The Bluestocking, where the cheese is plentiful and the Champagne is on Boiledbeetle

[Magpiecomplex]

Welcome one and all. Quick précis - women's pub, rodent staff, apparently we're sane.

In that case I'd try to work out what modern manufacturer inherited the name. They often take a pride in their history and make an effort to find replacement parts.

Or check round for someone who specialises in refurbishing old stoves.

hiya back home from a session of clearing Mil’s house ( in a care home house sold)

Had good news about nephew making a little bit of progress.

I think i had covid for the last fortnight, i realised today, i can taste again and keep feeling ravenously Hungary.

sorting through endless photos of mountain goats and scenery scapes albums and albums belonging to MIL

i used to hate the endurance of her return from holiday photo sessions.

I quite like the flowing auburn locks! Can take or leave the horns.

Thanks for the nephew update. He's very much on my list.

I can't decide whether to buy a second one and replace the other side (which has cracks but not to the point of collapse yet) in the summer.

As a fellow stove owner I say do it. It would be awful if you didn't and then couldn't find one when you really come to need it.

Gin and nonic! Is that the gerbils attempting to remove the alcohol from the wrong half?

It's just what I needed, thank you very much.

We have them on Dartmoor.

Oh thank you Deano. I do worry about blethering on about my family woes too much.

He is out of intensive care and on an assessment neuro ward.

Lots of ups and downs, he has had to have a lumbar puncture to get rid of fluid build up.

i doubt he will ever be the person he was but it is starting to look like he is on the road to recovery of sorts.

He has said a few words and is starting to react to people he knows.

His parents life’s are on hold they are at his bedside every day.

It is an odd world where this sort of thing happens, very hard to articulate all the worries and emotions involved.

Good to hear that your nephew is making some progress @Hedgehogforshort It must seem as though a long time has passed since his injury, but recovery from head injury is more often measured in months, rather than weeks.

Sorry to hear of your MiL too. I had to clear the house of a friend (who has no near relatives), when she went into a care home with dementia and other conditions a couple of years ago. I found it particularly hard to dispose of her photos - memories of what was essentially her life, including mementos of her parents. She wasn't able to advise on what should be kept as she was going through an acute episode at the time and in the end, I made an album for her to keep, with a few old family photos and some newer ones of holidays with friends. We were able to use these as talking points for a while, but sadly, the memories have faded now and she no longer remembers most of the people in the photos. It is difficult to see in her the friend I travelled most of the way around Europe with and who was so full of curiosity and eagerness to see new places. It made me quite ruthless in decluttering my own life when I moved to my current home. Although I have family to pass things on to, all the photos have been digitised and labelled, so they can keep them, or not, as they wish.

yes… they prefer standing on tarmac to boggy ground, we found during a visit a few years ago. They’d taken over one car park, and we had a stand-off with one on a road. Fortunately I’d read on MN about boldly raising your arms and going ‘HURRR’ at them (summat like that anyway)- DH did this and the hairy beast obligingly hopped off out of the way just about long enough to let us proceed.

English longhorns are quite different, they have a roaming herd at WWT Martin Mere (accompanied by cattle egrets of course). They’re bigger, less hairy with a distinctive pattern brown on the sides with a paler streak down their backs and their horns often grow downward or frankly weirdly unlike the jaunty handlebars of the highland coos.

we have quite a lot of belties in Lancashire too.

the Bluestocking is for blethering about whatever we need to, @Hedgehogforshortdear. I’m glad your nephew is gradually making some progress but you’ve got a lot to bear at the moment.

Good to hear he's doing better, @Hedgehogforshort . House clearing is really tough. When my DD died I travelled from the Midlands to his house every weekend for about three months. It took so long to go through things because of the grief I was feeling. He was 60 and died suddenly. It's odd because the Walrus is three months shy of 62 so I'm more keenly aware of how young he was when he died

I keep meaning to write to the widow of my former colleague who died a month ago. I don't know why I'm putting it off. I know exactly what I'm going to say and I have the postal address. I think it might be a format issue. I have no printer and no email address for her, so I'm thinking of handwriting a letter but should I send it in a card?

