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Good morning, Elle.
It is warm here, too.
My family are going to London today.
I have no idea what their plans are, though.
Will hear when they return.
No cycling today.
This is a rest day.
Pyrenees and the bears tomorrow.
They cross the Col de Portet d'Aspet and I am wondering if they will stop and pay their respects at the memorial to Fabio Casartelli who was killed on there a few years ago.
Fabio rode with Armstrong on the Motorola team.
Good puzzle today.
However, I cannot parse 22a!
It is a spelling I have not came across before, but that's OK.
It is the parse that has me stumped.
I shall return to it later!

Hi, Rusty!
Yes, it would be a nice gesture for the competitors to pay their respects to a fellow cyclist by stopping at the memorial......
I agree with you..... a good puzzle today......even I have managed to complete it!
My favourites are 4d: Sadducee; 5d: adjust; 12a: unsheathe; and 21a: Chinatown
I had three new words to contend with , though.......
"Jehu"....I didn't know he was a dangerous chariot driver...although I knew he was the son of Jehoshaphat!
"edacious" and "cohoe!
This last Anne B kindly supplied to me!
I can parse it, though, if you still need help with that later?
( It would make a change if I could help you!)

Hello, Elle!
For 21a, I had "Chicagoan" for a wee while!
Probably not a word at all!
I had "Jehu" but I never explored who the "demon driver" is/was.
I did not know "coho" could be spelled with an "e" at the end.
"H" is hotel, and "E" is the quarter.
I am left with "coo" to parse.
Up here a "coo" is an animal that we get milk from but I can not see any reference to that in the clue?
Yes, could you please parse it for me, Elle?

Hi, Rusty!
I looked "Jehu" up in Chambers...... and that explained about the dangerous driving!
Now "cohoe" was completely new to me.
I have "cohoe" = salmon (definition)
coo - my (an exclamation!)
h - hotel
E - quarter.
If you are doubting "coo" and "my" , I have just this very minute double checked with Anne B!

Hello, Elle!
I never heard of "Jehu" before.
"Coo" means "my"?
Well, it has certainly passed me by!
I knew "cor" can mean "my" in Londonland.
Never ever heard of that meaning of "coo" before!
"Coo" to me is a "cow".
Well, that has been an educational puzzle today, Elle, what with Jehu and coo!
But, if you and Anne B say so, that will be just jim-dandy with me!

Hi elle
The heat is worse today, I did some gardening until 8.30 and then gave up!
I am sure a lot of the DNA connections to royalty will be from the wrong side of the blanket! I am not completely sure of one connection yet, and need to check it in Burke's peerage. I have a feeling I may be wrong, which would be sad.

Hi, Rusty!
I had never heard the word "jim-dandy", Rusty, before I met you......but I like it!
It is a lovely expression!
Now.......dog and I have just crept in from the garden...... talk about oppressive out there.....
Going outdoors is just like a having a thick woolly blanket thrown over one's head!
Almost impossible to breathe........
This is by the worst day we have experienced so far in this current heatwave......
I am definitely inside now for the remainder of the day!
I am half way through a new book ... a crime thriller by Peter Robinson.......most appropriately entitled "In a Dry Season"!
It is light and entertaining...suitable for the heat....
I also have Saturday's Diamond League in Monaco yet to watch.
What are you up to?

Hello, Elle!
I think you must have hotter heat than we do!
It is very warm but I think Thursday is meant to be the hottest.
I didn't know Peter was writing books?
I am not doing anything much.
I have a funeral to attend tomorrow.
So making sure I have a presentable shirt and polishing the shoes etc.
Do not think I will need a jacket.
Actually, I have always taken the view that it does not matter what you wear to a funeral.
It is the attendance that is the important thing.
The nest has been empty most of the day.
I believe there has been an osprey chick killed during "ringing" up North.
A blooming shame!

Hi, Rusty!
Yes, I believe that Thursday is meant to be hotter still....... it threatened 34C across the front page of the Metro this morning!
I think we are talking about different Peter Robinsons!
But then of course, you knew that....... and were but teasing me!
This is not the Norn Iron politician about whom I am speaking, but the English -Canadian crime -writer, who writes novels set in the Yorkshire Dales, featuring Chief Inspector Alan Banks.
As I said, an entertaining read........
I am sorry you have the need to go to a funeral tomorrow.
Is it that of a relative..... or a friend?
Sadly , this is something that we find ourselves doing all too often these days.
( Time was, it was a wedding or a christening that we attended! )
I agree with you that what you wear is not important - save that one be neat and tidy.
It is one's presence there, showing both respect to the dead...and support for the survivors.......that counts.
That is a terrible shame about the death of the osprey chick when being ringed.......
Do you know what happened?
Did it die from shock? or was it injured in the process?

Hello, Elle!
You are too cute for me!
It was indeed the ex First Minister of Norn Iron I was meaning!
I have no idea what he is doing these days.
I do not know your Peter, the writer.
It is my ex sister-in-law's funeral tomorrow.
My son is going with me.
I shall try and look half decent, but there have been many funerals I have been to, with many mourners in working clothes, straight from building sites etc to pay their last respects.
Often I was in working clothes too, taking an hour or so away from work to attend.
This is what happened to the young osprey.

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeenshire/1526217/sadness-as-tragic-error-by-rspb-kills-baby-osprey-in-aberdeenshire/