Stowmarket Beer Festival

Today I took advantage of a cheap train fare of £5 return from Bury St. Edmunds to Stowmarket

Weekend Quick Cryptic 80 - Solution

My fellow TimesforTheTimes contributors Phil Jordan, Sawbill and I are continuing to produce Quick Cryptic crosswords to fill the gap left by the Saturday Times not having one. The plan is for us to take turns, publishing one a fortnight, and this week it's Phil's turn. 

You can find a link to the crossword here and the answers below. Feel free to leave any comments or questions here as you would do on TfTT. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here. 

LONDON MEETING LAST SATURDAY. We had a great get together with 19 people attending. You can see some pictures from the gathering here.

Weekend Quick Cryptic 80 - 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 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. 

This time it is Phil's turn to provide the fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic crossword, Number 80 in the series. 

You can try and solve the crossword interactively here on MyCrossword or here on crossword.info.  As usual you can download a PDF to print which you can find here. Alternatively you can copy and print the image below. Comments and queries are welcome with the solution post (which also gives tips on some of the clues).  I will react to any comments or queries there as soon as I can. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here.

LONDON MEETING LAST SATURDAY. We had a great get together with 19 people attending. You can see some pictures from the gathering here. 

Suffolk Flower Flash

 I got a nice surprise when I went into town today.

Sizewell B Power Station Tour

Today Joyce's Weekly Walks had a different sort of day out - a tour of Sizewell B Power Station.

Mum and Dad's Removal Service In Action Again

Yesterday we had a day trip to York and back in both cars to bring Sarah and her stuff home from Uni.

Crossword Central Summer Gathering

Yesterday, as we had done last May (see here), 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.  

Mount Road Wildflowers

Today I had another Taste Test at Good Sense Research and, as usual, walked there and back, which meant going down the hill (and then back up afterwards) along Mount Rd. Can you see what I spotted in the unmown grass verge?

Glemsford Walk

Today we did a new walk from Willow Tree Farm in Glemsford.

Ickworth House Walk

The forecast for later today was for thundery showers (although in the end they didn't materialise) so we decided to go a for an early walk.

Octopus Flux Tariff

As some of you will know, we have a small installation of solar panels (9 panels (c 3.2kW max) and c6kWh of batteries) and a sub-optimal orientation of an approximately SW-facing roof they are installed on.

The Five Villages Walk

Today we did a walk that has been on the "to-do" list for some time - The Five Villages Walk.

Weekend Quick Cryptic 79 - Solution

My fellow TimesforTheTimes contributors Phil Jordan, Sawbill and I are continuing to produce Quick Cryptic crosswords to fill the gap left by the Saturday Times not having one. The plan is for us to take turns, publishing one a fortnight, and this week it's my turn. 

You can find a link to the crossword here and the answers below. Feel free to leave any comments or questions here as you would do on TfTT. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here. 

Weekend Quick Cryptic 79 - Playtime

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 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. 

This time it is my turn to provide the fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic crossword, Number 79 in the series, entitled "Playtime". As usual, there is a hint in the title as to what to find in the grid.

You can try and solve the crossword interactively here on MyCrossword or here on crossword.info.  As usual you can download a PDF to print which you can find here. Alternatively you can copy and print the image below. Comments and queries are welcome with the solution post (which also gives tips on some of the clues).  I will react to any comments or queries there as soon as I can. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here.

LONDON MEETING NEXT SATURDAY. We are having a London get together on Saturday 24th June from 11:30 at The George, Borough High Street, Southwark, Greater London, SE1 1NH. All are welcome. Your Weekend Quick Cryptic Compilers and several TfTT bloggers and regular commenters will be there. We are also expecting Mick Hodgkin, the Times Puzzles Editor, Richard Rogan, Times Crossword Editor and Pete Biddlecombe, Sunday Times Crossword Editor and founder of Times for The Times to drop in. The George no longer allows tables outside to be booked so some of us will arrive earlier than 11:30 to bag a couple of tables at the back on the right hand side of the courtyard. There could be up to 20 of us in total. Do come along if you can.

Ginger Marmalade and Cordial

This week's new kitchen escapade...

Ousden Walk

Today we did a walk to help Glen in his ambition to walk all the paths in Suffolk.

Our Own Bee Orchid

Look what we found in our wild meadow unmown area in our front garden! We're not sure how it got there. Spotted yesterday and another flower has opened today, with a few more buds to open by the looks of it

Angles Way - Done!

Today I finished my blog post on last Friday's Walk from Bungay to North Cove - our remaining stage of the Angles Way.

Berliner Weisse Bier

Today I labelled and packed away my latest brew.

Angles Way - Part 5 (reprise)

Today we repeated and finished the walk we had to abandon in March in a blizzard (see here) to finally complete our mission to walk the entirety of the 93 mile Angles Way. 

Weekend Quick Cryptic 78 - Solution

My fellow TimesforTheTimes contributors Phil Jordan, Sawbill and I are continuing to produce Quick Cryptic crosswords to fill the gap left by the Saturday Times not having one. The plan is for us to take turns, publishing one a fortnight, and this week it's Sawbill's turn. 

You can find a link to the crossword here and the answers below. Feel free to leave any comments or questions here as you would do on TfTT. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here. 

Weekend Quick Cryptic 78 - 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 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. 

This time it is Sawbill's turn to provide the fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic crossword, Number 78 in the series.

You can try and solve the crossword interactively here on MyCrossword or here on crossword.info.  As usual you can download a PDF to print which you can find here. Alternatively you can copy and print the image below. Comments and queries are welcome with the solution post (which also gives tips on some of the clues).  I will react to any comments or queries there as soon as I can. You can find an index to the complete series of crosswords here.

LONDON MEETING.. We are having another London get together on Saturday 24th June from 11:30 at The George, Borough High Street, Southwark, Greater London, SE1 1NH. All are welcome. Your Weekend Quick Cryptic Compilers and several TfTT bloggers and regular commenters will be there. We are also expecting Mick Hodgkin, the Times Puzzles Editor, Richard Rogan, Times Crossword Editor and Pete Biddlecombe, Sundays Times Crossword Editor and founder of Times for The Times to drop in. The George no longer allows tables outside to be booked so some of us will arrive earlier at 11:30 to bag a couple of tables. There should be about 20 of us in total. Do come along if you can.