Not at all, you obviously foresaw a need😁

Years of working on building sites. There's always a need for your own fork and knife, spoon, mug...

I am Gloriana Gräfin and I claim my £5

"Be Prepared"

And now I have Tom Lehrer in my head.

Don't solicit for your sister that's not nice
Unless you get a good percentage of her price
Be prepared

By tomorrow it will be Poisoning Pigeons In The Park

Blanket Octopus

Size of female - 2 metres
Size of male - 2 centimetres

The male has his sperm in a pouch on a tentacle that the female detaches and keeps until she is ready to use it. Basically a reproductive brooch.

She swims in the open ocean, unlike most octopus. She's immune to the sting of jellyfish tentacles, so she rips them off jellyfish and uses them as a whip to stun fish and eat them.

She uses the membranes between her tentacles to make herself look enormous to frighten predators, and can change her colours to incredible iridescent displays. It's mesmerising.

There you go, the whip-wielding ocean huntress 100 times the size of her mate.

You're welcome.

Gloriana Gräfin took a little on the end of her fork. “Apricot,” she said. “And clove. A touch too much clove.”
“It’s the right amount of clove,” said Gourmet, and shut the hatch.

Atta gurl Gourmet, you stick to your guns about the amount of clove!

I don't like the sound of this Gloriana Gräfin at all, I think she's trouble..

Moist, that octopus sounds amazing! And thank you for telling us about her - very Bluestocking, a place where amazing facts are known and shared😃

Hats off to the female blanket octopus! I am suitably impressed.

Thank you!

I have to admit to not being the biggest fan of termites after my experiences in Forrin Climes.

I did briefly occupy a house one entire corner of which was so undermined by termites that there were the most enormous cracks forming an very large triangle, and that entire corner was slowly sliding away from the rest of the brickwork. I'd sit eating my dinner eyeing that corner of the room and wondering how long it would before the whole lot collapsed.

“It’s the right amount of clove,” said Gourmet, and shut the hatch.

That's exactly how I used to feel when I'd somehow managed to get a home-cooked meal on the table, after work, school pick-up, and providing a taxi service to swimming or whatever, and the DC pushed it around with their cutlery and DH said, 'Didn't we have Bolognese last week?'

Oh dear. They were lucky not to be wearing that Bolognese, weren't they?!

There's a whole 'industry' - cards, mugs, etc - around 'funny things Irish Mammies say', which was funny at first but has got a bit 🙄by now.
But I saw this on an apron and I liked it:
You'll eat it - and you'll like it!

I don't recall my Irish Mammy ever using those exact words, but the 'That's the food that's in front of you, and that's what you're going to eat because there's nothing else available' attitude is familiar😄

@MoistVonL my new motto is Be More Blanket Octopus.

I agree! I just googled them - fantastic. Looks a bit like a deep-sea butterfly

A giant deep sea butterfly who could end you.

I thought you'd all like them.

Oh, and she lays tens of thousands of eggs and basically squeezes the sperm across them like a condiment sachet when she's ready to reproduce.

😨😱