The Bluestocking Inn, cocktails and cocoa and all

[DeanElderberry]

Opening soon in a salubrious location.

And thanks to the miraculous qualities, although we will indeed have

One-steps and two-steps and the divil knows what new steps
We know that we never would be dull again, bedad
We'll have wine, porter and lemonade.
We'll have cocktails and cocoa and all
We'll have champagnes tonight
But NO real pains next morning
Tonight when we dance at the Bluestocking Ball

slight apologies to Frank Harte

I will try and take Herrick to heart and not become a moody mare over Lent.

I'm doing better than expected at giving up booze, sweets, and chocolate, and all but homemade cakes and biscuits, except on Sundays. I made an exception for sweets and chocolate already in the house (there wasnt much, half a small packet of sweets and a few oz of chocolate), but rather to my surprise I haven't eaten the lot already. I visited friends the other day for a cuppa and the only biscuits on offer were shop-bought, so I didn't have any.

No weight loss to report as yet, though 😠
I've only got to shift 10lb. I have no idea how people ever lose several stone.

I love food. Were it not for B&B's need for lots of exercise, I would be very rotund.

On the plus side, we have the most beautiful sunny day here, though the wind has got up since first thing. The primroses are out along the ditch banks.

Today's highlights...
Trip to Lidl, and got a sesame seed bar
DD1 gets married this afternoon.

Love primroses. I read their name comes because they're the Prime rose, the first and/or the best, I'm not entirely sure.

I love the little fiddle they evolved to reduce self pollination if only because 'thrum eye' resonates.

Sympathies to all with mis behaving knees 🦵🦵
Mine cause me to walk downstairs like a toddler. Bugger the non working painkillers - I'm dosing up on Tunnocks wafers (don't like the teacakes sorry)
Oops can I say 'bugger'?

Fuck yeah! You can say all the swears. Although context dependent.

That sounds like quite a highlight ?

My knees try to tell me they ain’t happy but I stick
fingers in my ears because I haven’t got the personality to copy lack of mobility

and I like coming downstairs on my bum anyway

@FuzzyPuffling I hope the Pufflings have a wonderful day, especially the Pufflingling.

I missed your highlight @FuzzyPuffling, and what a highlight ✨️

Congratulations to @FuzzyPuffling‘s puffling!

@AuntieMsDamsonCrumblei am chugging back the cranberry juice.

And here’s a lovely poem by Patrick Kavanagh, nominally about a primrose but with a Lenten flavour about it:

Primrose

Upon a bank I sat, a child made seer
Of one small primrose flowering in my mind.
Better than wealth it is, I said, to find
One small page of Truth's manuscript made clear.
I looked at Christ transfigured without fear—
The light was very beautiful and kind,
And where the Holy Ghost in flame had signed
I read it through the lenses of a tear.
And then my sight grew dim, I could not see
The primrose that had lighted me to Heaven,
And there was but the shadow of a tree
Ghostly among the stars. The years that pass
Like tired soldiers nevermore have given
Moments to see wonders in the grass.

I hope the Puffling family are having a wonderful day

Thank you for that beautiful poem, Britinme - when I say 'I know Paddy Kavanagh' it's nearly literally true - my family knew him well, [and regarded him as a 'bit of an oddity'] and I may well have met him when I was little.
But even though I know Paddy Kavanagh's poems, I never came across this one, and it is a beauty to discover, almost like Edith discovering a primrose on the ditch bank.
Seeing God in the beauty of nature is quite a trope in Irish poetry, from the Celtic monks up to today.

Best wishes to Fuzzy's little Puffling-all-grown-up, and soon-to-be Mr Fuzzy's little Puffling-all-grown-up💞, and to you and Mr Fuzzy, I hope you all have a lovely time - maybe even some sunshine!

Returning briefly to Herrick - don't these lovely little lines give the impression that Herrick was there and watching and listening and heard the affection in the way Jesus said 'Oh, Martha, Martha!'
Martha, Martha
The repetition of the name made known
No other than Christ's full affection.

That is a marvellous picture Auntie, but not quite that! They are having the register office legal bit today with just their children as witnesses and no guests, and a party on Saturday when we will all whoop it up!

