26 October: 26

On the 26th day of the month, 10 things you might not know about the number 26.

1. A solid with 26 sides is called a rhombicuboctahedron.
2. 26 is the atomic number of iron.
3. The square of 26 is a palindrome (676). It's the smallest number which isn't a palindrome to have a square which is.
4. Switzerland has 26 cantons and the Republic of Ireland has 26 counties.
5. In the US, 26 is commonly the number of episodes in a TV series, so that a new one can be broadcast each week for half the year and then repeated one a week for the rest of the year.
6. A human foot and ankle has 26 bones.
7. In the UK, the A26 road runs between Maidstone, Kent and Newhaven, East  Sussex. The M26 is a short motorway, just under 10 miles long, which links the M25 at Sevenoaks with the M20 in West Malling.
8. In a pack of Playing cards, there are 26 red cards and 26 black cards.
9. In music, there is an Australian alternative rock band named 26, and the bands Paramore and Catfish and the Bottlemen have both included tracks named 26 on their albums.
10. In numerology, 26 represents business, balance, teamwork, harmony, home and family. People with 26 in their birthdate are likely to have all the qualities that will make them successful in business - good managers, able to see the bigger picture, efficient, confident, practical, diplomatic and ambitious. On the down side, they can be bossy and not very tolerant of weaknesses in others.

NEW!

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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