The Bluestocking - the one with the Christmas stocking

[lcakethereforeIam]

New thread here.

Former thread here

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5218621-bluestocking-the-one-where-boiled-gets-to-the-bar-first?page=1

Droppings??

I came across my craft boxes from lockdown. I paid for two sets for about a year and the only thing that stuck was candle-making. I discovered:

1. a small weaving kit for coasters. One coaster woven but not removed from the "loom".
2. a table mat made from strips of fabric, woven and pinned but not edged.
3. a set of two glasses for engraving - entire project not yet begun.
4. a wooden clock model started but abandoned when the hour hand broke. I have no instructions so not sure what to do about it.
5. a wooden factory model begun and left in the sun for months which I might finish over Christmas.

I was actually looking for a linking kit because I wanted the pliers but maybe DH has them.

I think I have to acknowledge that life gets in the way and if I beat myself up about not crafting, then it becomes a chore and an obligation and not something to be enjoyed.

I am pleased that after many decadesyears, the characters living in my head have finally found a plot. It will probably take some time to cook, but at least they're beginning to sort themselves out and work out an ending rather than hanging around on street corners for a plot to come by.

I am on our canal boat Christmas shopping all done, even forgot it was Christmas

had pub lunch today a bit squiffy at the locks but managed not to fall in the cut.

little tiff with hubby as he wanted to do last to locks but we would have been doing them in the dark

not a good idea in any circumstances

moored up coal burner on all cozy indoors, wind whipping around the boat

love it

Ahem. Whilst we might share some glossy black feathers and a cynical approach to all things academic, I’d just like to point out that there is a slight difference between a magpie and a blackbird singing.

Humph!

I'm sorry Magpie. Despite the fact that Wikipedia claims magpies used to be kept in cages as songbirds, the rattling call of the magpie, (genus pica pica, family Corvid), is described on websites such as the Natural History museum and the RSPB as "powerful and abrasive", whereas the blackbird (genus turdus merula, family Thrush), can produce a shrill staccato alarm call, but is more famous for its "beautifully mellow song".

I'm with Inky. I've never heard a song that started "Magpie singing in the dead of night".

The reason that @DrBlackbird and @Magpiecomplex aren't seen in the same room together is not because they are one and the same bird, but because AI can't draw birds, and has no idea what the difference between a blackbird and a magpie is, or even a puffin and a seagull. Indeed as Android pointed out earlier on in this thread, it takes a monumental effort to get the AI to actually produce a blackbird at all.

However, in my opinion, magpies are more intelligent than blackbirds. Corvids win!

But the song of the blackbird ... it's so beautiful.
Thrushes win!

So you both win. Or it's a draw.

(Edited for typo)

I must admit, powerful and abrasive does fit me better than beautifully mellow 🤣
Shall we call it quits, @DrBlackbird?

And it's not 'magpie has spoken, like the first bird'.

(Though if birds could actually speak, I suspect the magpie would probably be a more interesting conversationalist)

A magpie
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VztxILBSyB0

A blackbird
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v6VLiUsIDz4

I rest my case.

I actually have a load of respect for magpies having watched them kill and eat rats. I don't think that blackbirds could do that.

I fell down a wiki rabbit warren reading about magpies and blackbirds - the latter can do that sleeping with half a brain at a time one eye open thing. Wish I could do that!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unihemisphericslow-wavee_sleep

Magbird, blagpie, let's call the whole thing off.

Also...

There isn’t a Rossini opera called The Thieving Blackbird, either.

Blobins

And there wasn't a children's tv show called Blackbird with a song taken from a traditional rhyme either.

Meanwhile, in Android's spare room...

Those are lovely though.

The American redwinged blackbird has snazzy red go-faster stripes but isn't really a blackbird.

I wondered if the AI was basing it on US birds.

Magpies

Those blobins have poorly tummies, or are emulating bleeding corn cobs.

.

What is Android really up to? She looks so interested and engaged at the Bluestocking, and is clearly very intelligent, but what's going on when she hides away in her cavernous laboratory spare room?

Awwwww