On January 9, 2010, the Stormy Petrels will honour the great detective by hosting a birthday celebration.

He called himself “middle-aged” about 1889, and was described as being 60 years old in 1914, suggesting a birth date of c. 1854.

The third annual Birthday luncheon will be held at The White Spot (West Georgia/Cardero) at 11:15. It is an informal luncheon, although we may have a guest speaker.

For the previous twenty years, the Petrels have celebrated this day with a more formal dinner. The dinner now takes place in March, and detail will be available at a later date. This dinner celebrates the birth of a great partnership – Holmes and Watson – at which both men are honoured.

Please let Fran know if you are able to attend.

The 1st of December marked our annual Christmas Bookshop meeting at Brown’s Books. Our little Sherlockian tree, all trimmed with ornaments representing various cases from the Canon stood proudly amid delicious treats.

Many thanks the Roger Brown for leaving the door to his bookshop open for the flock of Petrels this chilly December night.

The first gathering of Petrels in the new year will be in celebration of the birthday of the world’s first consulting detective.

The Sherlock Holmes Birthday luncheon will take place at “The White Spot” located at the corner of West Georgia & Cardero at 11:15 on January 9, 2010.

This is an informal event, but we may have a guest speaker at this time. Mr. Eric Swanick of “special collections” at Simon Fraser University may be on hand to tell us about the collection and our part in it. Please join us if you want to learn more.

The next regular meeting will take place in February. Details will follow at a later date.

Until then, please accept my “Compliments of the Season”

It has come to my attention, through Roger Johnson of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, that several items of interest to the Doylean world will go under the hammer later this week.

The items include: a signed studio prortrait of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; a photo of Sir ACD with Patrick Leckie Forbes in uniform; a sword which has a presentation inscription from ACD – the engraving reads: “P Leckie from his uncle A Conan Doyle 1915”

These items are estimated to go for 1,000 – 1,500 pounds.

Anyone interested in more information can contact Mr. Richard Bromell, Partner, at Charterhouse in Sherborne, Dorset: 011-44-1935-812277. The auction will take place on Friday, Sept. 25th.

The next special event for the Stormy Petrels is our annual “Silver Blaze” race which takes place at “Toad Hall” on Saturday, Sept. 12th at 2:30 pm. The first race takes place at 3:00. A supper will follow the final race and presentation of the prizes.

New horses have been donated by Fred and the jockeys will sport the proper canonical colours as per the story (thanks to Len)