The Bluestocking: All You Need to Know About Risk Assessments, Jazz Hands, Battenberg and Sourdough (But Were Afraid to Ask) - and gerbils. Lots and lots of gerbils.

[MyrtleLion]

Welcome to The Bluestocking, the perfectly overblown, gloriously chaotic all-women’s pub where you can have a bit of a lie down if you need it.

Expect serious debates on musicals, cake and knitting, and whimsical musings on women’s rights and why the world’s on fire (again), all under the calm supervision of our support staff: gerbils, capybaras, and the occasional quokka on secondment.

The alcohol won’t get you drunk, the pastries won’t make you fat, but the conversation will digress, and that’s the point.

Remember to namechange before posting if you’re sometimes someone else.

BTW, in the Bluestocking, even 'iron-rich treats' are delicious

I think we're going to get frost. Got to get the pelargoniums...pelargonia...in.

oh dear, me too, and they're all wet and horrid.

Did mine last week. Smuggy McSmugface.

I had a look at the Hidden Books puzzle, but couldn’t get a single one - my brain is so utterly useless at the moment. I am going to blame long covid brain fog.

I think I got three by myself, and even those after I saw a hint. After that it was hints and clues all the way, and most of them were books I'd never heard of and don't feel inspired to read. But I did finish it, and the clues from Mumsnetters were brilliant.

Oh, dear. I was going to have a quiet sit in the knitting snug and now I’m reminded that I need to get the last few spring bulbs planted.

Goodbye again.

I've put mine in an unheated garage inside one if those cheap shelved 'greenhouses' with the plastic cover on for extra insulation. I've nowhere better to keep them. I'm hoping they'll stay above freezing. There's some light but not much. If they die, at least I've tried.

Also stuck in some potted dahlias, some potted zantedis calla lilies and a beautiful osteospermum that is still going strong. I don't hold much hope for the last one.

You are not on your own.

I looked at it and my brain just went "Sod off I'm not doing that"

Hello.

Goodbye.

Mine overwinter in a cheap cold frame in my side return. So far they've been fine, but this year Boycat sat too heavily on the polycarbonate sheeting on the top and broke it. I may have to cobble something together with bubble wrap.

My mum used to keep hers under the spare bed!

That's what Alan Titchmarsh said used to be done with them. Wrapped in newspaper under the spare bed.

I'm a rubbish gardener. Ours generally looks ok but we are low maintenance. What should I be wrapping up and sticking under the spare bed please?

<Sighs in an annoyed fashion>

Directly opposite me have put up their annoying twinkly Christmas lights.

It's still November!!!

I put batteries in the lights at ceiling height round the dining area part of the living room yesterday (I'm much to lazy to take them down). I know it's November but it's dark and dank and some colour and sparkle is cheerful (I have a side belief that raising ones head and looking up rather than down from time to time is beneficial). They don't flash.

My fella only went and bought some mince pies today!

@ChristmasStars pelargonium, the geraniums that aren't hardy. You're supposed to unearth them, prune them hard, clean the soil off the roots before finally wrapping them in newspaper and sticking them in, I presume, an unheated room. I think you bring them out and repot them sometime in the new year.

I've never had the bottle to do that.

Theirs are flashing.

I have solved the problem by closing the curtains.

Every year I mean to try to overwinter some pelargoniums and every year the frost catches me unawares. I did manage to overwinter some dahlias last year (very ordinary ones, I’ve never dared dabble with expensive fancy types).

except for my scented pelargoniums, grown from cuttings of a plant I bought on holiday ooh… 9 months before I had DD. I had some outside and brought them in a while ago, some caterpillars hitched a ride.

I considered your wise words and put batteries in two of those little domes full of tiny white lights and have switched on the two red candles with the thin aluminium 'wick' that flickers very realistically in the heat rising from the bulb.

Just think, in 31 days the evenings will start getting longer again.

Tiddles' comment on the weather was to crawl under a fleece blanket, pull it round her, and spend the day as a fluffy lump. Boo was more sensible, he stayed in the room where the radiators were switched on.

My neighbours - fortunately up the road a bit so I could avert my eyes - had a large black hairy spider incorporating orange flashing lights, which went up well before Halloween and stayed long after Halloween😠
I haven't noticed any Xmas lights yet. Another set of neighbours are always ridiculously early with them, so any day now...

I think I have pelargonia - I think of them as... gerania (if we are doing 'proper' plurals) and they can look after themselves, whatever they are, and if we all make it to the spring, that's great😁

I think winter lights are good if you find them cheering.

so there

I am also now 16/30ths of the way through my no-alcohol November, I hope the holy souls appreciate my efforts. Tomato juice as my pre-dinner tipple, I wish I didn't keep forgetting to buy lemons.

I'm just a misery arse!

I'm with Tiddles on the matter.

December birthday here. I consider that an adequate excuse to grump about Christmas starting in November.

Pelargoniums.

But you could do it with annoying small children, boxes of chocolates, off socks...anything you like really.