... to think that because I can't see a new IPOAT thread I should start one myself?

[PrincessFiorimonde]

Especially as I want to wish CheerfulYank a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY for today. Hope you are having a lovely day.

And here is the patron saint of IPOAT playing Happy Birthday To CY!

Excuse me!

I have been known to take a nip from the brandy bottle for medicinal purposes only but am always careful to gargle with Eau de Cologne afterwards

Hmmm

Eau de Cologne? A whiff of Opium hangs over that Chaise Longue. Not that concocted by Monsieur YSL.

Aha! And see how she always hovers about the vases of poppies we colect from yon field yonder

That fainting and swooning and clutching at the chaise longue as if fatigued by good works.
That glassy-eyed helpless demeanour as we rushed to aid her, sorely troubled by her selfless toil.

I begin to wonder...

I thought you were my friends :(

We ARe your friends and that's why we are going to help you...

You just need a nice long quiet rest...

No force feeding though. I had quite enough of that last time

Hide the tube! Hide the demn tube!

Have added cushions and woven rugs to the chaise longue.

Come and sit by me, Mistress Jins. I have much to recount

Good day Gels. Here, Jins, try this tincture it will turn you round in no time after the convulsions and the vomiting. I must confiscate the poppies for the herb drying shed, however. It has been too hot to tat, we have been swooning in the shed. But now you must help me make merry for 'tis my birthday tomorrow, out with the bunting.

Why Gels, such Joy for Mistress Mini.
Mistress Jins must away on the chaise longue to the Barn. A key is needed. I fear Needs Must if she is to be restored to us.

Mini - a June birthday. The hedgerows are full and bunting will be brought forth in celebration. Possets are aboil and many a dainty headdress is being fashioned in your honour.

mini I fear I have turned myself inside out after that tincture of yours. It's very purging.

I will tat some bunting

A birthday! What larks. We must set cook to fashioning some of her most inventive creations. She has quite the way with lightly toasted grass cakes! And of course there must be stirrup cup and watered ale.

Ponders - a stirrip cup? In which one has placed one's (neatly turned) ankle astride a steaming horse?
Can that be right?

Arf at Miss Fiderer's concern at Mistress Jins' "taking her ease". On reflection, maybe the word "ease" was but a euphemism for laudanum that there oestregin so beloved by Mistress Hully some of our sisters.

Happy Birthday Mini!
I wish you a most joyous day and am secure in the knowledge your festive attire will not be like this shameless wench

Happy birthday Mini. PARTAAAAYYYYYY!!!!

In his excitement Sir Digby Digby Oswald Ffffotheringay-Smythe-Piffling has lorst his clothes - but the dear boy was so anxious to wish you a Happy Birthday! Mini, dear.

That Sir Digby has a fair bloom on his rose.

The waiters are very polite

Is that Ethel Mabel Delphinia Ffffotheringay-Smythe-Piffling's lad Hully?

My he's grown

Dear Ethel, a martyr to the dropsy. She is now quite quite vast and must be trundled about in a wheelbarrow. It has improved Digby Digby's musculature beyond all imagining, has it not?

Those waiters have a strange pallor which could easily be remedied by a month in the hayfields. I could keep an eye on them and quench their thirst.