“Holmes called himself ‘middle-aged’ about 1899 and was described as being 60 years of age in 1914, thus suggesting a birth date c. 1854.” (from the Encyclopedia Sherlockiana – Jack Tracy 1977)

It was Christopher Morley, in an article he wrote for The Saturday Review of Literature in 1933, who suggested a date of January 6th (from Sherlock Holmes for Dummies – Steven Doyle and David A. Crowder)

The next gathering of Stormy Petrels will take place on Saturday, January 9, 2016.  We will meet for the birthday celebration brunch in honour of the world’s first consulting detective.

When: Saturday, Jan 9th at 11:15 am

Where: The White Spot Restaurant (fireplace room) at 1616 West Georgia St/Cardero

Please let Fran know asap if you are planning on attending.

Burnaby Village Museum is one of the area’s must-see, must-experience Christmas destinations. The old-fashioned village all lit up, the carolers, the old carousel.

One unexpected bonus was discovering that Sherlock Holmes was there!

Forte Theatre Society was performing a play based on “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”

Not only were they able to present the story in 20 minutes, but the did it wonderfully! I was quite impressed!

You can enjoy the play on Saturdays and Sundays until December 13th, performances at 2:30 pm, 4:00pm and 6:30pm (by donation)

You will be in for a treat, I am certain!

After crossing the border into the U.S., it took less than an hour to reach our destination – Skagit River Brewing in Mount Vernon, WA.

Once there, the Stormy Petrels were welcomed with open arms by the Sound of the Baskervilles, whose member Al Nelson organized the occasion.

The afternoon began with a game of trying to identify which canonical character you are. This had people mingling and taking to each other, getting to know everyone.

There were five societies represented. The Stormy Petrels (pictured – Krista Lee, Andy, Johnnie)

The Sound of the Baskervilles, and the Vamberry Wine Merchants One of the Portland groups):

The Dogs in the Nighttime (a fairly new group from Anacortes, WA)

Margie Deck and Sheila Holtgrieve (also joined the Petrels) organized a game in the form of a type of Sherlockian-themed “mad-lib” Teams of four tables put their heads together to fill in the blanks of one of the unrecorded cases, and a rep from each team read out the complete story.

Thanks to the SoB’s there were many items to give away. From books, to posters, to mugs, to wine glasses, to fridge magnets, to soap, to a very Sherlockian Holiday wreath.

Pictured: Terri Haugen

Hopefully, we can all meet again. The food, the fun, the fellowship! Doesn’t get much better than this!

(Pictured below: Margie Deck, Fran Martin, Mimi Noyes (organizer of Seattle SherlockCon)