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].

My nonconformists background with fairly ecumenical wider family gave me good exposure to hymns (add Isaac Watts to Wesley). The words and tunes were - perhaps more than any other genre of music? - designed to be singable by a congregation in unison or a choir in harmony or combination thereof.

I think that too, I'm sure children would be just as entertained by age-appropriate documentary programmes about nature or how things are made or how children live in different countries or how to sign or ...
So they'd be learning things while being entertained = win-win, surely.
I suppose cartoons are cheap.

I wonder about the effect of the speed of cartoon images on children's attention span., and inability to follow a narrative - have any other lecturers or ex-lecturers noticed how easily young students are distracted? I used to feel like a cowboy in a rodeo wrestling to keep their minds on the subject under discussion for more than three minutes🙄

When my children were small they absolutely adored my book of Beryl Cook paintings, and the photos in "Life in Earth".

I'm hoping that Mrytle is an hour into her op.

As for hymns, I sang a great many at school and, like Marie, we had to learn the hard words at primary school. We also had to learn the King James version of Psalm 23 off by heart at about 10, and iirc the C of E confession too ('through accident, through weakness, through my own deliberate fault...)

We learnt the "Nunc Dimittis", aged 10, at my very ordinary state primary school.

And poems...Wordsworth, Masefield, Rosetti. I am so sad to think all these are lost to following generations.

I'd like to see our gerbils doing a poetry recitation.

@MarieDeGournay I haven't been lecturing that long, in absolute terms, and due to the nature of what I teach, my students are overwhelmingly kinaesthetic learners. Short attention spans are definitely a problem, along with an inability to focus if working independently. I get told off for "working too hard" in lesson observations, but I get good results when teaching even the most boring subjects, so it works.

Mind if I join you? @FuzzyPuffling told me about this place. I'm a forager and a hymn singer if that helps 😊

Operation delayed to 6.30pm then delayed to 9pm then back to 6.30pm.

As you are all experts at telling the time, you can probably imagine how I'm feeling now.

Hello @ChristmasStars. Lovely to see you in here. Pull up a comfy chair and there'll be a handy gerbil.along very soon with a drink of your choice.

Hello @ChristmasStars! Can I call you Stars? I feel faintly uncomfortable talking about Christmas in October!

I've started having the " what's happening at Christmas?" discussions. I think it will be just DH and me on Christmas Day this year. Time to buy a posh ready meal!!!

Hello Stars - Is it OK of we hold off calling you ChristmasStars until December? You're very welcome. The gerbils will bring you anything you need, and don't forget that the drinks are delicious but not alcoholic, the cakes are yummy but contain nothing problematic like calories or gluten or sugar...

What do you forage? And what hymns do you like singing?

Welcome, Starry!

Small children like long words - Parasaurolophus, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious etc even if they can’t spell them.

Myrtle! Nooooooooooo!😩
Hoping it was just a bit of a delay not yet another re-scheduling..
💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐

I’m very much hoping not to hear from myrtle again till tomorrow or much later tonight.

Ooh, & regal with it! Welcome.

You look well posh Stars

Like this?

Some of the serving gerbils wanted to send you a message, so here they are.

Hello Stars.
I’m keen to hear about your foraging skills too. In an ideal world, I’d like a foraging calendar showing something lovely to forage every month. (Am considering learning more about mushrooms, but there are risks. So, every month would have something apart from mushrooms.)
You may not be in a foraging mood, of course. So welcome anyway.

Like this, in calendar form, Swash?
Essential Foraging Guide - Wild Food Month by Month - Woodland Trust
You should suggest it to them, I'd sure it would sell!

Myrtle: you posted at 6:35pm to say it was back to 6:30pm?

I hope it’s happening now . 🤞

😱

I wanted to look smart for you all 😊

Thank you for the welcome. Stars or Starry will do just fine until Dec 1st.

We have also begun talking about Christmas - probably just us two and the teens for the first time ever gulp.

Sorry to hear about your delayed op @MyrtleLion and the loss of your friend @MarieDeGournay - I lost one of my besties a couple of years ago. There was a cracking quote in the last Thursday Murder Club book. "When old friends die you're furious because you've never quite finished what you were saying to them"