ADs deflower male cucumbers for the Greater Good. All phallic aubergines welcome .

[BogRollBOGOF]

Because bitter male cucumbers don't bring joy, but phallic aubergines can raise an irreverent smile.

AD chat continues about life, the universe and everything. We know the answer is 42 but what is the question?
6x7?
How many roads must a man walk down?
How many unsadly reincarnations have PHE put into the database?

Soft play!

Going to try wearing my transparent face shield to church this Sunday; I'll see if the "watchers and welcomers" challenge me for not wearing a "proper" mask. I'm the organist, so not sitting with everyone else, but I have be seen to be doing the right thing...

@bakewelltarts no booking required at Ryedale, just turn up. I would say go early if you can as it was getting busier after lunch.

And in today's Yorkshire adventures, we are off to the sculpture park. Very much looking forward to that :-)

My toms haven't even flowered yet but I grew them from seed so was late from the start.

@BogRollBOGOF love your opening post and also sage nods to the poster who says the presence of males makes females bitter. 😁

No school today, but we’re meeting friends at the loch later to swim and toast marshmallows so that’ll be fun.

I’ve been engaging in my favourite hobby; calling out hypocrisy. 😁 the islands have been sharpening their pitchforks at tourists and workmen brought in for a project.

I suggested they might want to “look at themselves” as I can personally name more who travelled OFF island for a holiday than stayed On!

They don’t like it up ‘em Pike.

Also the blame being placed on poor people who go to pubs. It’s never the naice families going to holiday homes in Spain who bring risk...

Local rugby club is putting picnic table out on the training pitch with food and drink stands. Have to pre book. We are meeting friends there tonight, they couldn't make the last 2 Fridays which have been lovely and 50% chance of rain this evening. DH suggested cancelling 🤨. He has been firmly told that I will be going even if I'm head to toe in waterproofs and wellies. It's ok for him, he gets to go out to work and see people while I'm stuck in the back bedroom with just conference calls for company.

@Willow2017 a heated propagator has changed my game this year! It’s magic!

Checking in for sanity. Those wailing threads about schools are no good for my mental health.

My toms are ripe and delicious. I’d recommend sungold. Sweet and delicious. They ripen to orange and ripen sooner than red. Cherry gold toms.

I won't be telling my 6 year old about soft play yet and I'm hoping he doesnt hear it on the news.

He may actually explode from impatience if he can't go immediately!

@Littlebelina I had that too with a group of friends I (thought I had) made at Parentcraft classes. We met up every Thursday afternoon taking it in turns to host and when I went back to work mornings only that was still doable. Then we all had our 2nd and 3rd babies and the eldest ones started school - at which point the group decided to meet up on Tuesday morning/lunchtime so they could do the school run. I couldn't do that as I worked until 1pm every day. The others who worked (some were SAHM) only worked 2.5 full days so this worked for them. This group have continued to meet up every month for the past 20 years - I had a text message out of the blue the year I split with my H inviting me to one of these meals. I went, did the catch up thing - they were disappointed there was no gossip to be had about the divorce - then I got ghosted again. Until 2 years later when I got another random text inviting me to a Christmas meal which I couldn't do as I was working long hours. I do wonder if I should make more effort but I'm so antisocial these days I don't think I can cope with it.

Very envious of all the tomatoes and cucumbers being grown - I had grand plans for the raised bed in my garden this year (kids even planted it out with herbs and carrots and onions as part of a birthday present) but the cat has adopted said bed as her personal litter tray and sleeping station. The seeds and bulbs got dug up to cover cat poo and the herbs got squished. Some of the pansies transferred beautifully into a pot but cat has now taken to sleeping in that pot! She's 13 so I can sort of forgive her but I'm planning all sorts for that bed once cat isn't here

Checking in will try to keep up this time

@Blobby10, any chance of a picture of said kitty in the pot?
DH's chives were ruined one year by our cat sitting on them. In fairness, she was barely out of kittenhood at the time.

@Pinkflipflop85 The News was always "unsuitable" for children (and adults too, to be honest). My parents got nervous whenever plane crashes were on the news, because then my brother and I wouldn't stop worrying about them.

In my interview for secondary school, when asked what I watch on television, I cheerfully replied that I was forced to watch the news because of this interview! At the time, it was all about the Gulf War, and at primary school they'd sat us down to reassure us that it wasn't a war like WW2 which we'd been studying.

I drifted away from the mum friends around RTW time. Many of us went part time, but my days didn't seem to match the consensus, and it all drifted. I also wasn't in the same neighbourhood which is a bit out of the way.

The school mums had all bonded over school nursery so while we're friendly for small talk, I've never been in the inner circle, and more critically, neither have the DCs.

@ISaySteadyOn it’s a cat sized pot!!

Awwwww. Thank you! The chive pot was a rectangle just the right size for our small cat.

I have to say I've been lucky with mum friends, but then I went for the sweary loudmouth vodka drinking ones and they are the most loyal bunch you can imagine. Over the years we've all done various work things but we do make time to meet at least once a month. I'm still in the primary school phase, another 4 years to go but hoping once smallest is in Y5 she can take herself to school and back and I can withdraw...

@PickAChew

Worktop is filthy, like

We've got the same worktops !

It's wierd being OP and my posts stay in OP green not my usual purple

@PickAChew here in the lifeboat station that worktop wouldn't be defined as dirty.

Nice aubergine, though, hats off to you for that

Checking in.

Just eyeing up menu for restaurant tomorrow. Salivating just thinking about it . The question is, can I fit a desert in? Hmmmm might have to try.

Avoiding the news and trying not to venture into the depths of MN

One of my earliest memories is of being forced to watch the Berlin wall coming down on the news as it was 'significant'. I had no idea what it meant at the time.

I didn't have any mum friends when DS was a baby. I was too embarrassed to go to the classes when I was pregnant because I was single and that kind of morphed into embarrassment about attending baby groups. I have one very good mum friend from DS's private nursery but the rest of my friends are from work/uni. Not that I have loads.

@99victoria - I really hope you stick around there are some really nasty posters on even the most innocuous threads these days.

About coronviruses - can't see full article but I read it a while ago - it's look like other coronviruses have crossed from animal species before and caused what looked like flu epidemics.
www.newscientist.com/article/mg24632800-700-what-four-coronaviruses-from-history-can-tell-us-about-covid-19/

Four coronaviruses cause around a quarter of all common colds, but each was probably deadly when it first made the leap to humans.
...
IN 1889, a disease outbreak in central Asia went global, igniting a pandemic that burned into the following year. It caused fever and fatigue, and killed an estimated 1 million people.

...
Another possibility is that this “flu” was actually a coronavirus pandemic. The finger has been pointed at a virus first isolated in the 1960s, though today it causes nothing more serious than a common cold. In fact, there are four coronaviruses responsible for an estimated 20 to 30 per cent of colds. Only recently have virologists begun to dig into these seemingly humdrum pathogens and what they have found suggests the viruses have a far more deadly past. Researchers now believe that all four of these viruses began to infect humans in the past few centuries and, when they did, they probably sparked pandemics.