Touchdown at the Newest Bluestocking Inn. Pudding, cups of tea, the vegetable garden coming into its own, and gerbils beautiful gerbils all furry.

[DeanElderberry]

All females welcome for intelligent discourse and non-harmful comestibles.

Thank you, Cake, I never heard of book lice. I googled them and they are not pretty, but I agree with you that weevils are kinda cute with their big bright eyes and long noses, or whatever they are😄

Some weevils have found fame, e.g. the cotton boll weevil which has its own song:

Let me tell ya a story about a boll weevil
Now, some of you may not know, but a boll weevil is an insect
And he's found mostly where cotton grows
Now, where he comes from nobody really knows
But this is the way the story goes

The farmer said to the boll weevil
"I see you're on the square"
Boll weevil said to the farmer "Say yep!
My whole darn family's here"

We gotta have a home
Just lookin for a home

The only time we’ve had weevils was after buying some loose dog biscuits. The little buggers somehow found their way up from the bottom drawer where the dog food was kept up through the plastic bag and teatowel drawers, then presumably up the wall to reach the cupboards over the counter where flour, pasta etc are kept. I can see Marie cheering them on…

Commiserations Angle. I have just spent an hour mopping up after my washing machine tried to turn my utility into a giant bubble bath. It was my own fault, I overloaded it and added too much washing liquid. I eventually got rid of it all by doing 4 rinse cycles, but then had to dry off every surface and clean the floor.

Is there a gerbil emergency unit to help with these situations?

I'm quite good at checking bb dates for tinned and store cupboard food and I use the 'smell' test for dairy foods. Years ago, when I lived in temporary accommodation while on a job away from home, I had an ant infestation which took ages to get rid of. It turned out that they were after my Rice Krispies and since then I usually decant cereals and dried good into jars or plastic containers once they are opened.

Like Cake, I do have a few UFOs in the freezer though 👀

Poor Angle and Damson!
When things like that happen I go full-on anthropomorphising and believe that the obvious reason for wash-machines or dishwashers doing things like that is sheer malevolence😡
Is there a gerbil emergency unit tasked with removing evil from the world?
Yes there is.
And for precious moments here in the Bluey, they succeed💙

I'm generally of that opinion, except where fish is concerned. Every time I've had food poisoning it was fish.

However, my Dad is severely immuno-compromised so I get paranoid. Anything that can make him poorly, will.

He had many multiple packs of flour, rice, honey, soy sauce, crackers and others, and the ones that were open were the recent ones. These unopened ones have been kicking around in the cupboard for years and years.

Even after chucking all that out he still has 4 rice packets, 3 jars of honey, 3 bottles of soy sauce etc etc all in date.

He also has 6 white cabbages, 5 swedes and 8 bags of onions in the garage (cooler, so veg is stored there) so I have no idea WTF is going on with his food shopping, frankly.

It was never like this when Mum was alive, and before my niece and her feckless scrounging husband moved in.

I've made a small batch of scones, I have homemade jam and clotted cream. This is going to be his slightly belated birthday tea (on the ward)

What a lovely idea Pasta. A cream tea sounds exactly the right medicine. I hope your dad is feeling better today

Definitely take no chances with your Dad Pasta. Scones on the ward, lovely 😍 Coming home to a tidy organised kitchen will be great for him too.

Cream tea in the Bluey? Yes please

(Enjoy yours, Pasta and dad) sorry there's no scone emoji

I have an awful tendency to over shop (comes with the Costco card). I think my stuff is all in date, and tbh I don’t worry too much about canned food, but I can imagine my kids having to check stuff when I shuffle off this mortal coil. Although if DH is still on this earth then, he will pay even less attention than I do. I am particular about fridge stuff though.

When you're bringing your Dad afternoon tea on the ward, Pasta (what a lovely idea), in the Bluestocking alternative reality, the gerbils will be there too, representing us and helping pass the scones around💙

[recycled image, I scavenge other people's from previous threads]

I have been paid by a large WI to teach a scone making workshop. I can churn out 144 in a morning without breaking a sweat. And they won awards.

