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

@AlexandraLeaving I'm so sorry about your friend's daughter. What a huge sadness to bear. I'm glad she was a gerbil fan.

From a non-knitter, thank you to the knitters who will no doubt produce something beautiful and gerbil-related for the Woolly Hug blanket💙

When my son was young, he had two gerbils that he really loved. They were (both girls) called Fiona and Marmalade. I wonder if their little gerbil souls are now immortalised in the dream gerbils? ( Obviously as gFiona and gMarmalade.)

I'd like to think so.

@AlexandraLeaving - I am so sorry to hear about your friend. I will order some yarn and do a couple of squares for the blanket - no-one tell dh I’m buying more wool!

My friend had a hamster called Jiminy Billybob - she reckoned the name was longer than the hamster. She used to put her son’s Playmobil slide, bus and other toys in the (empty) bath, for the hamster to explore. Or she’d let him run around her bedroom, and one night, he climbed up the back of her wardrobe, and appeared on the top!

That's so lovely, Fuzzy, you were obviously predestined to be a Bluestockinger with your family's history with gerbils.

The Dream and Sleep gerbils are gFiona and gMarmalade, henceforth.

I couldn't sleep a couple of nights ago, and invoked the Dream and Sleep Gerbils - I'm aware that an outside observer might think the whole concept is impossibly twee, but when I invented them introduced them, I thought of them as gentle little distractions for anybody suffering a sleepless night.

And it worked for me! I imagined them appearing in my bedroom, and wondered what flight patterns they would have - would they have a fluttering kind of flight like a bat, or a dipping one like a swallow, or would they swoop like gannets, pulling out at the last moment as they scattered sleep and dream dust, maybe humming the Dambusters march as they did so, or...
by that time, I had fallen asleep

When it's 3am and you're feeling really all itchy and scratchy and tired and grumpy because you can't sleep, thinking about being visited by two sweet little flying gerbils from the Bluestocking - called, as we now know gFiona and gMarmalade - is a lovely distraction.

Twee AF, I freely admit but so what!😄

May he react like mine now does when parcel delivery is mentioned: “more wool or more recorders?”

Mine is "Plants or fabric?"

Marie I love this so much! I'd like to think gFiona and gMarmalade have a wide variety of flight patterns, and will also perch on your furniture for a rest and a face wash!

I'm less keen on their "Dive Bombing with Gerbil Cackling" manoeuvre!

A face wash? I didn't know they washed their little faces - just when you thought they couldn't get any cuter

Books or shoes here.

My online ordering is insignificant compared to DH’s. He’s trying to break his Amazon habit acquired during lockdown.

Mine is mainly books.

I will have to a) start playing the recorder again and b) give in to my long standing temptation to get myself a bass recorder, and then dh will be able to echo your d, @AlexandraLeaving. So far I have resisted the temptation because I suspect my hands aren’t big enough for a bass recorder - they weren’t big enough for the cello, and I struggle with a tenor recorder - but bass instruments are my absolute favourites - that deep, velvety texture to the sound. Whenever our choir conductor wanted to mix the voices up, I would go and stand in the back row with the basses.

Deliveries? Books. So many, many books. Mostly second hand. I have a real issue with my book addiction. I'm supposed to be on a hiatus until spring but I bought another 6 in February anyway.

Or it's DH's gadgets, DS1's Warhammer figures or DS2's comic book subscriptions. When DD is home from uni, it's whatever she has been buying on vinted.

I've organised my yarn stash and fabric boxes. Until I actually make something from start to finish I've blocked myself from the sites I shop at.

There is no such thing as too many books, @PastaAllaNorma - just not enough book cases, as my house demonstrates. I have an actual library (aka a room where some of my books live, along with various other gubbins that needs better homes), plus at least 4 other book cases elsewhere.

Each new year, I say to dh that we should do some decluttering, and each year we fail dismally. I am much better at cluttering.

@AlexandraLeaving I can't knit so I've donated to Woolly Hugs so K&P can get some wool to send out.

Maud is packing and then will be on her way to K&Ps house.

To keep up with my book acquisitions, I might have to move into a warehouse.

Although I gather there's a large property in Windsor going spare since the former occupant has been evicted - maybe I could have that.

I declutter about 60 books a year but unfortunately I buy more than that.

I got Marcella Hazan's Essentials Of Classic Italian Cooking this week and it's 722 pages long. I read cookery books like novels. But also novels.

I knew Maud wouldn't let the chance to visit Knotty pass her by 😄

Hello again Boily!
and thank you for the update on Maud's preparedness

I've ordered some yarn and am going to make some cat inspired squares. My DH won't even notice my parcel amongst his daily Amazon deliveries. And even if he did I've never spent anywhere near as much as him on a hobby!

'What now?' - if he says anything at all.
Bulbs/ plants/ birthday or Christmas presents/ clothing/ books/ stationery/ ....

I have far too many hobbies, and too many books. I have run out of bookshelves, and there are a couple of piles on the floor.

@AlexandraLeaving, I hope you're feeling okay.

Afternoon all. Feeling distinctly discombobulated today and with to-do lists spawning everywhere.
Bar gerbil, my usual please, and keep them coming.

And take a handy Battenburg.

Now I want Battenburg.