Now we're all going to have more time on our hands, what hobbies do you fancy?

[TinselAngel]

(Lighthearted)

With so many recent victories to celebrate eg

1. Women's rugby and swimming
2. Allison's case
3. Maya's case
4. The government's commitment to the Spousal Exit Clause
5. End to plans for Self ID
6. Todays great news about the care of trans identifying young people

What hobbies do we all fancy now we're going to have a bit more time on our hands? I've always fancied having a go at calligraphy.

I'd also like to breed labradors but realistically don't have the room.

Well done vipers. We did this

What does one do with lovage?

I think you deserve a break from your vigil now TBH. Maybe until September?

Whilst this is all great, I fear that when Labour get in at the next GE (as they surely will) a lot of gains will be reversed as they truly appear to have drunk the TRA kool-aid. So I think a lot of fights will have to start over again.

Constantly chop it down/grub it up.

I bought some stuff to do calligraphy in lockdown but never got bloody furloughed.

Do not, for the love of God, grow lovage. It literally takes over everything and then all you have until the end of time is lovage

This is also true of : borage, mint, nasturtiums, horseradish, lemon balm and Jerusalem artichokes. Self-seed /spread/impossible to entirely dig out.

At least the bees love the borage. Other than putting the flowers in Pimms, I don’t know what it’s good for.
Mint’s good for everything, but the fancy ones never last for me.
Nasturtiums are pretty and both the flowers and leaves are good in salad for a horseradish-like kick.
Lemon balm is dreadful, invasive stuff.
J artichokes make you fart massively for the first few times you eat them then your body adapts. Great with oily fish like mackerel, or roasted in a warm salad, or as a soup with horseradish.
Horseradish we dig up each Christmas to make Bloody Marys with.

Dream on.
my mother was fighting the same shit under a different ideology in the 1960s. My grandmother same shit in the 1920/30. My great grandmother…
you do realise that women fought and only got any toilets in 1880 and took a law change so they could actually go out for longer than 2 hours in a public place. And here we are fighting same old shit 140 years later. My mother fought for equal pay- oh government introduced legislation to measure gender pay gap but absolutely nothing has been done to close it. In 1960s and 70s there was massive campaigns about removing sexual stereotyping from childrens toys ( anyone remember ELC) and education, and now we’re teaching the same shit kids were taught before that cos now everyone thinks girl brains like pink, dresses and don’t do rough and tumble, building blocks, or like maths.

it goes around like a roundabout…no matter how many times a skirmish is won, 50 years later we’re back fighting same olds crap

I think I've killed all of those things.

borage, mint, nasturtiums, horseradish, lemon balm and Jerusalem artichokes I mean!

Luckily soap making is another hobby I enjoy because I would need to wash my hands after writing anything for them. 😉🤣🤣

Re: the horseradish - I upturned mine last year to harvest some roots and they were tiny (after a full year's growth) - not big enough to do anything with. Was I just too early (I.e. does it take a few years growth) or is mine self identifying as decorative?

Am in Scotland, where all of this is far from over (see Karen Adams' latest nonsense) but when it is, I am looking forward to joining a low stress choir/singing group.

Yes we all realise the battle continues, but it doesn't hurt to have a lighthearted chatty thread occasionally, particularly when good things have happened.

Horseradish is horrible anyway.

I like it but am having to restrain the urge to kick the ungrateful plant's pot when I go past it.

Learn to embroider. I see Jess de Wahls has a lovely new (ahem) Prickly Pear embroidery kit so you to can tear down the patriarchy via the medioum of textile art.

I have actually bought one of the funny needle things she uses to embroider

I've long admired the craftivism of Leeds Spinners.

You say that, but I swear to God, even mint, which everyone says is a weed and will just take over, dies under my 'care'.