assorticaEvery Monday
This week at Assortica
Every Monday we put a handful of things on the front page, one from most of the libraries. It takes about an hour to get through, and nothing disappears afterwards.
The Puzzle Desk
The Monday cryptic
Fifteen across, and the long one down the middle is a phrase rather than a word. Solvers who like a foothold should start at the bottom right.
Look insideThe Listening Room
The Signalman, read in full
Dickens at his least comfortable, thirty-eight minutes, read by a voice that knows when to slow down.
Look insideThe Comics Rack
Harbour Light, part four
The lamp goes out and nobody on the quay will say why. Parts one to three are on the rack if you are joining now.
Look insideThe Quiz Corner
Round: rivers and what is on them
Twenty questions. Two of them are about bridges, which feels like cheating but we have allowed it.
Look insideThe Picture Wall
Late summer set
Eight backgrounds in the colours of August: dry grass, low sun, long shadows.
Look insideThe Kids' Table
Make a paper aeroplane that actually flies
One sheet, six folds, and a page explaining why the heavy nose matters.
Look insideThe Puzzle Desk
A themed crossword: things you find in a shed
Fourteen across, and one of them is a word your grandfather would have used.
Look insideThe Listening Room
The Yellow Wallpaper, read in full
Fifty-two minutes, and the kind of story that is better heard than read.
Look insideThe Comics Rack
Harbour Light, part five
Mrs Aldis opens the biscuit tin. What she wrote in 1953 is not what the log says.
Look insideThe Quiz Corner
Round: seas, canals and what floats on them
Twenty questions. Nobody has yet got the one about the Suez Canal wrong.
Look insideThe Picture Wall
Harvest set
Six backgrounds in the colours of a late field: amber, straw, deep water.
Look insideThe Kids' Table
Build a paper boat that stays afloat
One sheet, eight folds, and a note on why the hull has to be dry.
Look insideThe Puzzle Desk
The Monday cryptic, and a gentler sudoku
The grid is the same as the quick one, set again by a harder hand.
Look insideThe Listening Room
The Open Boat, read in full
An hour and four minutes of men in a small boat, and nobody knows the colour of the sky.
Look insideThe Comics Rack
Harbour Light, part six
The tide reaches the steps again, and this time somebody is standing on them.
Look insideThe Quiz Corner
Round: the kitchen and what came from where
Twenty questions on food that travelled further than you would think.
Look insideThe Picture Wall
Dotted set
Quieter ones this week, for people who like a plain screen.
Look insideThe Kids' Table
A maze with three ways in and one way out
Printable, and there is a harder version on the back.
Look insideThe Puzzle Desk
Word search: things in the garden
Six words hidden among the letters, and one of them runs backwards.
Look insideThe Listening Room
A Cup of Tea, read in full
Twenty-six minutes of Katherine Mansfield being quietly merciless.
Look insideThe Comics Rack
Harbour Light, part seven
The lamp burns all night. The keeper is nowhere on the island.
Look insideThe Quiz Corner
Round: birds, and which one is fastest
Twenty questions, and two of them are about the same bird.
Look insideThe Picture Wall
Violet Dusk set
Deep purples for the evening, with a matching lock screen.
Look insideThe Kids' Table
Count the gulls, and then count them again
There is a right answer, and it is not the obvious one.
Look insideThe Puzzle Desk
A crossword with no black squares
Every row and every column is a word. Harder than it sounds.
Look insideThe Listening Room
The Signalman, read again by a different voice
The same thirty-eight minutes, read slower and darker.
Look insideThe Comics Rack
Harbour Light, the last part
Eleven years of entries, and the final one is in somebody else's hand.
Look insideThe Quiz Corner
Round: instruments and how they make a sound
Twenty questions, including one that catches out most musicians.
Look insideThe Picture Wall
Sea Glass set
Greens and blues that stay readable behind a row of icons.
Look insideThe Kids' Table
Draw what happens next
The last panel of the comic, left empty on purpose.
Look insideThe Puzzle Desk
The autumn crossword
Fifteen across, and the long one down the middle is a phrase.
Look insideThe Listening Room
A new story, written and read for Assortica
Thirty-one minutes. The first of six that arrive this autumn.
Look insideThe Comics Rack
A new serial begins: The Long Field
A farm, a fence that moves in the night, and nobody willing to say who moved it.
Look insideThe Quiz Corner
Round: this island, and the counties on it
Twenty questions, and the one about the Thames bridges divides everybody.
Look insideThe Picture Wall
Amber Hour set
The colours of the last warm week, for the screen you look at most.
Look insideThe Kids' Table
Autumn spotting sheet
Twelve things to find on a walk, with a box to tick for each.
Look insideEverything from the weeks before stays in the libraries. Nothing is taken away when something new arrives.
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