Jock's Spot

Well this was a blast from the past!

Dr. Laura Moody - A Celebration

I mentioned in my post about yesterday's walk that I had a phone call from Laura after her PhD viva telling me she had passed with only a few minor corrections needed to her thesis. Hooray!  Well done Laura, and I hope the results of her research will go on to save the lives of many people suffering from mesothelioma.

Berner's Heath Walk

Today we visited Berner's Heath, which is only open from the start of November through to the end of February. I walked it before with Joyce when we were allowed only 1:1 walks in February, as you can read here. This time we were able to do it as a group.

A neat Quick Crossword from Tracy

Times Quick Cryptic No 2011 by Tracy

As your regular Tuesday blogger Chris is away for a while, I've come off the substitutes' bench to fill his slot today. When I printed out this crossword from Tracy, I was struck by the concision of the clues - all of the down clues and all but two of the across clues fitted on a single line each - totalling 14 lines of text. Furthermore there are 13 clues with 5 words or less. It has impeccable surfaces too; my favourite being 1D. A super example of a Quick Cryptic, to my mind.  It was maybe the short clues that helped me to a very speedy time of 3:34. Thank-you Tracy! How did you all get on?

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Sarah the Fuchsia

A little while ago we bought some Penstemons called "Laura" from Rougham Hall Nurseries. Well Dawn went there again a few weeks later and found a fuchsia called Sarah, so had to get that too.

North Meadow - Gone but not forgotten

Today I returned from Darlington via the site of Mum and Dad's old house in Wolviston - North Meadow.

Andrew Angus RIP

A footballing Quick Cryptic from Rodney

Times Quick Cryptic No 2009 by Rodney

This was fun. A rare appearance, only his third as far as I can see, for today's setter Rodney. Lots of smooth surfaces and witty clues. I was held up only by the SW corner where I had to remember the fabric. LOI 18D. I liked 20D best. All finished in 5:46 so not as easy for me as yesterday's or the day before's. As I started on the blog I began to wonder if there is a theme of sorts. Is there? Click the "What I found" link below to see what I think it's about. Thank-you Rodney! How did you all get on?

Click here to see what I found.

The (potential) football references, PLAY, TOE, ON THE BALL, TEAM (in wordplay) and the clubs FULHAM and CARLISLE (spread across two answers) prompted me to look up "Rodney Fulham Carlise", which led me to the footballer Rodney McAree who scored a famous goal for Fulham against Carlisle in 1997 which won Fulham promotion from the old third division. He also played for and then managed the Dungannon Swifts.. is that why we have LILLIPUT? But who are LEN and SANDRA? Can anyone add anything to this? Or am I barking up a wrong tree?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my 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 38 - For WAA 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. 

Weeting Walk

The sun was shining today and I will be in my car heading north tomorrow, so I thought I'd get out for a walk. I chose to go north of Bury St. Edmunds and plotted a circular walk from Weeting via Grimes Graves.

U3A November Lecture - Classical Tricks in Building Design

Today I went to my second Bury St. Edmunds U3A monthly lecture in the APEX.

Brandon Country Park Fungus Foray

Today we had our annual autumn trip to Brandon Country Park to look for mushrooms and enjoy the autumn colours.

What is this?

 

Can you tell?

The Lost Cove is no more...

 

Some 9 years ago the underpass to Lawson's place in Moreton Hall was painted with a mural called "The Lost Cove". (You can see more photos of the original here). After a few years, though, it started getting defaced with graffiti. But now it has been repainted. 

Wattisfield Walk

Today was another sunny day so I just had to get out for a bit of a walk in the autumn sunshine. I decided to continue extending my collection of paths walked further north-east from Bury St. Edmunds by trying a route from Wattisfield. I had previously noticed from the map that, like nearby Stanton, it had a Grundle.

Lavenham to Long Melford Walk

Today we did a circular walk from Lavenham to Long Melford and back. It was based on this walk, although we didn't follow the route exactly, avoiding the St. Edmunds Way at the start. This was the invite from Joyce.

A Neat Quick Cryptic From Joker

Times Quick Cryptic No 1999 by Joker

A neat and pleasant Quick Cryptic from Joker today to finish the week's Times series. Some gentle clueing, I think, helped me complete this in my fastest time for a while. I liked the building skills shown in the construction of 9D and the reminder of one of my favourite English composers at 21D. I also liked 22A, but COD, though, to 14D, which made me smile most. Thank-you Joker! I was all done in 3:55. How did you all get on?

Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is Sawbill's turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment (his second). 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.

( Read all about it... )

Great Finborough Walk

Today I led a walk from Great Finborough. I did my recce only yesterday and we followed my route today as planned. This was the invite...

Weekend Quick Cryptic 37 by Sawbill

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 2020, 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 Sawbill's turn (only his second) to provide the fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic crossword. 

Sheringham Park Walk

 

Today we had a trip to the North Norfolk Coast. This was the invite from Joyce.