The Bluestocking - where women are women, and small furry animals are gerbils, quokkas, capybaras, or a red panda called Rosy

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome all to the Bluestocking Pub, a haven safe from harsh reality [mostly] full of good company, and excellent food and drink served by the most efficient team of gerbils in the hospitality industry.

I could have offered to do the back massage myself😛but I respect boundaries and have a sense of decorum . Not to mention a fear of rejection

I guess the old pub became The Staunch Ally.
When I reopened this series it was rather in response to women seeming to need the company of women rather than anything to do with loos.

I'm a newbie so missed all the old ones, but I thought one of the reasons for the reopening was a realisation that after a period of very puritanical policing of anything that seemed like digressive conversation MN had had a rule change.

Possibly linked to realisation that part of the objection to digressive conversation was that AI couldn't follow it and demanded threads stay linear and On Topic and Off cheese and cake and things because cheese and cake made life hard for machines. Anything artificial scraping the bluestocking is being kept busy.

I was delighted to see a mention of geese because it reminded me of seeing a northbound skein flying over one evening in the middle of last week. I'd forgotten they are migratory - they looked as though they were thinking of settling down on the water for the night - do they do that?

One swallow yesterday, and an Orange tip butterfly. Any moment now all the wild cherry trees and weedy saplings in the garden are going to turn into a fragrant white cloud.

Quick, quick Swash, Hare is here!
.... oh too late!
Don't worry, she'll be back another time, when she feels like it.

Like you

@DeanElderberry I spotted an orange tip a couple of days ago. Quite a few brimstones around at the moment too, looking very cheery.

You would not believe the long and convoluted argument with Gemini I've just had, to get it to agree that a brimstone is yellow, and therefore when I ask for an image including brimstone butterflies, some of them should be yellow. Default seems to be red admirals, having already carefully asked for British butterflies so I didn't get monarchs and blue morphos...

Fabulous! She can start just as soon as I've grown some parsley.

DH is in the throes of a computer crisis. I often feels that he loves computers more than they love him.

ETA, i can't remember if I mentioned the zillions of peacock butterflies around at the moment. As well as the actual peacocks that live down the road (luckily out of earshot).

"Women needing the company of other women." We do, don't we? When we have the company of other women, life expands and joy increases.

Thank you very much @ErrolTheDragon. I am a recent mumsnetter, I think it was only last year when I joined. I am older (and taller) than most of you here, but luckily, I am extremely silly. Therefore, The Bluestocking is absolutely the place where I wish to meet and enjoy the company of other women, and it was the barking madness of it that drew me to it in the first place. That, and the humour and wit in abundance.

Seconding @inkymoose in my thanks to @ErrolTheDragon. I've hung around on Mumsnet for quite a while, mostly reading and barely posting. The Bluestocking shone out as a supportive, witty, whimsical but also down to earth community I felt I could be comfortable in. And so we are!

Spent the morning on another Spring walk; just back. Sheep, woodland, bluebells, pheasants. Lots of birdsong but I don’t have the expertise to know who was singing.

Agree with all the posts about us needing the company of women, and where better than The Blue Stocking Pub! (I think that’s why I enjoy all the sheep…)

And, yes, bloody elusive, those hares 🤣

What a mischievous witty post! Struggled a bit with copilot in showing a picture of your story, but it managed something ... hard to get the peacock out of the room though

Excellent result, Magpie!

Our education of AI is very much an uphill task. To prove something is British it sticks a union jack in the picture. However, if you look at any of the details in any of the pictures, there are glaring mistakes, so I don't think we need to worry too much.

Where is @Boiledbeetle ? she is the absolute fount and source of all things amusingly AI.

Co-pilot has nailed DH's hunched and despairing posture, if not his appearance.

Love the butterflies.

Latest booknook finished today.

A Detective Agency.

Started two weeks ago and worked on it for eight days (of varying length).

I suspect beetle may still be sleeping off that Bakewell pudding or whatever it was

I spent all afternoon, ‘til now, gardening again. The back garden this time. I should wear gloves and I should prepare it properly in the Autumn then it wouldn’t be such hard work in the Spring. I never do… 🙄. Banjaxed again.

Supposed to be going out at 7:00; feels a tall order now.

Someone was talking about ages. I imagined I would be “old” in here; maybe part of the magic is never knowing.

Love the detective agency Myrtle.

Similar to my DH.

I think you might be right @ErrolTheDragon

Nice that AI gave her some fruit as well.

I’m watching true crime programmes (Forensics: Catching the Killer), and working on the hydrangea production line. The pattern says 15-45 flowerets for each head, but I am going to stop at 35 - I can always do more later, if needed.

I’ve got several different colours to use, but I am considering getting more colours. I know there is more yarn out there, and all I have to do is to click a couple of buttons on my iPad, and they will be mine, mine, all mine! The temptation is too much.

Is that knitting @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius ?

My hands are so buggered from gripping shears and loppers for two days, that I can’t cut my roast potatoes 😔☹️.

It’s crochet, @Swashbuckled.

Your poor hands sound really sore - and the risk of no delicious roasties is terrible!

One of these, Woley? There are some very pretty ones, if you have the patience to make them.

That sounds very creative!

They’re not blistery sore; more muscle stiff from being in grip-mode so long. Oh, I definitely found a way to eat my roast potatoes! A long way from ladylike but I managed to polish them off 😆.

DH only looks that blissed out after alcohol.

I was in the garden most of the day too, trying to pace myself. I neglected what should be the vegetable patch last year, so it's great to be able to start opening it up again. Decided mid-afternoon I was already too tired to cook the steak I'd intended to have, and would do an omelette instead. Three minutes instead of 8, so much easier. Then found I had no eggs and had to head up to the village shop, covered in mud. Got home and remembered that somewhere around the dawn of time I'd pegged out a line of washing, so I had to go all the way round the house and bring that it.

Better now, full of omelette, also raspberry pannacotta (okay but too much packaging) and a couple of easy peelers. I had celery and lettuce at lunchtime so probably safe against scurvy.

I can’t imagine a pirate being defeated by a potato!