It will become an issue for me if I don't do it soon and I doubt I'll get a reply, so I must get round to it.

i don’t think she’ll care about the format so much as the words. If you have notepaper but no suitable card or vv, use what you’ve got.

We learned today that our neighbour died yesterday. She was nearly 80 and had been unwell for some time - several problems, and as far as we can see rather shoddy treatment by the health system for the last few years. It wasn’t at all unexpected but we’ll miss her.

Last time we were at Martin Mere there were two cattle egrets riding on the backs of a couple of the longhorns. It must have been a novelty for the cows but they didn't seem to mind.

I think the red poll might be my favourite breed of British cattle. If only because I love the confusion that might be caused if they were eating the seed off a bird table.

I’m interjecting about fire bricks in stoves so sorry if it’s a bit not quite the tone.
you can buy a large sheet of fire bricks stuff and cut it to size with a template and with a multi tool or hacksaw - it’s like compressed sand so it’s fairly easy.
it’s a bit more faff but you’ll have spare and then be tempted to do it all!
( make sure you have time/ willing friend. I have a male friend who couldn’t resist taking over. Tee hee!)

It’s absolutely 100% ‘the tone’ , @genandtonic - sharing practical info like that is of course another of the functions of this pub!

have a ?

Going back to belted Galloways there’s a farm not far from me that raises those, grass fed, and sells the beef at the farmers’ market. We’ve also been there and bought from the farm shop because id’s good beef. In summer she sells corn on the cob she’s picked that morning before going to the market and it’s the best corn ever.

Boiling the fairy??

😳

Late post, gone well past bedtime, sorry all.

I am in bed but sadly not sleeping. We went to see Hamnet this afternoon and it was magnificent. Having read the book, I thought it would be, but DH who had not read the book found it intense and moving. We went out and ate fish and chips afterwards and talked about the movie most of the way through dinner.

Sorry to hear about the death of your neighbour, Errol - expected but still a loss, of a person and also part of the fabric of the familiar neighbourhood around you.

Hedgey, I'm glad there is some good news about your DN, but there's obviously a long road ahead. It must feel like a positive sign that he is reacting to people he knows. Please keep us updated, tell us about what's happening, that's what we do here, in between the fun and games

Myrtle, I concur with Errol - your colleague's widow will appreciated any expression of sympathy, whether on writing paper or a card - even just one sentence saying your thoughts are with her would be valued by her, I'm sure.

Whaaaat Cake? I didn't even know there were birds called Red Polls and now you're intimating there are cows called Red Polls as well... information overload this early in the day with only one cup of tea on board!😱
😁

Red poll, respectively bird, coo...it's so hard to tell them apart. Last one is a boiled fairy.

That is such good news - he has youth on his side.

DH and I knew someone who suffered a head injury, so we know what they can do. One of our DC was in an accident, but was fortunately wearing a proper helmet. I saw the helmet afterwards and my blood ran cold - without it we'd have been waiting at a bedside like your nephew's parents. As it was there was some mild concussion and that was it.

Blether on about your woes all you like. I have been doing a lot of it of late, but my woes are in the category of 'lots, but all minor' rather than 'few, but hideous'.

To add to my minor woes, every single committee I am on (too bloody many) is in the midst of some sort of crisis. Usually I can regard a bit of drama as spicing life up a bit, but at the moment I just want to shout at all those who have caused problems to just grow the F up.

I love red poll cattle, I used to see a herd of them on one of my reasonably regular journeys.

Suffolk has produced some magnificent farm animals - red polls, Suffolk sheep and Suffolk punches.

I found clearing out my DM's things incredibly hard, so I can really sympathise.

I always prefer cards to paper for a sympathy note. I find it hard to think of anything to say that doesn't sound trite and formulaic, but if I can manage two sentences, the card looks full enough for me to stop before sinking into platitudes. I only write a letter if it's someone I know well about whom I have a lot I'd like to say - and even then, if I've got a big enough card, I just fill up all of the inside.