Still Blue, Still Stocking: The Bluestocking remains open in 2021

[ErrolTheDragon]

I've nicked a title, opened the door, dusted off the bar.

Come in and drown your sorrows, celebrate or just hang out in good company.

Very generous of you. Anything suited for Bloody or Virgin Marys?
Sadly no.
Lots of wine, though.

I have passed my copy of Helen J's book onto a local LibDem (very lovely person, has worked her socks off for the local community). Let's see how that goes.

Lots of wine, though.

If it's not a waste, I could use some wine to put up some sorbets. (Mind, it's nothing but thunderstorms here.)

I'll segue into an evening buffet at some point - it's the usual tapas as I always have those in quantity.

Spring , I'm so sorry. Hope you are okay. Please be gentle with yourself.

And for you, BlackeyedSusan, hope all is peaceful now.

Would anyone like a Sgroppino Al Limone?

I've a hankering for an icecream float but need alcohol. I can make a batch as we've lemon sorbet, prosecco, vodka and plenty of mint outside.

I could murder an ice cream float. Dandelion and burdock with vanilla ice cream.

I shall make you one Spring

Would anyone like a Sgroppino Al Limone?

Yes, please. It would be delightful to have this later.

If the temperature drops I shall think of putting out some bowls of pasta with sauces and I'm layering up a lasagne to pop in the oven.

Just shout when you're ready Embarrassing

I'm going to have one or two now as aperitivo but will no doubt want another later for dessert.
Some pasta in between is a good idea.

Lasagna etc. in the oven and the sauces are bubbling on the hob.

I may be having a sleepover in the Bluestocking as the water is rising outside the front door so DH is in his waterproofs to pump it. (I'm very pleased that I gave the pump a maintenance overhaul earlier this year.)

Sgroppino Al Limone sound wonderful (I had to Google it).

Oo crikey embarrassing. I hope you keep dry.

Thanks for the coffee Arabella, kids are at their dad's and I have just had a three hour nap.

I've put out the last tray of lasagna and pasta.

We're on a warning for flooding. We're in a worst state than everyone else as it's a multi-cambered sloping area, IYSWIM, and our property captures the run off and lowest point from everyone else.

We're watching the updated forecasts. Evacuation to shared areas is, of course, complicated by the local area's surge in Covid–19 infections.

Thanks for the lasagna.

Good luck...

EmbarrassingAdmissions many thanks for the pasta, I shall send all best hopes your way that floods recede.

Best of luck @EmbarrassingAdmissions having been in a flood situation before, and used bags of compost as sandbags, I sympathise. Hope it all goes well

Yes, Embarrassing, best of luck. Wishing you several days of no more rain. Thank you for your sterling and generous catering endeavours.

Popping in for a breather and some toast. We're OK for now but we've more rain forecast for this afternoon.

A newly built housing estate opposite us, and the number of people who've swapped their (tiny) front gardens for paving are behind this enormous run-off. This is why the fact our garden is the lowest point is now a problem where it wasn't previously.

After coffee and toast, it's putting up more protections for this afternoon.

Popping in to check that Embarrassing has enough coffee and toast, and that Spring and Susan are both ok under the blanket.

I need to write to the local PCC candidates this week. But I really fancy a big mug of strong coffee and a dusty book or two first. I've bought some pastries in.

Oh, no, Embarrassing.

This is the trouble with all the hard landscaping, and why one is supposed to apply for planning/building warrant to get rid of garden and pave over it ... maybe part of the reason we are getting more flooding now.

Hope you stay above the waterline.

BANK VOLES. They're back. We had them in the garden a couple of years ago but they disappeared. They are decimating geraniums (not Pelargoniums). We have a couple of large beds which are raised. I wouldn't mind but we're not rural. Cheeky sods. The family loves them. Last time the little ones came out to play, so of course everyone's misty eyed, whilst I sit there fuming. They are protected so I'm now tramping around making a noise, hoping they move on before all the geraniums are gone. Why don't like sodding weeds?

Hope things are ok Embarrassing. We will prepare to send survival kit comprising plenty of alcohol

Hope you're okay. And dry.

I've never seen a bank vole. A friend had a hare in his garden the other day, peering in through the patio doors.

This one from the last invasion. Cute, yes, but

Sorry you're at the mercy of building stupidity. I would have thought that nowadays the problems of hard landscaping were sufficiently well understood that developers ought to be obliged to design in adequate drainage so as to not impact people below. (Including factoring in that occupants may pave nonpermeably)

It's when I see a whole new estate on something that's clearly a floodplain that I despair. Or - you know how developers have the distressing habit of naming their estates and roads after what used to be there before they built all over greenfield? - well, I had to quietly assume a friend who'd moved into Watermeadow Close possibly hadn't quite thought it through....

We're holding. Much will depend on the rainfall later tonight and tomorrow morning.

The new build developers put in a flood relief scheme but it seems there was no budget allocation for maintenance of it so, what with one thing and another, it appears to have no free drainage or diversion. To be fair, it also seems like most of the homeowners who paved over their gardens either didn't put in drainage or they haven't maintained it, IYSWIM, so they're not diverting the water anywhere as they're full of leaf or other litter.

Highame - are bank voles the same as water voles? Like Ratty in Wind in the Willows?