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!

I'm lucky because I don't have "food noise". This means I don't hanker after particular foods. My DM has been obese all her life and I suggested she cut out bread a few years ago. She replied she couldn't do that because she "just loves bread". And the way she said it was like she loved drugs. I don't know what I would do if I had that kind of relationship with food.

I put on the weight during lockdown by drinking a lot of wine so we don't have it in the house now.

Good luck to all the Stockingers trying to change into Stockingettes

I love the traybake thread too - I may have contributed to it. I did succumb to temptation today - we stopped at a lovely farmshop tearoom today, for lunch, on the way back from visiting the twins. They have the most wonderful cakes, and dh had ordered bread and butter pudding for himself, and I decided I was having a cake and to heck with the type 2. I did manage to restrain myself to a single cupcake, and didn’t eat it all, but ohhhh boy it was something, having that much sugar, after so many months of abstemiousness.

We had a weekend of lovely little baby snuggles, and helping with bath time and bedtime for our older granddaughter - it was great!

Aww that's lovely, Wol!

Well spring may have sprung here in the Bluestocking, but here in Maine we have snow today. With any luck it will disappear in a day or two, but winter is a sore loser around these parts.

If you were the Bluestocking's resident Hedgehog, Woley, you're little grandbabies might look like this
Your weekend with them sounds lovely.

I went to another hostelry last night; it wasn’t a patch on The Blue Stocking. Missed the calibre of conversation. (And the gerbils, of course….)

All the best to everyone resisting traybakes. Dark chocolate is my biggest snacky temptor. I always have it in and often find myself just popping to the cupboard in the evenings.

(The man only delivered it. He’s not stopping. It’s just for us….)

They’re very cute but I expect Woley is glad hers are less spiky!

I like your grasp of essential chocolate quantities, Swashy.

The Bluey's sign-writer clearly skived off spellings all throuhg primy schol.

Glad you enjoyed the twins, Woley.

Ah! That should have been delivered to the goods entrance.

Let me introduce you to the newly opened Bluestocking Chocolate Rooms.

From the brochure:
As you step into the Bluestocking Chocolate Rooms on the 70th floor (for the 70% content) a warm, inviting glow welcomes you — the scent of cocoa heavy in the air.

Room One: Dark Chocolate
To your left, towering double doors creak open into a grand room lined with walls of obsidian-hued sweetness. Gigantic bars of dark chocolate, each the size of a dining table, are stacked like ancient monoliths. Their deep, rich aroma fills the space. Overhead, vintage chandeliers cast soft amber light, glinting off the glossy chocolate surfaces. Women lounge on velvet sofas, breaking off slabs with silver mallets and pairing bites with espresso and poetry readings.

Room Two: Milk Chocolate
Straight ahead lies a second chamber bathed in soft golden light. Here, the bars are milk chocolate — smooth, creamy, and colossal. The room feels softer, cozier, as if caramel itself had been poured over every surface. Plush armchairs are scattered among the chocolate structures, and laughter echoes as friends gather to dip fruits into warm milk chocolate fountains nestled between the enormous bars.

Room Three: Dark Salted Chocolate — Myrtle’s Room
To the right is a more mysterious room. Above the arching doorway, in elegantly hand-carved letters, reads the name: “Myrtle.”
Inside, it’s cooler and quieter. The bars of dark salted chocolate are darker than midnight, streaked with glints of sea salt that sparkle like tiny stars. The scent is intoxicating — bittersweet with a sharp, savory edge. This room has long oak tables, flickering candles, and books tucked into alcoves. Here, quiet conversation reigns. It’s said Myrtle herself only speaks to those who truly understand the depth of chocolate — and the depth of thought.

That is an incredible addition to The Blue Stocking @MyrtleLion! Thank you!!

I have overdosed in Room 1, and managed to fit in a sneaky visit to Room 3.

I hope I sleep….. 🤣

I’m now pondering how I can entirely renovate my living room to look like that.

Cam we have tea as well as espresso in the first room plz?

Otherwise, perfection.

I'll be in room 3 for the foreseeable if anyone needs me! Thanks @MyrtleLion!

Of course! The gerbils are happy to supply any beverage you request.

Fabulous!
A pot of Darjeeling would just hit the spot.

One of the enjoyable things about growing up in Norwich was that when the wind was in the right direction the whole city centre smelled of chocolate from the Macintosh factory. Those rooms must be like that.

Did it smell of mustard there when the wind shifted, Deano?
In Dublin, it was the smell of roasting hops from the Guinness brewery up the river at St James' Gate. I didn't like that smell at all - though of course the smell was really wonderful and the sun was always shining in Dublin in the rare oul' times - and would gladly have abandoned centuries of industrial and cultural heritage and swapped the Guinness brewery for a sweet factory

No mustard, but when the wind was in the other direction it did get the brewery smell - but not that distinctive roasting malt Guinness aroma.

roasting something - I thought it was the malted barley, maybe it was the hops.

second second thought, I think it must have been the malt, because the hops bit was the same in Norwich. Not my favourite, but distinctive.

For a couple of years as a student I began and ended the day at Bournville station, in the days when Cadbury’s made chocolate rather than whatever it is they produce now.
And then a few years later my drive to work often took me past Rowntrees.

I hope the chocolate rooms have something in the 85-100% range , though lower cocoa is ok if it’s got nuts in it.

Errol, I think Cadburys now produces chocol-ish, or possibly chocol-esque. Rather like the cups of liquid almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea, produced on the Heart of Gold.

Every day a school day on FWR - while checking that Colman's is indeed produced in Norwich, Deano, I saw that it is? was? on Carrow Road, which is where the footie ground is, which made me thing that Norwich FC may have started out as the Colman's Mustard works team? and hence the yellow jerseys? Some googling is needed I think..
Oooh I love a good trivia hunt😄

Because I'm somewhat interested in, but not that interested in, English soccer [as we call it here, football = Gaelic football] I hate it when the reporter says 'Well it was a bad day for the Toffies at Carrow Road when the Canaries took their revenge for the 5-0 thrashing at Goodison Park last season... Next up, the Baggies at the Stadium of Light..'

I feel like shouting 'Will ya just tell me what fecking teams were playing and what the fecking score was!'
I know some of the nicknames and some of the stadium names but they always throw in at least one I don't know -- like the Addicks.

I’ve not sullied my lips with cadburys for some years, since a bar of Whole Nut. They can no longer claim ‘a hazelnut in every bite’, mine had a couple of sections completely nutless.
To add insult to injury, my understanding is that Kraft acquired Cadbury-Schweppes not for its products but mainly for its logistics operations etc within India.

I too grew up close enough to Norwich to remember that. My BFF's dad worked there.