Today we revisited a walk I enjoyed so much last year that I did it twice, but in reverse - a circular walk from Needham Market via Pipps Ford, Darmsden, Baylham, Priestley Wood and Barking. But why was it called "The off-grid walk"? There's a clue in the group photo above.
I hadn't booked, but there were places to spare so I just turned up and joined today's Sunday Lounge concert at the Hunter Club... and had some nice pizza before it started.
Today we took a walk into town to see the Whitsun Fayre. It turned out to be a bit of a damp squib.
My Index of walks so far this year (2022) has been updated. You can find it here. It is a bit of a fiddly job so, as always, if you find any broken or inaccurate links please let me know so I can fix them. Sadly, two of my walks in May have not made it onto the blog as I was a bit busy with this, so I've not been as idle as it looks 😀
Today I took Dawn and Sarah to Sheringham Park to see the Rhododendrons and go for a walk down to and along a stretch of the Norfolk Coast. The walk was one I had first done with Joyce's group at the beginning of June 2019 (see here), which you can find on the National Trust site here.
Today I was helping Joyce on another of the 9 walks she is leading for the Suffolk Walking Festival this year. The walk was called "Hawkedon Horizons" As the festival brochure describes it: "Explore the rolling hills and idyllic green villages of Hawkedon, Denston and Stansfield, passing five lakes, a mill, a hall and West Suffolk's most stunning views".
Today I was helping Joyce on one of the 9 walks she is leading for the Suffolk Walking Festival this year. The walk was "Is Kersey the most picturesque village in Suffolk?" As the festival brochure describes it: "From Hadleigh this long distance walk follows a lovely, undulating walk from Hadleigh to the popular village of Kersey."
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 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 2020, 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 Phil's turn to provide the fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic
crossword, Number 51 in the series.
On Saturday I got this message on LiveJournal...
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Suffolk Wildlife Trust have just issued an updated version of their beautiful e-book, A Wilder Suffolk by Steve Aylward. It is full of beautiful pictures and details of all the wildlife reserves the Trust looks after. I spotted that are still a few I have to put on my "to-visit" list.
Phew! That went alright then. The new Times for The Times site is up and running...
Yesterday we had a get-together of a few folk from TimesforTheTimes at The George, our traditional watering hole in London in Borough High St, close to The Times offices.
I found this a satisfying Jumbo to complete with some masterful complex wordplay, whimsical definitions and neat surfaces to admire. Quite a few single letter deletions, I thought, so my strikethrough button in the editor got plenty of use. I was all finished bar 4 answers after 37 1/2 minutes, but then took another 7 minutes for the last 4. I had most trouble with my LOI, 30A, having no idea the answer had blue eyes and only the crossing 20D got me to the right answer. My two other unknowns of the day were the slope and the Shakespearean constable. So about a par experience for me. Quite a few appreciative ticks on my copy - I liked 15A, 43A, 47A, 2D and 6D (once I'd parsed them!), 5D and 11D best. Thank-you setter! How did you all get on?
A slightly harder than average Quick Crossword, if my time (6:16) is anything to go by, from Hurley today. I found the long answers a bit tricky and got stuck trying, in vain, to make the answer to 13A VIRTUE. My LOI was 16D where I was expecting the King at the end not the beginning. Nice one. Thank-you Hurley. 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 latest crossword, number 50, entitled "How many?", which is a bit of a clue to some of the answers, and details of a get-together in London tomorrow here. Enjoy! If anyone is interested in our previous offerings you can find an index to all 50 here.
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 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 2020, 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 my turn to provide the fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic
crossword, entitled "How Many?".
After the success of last year's (see here), I had to make these again. I had collected just enough on the Bluebell Walk on Monday for Jerry's recipe.
Today we did the annual Bluebell Walk from Suffolk Food Hall. We had seen such great bluebells last week on our Three Dragons Walk that our expectations were quite high, but we weren't disappointed.
