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Good morning, Elle!
A fine start to the day here!
Hope it continues.
No sign of chick 3 so far.
All seems well at the loch, though.
I have quite a few things to do today but granddaughters take priority!
interested to see what happens in the Giro today.
Will Froome recover from his huge effort yesterday?
Saturdays have so much on!

A Very Good morning to you, Rusty!
A dullish, warmish day here, with a few spots of intermittent rain.
We are just home from the park.
Lassie seems fidgety...I wonder if this means that chick number three is about to make an appearance?
I am in for the rest of the morning now.
I have a few chores to do ....but perhaps after a coffee.... and the crossword !
Yes, you are quite right to give precedence to your granddaughters!
What time are they picking you up?

Hello, Elle!
Great weather here!
Not long home from my jaunt with two of my granddaughters!
Miss O has a brand new automatic Mini!
Smashing car.
I thought the puzzle was a bit on the easy side today.
I am watching the Giro.
The scenery is sensational!

Good afternoon, Rusty!
And we have some sunshine here, too now!
What a change from early this morning!
It is hard to believe now that we are supposed to have thunderstorms all day tomorrow.......
Yes, I thought the puzzle was relatively easy...but then the Saturday one always is, don't you think?
However, despite that, I still have three to parse!
But it's too early to give in just yet...
I shall mull them over.....light may dawn......
Do you think Chris Froome will now win the Giro?

Hello, Elle!
The weather here has been very good all week.
No, I usually find the prize puzzle fairly testing, but todays was a touch too easy, for me.
Chris Froome resisted attacks by Dumoulin on the last mountain, and barring a bad crash or something, he will take the pink jersey to Rome.
It has been a great Giro.
Especially the mountain stages.
They climbed Mount Etna a few days ago, and today finished beside the Matterhorn.
Fabulous scenery and great racing!
My son and daughter-in-law are changing hotels in Florida today.
No idea why, but I think it is planned.

Hi, Rusty!
So is the Saturday crossword always a prize one, then ?
I hadn't realised that, as John sends them looking exactly the same each day!
Strangely, I nearly always find Saturday's puzzle the easiest one in the week...I had thought I must just be on that setter's particular wavelength!
So the pink jersey in the Giro is the ultimate accolade?
This is what the winner wears on the last stage of the race?
I find all these different colour jerseys in the various races very confusing !
Well done, Chris Froome! ( A pity about Simon!)
Perhaps your son and daughter-in -law are moving to a different area, hence the hotel change?
They may like to explore different regions from a nearby base?
Well, I should think about feeding the troops......

Hello, Elle!
Yes, Saturday's puzzle is a prize one.
I was lucky enough to be one of the five winners pulled out of the hat about 18 years ago!
I have long since stopped entering my puzzles in to the draw.
The Times has at least a dozen setters, so I'd imagine there would be a different setter each week.
The pink jersey is what the race leader wears. The "Maglia Rosa".
The leader is now Froome, who took the jersey from Simon Yates, and will wear it now on the run to Rome.
The run to Rome, like the Tour finishing in Paris, is largely ceremonial.
Tradition dictates that there will be no attacks on the pink jersey on the last day.
The last time my son changed hotels, they went to one on Anna Maria Island (I think that was the name!) and liked it very much.
They love Florida!

Hi, Rusty!
Well done on winning......even if it were a long time ago!
My father and I used to do the General Knowledge crossword from his paper every Sunday, when he came for his tea.
It was a long fought battle to complete every clue....
In those far gone days, there was no computer......it was a case of dictionary, atlas, Thesaurus, encyclopaedia......
Religiously, we would send off the results.......never did we win anything!
I hope your son and his wife are having better weather now?

Hello, Elle!
I was very glad I won, Elle.
I have nothing to show I was ever at school, you see.
Left at 15 with not a certificate or anything.
So, I looked upon my win like I had achieved an O level!
I was just like you and your Father, exactly the books I used too, plus a Readers Digest Driver's Atlas of Britain and Ireland.
No computers or forums in those days.
And maybe a better sense of achievement when you had completed the puzzle?
I know I sent in the Saturday puzzle and the Jumbo Cryptic for quite a few years.
I have not bothered for at least 5 years now.
Yes, the weather has picked up a bit in Florida.

My son has just had a piece of bacon nicked off the BBQ by a red kite. Where they live people feed them and in some places it isn't possible to have a BBQ. I'vealways thought these reintroductions were and are a big mistake. Round here there are no kestrels any more, or actually many song birds either.