The Bluestocking - your local women's pub, warm, friendly, and not at all unusual in any way.

[MarieDeGournay]

Welcome to The Bluestocking, the welcome is warm, the conversation is wide-ranging, the food and drink are delicious but magically free from anything they need to be free from, and the bar staff are highly-trained, professional, efficient and very friendly gerbils.

Am I actually first this time?

Yay!

Lovely new thread, @MarieDeGournay - thank you.

Thanks for the new thread Marie!

Thanks Marie for the shiny new thread.
@ChristmasStars don't get left behind this time.

<rolls up at the bar>. Shiny new thread! Yay and thank you. I'm on the rum and cheese.

Thank you @FuzzyPuffling I'm right here! Still a cat even though I've gone back to my old name. I must say it's lovely to arrive so early for once. It's all looking very neat and tidy.

I wasn't sure who you were going to be..meow! 😁

Just so you all remember what I look like...
It's a bit quiet.

I like to keep everyone on their toes Fuzzy ☺️

Get yer tree down! Unless you're going for Candlemas?

I do like your Light Up Fur though.

Well I do like to stretch these things out as long as possible.

Lovely warm dry air you've got here. Makes breathing a positive pleasure.

Hello Deafnotdumb, you're either a name-changer, or a new arrival in the Bluestocking. I like to make sure that anybody new is immediately and warmly welcome - so assuming you're new - an immediate and warm welcome to you!

The Bluey has everything you might want, so if you ask one of our charming and professional bar-gerbils, they'll give you the list of all the rums and all the cheeses available - enjoy!

Nah i was napping in the corner whilst you all got your act together 😃

Well, that was an interesting journey! The coach was lovely and comfortable, but the gerbils were so excited they squeaked what sounded like rugby songs in my ears all the way!

Where on earth did they learn those lyrics? 😳

I got a lift from the giant wombat. The gerbils were terrified for most of the journey. Can someone get them a Scotch each.

Any newcomers to the Bluestocking are well and truly introduced to its... specialness by that image, Boily😂

A beetle dressed as old-fashioned aviators riding on a giant wombat while two gerbils cling onto its fur for dear life... yeah, not unusual at all in any way

Damson's gerbils and Boily's gerbils have met up and are getting thoroughly sloshed. This may get noisy.

Eta top left looks like one of Android's gerbils.

A giant spectral wombat who has kindly manifested in physical form in order to facilitate her friends.

She still looks a little glum, but at least she doesn't weep all the time now that she's part of the Bluestocking community.

Hello! And thanks for the new thread. Loving the new stools at the bar that have backs to them. Much comfier.

Brains and I have been out all day indulging in... very non-vegetarian activities. Brains is knackered, as am I.

I can teach the gerbils some new lyrics if you like. Four and Twenty Virgins, verse 324:
And the Padre, he was there,
Dressed up in his shroud,
Swinging from the chandelier
And-
OOF...
I appear to have been flattened by a giant wombat who disapproves of rugby songs!

Marie spotted my brief career as a cover girl, close to the end of the last thread, sporting a different look for me. Thought I'd dig out another of the old photoshoot pictures. What do you think?

Very handsome, and no extra claws.

And the pollen filters are working too. I inspected the hazel tree over the road this morning and yes, covered in fat little pollen-bomb catkins.

Two gerbils? I started off with 3.

Bugger.

Where's Geminina gone?

I was going to say she'd run off to join the circus. Looking at the picture, I'll amend that to "she had a horrible accident and ran off to hide at the circus".