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 miss magpies! No magpies in Maine :-(

I have seen an American eagle a couple of times though, and we get red-tailed kites sometimes. I get cardinals and goldfinch and chickadees in my back yard, courtesy of my next-door neighbour's bird feeder.

I saw (and heard) three or four buzzards today while I was outside with some students. And of course saw a magnolia too!
I'm afraid this magpie has horrible hay fever currently.

We had snow the other day and more is forecast for the weekend (though the last lot has melted). No spring flowers here for another couple of weeks or more, usually.

I'm so impressed by your bird life.
I have managed to attract a flock of sparrows to my front garden ( with a seed feeder). We also have a couple of pigeons ( Percy and his disabled ( wonky foot) mate, Pip), two magpies on the house opposite and many seagulls on the chimneys.
I saw a blackbird in my back yarden once, but I think he was lost.

Although I love magpies, I am disturbed at the lack of variety in visitors to the back garden: we used to get coal tits, robins, sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes - and they were just the ones that could be seen, several more could be heard. Now it's bluetits and magpies, and that's about it.

In fairness, I have to take two things into consideration: double glazing and hearing loss! There may be a lot more birdsong going on out there than I'm aware of these day. In fact I'd be surprised if we still didn't have at least one blackbird -
He comes on chosen evenings
My blackbird bountiful, and sings
Over the garden of the town
Just at the hour the sun goes down.
His flight across the chimneys thick,
By some divine arithmetic,
Comes to his customary stack,
And couches there his plumage black,
And there he lifts his yellow bill,
Kindled against the sunset, till
These suburbs are like Dymock woods
Where music has her solitudes,
And while he mocks the winter's wrong
Rapt on his pinnacle of song,
Figured above our garden plots
Those are celestial chimney-pots.

I remembered the poem but had to google the poet: John Drinkwater.

We usually get quite a few blackbirds. I don’t dare trim back the overgrown Ivy on the back fence by this time of year, as there’s almost certainly a nest or two in their depths.

I think I had to learn Blackbird for a speech exam or drama festival when I was at school.

I’m very happy to be reminded of it, but am surprised how little I remember of it now, beyond the first couple of lines.

I saw a blackbird in our garden this afternoon.

This is a good time of the year for spotting wildlife: everything is active, but there isn't much greenery for it to hide behind. The goldfinches are going bananas (as are the bloody seagulls, at sodding dawn).

I've seen several hares recently. One was sitting bolt upright as Brains, Batshit and I emerged from a small wood. The dogs know not to chase and watched it away, and it stopped on the crest of the hill, silhouetted against the sky, and watched us for a few seconds before disappearing. Brains accepted that it had definitely gone; Batshit sniffed around everywhere hoping to find it again.

Brains is very patient with Batshit, but now and then she looks exasperated by Batshit's lack of intellectual heft.

ETA, the Bluey has a fair range of birdlife - a magpie and a puffling, and of course our very own gulls.

Pigeons all year round. Blackbirds. Jackdaws. Tit's. Robins. We stopped feeding at Christmas because we had rats in the garden but we should start again as the birds are calling and will nest soon.

The Blackbirds and Jackdaws haveearned.ro flappy their wings vigorously to feed from our squirrel-protected feeders. It's quite funny to see their agility.

Blackbirds are another species we don't see around these parts. I did once have a bluebird in my garden though.

Quick, gerbils, I need a drink!

I've just had an email from MAYA FORSTATER, and I'm feeling quite starstruck!
I sent emails to Sex Matters and Naomi Cunningham and Margaret Gribbon about the donations we are sending as a gesture of appreciation.

I got two emails back from NC, and was already feeling a bit starstruck, but to see the name 'Maya Forstater' in my inbox - gosh.

I've posted it over on the SP/NHS thread.

I think a very very large G&T, with a slice of lime not lemon please, gerbils.

As requested!!! ❤️❤️❤️

@MarieDeGournay I've posted it over on the SP/NHS thread.

At 22:29?

Congratulations on the email, I should have written first. ❤️

I've just checked, it's been deleted 'at my request'
I've contacted HQ to ask what happened.
I have on occasions almost reported other people's posts accidentally clicking on the wrong thing, but I don't see how I could have asked for my own post to be deleted!
That's put a a bit of a dampener on the occasion😕

Was not sure wether to post this here, was going about my gardening business today. Two elderly gay guys, customers for two years. Lets call them Steve and Brian.

Anyway Brian sadly died four weeks ago. Steve seems okay, he wanted to show me the funeral pamphlet which of course i gave due regard too.