Mind you, if she fails to produce any gerbil flower girls. there will be words

Another Lent poem, one of the lesser known from A E Housman's "A Shropshire Lad" series, but with a subtle reminder of the coming of Easter and its significance:

Lent Lily

'Tis spring; come out to ramble
The hilly brakes around,
For under thorn and bramble
About the hollow ground
The primroses are found.

And there's the windflower chilly
With all the winds at play,
And there's the Lenten lily
That has not long to stay
And dies on Easter day.

And since till girls go maying
You find the primrose still,
And find the windflower playing
With every wind at will,
But not the daffodil,

Bring baskets now, and sally
Upon the spring's array,
And bear from hill and valley
The daffodil away
That dies on Easter day.

Although you'd probably be arrested if you filled your baskets with wild daffodils these days!

You can't keep the gerbils away from weddings. They love to throw the confetti 😁

I was 230lb (16st 6lb) on 6 January 2022.
I was 169lb (12st 1lb) on 11 December 2025.
I was 171lb (12st 3lb) last Thursday (having gained 12lb over Christmas and now losing it).
But I was also 171lb at the end of November 2024, so I essentially lost only 2lb last year.
I have lost 61lb in total (4st 5lb) in four years.

It's a long haul. My BMI is still 26.8 and I need to be 11st 6lb for a BMI of 25, 10st 13lb for a BMI of 24 and 10st 7lb for a BMI of 23. I'm 5'7". My body likes being 12st 5lb. I don't have food cravings until I get lighter than that. But to be "healthy" for a Victorian age population measure I should be almost two stone lighter (24lb/1st 10lb).

I'd like to achieve that this year.

Steps:
Only eat between 11am and 7pm.
No white* carbohydrates, including sugar, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes.
No alcohol except on special occasions.
Monday and Wednesday no main meal.

*actually includes wholemeal too

Diet:
Breakfast: omelette with mushrooms, peppers and onions
Lunch: Fage yoghurt with kiwi fruit, blueberries, 2x teaspoons crushed "nut dust" of five nuts, 1x tablespoon of mixed seeds.
Main meal: roast chicken/pork/beef with roast vegetables and gravy
M & W replace this with a mix of two boiled eggs and a tin of sardines in oil.

The biggest problem is "special occasions" as our first wedding anniversary is in early February, then DSD and the Walrus have birthdays at the end of March and this year Easter follows very closely.

Then it becomes summer and we like drinking by the river at our favourite restaurant.

But I am determined this year. I'm hoping to get down to 167lb (11st 13lb) before DSD's birthday, then down to 154lb (11st) by the end of July.

Lovely poem, Damson, and another one that's new to me, Interesting rhyming scheme, hasn't it?

Fuzzy, the gerbils are very excited, they are really looking forward to Saturday - I wonder if there'll be much work done in the Bluey till then! Probably best not to order any fancy cocktails, just stick to the basics they can deliver even though their minds are elsewhere, on the party on Saturday - what will they wear? will there be confetti? should they throw it overarm or underarm? if it's rice rather than confetti, will they be allowed to eat it?😄

That's very impressive, Myrtle! I hope it makes you feel not just proud of the achievement, but also physically stronger, which you've needed to be, to deal with the challenges you've had to contend with, and more ongoing...

Most of my joints have survived more or less so far (not big toes, does anyone expect them to bend properly when you’re >60?). Managed nearly 20k steps on our first day exploring Amsterdam today (neither DH nor I have been other than for work before). Broke our walk for a very relaxing visit to the Hortus Botanicus which has some very good glasshouses and pleasant cafe.
And I now know what cannabis smells like for the first time in my 65 evidently sheltered years!

I am just a fine collection of non-working parts. It might be quicker to list the few joints that don’t give me any trouble. And when my joints are behaving themselves, my muscles have to get in on the (painful) act.

Just watch out for the strange looking cakes in the cafes, or you'll know what it tastes like too! Enjoy your trip 😀

I'm the same, it would be much faster to list the systems which do work!

Myrtle, that is seriously impressive. I would never have the will-power, which is why I'm putting the brakes on now (and not for the first time).

I'm fortunate that, six decades in, all my joints still work, though my knees have become a little dodgy over the past year, and my back has required regular trips to a physio for bloody years.

Fuzzy, enjoy the beano at the weekend and Errol, I can recommend some of Amsterdam's more exciting cakes and biscuits....