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Hello, Elle!
Yes, you appear to have very strange skies indeed.
Not so colourful here.
It is getting windier.
The storm centre of Ophelia is now over Sligo and South Donegal.
Another two folk killed.
One young man was attempting to clear a fallen tree in Tipperary with a chainsaw and had a fatal accident.
Another lad was crushed in his car in Dundalk by a falling tree.
Terrible!
How are you and the aliens getting on?

No, Chris, I can't claim Norn Iron, I'm afraid!
Think it originated in Belfast.
That's how they pronounce NI anyway!

Hi, Rusty!
It is terrible hearing of these deaths......who knows what will happen when one gets up in the morning.....
Let us hope that there are no further accidents or fatalities.
Those poor people and their families.
The happenings here were very weird and rather scary.......but I think ET has gone home!
It is gradually lightening again now.....
Returning to the more prosaic , rather than the Supernatural.........
I have done all bar three of the crossword clues.
I cannot do 9a: D?A?A?O?
and 20d: ES?E?E
Es is French 'art'
And I am stuck halfway with parsing 8d?
I have "shoetree" = one doing a stretch in Oxford (shoe)
ho -house
SE - Kent
but "tree"?
I especially liked 5a, 3d, 14a and 19d
and I also like the homophone in 7d...... I think "turmeric" is a good one!

Rusty
Norn Iron reminds of the sarf London joke "How many Ls are there in "Millwall"?



None - it's pronounced MiWah

Hello, Elle!
We will have to disagree on 7d, "turmeric"!
"Turm" is not a homophone of "term"!
To me anyway!
Right, down to work!
9a, is "diapason" "aid" "pa" son".
It means, in this case, a stop in an organ.
Shoetree is correct.
Herbert Beerbohm Tree was the old actor.
20D, is "Essene". The Essenes were an ancient Jewish sect.
"es", art, "environment is "scene", minus "c", last letter in academiC.
Hope that's understandable?

Elle,
Anne Bradford has "Tree" under "actor".

Turm=Term is better than many chefs can manage. I wince whenever one of them pronounces it "toomeric".

Chris, this is the clue.
7d, Appellation (sound) Heather mostly used for condiment (8)
TurmEric(a)
Setter is using turm for term!
Not for me, I'm afraid!

Rusty, Chris, Elle...Turm for Term doesn't work at all for me either. Turmeric has the same beginning as Turmoil, Turpitude etc, Term is just T Er m!

Hello, Malone!
I had a good idea you would disapprove of term/turm!

Try this
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/turmeric
"turmeric" is pronounced as "termeric" here.....
but I'm not intending to start WWIII !