Discuss The Archers here. There's hut construction, new teen arrivals, pastured eggs, pining Pip and other fun Spring-like stories to choose from.

[PseudoBadger]

Maybe if we don't look directly at the other storyline it will disappear?

Does anyone feel that this thread has now done the boarding school issue to death? OK - it's a flawed plot device - I think we're all agreed on that and the flaws have been explained at length!

There must be other things we can discuss...?

V sensible comment, ddd.

soooo what do you think of pastured eggs? and the shepherds hut carefully designed to take only the weight of one person

If I were Kirsty, I would promise not to say anything, and then I would just try and get Helen talking; ask her what led up to the slap, ask her what she flew off the handle at Pat about. I would ask about Henry, what he's been doing. I would ask how it's been with Ursula there. I would try to get her to articulate what's making her unhappy. And only when she could see it for what it is, would I talk to her about getting help or talking to others.

Helen needs to understand herself what's happening rather than Kirsty or someone else telling her. I think it's slowly dawning on her and the Henry boarding school plan will be what finally does it.

in honour of Helen I am listening to Gaslight this afternoon

Eddie's bash tonight. I doubt very much if anyone from BHC will attend. Do we think the ferrets will be in attendance?

What's the difference between pastured eggs and free range? Are pastured hens freer range?

Free range generally means "access to outside space" which in practice means most of them live indoors. I saw a horrible account of one such farm recently, will look for it.

I assume pastured hens literally live outside & are only inside at night?

Did we hear a Grundy on air invite Rob and Helen to Eddie's party by telling Rob about it? I am struggling to think how that might have happened, but Helen clearly was thinking an invitation had been withheld by Rob. I'd be more inclined to think that neither of them were invited because Eddie is no fan of Rob and Helen is heavily pregnant and known never to go out any more. Thoughts?

The poor hens look wretched but following this the place was re-inspected by the RSPCA & they said it was fine. Freedom Foods

metro.co.uk/2016/03/13/farmer-denies-his-free-range-chickens-5748937/

Come to think of it, I had no idea hens ate grass...just grass? Really?

Pasteurised eggs come from hens who run in fields, and feed naturally. Free range eggs are from hens who can run around, but they may still get all/most of their nutrition from animal feed. The area they run around could be a pretty sterile dirt/mud patch.

Pasteurised? Or pastured?

We all have plot holes that bug us and those that don't bother us. There are plenty of threads where the suppositions endlessly discussed have been of no interest to me but accept that other people may wish to discuss it.

Not got to end of thread yet but

1. on issue of K speaking out. What if she tells everyone AND they believe her. What can they do? You cannot kidnap someone suffering from.DA. yes I suppose more people could make the effort to see her. They could make it less easy for Rob to victimise her but at the end of the day until Helen decides enough is enough and asks for help, there isn't anything anyone can do other than be there and try to stop her from normalising abuse.

2. i think Helen will agree (reluctantly).to Henwee going to school. And it is other people's reactions to this that will jolt her awake. Because even after her raped her, again, she still thinks she brought being hit on herself.

Where she is is a horrible confusing space. We are taught it takes two. We must compromise. So if it takes two she must have had some part in this so just now she is focusing on trying to fanthom out what she has done wrong and not seeing she isn't to blame, has done nothing wrong and it really is ALL him.

Next she may realise it is him but will make excuses for why he cannot help it (evil mummy).

Before finally realising he chooses to do this because it benefits him.

Fallon mentioned the party tonight to Helen and was surprised that she didn't know about it. I don't think the Grundys would ever consider inviting Rob as they think he's a Knob but don't discuss it. Remember Joe insisting on calling Helen Helen Archer immediately after the wedding.

Do you think SOC slipped in that 'over feminised upbringing' line purely to wind up us lot?

No. I think it was to show that Rob, like many abusers, has utter contempt for women.

There are plenty of threads where the suppositions endlessly discussed have been of no interest to me but accept that other people may wish to discuss it. Fair enough, BYOS, and the topic was one I joined in discussing, but I just felt like we were going round in circles, so gently suggested we move on. It seems to have worked fascinating discussion about eggs instead.

Dadx3 I've listened to last night now and stand by what I said - I'd promise not to tell, keep the promise initially while I tried to find out more and get her talking, but wouldn't feel obliged to keep it in the long run if I thought she / Henry / baby were in serious danger.

On another note, what is Shula up to with Doctor Whatsit?! She said "Maybe you can tell me what love means?" [or something along those lines] - am I right that they had a thing in their younger days? He doesn't seem interested now... But is she?

So 'free range' eggs are a bit like boarding school but 'pastureised' is more like Montessori.

If I were Kirsty I would head back to work at GG and buttonhole Ian to canvass his opinion on Helen's state of mind. He won't know which would open up another conversation about how she's alienated him. Discussion about Rob would ensue. Then I would nip to the tea rooms and shop and have a generalised conversation with anyone there about Helen. All without actually breaking H's confidence but, hopefully, alerting everyone.

Potted history of Shula's love life:
Lost her virginity in a cornfield more or less on air - this was before my time, but I believe there were outraged letters!
Neil had a bit of a thing for her, but it wasn't reciprocated.
At one point she went out with Nigel (who eventually married Elizabeth). There was an episode where he was staying over at Brookfield, supposedly on the sofa, and in the middle of the night he went looking for Shula and ended up in bed with Phil.
On off thing with Mark Hebden for many years. They finally got married in the mid 80s. Mark was a solicitor. Usha came to the area to go into a partnership with Mark. Shula was jealous of her.
Mark died in the early 90s in a car accident. Shula was having IVF and had just had the embryo implanted. Richard was the local doctor at the time. He persuaded Shula to continue with the injections or whatever it was she needed. She gave birth to Daniel something like eight months later.
While Daniel was very young, she had a short-lived relationship with Simon Pemberton, who hit her. (Simon was Caroline's stepson, via her first husband, Guy Pemberton, who used to own the estate.)
Richard was living with Usha then, or shortly afterwards. This didn't work out too well.
Shula got very friendly with the new vet, Alistair, and they started going out. However, she was also very chummy with Richard, who saw a lot of her and Daniel because Daniel had juvenile arthritis. Eventually she and Richard had a steamy affair (consulting room desk, on air, oh dear). All made public at the cricket club AGM by Susan, IIRC. Usha threw Richard out. He left the village, having failed to convince Shula to leave Ambridge with him. Shula married Alistair, who had forgiven her.

All this chat about boarding school reminds me that the actor who plays Jill once said that Jill was written as a cypher and the first time she ever asserted herself was to prevent David from going to boarding school when Phil wanted it. SOC seems to like reaching back into Archer's history. Is this another example? Will Jill get involved? Please let her clash with Rob.

I think Kirsty will take a more proactive approach, in that she'll step into the vacuum Ursula will leave. She will help her friend.

Hens do indeed eat grass, but it has to be grass. Their eggs from this are lovely.

I think H will confide further to K, eg about how Knob can be a little "persistent" in his lovemakng. K will tell her that is rape. That he is emotionally, sexually and physically abusing her.

H will stew on this for a bit but will be finally doubting that Knob has her best interests at heart. She will finally finally see the light and try to break free when she learns about Henwee's lovely new school.

Not necessarily in that order though.