The Bluestocking: To the moon and back gerbil style.

[Boiledbeetle]

Previous thread of chat and general madness below

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5506124-the-bluestocking-womens-pub-spring-is-sprunging-and-mns-name-generator-can-do-one

Women: from an orderly queue at the bar or take a seat and grab a passing gerbil.

Men: turn left at the end of the road, keep walking until you find the Staunch Ally.

Bar gerbil a full fat coke please and a packet of Scampi Fries please.

Well good - I haven't led you astray!
I love their colours, I just sit there and dribble.
I've got a jumper I knitted using their yarn, and it's just lovely.

Now this is my kind of thread - Thanks Boily. Chocolate, sock discussions and moon missions. I am old enough [just] to remember the Apollo rocket that landed on the moon and was transfixed by it. I come from a family where no one has ever studied science beyond the most basic level but I did not only did sciences at Uni but made a career in the wider field and I think it was down to that early spark. Still can't crochet or knot though.....

I have been out this morning to have coffee with my old neighbour. Her DH is older than her and while still ‘himself’ now rambles rather which is sad.

Meanwhile, DH was off to the Trafford centre Apple Store to get a new battery for my old phone as DD needs a new one and they don’t make the small SE at the moment…

Awful traffic, plus rain; he arrived about an hour early and could find absolutely nowhere to park, spent about an hour inching round all the carparks. He sensibly sought refuge in the rhs Bridgewater coffee shop to decompress a bit and is about to face the return journey, of course there are delays on the M6 and the alternatives. At least he managed to cancel the battery change without charge.

We forgot the rule ‘never go out on a bank holiday’.

Have you tried Yarnsmiths merino sock yarn, @Magpiecomplex? I can’t wear wool either, but I’m using it to knit the dresses for my granddaughters, and I’m fine with it.

Oh, they're so beautiful! I'm just going through the colours one by one & I want all of them. Love the subtle variations in each one. But that's Euromillions territory, at £23/100g. What colour d'you fancy for the shawl?

DS and DGS3 are out for a bracing walk after lunch, so I'm just trying to catch up. We had sad news late last night, when the hospital our old friend has been for the past few weeks, rang to say that she had died. She has no children of her own and her two stepdaughters live right across in the east of England, so we've been acting as the local contact. It wasn't unexpected and in fact is genuinely a release for her (88, seriously disabled and very lonely since her husband died 3 years ago) but we will miss her.

Sorry for your loss.

Sorry for the loss of your friend @NotAtMyAge

We're preparing to go to church this evening, for a quiet, reflective service.

I'm always disappointed and saddened (although I should know better by now) by the attitude to Good Friday....
"Happy Easter". No not yet. Today is the most solemn day of the Christian year. Not celebrating yet.
And the hideous insults on MN threads "sky fairy" and " ugly old wives tales" have come up this year. It's horrible to read, and never comes up for other religions.

I wish non- believers would leave us alone, today of all days.

@NotAtMyAge I'm so sorry about your friend. Expected doesn't make it any less sad. 💐

I'm old enough to remember when Good Friday was a Bank Holiday when almost all shops were shut, at least in our local small market towns. It was a day which felt quiet and different and I don't remember anyone grumbling about the fact. I too am saddened by the intolerance shown.

I'm sorry for the loss of your friend, @NotAtMyAge

Despite it being very breezy I am sitting in my freshly mown garden having a Productivity Beer (aka zero alcohol Guinness) to reward me for my busy day. The snakeshead fritillaries are in flower and the plum blossom is just starting.

oh no

oh well

One of my pals made me 'the virus shawl' which was much admired (which is why I remember the name, I had to keep saying, 'yes isn't it, Suzy made it, the pattern is . . . ').

I remember the Virus Shawl when it went, well, viral. Loads of people wearing it at Yarndale that year. It is a lovely pattern.

I can make amigarumi, blankets, scarves, hats and wrist warmers but I'm not skilled enough not pay enough attention to detail to do complicated stuff.

I'm just back from the afternoon service with the adoration of the cross. As ever, the Gospel reading is a punch in the gut (particularly since the congregation get to read the 'crowd' bits, snarling out 'crucify him!', but the prayers were focussed and healing. I hope yours is as good, Fuzzers.

I know what you mean about the other thing.

And I saw a little warbler in the garden and just had time to say to myself, Oh I wonder what that is? before it started chiffing and chaffing. And the buzzard with a nest at the far side of the field has been stretching its wings and dancing on the thermals.

That's how I spent this hellacious afternoon, I made a bouillabaise from scratch, with saffron potatoes and a rouille. I've got plenty if anybody fancied some.

Mmmmm.

There's enough to feed most of the Bluestocking, I would love to share.

I've just bought some.😮
Beautiful ones as the main colour
https://www.jarbon.com/products/yarnadelic-worsted?variant=43892563083298
and Les Fleurs for the contrast
https://www.jarbon.com/products/yarnadelic-worsted?variant=43892562886690

It is very expensive yarn, but it wears brilliantly. And if I'm devoting hours of my life to making something, I want to be lovely.

Beautiful choices Edith

I'll let Boily have my share. It looks great, but I don't think even the Bluey's unreality field could protect me from the effects of tomato and garlic and shellfish all together in the same dish.

Oh my goodness my mouth is watering.....

I'm afraid I had to scroll past the bouillabaise at speed. I can't do shellfish. Boily can have my share too!