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.

I don't mind herbal tea as long as I expect it to taste like an interesting warm drink rather than tea.

How poetic, inky.

There once was some cardamom tea
Which tasted of animal pee
So rather than drink
It went down the sink
Rejected, although it was free.

@MyrtleLion Very sorry about your recliner sofa. They do NOT come cheap and really should not fail like that after such a relatively short time. Best of luck with the sofa company.

I've discovered why we are haunted by a wombat

See photo from 1800s below of William and his wife Winifred, part of a troup of travelling wombats performing plays in provisional towns that house a Bluestocking pub

I remember when herbal teas suddenly became a thing in my local supermarket. There was a massive shelf a dozens of different types and you could buy them singly. I treated myself to a few and they all, without exception, tasted vaguely of aniseed. Put me right off them.

In other news, I went to get the results of my biopsies and left nork has precancerous, currently, noninvasive cells. So I've got an appointment at the beginning of March (it might be brought forward) to have a chunk removed. Probably followed by a dash of radiotherapy and reconstruction, assuming they get it all and nothing worse is found.

On a brighter note I saw a grey heron from the train and managed to chain a bunch of stitches doing crochet. The tension was a little uneven. I'm thinking tomorrow I might try doing a second row or one of those rings to start the Toft elephant 🐘

@MarieDeGournay wrote The practicalities of realising you are disabled rather than just temporarily not mobile are tedious.
But the emotions involved in accepting that you are now, subtly or not-so-subtly, a different person can be very hard.

I have long Covid. I went through the NHS Long Covid Management support programme, and they are now setting up a group of Lived Experience Volunteer Mentors (I didn’t choose the name) to join the online drop-in meetings to offer their thoughts.

Four of us had a preparatory meeting a couple of hours ago: as part of it we discussed the titles of four online meetings and one will be about exactly those emotions. The original title was “Identity and Stigma”: I can’t remember what we suggested it became, but it certainly had “accepting” in it.

How worrying, cake. I hope they are able to do what is necessary to keep you well. 💐💙

Well apologies to all the cardamom haters out there but, in the spirit of adventure and excited at having discovered my in-date jar of cardamom pods, I scrunched up four, put them into one of those stainless steel tea infuser things and left it dunked in cup of boiling water. No black tea, no sweetener, no other ingredients, and it was just lovely. I will, however, go investigating those useful links @MyrtleLion and try that sort as a comparison.

Inspired by my cardamom success, I braved the fridge to make what we used to call 'Bottom-of-the-Fridge-Soup' for lunch: any remnants that could be saved in a cooked and blended form. Today's was pretty tragic: three hopeless floppy leeks, the terminal third of a pointy cabbage, all the florets that still looked sort of edible if you didn't look too hard from a head of broccoli (there were not that many), one very wilted spring onion, some desiccated twiggy bits of a bunch of (ex) fresh rosemary and the scrapings from a jar of miso. It was er... unusual... but I consumed a portion and am still breathing, just. There are two more helpings left for the freezer - oh dear. It made me think that I need to relabel Bottom-of-the-Fridge-Soup. End of the World Soup maybe? Or Doomsday Delight?

I may well be calling the bargerbils to help with supper.

How excellent it is that we are keeping up such a long tradition of Bluestocking meeting places.

Oh, Cake, I'm so sorry your results didn't come back clear. Our daughter (now 54) had a similar finding to you after her nipple had started to discharge and had to have an op to remove the milk ducts immediately behind the nipple. That was over 5 years ago and the only thing now is annual rather than 3 yearly mammograms. Wishing you all the very best.

@lcakethereforeIam I'm sorry to hear your booby update. I really, really, really hope it will all be sorted quickly, painlessly and without fuss.
In the meantime, Rosie is on her way. 🐾

@ifIwerenotanandroid wrote Won't go into details, but for me this week is marked by a loss of pain which I've had constantly for several years. It's like the sun came out, it's lovely.

That’s the best news I've read this week. A celebratory round of drinks on me, everyone! A bargerbil will be round soon to take your requests.

I feel the need to celebrate. I persuaded Amazon to give me 40% off the ladder that had a dent in the stabiliser bar. They had originally wanted me to take it to a Hermes drop off point. Erm.... NO! Ladder is perfectly usable, dent causes no issues, but I prefer new items not to arrive pre-dented! I'm now admiring my absolute bargain of a ladder!

Well that's a fucker.

I find the odd tin of tomatoes and possibly also of baked beans quite helpful in making Bottom-of-the-fridge Soupl.

@lcakethereforeIam the hug alarm has been activated and responded to.

Not too sure what's going on with gerbils, they seem to have wandered to close to @ifIwerenotanandroid lab and are shifting in time and space. I'm sure the effects will wear off shortly.

Careful, Boily!

Cake, so sorry to hear you need treatment, but thank goodness it was caught early. 💙

Cheers! Thanks, Glad!

You’re most welcome.

See how happy many of us are to celebrate with you!

Sorry to hear of your problem nork, Cake, but pleased to see that it is non-invasive. Time to get the little blighter out of there!

Glad they got it early Cake.

I needed a longer ladder so it's an accceptable purchase. As are the new toilet roll holders

for Cake, hopefully it is dealt with quickly, efficiently and painlessly.
I've had a day, and will be cuddled up to the hot chocolate bowser for the foreseeable.