There were pictures of Brian, being a happy man then there was a picture of him dressed as a woman. Full on middle age type woman wig etc. 😯

Struggling to find words, i said ohh what was his female name, Zelda….

i said to Steve oh thats interesting do you cross dress too ( i mean what the fuck came out of my mouth)

He said yes i used to call myself ravelle, i said oh as in bollero

Yes was the reply i thought it unique.

Anyway i have been invited to the wake, down the queens head no less.

shall i go ?

Yes, banned, if you liked them a month ago, although my experience is limited here.

If they are like the people I’ve met while doing wardrobe for productions Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and Kinky Boots, (ie the people playing drag queens, some of whom were drag queens elsewhere) they don’t think they are women and would not put themselves in women’s spaces. But, I appreciate this is anecdata.

That's put a a bit of a dampener on the occasion😕

We can rejoice with you here, @MarieDeGournay , and - I hope - with many others on the SP/NHS thread later today, Thursday.

Wow @MarieDeGournaywe are not worthy…!

@Bannedontherunit doesn’t sound as if they are the type of men who would mistake themselves for actual women and force themselves into women’s spaces so if you like them why not go?

I'd go, banned.

I see Marie is moving in elevated circles.

I also find The Blue Stocking so very comfy. So much so that I’ve noticed I’ve started not to post anywhere else. Not sure this is a good thing, but not sure it’s a bad thing either. I’ve also noticed that I can easily forget that posts here can be read by anyone. It’s so cosy that I feel as if we’re sitting by the fire with the door closed, and that nobody outside can hear us. I frequently need to remind myself that this is not the case.

I was driving for a few hours last night, leaving straight after work and arriving very late. And my CarPlay thing didn’t work 😫. Stayed up late googling fixes and have continued this morning. I’ve fallen down one of those obsessive rabbit holes like a terrier chasing prey…😢. (Prey remains elusive.)

@EdithStourton I am going to see if I can smell nettles….fascinating!

@MyrtleLion Commiserations. It sounds so tiring; fingers crossed your determination is rewarded soon.

@MarieDeGournay Wow! “Elevated circles”, indeed!

Yes, it is after all a pub - women are welcome to sit quietly in the warmth if they want.

My post has been restored over on SP/NHS, they redacted the email address, though it was only @ sex matters, obvs I would have redacted a private email address myself, I wasn't that overexcited!

I've settled down a bit but I have been feeling very chuffed about getting emails from residents of the FWR Pantheon. I hope I don't appear too silly about it, but if I do, it's because I am silly about it!

Banned, I think you should go to Brian's wake. As AsWithGlad said, it doesn't sound like they are trans, it's more old-school dress-up drag. Not great, but not the worst. I think you'd feel bad if you didn't go.

I've gone to some very religious funerals and sat through stuff I very profoundly disagreed with, but I had to be there, I couldn't not be.

Heck I've organised very religious funerals I profoundly disagreed with, out of respect for the beliefs of the person who had died..

My hope is that Steve will be glad to see you there, it will be bearable, and you'll be glad you went

Swashy , you don't need to get close. Within about 10 feet seems to work for me.

Maya Forsteter??! Can I sit down in your Presence, @MarieDeGournay or should I remain standing?

And what you said about funerals rang a real bell with me. My mum was a life-long atheist, and ages and ages ago, told me she would prefer a Humanist funeral, so when she died, 2 years ago, that's what I was expecting. But she had told my sister that she didn't mind what she arranged, and that she knew my sister would prefer a religious funeral, so it was in my sister's church, and was full of references to our Sister in Christ, and going to Heaven, which I found a bit jarring. But mum was right that it was comforting for my sister, which was what mattered to me.

What? I think I'm missing some context here - is it nettle-smelling??

Swash, I know what you mean about relaxing so much in the Bluestocking that you nearly forget that posts can be read by anyone - I got quite a shock when I googled something and found one of my own posts on FWR😱
I'm not on any social media platform, I don't use my name in my email address, and it was a horrible few moments before I remembered that we post anonymously so I'm not that easily googlable.

Sometimes I realise that what I'm about to say here in the Stocking is 100% recognisable as me to anybody who knows me well, so it's best not to get too relaxed😶

I notice we're not an item any more, Swash. 💔
It was just a fling for you, wasn't it? You pirates are all the same, aren't you - a 16-17th century French feminist philosopher, translator and writer presenting as a black-winged punk angel in every port.😭