Knew my spices but my Pacific Northwest credentials may have expired as I struggled with 1D and 14A. One day I’ll figure out how to make such clean grids. Until then, I’ll rely on enjoying yours.
Thanks for your kind words! I went through a few stages: being scolded (ahem, “getting feedback”) when I tried to force questionable fill into grids, learning to let go of cute fill whenever it wasn’t essential for my theme, and (where I am now) working to release my attachment to an idea if I can’t get the grid to work. Scored wordlists have been helpful, but I still need to get better at intuition and also spotting unduly tricky crossings.
TL;DR “It took a lot of practice!”
(Please don’t go back to the first puzzles I posted on Crosshare…)
Very nice, with savory fill yet again! Love the clue on ESTATE. Finished with an error because I can never remember when to change "y" to "ie" in a comparative.