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Hi everyone,

Elle and Rusty, I envy your nice weather ! Wind, snow, hail and thunder, you name it, we have it !

Have not put my nose out and don't intend to except for closing the shutters.

I liked the 'brioche' clue but not so much the 'tooting' one - which I did not find !

Hello, Pigale!
It's going very dark here...I fear rain may be coming!
You no longer need to feel envious!
St. Georges - one of our large hospitals - is at Tooting!
I appreciated the clue - I though it was funny! but then I guess it's different if one has heard of the area.
I thought the "brioche" one was good!

Hello, Elle!
The "Tooting" clue is only a good one if you know that Tooting is the name of a place.
I have never heard of it.
And I certainly won't be the only one attempting the puzzle, in that boat.
Rustle and Russell are fine.
Moor and more, certainly not!
No, one granddaughter is coming to properly set up my photo albums on tablet. And also an email app.
My carpets are fitted. Took about an hour.
Quite a lot of waste with them though.
Wonder if the off-cuts are any good to anybody?

I just looked at malone's explanation of "reiver" on the Times thread. There were reivers on both sides of the border, and family ("surnames") were more important than nationality. Grahams, Armstrongs and Charltons were all reiving familes.

There's a fascinating book about them called "The steel bonnets" by George Macdonald Fraser (of the "Flashman" books). Also P F Chisolm has written a number of Elizabethan detective stories featuring Robert Carey - a real-life person and interesting in his own right; he rode virtually non-stop from London to Edinburgh on the death of Elizabeth so that he could be the person to tell James VI of Scotland that he was now also James I of England. Most of these books are set in Carlisle, and feature reivers. I can thoroughly recommend them too.

Some people suggest that "bereaved" derives from a description of how you might feel after a visit from reivers!

Very interesting, Chris!
I have read one or two books by George Macdonald Fraser.
My favourites were "McAuslan in the Rough" and "The General Danced at Dawn", humorous tales from a Highland regiment.
I liked them, though they may not appeal to most!

Other names, Elliot, Cuthbert, Robson and, especially, Dodd. I once indexed a Border parish Register (without a computer). I had a whole page of John Dodds!
Some of the farmhouses up there are called bastles, because they were fortified. The animals lived below, the outside steps led to the living quarters upstairs though one very heavy door.
In a small village where my folks lived, Lanceyscleughhead, reivers burst into a farmhouse looking for a particular person. They did not find him but killed the od woman sitting by the fire anyway.

Very interesting, Rosalind!
And what would be the origin of the name, Lanceyscleughhead, I wonder?

I have just noticed a headline on BBC News channel, indicating "Artic Military Training"!
The scene was soldiers swimming through ice covered waters and not a lorry in sight (or site, as the BBC may put it.)

Hi, Rusty!
Now, "sight" and "site" are homophones with which I would have no argument!
I have spent a large part of the early evening on the phone!
Family and friends have been ringing to enquire after the latest family addition!
It has been nice playing catch up in some instances.
(I must more effort to keep up with folk and their lives and circumstances)
I am glad that the carpet fitting went well!
It seems to me that north of the border everyone seems to work much faster then they do here!
Did your granddaughter turn up to sort out your photographs?
You obviously make very good use of your tablet?
I tend to keep use of my Hudl down to a minimum - most probably because the technology to do very much with it is completely beyond me!
So far since the update, it is behaving itself and I haven't had further problems with the "Server error" phenomenon!
How are you liking your Samsung version?

Hello, Elle!
I have been informed that my darling granddaughter is at a quiz in the students union and old granddad will see her tomorrow night!
She is a belter!
I think I have been given good advice regarding tradesmen.
I would not at all say hard graft is mainly on this side of the Border!
My carpet fitter was very good, and hyper friendly.
A pleasure to have in my house.
The Samsung is OK.
Much like the Hudl was whenst first I purchased it.
I have several photo album/galleries on all my devices.
My granddaughter is going to sort them out for me, with clouds etc!
The Hudl is a fine tablet. I liked mine until it got all buggy!