The Bluestocking, where the short days shorten and the oaks are brown

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome all, regulars and newcomers, to the Bluestocking Women's Pub, a place of refuge and inspiration and camaraderie and silliness, where all alcoholic drinks are non-intoxicating, cakes contain no gluten, sugar or calories, but still taste yummy, and the attentive staff are small but very professional rodents wearing snazzy little outfits.

Other roles - such as acting as foot stools, looking decorative in the garden, or just being impossibly cute when you need something impossibly cute to go awwww at - are filled by a team of miniature pigs, quokkas, wombats, etc etc.

If real life is difficult, you can bring your troubles to the Bluestocking and a comfy chair will be found for you at a roaring fire, a miniature pig will settle down happily to support your tired feet, and a gerbil will serve you promptly with a comforting drink - very large G&Ts or massive mugs of hot chocolate with extra cream and marshmallows are popular choices [don't forget: no calories in the Bluestocking].

Thank you Fuzzy, what a lovely image.

I was planning on singing her a hymn which I sang to my mother in her last days when I was due to visit later today - but only if no-one else was around!

I happily delegate that task to flights of angels.💛

Obviously one of the reasons we don't invite the blokes from the Staunch Ally over the threshold is that, being men, they use coarse language that upsets our sensibilities, but if anyone feels they can cope with profanity, Garron Noone's reaction to M&S Christmas food advertisement is very funny. imo

Just imagine he's a gerbil.

x.com/elainesim28/status/1977387242332012659

What a day... Giggling to myself at the dopplered goat bleats now 😂
💐💐💐 to all who need them, which seems to be a lot of us currently. I'm just going to hook myself up to the hot chocolate bowser and sit in the corner while I decompress.

Glad to hear things are progressing, Myrtle. 🙂

Glad also to hear you describe your friend’s peaceful passing in this beautiful way, Marie. 💙

Did the cow and woods walk today. The bull heifers had been put in the next field, which was nice. Although, as I passed the second gate, I could see someone had left it open. They had their backs to me but I was on alert to run to the stile. They didn’t see me. Hopefully the gate will be shut tomorrow (I wasn’t going to chance it).

I’m thinking about my foraging habits, as today I foraged a load of fallen crabapples. Today’s were blush and green. The ones yesterday, from a different tree, were golden.

The things I forage across the seasons are wild garlic, blackberries (although I wasn’t out there for blackberry season this year), sweet chestnuts and normal apples.

Am I missing anything?

There are millions of massive sloes on the edge of the woods. I’ve always left them behind because I can’t be faffed making sloe gin. But AI has just advised me I can stew them, as I would stew apples. Have any of you ever done this?

They deliberately blanked you. They tried making friends but you'd rather play in the mud. 😃

🤣

Ha!
Yes, on reflection, they probably guessed it was me who got them done…

I'm not sure I'd trust AI on that, but I know someone who claimed he always put a few sloes in an apple tart the way his mother used to, and that it turned the apple pink.

Shaggy cap mushrooms, impossible to confuse with anything else, young nettles and other greens in springtime.

I’ve tried some mushrooms in the past, but feel too nervous to risk it now. My neighbour tried nettle soup last year but she was ever so disappointed (and she’s an excellent cook).

I know what you mean about AI and the sloes, which is why I thought I’d ask. Google has suggested a sloe compote, but I feel equally wary. There are so many of them out there and they are so big. I desperately want to be able to stew them 🤣. If nobody has tried it, I may just have to experiment tomorrow and report back.

Any time I've made crab apple jelly it's always turned a lovely amber shade.

I once made a foraged jelly with crab apples, rose hips and cranberries (growing wild in the bit of Maine where I was at the time, near Acadia national park). It was fabulous and if I'm ever anywhere to forage the ingredients I'll make it again.

