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.

I’m so sorry to hear your nephew isn’t doing so well, @Hedgehogforshort - hopefully it will be a temporary set back. I’m glad his parents are getting support.

I have a very short, layered haircut - I like it because it carries on looking good as it grows out - and I am very bad at getting round to booking a haircut when I need it. I have found a lovely lady who will come to the house and cut my hair, so that should make it easier.

Yes I can recommend having the hairdresser come to you instead of vice-versa!

But I feel a sense of loyalty to the only barber in the area who agrees to cut women's hair, so I think I'll go back to her when I'm more mobile

I've been out on the coast path this afternoon and came back through the woods, where I saw the first snowdrops, in a sheltered hollow. I know there will be some out already in more southerly areas, but its lovely to see them so early in these northern parts.

It was still freezing though.

I saw some snowdrops yesterday on the way to the hospital and we drove under what I thought was a magnolia whose flowers were just starting to open.

That sounds lovely. I hadn’t even started to think about snowdrops yet.

Oh this is when I start to get envy! Honestly, no flowers here until late March or early April as a rule, not even snowdrops.

Having said which, the winters are not as brutally cold or long as they were when I first came here nearly 24 years ago, which says something about climate change.

I'm in rural Wales, so basically the Midlands, and yesterday, when I went to the shed for the first time in days, I saw the first snowdrops starting to flower in the small bed outside our back door. Such a cheering sight, despite the fridge-like temperature.

Does that mean that all the spring flowers come out at once?

Very close together - snowdrops and crocuses and then a week or two later daffodils and tulips and hyacinths. Sometimes we still have snow cover until late March, even early April. The earliest I can remember snow disappearing and not returning since I've been here was mid-March, and the lakes don't ice out until early April at the earliest.

I think silver hair is beautiful.

Mine is still brown unless you get up very close to see the grey. My dad was pepper-and-salt and I only remember my mother with a blonde colour put on her hair so I don’t know what shade of grey she was underneath.

The parents of my best friend in the sixth form belonged to a minor Christian sect. It didn’t seem to affect her life outside her home a great deal, but I still remember her seeing my mother (who must have just changed her hair colour) and saying in disbelief, “But she’s blonde.”

This is my distinctly unadventurous mother who had her hair put in a French pleat every Friday, where it stayed until the next Friday. To my friend blonde must have signified something dubious.

The formidable Infectious Disease Consultant who just has to walk into a room and be for everyone to see how amazing she is, has arranged to see me at 2pm on Monday.

What wonderful person, @MyrtleLion . I’m so glad things are looking so positive now.

I've always admired grey hair, and then, like magic, I got it!

There’s a series of houses near me which are student accommodation. They all have the same trees in their small front gardens, which around now at this time of year are covered in small pink blossoms. I love them. The blossom lasts relatively well, too.

I have one tree in my similarly small front garden, which was a replacement for an uninspiring one which died. When I asked for her advice my garden-designer neighbour gave me a shortlist of ten trees, with pictures. I chose a sorbus with a reddish bark and pale pink berries, but the berries have been a disappointment - until this year, when it’s covered in them. It gives me pleasure whenever I look out of the kitchen window.

I've always admired grey hair, and then, like magic, I got it!

Our Bluestocking support creatures are so multitalented that I wouldn’t be surprised if they could influence that, but I don’t think their talents last outside The Bluestocking. I don’t know, though, when we remember Maud and her visiting…

I'm happy to stick with my 5% grey for the moment. Although I'm looking almost translucent currently, I'm so pale. It always happens, I look like a ghost in the dead of winter.

My hairdresser advised against my btash blonde and so I went a mousy colour. However, after washing it has lightened AND my grey is not obvious at six weeks. Waiting eight weeks for the next appointment!!!

She sounds fabulous!

Fingers crossed they all sign you off and that's it.

My hair generally looks a mess (similar vibe to Struwwelpeter), unless scraped back into a bun so I look like Miss Trunchbull on a bad day. It looks okay freshly washed, and my hairdresser makes it look amazing, but I haven't the patience to fossick around with it every bloody morning.

Snowdrops out here, and also the odd mad camellia braving the frosts. It was very warm in the sun around lunchtime, but the puddles in the shade stayed icy all day.

And I'm happy to report that my mobile watchman came up trumps. He old me how much oil I had left, so I calculated how much I would need to fill the tank plus a week's use. The oil company offered to deliver almost at once, but I put them off a week. The man with the tanker arrived today. 'Bloody hell,' he said, as the last few litres trickled through, 'You're not gonna get a gnat's cock in there when this is all in!'

Apparently we had max half an inch left.

Edited for typo.

We have oil-fired heating (very common here) and we're on auto-delivery. The oil company keeps a track of our average usage in combination with outside temperatures and delivers when they think we need it. We end up with no delivery at all on the whole between May and late October, but possibly one a month between November and April - occasionally an extra if the weather is very cold (we had a -10C couple of days earlier this month). The oil is used for water heating as well, but our tank clearly holds enough oil to see us through the summer if it's filled at the end of winter. We pay on a budget scheme, same amount every month, which is easier than finding large amounts during the winter.

"Bloody hell,' he said, as the last few litres trickled through, 'You're not gonna get a gnat's cock in there when this is all in!'

Oh, is that what "a gnat's" is sort for? I used to work in a place where "a gnat's" was the standard very small unit of measurement. I always wondered.

I have had a few snowdrops since before Christmas, they're beginning to put on a show now. Aconites have started to appear in the last three days, and I noticed daffodils on the point of opening when I driving round the edge of town earlier. It's been horrid all day, lots of rain and a nasty biting wind, but there are signs of Spring just round the corner.

And Hazel catkins open and spreading their sneezy joy.

The enjoyable adventure of Dean and the pineapple has ended, my car has been serviced and is due for its NCT (like MOT) on the last day of the month, and a friend gave me box of fascinating books that I didn't need but am delighted with, including several Debrett's peerages and Burke's landed gentry from the 1830s.

Obviously, a decluttering FAIL.

The snowdrops are beginning to come through in Fife. No flower as yet.

I always thought it was a gnat's arse, but a gnat's cock must be even smaller.

It's not a term I'd heard before, but he'd already said, 'Is it okay if I swear?' (after almost saying 'fuck') and I'd said yes, it was.

DH swears like a naval rating, so there's no point me being prissy.

Hazel catkins. Of course. That's why my eyes are running and I keep coughing and sneezing. Thanks Dean - usually takes me longer to realise!