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Hello, Pigale!
How nice to hear from you!
Have your friends gone home now?
Sun? What sun?
We have hailstones almost as big as golf balls here!
Yes, I saw the clue about "pedantry" being described as "nitpicking"...
I had a chuckle, too!

Elle, please keep your hailstones! It is not raining yet, but high
winds are expected from Saturday onwards!
I do dislike these sudden changes in temperature!

My friends left yesterday morning, they made the trip over
specially to be with me for my birthday, which I really appreciated.
I enjoyed a very special meal with them on Tuesday and had a very
pleasant day.

Hello, Pigale!
Honestly, I have never before seen such big hailstones!
I had just gone out in the garden with the dog....
We both turned tail and ran for shelter!
How very nice of your friends to make a special trip to help you celebrate your birthday!

Good afternoon, Rusty!
Are you about?
How was your outing to the Pine Cone this morning with Miss La Bamba?
I hope you both had a good time.
Our weather is terrible.......talk about going from one extreme to the other......
We have had hailstones almost the size of golf balls!
And they were very painful!!
I found today's crossword a much easier proposition than was yesterday's puzzle.
I have just three clues left to do......
Have you had time to do yours?

Good afternoon, Elle!
We had a very nice time, Elle!
It is dull and a tad chilly here.
I finished the puzzle this morning.
15d and 21d are new words to me.
And 16d.
A good puzzle!

Good afternoon, Pigale!
Glad to hear you had an enjoyable birthday!
My weather has became a bit colder and no sunshine.
Are you still getting out for short walks?

Hi, Rusty!
It is good that you had a nice time.
I have just been talking to my daughter.
She usually rings about fourish, on her way home.
Tonight she is stuck on a train that cannot move, because sadly there has been a fatality further down the line.
She was on her way to nursery to collect her younger son...... her husband fortunately will go for him.
I have now done all bar one of the crossword clues.
The one I cannot do is one of the two that you mention......
15d: sort of rock cake cooked by elderly wife? (9)
G?E?W?C?E
And I cannot parse 24a:
Can and reportedly used to clean in German town (8,6)
I have "Wormwood Scrubs" = "can" (prison)
"scrub" for "clean"...but nothing else?
What am I not seeing , please?
I have just realised it is Thursday...is your son coming to visit you?

Hi elle
GREYWACKE, a sort of coarse sandstone
WORMS for the German town? (as in "The diet of Worms"!) Not sure about the "wood"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Worms

Wood - (used to ) sounds like wood