When nettle season comes round, sweat a small onion and half a courgette until they've softened, then add enough nettle tips to fill one of those small boxes cherry tomatoes come in and top up with stock (a stock cube is fine). Cook for five minutes. Blitz with a stick blender and serve with a little cream and some chopped chives.

Delicious, much more delicate than spinach soup.

otoh, my grandmother used to sauté the nettle tips in a little butter, then add them to a bechamel sauce and serve them with ham and potatoes.

That sounds delicious, Brit!

Thanks, Dean; I’ll do that! No shortage of nettles round here…

Every year since we’ve had it I’ve looked at our crab apple tree and thought I should harvest some of its fruit, and every year so far I’ve failed to.
when I was a child DM used to buy rosehip syrup from Boots, which we’d have diluted mixed with some PLJ to offset the sweetness. Combined, of course a good source of vitamin C, in the days before fresh orange juice was a bulk commodity, and any types of orange which was easy to peel was a seasonal treat.

They do need to be fresh young nettles. The fiends growing at the moment are only fit for fibre production.

I used to make wine. Just in a pan, with gathered fruit. I loved it. Used to have about 12 demijohns bubbling away on top of the dressers. But that was when we were in a bigger house. No room here. I miss the stirring and the straining and bottling; the whole process. Some were beautiful and some were only passable, but I suppose they were all rather dangerous in strength terms. Think foraging the crabapples today reconnected me with a bit of that.

Roger.

Apparently, because I've not tried it myself, you can make a hedgerow jam with sloes. About 50% crab apple (for the pectin) and 50% other fruits including sloes, with a shit ton of sugar.

He's very funny (& sweary), but there was a MN thread which seemed to have decided that's actually a fair price for beef wellington.

Tom is Tom Kerridge, a chef. We buy some of his Gastropub range, & very nice it is too.

I love his, "And it says serves six which means it serves two of me." We often say the same sort of thing as we, laughing, throw the box into the recycling.

I've just seen that some Christmas ordering dates are out. For any Bluestocking patrons who need these dates they are:

Tesco - 6am on 4 Nov for Delivery Saver customers, 11 Nov for everyone else. Don't be the one who gets up for 6am on the 4th, queues online for an hour & then can't order anything & asks why (there's one on MN every year).

Sainsburys - from today for Delivery Pass customers, 23 Oct everyone else.

You're welcome. Though you're probably all just foraging in the undergrowth & scrumping bull heifers & the like.

Excellent! This bodes well.
I think making jam is beyond me. I really want to stew them, like a compote, so I can add it to yoghurt or ice cream.
I know it’s a risk, but it will only really cost me my time…

“Though you're probably all just foraging in the undergrowth & scrumping bull heifers & the like.”

🤣

Operation scheduled for noon tomorrow. This is to debride the wound and hopefully close it. If it can't be closed, the plan is to stretch some skin in a flap over the wound. That may be done tomorrow or next week.
On Monday we will know the full details of the infection. If it's just aureus, and the wound is closed I should be able to go home by the 24th.

My brother and his wife and son visited this afternoon. They were very supportive.

The Walrus came round, too. His DD is now earning some money and offered to increase her contribution to the household. She feels very grown up and able to be responsible. It's lovely to see her doing this.

Apparently they are pile driving at a building behind the house and there is knocking in three of the houses in our terrace. So noisy alarms and visitors may be a blessing in disguise.

Lovely to hear everyone's foraging plans.

Much love to Marie who is always so kind and thoughtful to us. Our kindness and thoughts to you.

Thank you for that, Myrtle.
We'll be thinking of you tomorrow, lots of good vibes and positive thinking and all the magic we can muster

All the best for tomorrow, Myrtle. It’s good to read about the family support.

I don’t understand this line though:
Apparently they are pile driving at a building behind the house and there is knocking in three of the houses in our terrace.

Do you mean the pile driving is causing things to hit together in your neighbours’ houses and make noise, as in an earthquake? So it could be affecting them structurally?