks trip to East Devon - 4 days of fun beckoned.

Good Sense Research

I may have mentioned before that I get to do some interesting tastings regularly for a market research company Good Sense Research.