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Good evening, Elle!
Just had a very heavy shower!
Yes, you will miss your family!
Should not be much chaos with a replacement shower, I wouldn't think.
The girls went straight to bed when they arrived home.
Yes, it was a long journey from Las Vegas.
Miss L-B is back at work tomorrow.
I won't mention Pine Cone to them.
Let them have time to settle back home etc.

Hi, Rusty!
We have been having heavy rainstorms all day here, too.
None of which was forecast!
All the bedding and towels are still out on the line!
I am hoping for a drier day tomorrow.
No, I don't think the shower cubicle replacement should be too big a job...…The electric shower should remain in situ......and it is only the cubicle itself that will be moved.
And of course the walls and floor will need to be retiled where necessary.
The plumber says it will take three days.
It is good that we have two bathrooms!
Miss L-B isn't having much time to recover from her "jet-lag" or whatever, if she is back at work tomorrow.
When does Miss O go back to school?

Hello, Elle!
Still getting heavy showers here!
Hope your shower replacement goes well.
Not heard from the girls since tea-time, I think they are asleep!
I think Miss O has another week before she returns to school.
But, I am by no means sure!

Hi, Rusty!
It seems to have stopped raining here.....
I did my first crossword of the week (since Sunday's Everyman!) today.....
Entertaining two young boys does not leave time for wrestling (in my case) with puzzles!
I thought it quite a nice one?
I especially liked 12a: worrisome; and 19a: churlish
But in 18d, I don't pronounce "Raleigh" as "rally", but as "Rahleigh"
How do you say it?
And I couldn't understand either 15a for which I had "divert" and 14d: "incompetence" ?
Please can you explain?
Also, I would have thought that 22a would have been "co-linear" rather than "collinear" (of which I have never heard) but I didn't bother to check the dictionary.......it may well be there......

Hello, Elle!
I say "Rally", like the bikes.
15, the football cheat is a "diver", with start to "t"hink.
14, is "lousiness".
If you are "lousy" your hair could be full of nits.
Nits are the eggs of lice (louses).
Lousiness for incompetence, it looks like.
"Collinear! is in Collins.

Hi, Rusty!
Uhm…....we say "Rahleigh" for the bicycles, just as we do for Sir Walter Raleigh!
Thank you very much for explaining "divert" and "incompetence" - the parsings of those were quite beyond me.
I am surprised by "collinear".......if you had asked me to bet my shirt, I would have gone with "co -linear" being a word!
I am sure that I have come across this.....but perhaps used incorrectly.....
Maybe I shall do better tomorrow!

Good morning, Elle!
Looks dry outside....so far!
I thought there was only one way to pronounce Raleigh!
It's the state capital of North Carolina, too.
I can't find your "co-linear" or "colinear" in Collins or Chambers?
Maybe, best hang on to your shirt!
The "diver" as a football cheat, is something I dislike a lot in football.
Far to much cheating goes on in football.
I'm off to see my dentist soon, for a check up.

Sir Walter almost certainly pronounced his surname "Rawley". I've heard of a poem which rhymes it with him being treated "rawly", but I've not been able to locate it.

Good morning, Rusty!
It is (so far, fingers crossed) a beautiful day here!
I still have yesterday's washing hanging on the Hill's Hoist..... hopefully, it will all dry today.
Now.....I have checked with YouTube, and there are many versions there of how to say "Raleigh"...... both in English and American accents!
But Cambridge dictionary (audio version) says it is pronounced thus, as "Rahleigh".......
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/raleigh
Whereas the Oxford dictionary gives three phonetical versions...."Rahleigh"; Rally" and "Rawley"...…
Not a very satisfactory conclusion......so I guess one can take one's pick?
I hope all goes well at the dentist!



Hello, Chris!
How are things?
I'd never come across its being pronounced "RAWleigh" before you mentioned it……
But if you look at the link I've put up from the Oxford dictionary, it proffers three different pronunciations...…..

Good morning, Elle!
Fine breezy morning, here!
Just home from dentist.
Teeth fine and he did a scrape and polish, so that's that for six months!
I checked YouTube, too, and found Raleigh can be pronounced in several ways.
I found, too, that Raleigh sometimes spelt his name differently!
I'll stick with Rally, I think!
There is a town, in Illinois, I think, called Cairo, and it is pronounced "Kayro".
Time for a coffee!