On this dull, humid, morning I trudged my circular route to Milford on Sea and back. As I approached a shiny blue motor car parked on the cliff top I instantly recognised it as a Morgan, a classic that I had only ever before seen in magazines. The owner was happy to vacate his vehicle for a photograph. This model, built in the 1960s, kept faithful to the original 1936 design.
This made me think about my friend Georgie Johnson. Georgie, to whom I am indebted for a number of the ideas for my advanced cryptic crosswords, chose the name Morgan for her setter’s pseudonym. Like me, fascinated by Arthurian legend, she thus paid tribute to Morgan le Fay, the mythical king’s evil sister. It is of course traditional for some compilers to select the nomenclature of an evil character by which to be known. The far more famous Torquemada comes to mind. Some would say that Morgan le Fay was the aunt of Mordred, whose name I had chosen. Georgie and I briefly collaborated as Gander, a linking of the end of her nom de plume followed by the beginning of my Christian name. Not as revered as the aforementioned Inquisitor, Mordred did make it into Jonathon Crowther’s 2006 Collins publication ‘A-Z of Crosswords: Insights into the Top Setters and their Puzzles’ (ISBN 0-00-722923-2). My section tells the rather marvellous tale of the publication of a puzzle in honour of Sam’s epic Atlantic Row. The timing of Mark Goodliffe and Simon Anthony, editors of ‘The Magpie’, was perfect.
Speaking to the owner of the Morgan reminded me of another classic car story. This is told in ‘I Can’t Put A Ticket On That’.
In the Nature Reserve, no doubt following the lead of the supermarkets and garden centres, the hollies were stocking up for Christmas.
It has been our practice in the garden this summer to allow unfamiliar plants to remain in situ until we know what they are. On my return home today, one of these that we had thought 
might be an unknown fern, lay stretched out on the dining table. It was an enormous carrot, so misshapen as never to have reached the supermarket shelves.
Our dinner tonight consisted of pork belly in hoi-sin sauce with savoury rice packed with vegetables and chopped omelette. Ginger sponge and custard was to follow. Jackie drank her customary Hoegaarden, whilst I drank Albai reserva rioja 2010.