The Bluestocking women's Pub- spring is sprunging and MN's name generator can do one!

[lcakethereforeIam]

Welcome to the Bluestocking women's pub. Men are directed to the Staunch Ally just down the road. Otherwise all are welcome. Pull up a chair, give your order to the Wait Gerbil or the Gerbil behind the bar.

Don't forget to name change if you wish to.

The weather today has been mad. Beautiful spring morning, lots of sun. Then a gale and pissing it down. More sun. Followed by a couple of inches of hailstones. Sun, then snow. The snow didn't stick, but the hail did for a while. Sun at the moment went really dark for a few seconds but the sun broke through again.

I love this image of the Sleep Gerbil Deployment Squad. Quite the military operation.

We had hail on the sunny south coast!

Following on from the previous wildlife photos I found these

Hunting lynx wins Wildlife Photographer of the Year People's Choice prize - BBC News https://share.google/yTMfFrHobreoTdZYi

Beware! They're all excellent pictures but some are a bit grim...the deer 🦌 😨 and arachnophobes proceed carefully.

The winning photo did make me worry a little about Gosie.

I decided to make focaccia and pesto using the recipes from our cooking workshop in Italy in autumn.

Focaccia needs to cook at a very high temperature. My goddamn oven broke and wouldn't heat above 140⁰, which I didn't know because the sun was shining so the pale temperature light wasn't visible.

Focaccia is ruined. And it was a huge one. I am glum.

Gosie is fine. Sculpting course going well.

@PastaAllaNorma Noooooooooooooooooo!

Sounds like the mixture we've been having too, though we only managed sleet, not snow. But the hail showers were something else! Talk about rapidly changing weather.

Oh no! I don’t suppose it can be rescued by grilling or frying it hot?

Yes, your photo presumably matches your name.

Its been one of those ‘bit of everything’ mad March days here too - currently lovely sun and almost clear sky and still quite windy, but it’s been like that a few times today - interspersed by pelting hail or sleet.

And I’ve also been working hard preparing for a new freezer - cleared out and cleaned the utility room so they could get the old one out an then I can rearrange the work surfaces as the new one is half height not tall. The delivery arrived but they had no knowledge of the fact we’d paid £25 to have to old one removed. So we had to refuse the delivery as there’s nowhere to put the new one until the old one had gone. Rearranged 🤞for Monday. Still, at least I’ve cleaned and sorted out my small gardening tools which live in there

I now need to buy an oven, when December was a new microwave, October was a new tumble dryer, last June was a new washing machine, and we're waiting for the scaffolders to come so the flat roof can be replaced. Everything is wearing out.

Buying a fancy power chair is feeling a bit mad, financially.

Is the oven fixable? There's all sorts of tips and stuff on the interweb. Although, sometimes I think 'fixing' (particularly if you have to pay) is wasting money to delay the inevitable.

No, and it doesn't owe us anything, it's 23 years old. To be honest, eventually it will probably save us money as the new models are so, so much more energy efficient than this old dinosaur.

Basically, everything we bought when we moved here so long ago is clapped out and a lot of it needed replacing in the same year or so. (third dishwasher, third washing machine, third drier, but the oven is the original one)

Well the grill broke around Christmas but we almost never grill things anyway so we ignored it. I did chop the focaccia into air fryer tray sized slices and baked a few that way, but it isn't very good because it had a low temperature bake for 20 minutes first.

However, it's sort of OK, especially when slathered with the freshly made pesto and eaten along with a glass of cold white wine.

That sounds extremely productive, Errol.

I have a chest freezer in the shed that's packed to bursting, because I stress-cook every autumn and winter. My friends say they're coming right over when the zombie apocalypse comes because we wouldn't need to cook for about 3 months.

Thank you for the S&D Gerbil Situation Room image, Android, tirribly decent of you old thing!
I've saved it this time.
I think we established last time that the slightly disturbing tanks at the corners actually fire bursts of lavender scent

Sorry about the oven situation and the spoiled focaccia, Pasta😕
I'm glad that some of it was rescued by pesto and lashings of white wine.

It sounds like lots of you got the weather we had here yesterday: lovely spring day until the heavens opened, the wind got up to gale force, then it was a nice evening🙄No snow or sleet here though.

'March Many-weathers', isn't it?

Glad you all enjoyed the wildlife photography so much, I guessed you'd be an appreciative audience.

I'd like to think that the winning photo was taken in the Bluestocking garden, and that means that Bluestocking feline-rodent rules apply and they are having great fun and the rat is going 'Wheeeeeeee! Again! Again!'😁

God what a cold and miserable day today is!

I would bet good money Glottalstop has been messing around with the weather wheel.

We have ordered an induction hob to arrive on the 10 April and then to have the gas disconnected and the hob installed. Imagine our surprise late on Friday evening when it turned up! But we needed a code because it's so expensive. Still showed as arriving on 10 April so delivery was rescinded.

It was delivered the next day with a code and the gas engineer can switch off the gas any time. But the electrician can't install it till the 14th...

Gosie sent me a picture. She is loving the course.

Has Gosie met any nice Gastons, Gerards or Guillaumes yet?

Evening. Large hot chocolate with a chaser of Sleep Gerbils please.
Are Grünhilde and Gerlinde still around? I have a few colleagues in dire need of some ordnung.

Here's your order, freshly generated.

Did you ask for an electric blanket? It is pretty cold today I suppose!

Are those sleep gerbils sleep drifting towards the Tunnock's? Do I need to bat them off course with a well aimed scrunched up wrapper?

Make sure the Sleep Gerbils don't kick in until after I've had my hot chocolate! Electric blanket sounds like a good idea, although do we have a Hot Flush Gerbil to switch the electric blanket to cooling mode occasionally?

I'd have thought a little judicious wafting would do. You could probably borrow one of Magpie's cushions for that

It’s definitely been many weathers here today - sunny when I opened the curtains, then driving rain, then snow, and back to sun again.