The Bluestocking - Best Pub on the Internet

[EdithStourton]

Welcome to the Bluestocking women's pub. Excellent (if sometimes wilful) gerbil bar staff, varied cocktails, splendid cakes, cracking Sunday roasts...

Voted Best Pub for the umpteenth thread running, join us for conversation about tractors, units of measurement, films, wildlife, and even, sometimes, women's rights.

Just keep Glenda off the gin.

Any men, you can trot along to the Staunch Ally just up the road.

Degus are never still, they run for miles. Their enclosure had 4 levels and all sorts of exercise wheels and stuff and they ran around like lunatics.

They do fight adorably! If one had a peanut she wasn't going to share and her sister approached, they would turn their backs on each other and duel with their tails. It was hilarious.

DS used to make light sabre noises when they were fighting.

Fat Sand Rats - we'd love to have some at the Bluestocking but we'd have to rename them as that sounds like something that Glenda would shout at fellow-gerbils who were only doing it for her own good..

Besides, they say they aren't really fat, they are just big-boned😄

All their names would start with a B.

😁I wish I'd lived in your house when you had degus and a very amusing DS, it sounds fun😁

If it starts with a G, it's a gerbil, WAW😄
Even when they have been given a different name before they came to the Bluey, like Fuzzy's Fiona and Marshmallow, they become gFiona and gMarshmallow, and Maud is properly gMaud but she is special in lots of ways so goes by just Maud.

I didn't know about the sand eels either.

Frankly, as a vegetarian [I live on Kibble, oats and hay] I prefer to Draw A Discreet Veil over anything living that the gerbils, or indeed the Bluestockingers, may eat in real life - nothing/nobody gets killed and eaten in my version of the Bluey, and that's the lovely thing about the Bluey, my version is 100% accurate...to me

The degus were Blossom, Buttercup, Bubbles and Bean 😀

Marie, I'm a pescatarian but even in my most restrictive vegetarian days I managed more than kibble oats and hay. The darned things didn't like leaves or riots of fruit - everything the guinea pigs went wild for.

I grew a patch of wild garlic specifically for the guinea pigs. They just loved that stuff. I have cavolo nero in n the veg patch now that the chickens get as treats.

I never envisioned my life would involve growing crops for our pets.

Do you think guinea pigs could survive in the wild in the UK?

Dear Myrtle I hope you don't mind me making this suggestion, but I feel you should......

STOP!

You have so many things on your mind - your recovery process, your battles with bureaucracy and sofa companies, your job-hunting..

I think you should just stop thinking about anything demanding, just for a few days - no responsibilities, no deadlines, no phone calls, no job-hunting, nothing but clearing your mind and resting and eating and drinking nice things.

Make it a very definite period of time, mark on the calendar when you are going to get back into the fray, so you know it is just a pause, you're absolutely not giving up, you're just gathering your resources.

Mr Walrus sounds so nice and supportive that I'm sure he'd facilitate a short period where you weren't allowed do anything tedious or sensible or necessary or urgent.

It would not be giving up, it would be switching yourself on and off again so you can clear your registers and work better afterwards

Sorry if this comes across as misplaced, but us Bluestockingers care for each other and when I read that you feel that things are getting on top of you, I felt that the solution is not to drive harder and harder but to take a deep breath and pause for a while to gather yourself... and then go full-on Myrtle the Lioness at life again!

Even if they could feed themselves I’d have thought they’d be in a lot of danger from foxes etc.

There must be similar predators in their native range that they cope with. Although, perhaps the wild guinea pig is now a different hardier beast from the ones that have been domesticated for probably thousands of generations? If that's the case, bar the odd throwback, they're unlikely to be found in the current UK pet population.

Thank you xx

I have stopped and I'm not going through DSD's PIP claim tomorrow but there is a deadline for a good job on Sunday, so I will be writing that this weekend.

And Virgin Media just called the landline and left a message. We were both shocked. No-one has the number and as it rang we were saying we must be on a spam call list as we'd had several calls that went to the answerphone amd hung up. DSD actually said yesterday that she didn't even know we had a landline!

Anyway he said he's going to call me on my mobile so I've put my phone on silent. I'm not recovered enough to talk to them yet.

And I said in my complaint they should email me, not call me.

Myrtle, I don't want to get too personal & I'm not asking you to put anything out here on the intertubes, but have you had a chance to stop & think about what's happened to you in the last year or so? You've had massive life changes, any one of which could fell the average person. Do you have anyone to talk it through with?

When Marie suggested taking a break from stressful things for a while, it occurred to me that that's the point at which your emotions about what's happened might come up. Of course, they might not, but if they did I wouldn't want them to take you by surprise. Fore-warned is fore-armed & all that.

You don't have to say. 💙

gFiona and gMarmalade, dearest Marie, although gMarshmallow works just as well!

Just off to the hospital again with DH. Those of a praying disposition, please send a few his way.
Hope Bessie is in attendance.

Hugs puffling and fingers crossed

Best wishes Puffling

Done.

Also, this. The AI has added some nice fishy extras, but it's misgendered Bessie (or she's pinched someone else's coat). Swings & roundabouts.

All the best to Mr Puffling. 💙

If they could have, they would have, by now.
Look at muntjac. Even if I don't see them, I know when B&B are aware of one nearby. Evidence of them is everywhere round here.

Interesting factoid for you all. It takes persistence, skill (or advice) and patience to teach a dog the stop whistle. Muntjac obey it automatically. Twice now I've blown it to ensure a safe distance between alert dog and and mooching muntjac, and both times the muntjac has stopped mooching and looked at me. Fortunately the dog has also stopped, allowing the muntjac to reconsider its decision and head off into the brambles.

Thinking of you and your DH, Fuzzy.

And to Myrtle, who deserves a fortnight on a quiet island of her choice, and a lovely job at the end of it.

All my best wishes, @FuzzyPuffling

Everything crossed for you, Puffling.

Myrtle, be kind to yourself.

And no, guinea pigs can't survive in the wild in the UK. Someone released a dozen locally a few years ago. The few survivors were rescued from under the shed they were hiding under, the poor things, and they were in a dreadful state. And all the females were pregnant (guinea pigs can get pregnant within a day of giving birth). We fostered some for a while and ended up keeping three of the girls.

Too many predators, the temperatures are too cold in winter and there aren't natural burrows and small caves for them to live in. If there's heavy rain, they get sodden and get hypothermia.

Outside in summer only.

Sending all good wishes, and seconding all the prayers of those of a praying disposition, to you and DH, dear Fuzzy

Sorry about mis-confectioning gMarmelade as gMarshmallow earlier

My thoughts and also my prayers, Fuzzy.

Support for @MyrtleLion and agreeing with people suggesting a break, after Sunday if you need to wait until then.