Putting the words to lights – crossword clues explained in plain English
Since the beginning of 2010, Wednesday’s regular setter is Jeremy Mutch who has visited the blog as Jay. During 2009, Jay set almost all the Thursday puzzles.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
One kiwi only again this week. The traveller gets home tomorrow so it will be back to normal next Wednesday.
Jay has supplied us with an enjoyable puzzle once again. Not too taxing this week.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
The third largest island of New Zealand is Stewart Island. It is right at the very bottom of the South Island, very remote and sparsely populated. Neither of us had ever been there until now but that is where Carol and a small group of her friends are at present. Hence today’s Hints and Tips for Jay’s Wednesday puzzle are by only one, left at home, Kiwi.
Enjoy the solve, I did. The NW corner put up the biggest fight with the key being 1a which took it well into 3 star time for difficulty.
Fingers crossed that the website behaves itself long enough to get it all together and posted.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Shorts have now come out of the drawer. Our morning beach and estuary walks are now happening with exposed lower legs, still sporting their winter pallor, but slowly acquiring a tan that will last through the summer.
Jay entertains us nicely once again today. Sorting out the wordplay for 11d took us well into *** time for difficulty.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
We’ve had a busy day today as we were up before dawn to drive to Wellington to deliver a car to our daughter. Took longer than we hoped as we were right in the middle of all the commuter traffic. However we made it eventually and still got home in plenty of time to tackle this week’s Jay puzzle.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
Another rainy Spring day here. Just the weather for sitting inside and solving and blogging crosswords.
We found this one a little trickier than some have been lately so have upped the difficulty rating to ***. Plenty to enjoy too.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Now that most of you have put your clocks back, we have to wait an extra hour before we can start on our blog. In our winter we access it at 11am, then we have a month or so with noon, and from now on right through our summer we have to wait patiently for 1pm. If we looked hard enough we could probably find there is a quote somewhere about the enhanced pleasure of delayed gratification. We always find Jay puzzles a pleasure to solve so we will enjoy this enhanced pleasure and give it **** for fun. Continue reading “DT 27944”
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ***
Our team is back to full strength again. The Tosca season has now finished and was a huge success. We are pleased that Ollie was part of the chorus as the attrition rate for the principal characters in the opera was alarmingly high. A bit like Hamlet in this respect.
Jay in gentle mood this week we thought and still good fun.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Just one Kiwi doing the blog today. Culture has got in the way. New Zealand Opera and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra are performing TOSCA, and while the principals move from venue to venue, the chorus is cast separately at each centre. One of our grandsons, Ollie, is making his opera debut as a choir boy. We saw the Wellington opening night at the weekend, just superb. “Grandma holding the fort” duties are needed for this week while the show is on, hence a solo blogger.
Jay up to scratch as usual.
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BD Rating – Difficulty *** – Enjoyment ****
A beautiful fine Spring day. Clear blue skies and just the faintest suggestion of a breeze to stir the blossoms on the trees. We could do with a lot of this but, like most parts of the world, Spring is one of our most variable seasons so we have to make the most of the good days.
By contrast Jay seems to be never varying in bringing us top quality puzzles each Wednesday.
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BD Rating – Difficulty ** – Enjoyment ****
Last weekend we put our clocks forward 1 hour. The first Godwits arrived from Alaska a few days ago. There are clutches of new ducklings on the ponds beside our usual walking path. Spring has arrived!
Jay up to his usual high standard again today.
And we have had a very anxious few hours as we could not access the site to post this. Someone somewhere must have worked some magic and it all works again. Phew.