The ward isn't going to know what hit them 😉

Popping in with this little gem for @FuzzyPuffling I'll catch up with you all as soon as I can, promise.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce9me2k7yr4o

Hurrah for Skomer! Great news.
It was World Puffin Day a few days ago. That deserves a flag.

We used to live near a hippy-dippy whole food place where you had stuff like flour weighed out for you into your re-useable container. They had a permanent population of weevils in their flour.

DH went in there once in search of snacks. All they could offer him were blue corn chips and nuts, and possibly something slightly oaty and incredibly chewy, glued together with a tiny quantity of honey.

Our nearest whole food place now is excellent, and sells amazing cakes.

<craves scones>
I could make some, I am perfectly capable, but it would be very handy if the gerbils could just send over a couple of Pasta's...

Damson, that sounds SO much worse than my issue (I think washing machine mishaps and breakdowns are the worst) - at least I could just not use my dishwasher if necessary. I hope you managed to get it all mopped up!

Well, I'll be round yours asap! (after your Dad is all better, of course) x

Ok, here's the skinny on the dishwasher:

I don't want to jinx it, but I think after having taken apart the kitchen sink trap (which is now leaking, naturally, but that's another job for another day), to find nothing nefarious; and disconnecting the dishwasher drain hose and inspecting it, draining it, and not checking for kinks (because it goes around the back of an integrated dishwasher, how am I supposed to do that??); then reconnecting everything...

I read online that sometimes there's a temporary fault in the electronics board that can make the dishwasher think there's a blockage when there isn't (hence it won't drain). So, I did a factory reset, then ran a short wash with no dishes and no detergent, listening out for whirring or grinding noises from the drain pump just in case. After 45 minutes, cycle done, opened up the dishwasher and... VOILA no standing water!

If you haven't fallen asleep by now and have read this far, I basically turned it off and turned it on again.

I am cautiously optimistic but time will tell.

I am now available for dishwasher repair services, for which I will charge an exorbitant fee.

ps. but don't ask me to fix your kitchen sink trap, because I'll make it worse.

I think I can beat all your 'out of date' food stories. As recently as the 1990s and possibly as late as 2015 there was a tin in my parents house that dated from 1945. It did not have a label on it any longer, and no-one was ever going to eat its contents. It had been part of a Red Cross food parcel to my mum's family at the end of the war in East Asia - they had been in a concentration/internment camp, and the food package was very welcome after years of starvation. My grandmother had saved that tin just in case it was needed - they never wanted to be totally without again - and it had just stayed as part of the kitchen goods ever since. We used to tease mum about it, but she struggled to part with it because of what it represented.

Oh Fuzzy, how remiss of us not to mark your day - your World Day, in fact🙁
I hope this little medal presentation ceremony makes up for it a bit.
Just out of shot there is a very smart guard of honour, and the band is playing the Skomer Island National Anthem

That's astonishing! I understand perfectly why your grandfather and mother kept it. My Dad and his family were also in the Far East during the whole war, and, although only by being very discreet (and lying about their nationality) not in a concentration camp, experienced starvation and grim conditions. My Dad became somewhat of a hoarder of food after that. His parents used to stuff us with food when we visited!

Sorry, I meant your grandmother!

Actually, it was both of them so you were right first time - grandmother initially, then it lived with grandfather after she died and thence to my mother. Sorry your family had similar experiences - tough times. [genuinely tough - not 'sad times' tough.]

I realised around the 20th that it had been World Puffin Day on the 14th. I meant to mention it, with a apology to Fuzzy, but all the excitement of Bunion Day quite put it out of my head.

Speaking of the 14th, I meant to post something about this woman

https://beachfood.co.uk/blogs/about-seaweed/mother-of-the-sea

She's been honoured in Japan for ages (I think there's a statue of her). Wales, her country of birth, came a little late to the party but they did get there in the end.