The Bluestocking - where Spring has sprung and the grass is riz.

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

Welcome all. Can the gerbils please ensure that all the Tunnocks products are safely stowed in the capacious larder, and perhaps the quokkas could be responsible for counting everyone onto the bus and back off at the new thread - many thanks!

That is perfect; thank you 🥰

Which size order, @Bannedontherun ? Height or width, or is it surface area?

@Bannedontherun

I’ll say!

I felt out of breath just reading that…

I am fairly anal about how my books are arranged I'm afraid (no I don't mean up my bum). Fiction in author order, poetry in author order, biography/autobiography/memoir in order of the protagonist's name, history in chronological order, all other genres (e.g. travel, science) clustered together in groups.

Of course there is the 'to be read' bookcase upstairs on the landing where they're all just crammed in any old how.

Hedgehogs don't do punctuation don't ya know.

Height is the order for me tall to small.

found some full stops snuffling around.

What? Jealous of gerbils cuddling Swash? Moi? Of course not..

I mean, I'm a renowned 15th-16th century French essayist, philosopher, translator, classicist and feminist, currently with the appearance of a handsome uber-cool black-winged punk angel, and they are just small very cute very affectionate little furry anima....
...oh ok, I get the picture😢 <sound of whooshing wings>

💔 Oh Marie. What has Swashy done to you?

You should head over and read the traybake thread. Hilarious and informative in one. Muchos gracias to @AsWithGlad for posting the link.

I am recovering from lunch by drinking Bailey's. That'll work, right?

DH sorts his books by colour and size: he is either weird, or just perverse for the LOL of winding me up. I sort by author or topic.

I love the traybake thread, though I've started reading it several times over the years and don't think I ever got to the end.

I'm leaving it open to work through over the next few days.

My New Year's resolutions were to lose weight and to read more.

Being led astray by a thread on MN weren't what I had in mind. I really want to make fifteens, but if I do I will probably eat the lot.

AI is very fussy about showing cuddles between humans and animals, even ultra cool punk angel type humans. But there are a lot of them supporting you.

I'm trying not to double screen so much, hence the delay 💐

Perhaps I just don't like a writer going on about nipples at all, especially not in such savagely hedonistic, drooling terms, but I find the comparison quite stomach-turning. I do have quite a literal way if looking at things though, and I think if strawberries are drowning in cream, there's too much cream.

I filed my CD’s in alpha order. On doing so rediscovered a few gems.

One is John Prine. American died of covid.

He did a song called dear Abbey, about people writing to an agony aunt

In which his chorus goes

Dear xxx you have no complaint

you are what you are

you ain’t what you ain’t

So listen up buster and listen up good

stop wishing for bad luck

and knocking on wood.

I love that, Banned! I don't know that song, in fact I only know two by John Prine - The Speed of the Sound of Loneliness, which is such a heart-breaking song, and That's How Every Empire Falls which isn't a great tune but powerful lyrics -
A bitter wind blows through the country
A hard rain falls on the sea
If terror comes without a warning
There must be something we don't see
What fire begets this fire?
Like torches thrown into the straw
If no one asks, then no one answers
That's how every empire falls.

@MarieDeGournay He had a power of irony little known over the pond another one about the American working class was “in spite of ourselves” which me and my husband used to sing, usually after a pub session.

I resisted opening the traybake thread. DH is being very good about eating well for his health and I’m not going to sabotage it - I think I find it easier to stick to healthy eating resolutions for his sake than my own.

@EdithStourtonamazingly those were my resolutions too. I’ve managed to keep one of them.

I've shifted a few pounds and I have read several books, so technically I've kept both, but not very well.

C-, Edith could try harder and would do better with more focus and determination.

We should be resolution buddies.

Errol the way I'm reading this, it suggests a direct causality between 'opening the traybake thread' and 'eating traybakes' - aren't there a few steps in between, like for instance 'making traybakes'?
Also, there are people I know for whom the phrase 'there's too much cream.' sounds like some kind of garbled noises in a strange language... 'toomuchcream' ? what could those strange sounds mean??

We (DH & me) have been steadily losing weight for over three years, losing about eight stone between us.

We have discovered the following:

• If there is wine in the house we will drink it, but we're fine having a drinks cabinet of spirits
• If there is pudding in the house we will eat it, but we're fine with a single magnum in the freezer
• If we decide to start Christmas on the 9 December by bringing out the toaster and having bread or toast, we will put on about a stone in weight and only shift 10lb by the end of March.
• Getting married in February fucked up our three month hard core "no carbs or wine" between Christmas and DSD's birthday.
• Our food regime is really good for maintaining weight so once we're down to target weights (about two stone more for each of us), we'll keep it up but be able to have toast on birthdays and anniversaries and wine at weekends.

It has been worth it and neither of us are eligible for weight loss injections. An additional four stone did not make me look obese but my BMI was over 30. Being a stone overweight looks great on me and I'm a size 12. This confirms to me that sizing has expanded since the 1980s when I was a size 12 and considerably slimmer than I am now. The menopause puts weight on women. It's like we're meant to become cuddly in our 50s. DH has dieted himself out of diabetes.

That's great, Myrtle!
I'm a fellow-believer in 'If you don't buy it you can't eat it'😄

There was lots, too much, Type 2 diabetes in the previous generation of my family, so it's wonderful to hear that your DH has dieted his way out of that condition.
For me, healthy eating is more about the health aspect and feeling fit than appearance - I agree with you that acquiring a degree of cuddliness seems to be inevitable

Quite inspiring! Thank you Myrtle 😊

That is excellent, Myrtle. There is a lot of Type 2 in my family and I am keen not to go down that route.

I'm not much overweight, but I know that if I don't put the brakes on this year it will just carry on edging upwards.

Buying new jeans that I could barely do up was useful for me. And yes, sizings have changed massively over the years. I used to be a 12 and I gained weight and was still a 12, even as my old size 12s felt very tight.

I'm being incredibly shallow currently, and losing weight purely for a special event in May. I know I need to lose weight, and I don't plan to put it back on, so fitting into my outfit is the catalyst. 😂

That's brilliant @Myrtle . I am currently on a BMI of about 32 and would need to lose about 30lb to get it down under 30, but I can't seem to garner the energy to work on it.