The Bluestocking: Next stop, Christmas!

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Join us as we open our slightly wonky advent calendar. 🌲

(copies available behind the bar £12.50 each, no refunds)

@Swashbuckled glad to hear you've got Dr Swash visiting for longer than expected. 💙

The shift pattern was rather strict. Luckily Giblets was the perfect stand in for me. She is quite happy as she gets a fantastic view from the top of the tree. She's getting paid a Tunnock's snowball for every full hour, with a promise of a Caramel Wafer bonus if she manages to stay up there until January.

She's currently screaming "I'm a star. I'm a star" in between chorus of twinkle twinkle little star.

I think someone gave them all Red Bull for breakfast to be honest!

Thanks, Deano.

Ah, plucky little Giblets ❤️

Oh joy!!

Maud has recieved a violin for Christmas. Luckily she's off to Knotty and Pistey's this afternoon for battenberg cake so she can take the violin with her whilst I find a shop that is open and sells ear defenders.

Gubbins looks very tidy for once. Please don't let that be a new triangle Maud is handing her!

Merry Christmas everyone. Boily I hope you can now sleep for a week. I’m trying to remember where i cunningly hid one of teenage DD’s presents. Menopause brain certainly makes this more challenging. Are any of the gerbils fitted with present seeking radar?

Well Gubbins had managed to sniff out every present with her name on no matter where they were hidden. So I'll send her round to assist

Oh! That must be the fabled ‘world’s tiniest violin’ - she’s likely to be in demand.

Ah, that’s your best Christmas present. Have a lovely time together, I’m sure she’s very glad of some R&R.

We’ve looked at the weather forecast for the week and as today and tomorrow are forecast clear sun we’re going to go out for a walk and have our dinner at some unspecified time later. Better than our traditional one o clock followed by DH being comatose for the afternoon!

Yes, I did, in a clear cold sky. And I second your wishes to Swashy.

Marie, I loved the poems. It's years since I last heard a melodion (the old chap who played one is no longer with us). And it's interesting the term 'water-hen' is also used in Suffolk.

Happy Christmas dear fellow blue stocking women, dear gerbils and all the other animals. I hope you all have a lovely day.

Happy Christmas all. Woke up to the news that an elder of the family died late last night. Not unexpected but still not what you want.

That's very sad, Magpie - even the expected losses, even the 'happy release' losses, are all losses, and harder at what is supposed to be a happy time. Sending lots of love

Swash, it's lovely to hear that you'll have more time with Young Dr Swashy💙

She loves that new violin ... hope Boily has got hold of the ear defenders!
Happy Christmas everyone. So lovely to hear everybody's news, and I am sad for magpie, delighted for Swash and Dr Swash and grateful for the lovely music and poems and pictures.

The bluestocking is a little bit less noisy than I thought it would be because Gubbins doesn't seem to have anything to hit the triangle with clutched in her small paw.

Don't forget the Bluestocking is magic, so Maud was able to play the violin perfectly, as soon as she unwrapped it
The same magic has made Gubbins' triangle silent to all but Gubbins, who thinks she is putting the perfect finishing touches to the Paganini Caprice that Maud is playing so excellently😄

Lovely to see all our little gerbil friends looking so happy this Christmas morning!

Not a sentence you find yourself saying often, I imagine 😁

So pleased you have Dr Swash for longer than expected.🤗

Merry Christmas everyone ❤️ 🎄

Here's Harriet- she look a little nervous, can some of the cuddliest gerbils please go over and make her feel welcome?

for Magpie ❤️

Merry Christmas everyone, now back to putting impossible toys together…

Merry Christmas everyone!

Dh and ds2 have spent this morning making a loaf of soda bread, because we didn’t have enough bread left for lunch today - it looks delicious, and they are (rightly) very proud of it.

I am still limping around - my hamstring has been giving me lots of trouble recently, and it got much worse yesterday, so I am limping around with a walking stick. Luckily today can be a pretty sedentary one.

I had a Tunnocks for breakfast. In my defence, it was going to be nearly a 3hr wait till actual breakfast.

Love and support to Magpie. My godfather died just before last Christmas, and although he was immensely old, had had a very good life, and was able to die at home supported by his family after only being ill for a relatively short time - and had said he was ready to go - it was still very sad. And feeling sad amidst Christmas jollity can take a bit of managing.

Christmas brings so many memories of the people who used to sit round the table, and Christmas bereavements are extra raw.

That said, as I left the kitchen after putting my Jerusalem artichoke soup on, I heard something that will be memorable in a different way. Someone, I suspect Galadriel, has been rehearsing the gerbils in a song and dance act for this afternoon. I won't get too graphic, but they are twerking, and although the words 'Felice Bluestocking' are non controversial, as is 'we wish you a merry Christmas', the triumphant 'From the heart of our bottoms' (strong emphasis on the oms) may cause some confusion in anyone unused the gerbils' special approach to life.

Merry Christmas everyone 💙

Just went out for a walk for it looked nice and bright, but it turns out there was quite a chill in the air. A bit of snow later wouldn't surprise me.

Also, as someone whose long-term memory can be a bit vague, slightly disconcerted by my mum's ability to strike up conversations about people I haven't seen or heard of in over 40 years.

Her: do you remember X

Me: I do not

Her: sure you do, she was in your class at the primary

Me: the name rings a bell but I can't picture her

Her: sure you remember her, she married Y who used to live on the estate

Me: I don't remember him either

Her: well she's dead

Sometimes it feels like I'm in an episode of Victor Meldrew.