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.

Gerbils, large virgin mojito please , if that's on offer? Extra lime please.

Why do we women get ourselves into such tangles? (been following a particularly difficult breakup thread, now feel exhausted) I really shouldn't get so drawn in, but it's hard not to be reminded of my own things I've been through

<thank you, no don't need a paper straw, thanks >

I've always been in awe of those who can do cryptic crosswords (and win prizes!)

I'd like to be able to, so I can keep my brain from melting into mush, but I just don't have the patience

I'm trying algebra instead, found a book in a charity shop and am working through it a few pages at a time. Surprising how much I still remember from when I was 14!

Thank you. :) Some of mine were better than others, but I had set myself a target of at least 30/whenever the vast bag of specially bought yarn ran out and doing some very particular ones that would capture her in the way we got to know her over the years and that would be special for waffle. And then some flowers, because flowers is what you give in these circumstances isn't it? The peony one I did because it was the right pink, although my dad (who enquired after the knitting every night) did seem a bit perplexed that it did not look exactly like the peonies he used to grow in his garden.

Yes, it was quite therapeutic doing it, and feeling that something constructive was coming from the void, although I'm not sure I was quite ready for it to end and feel a bit at a loss now. Probably the time has come to move out of denial phase. I'm a bit ashamed to feel the loss so keenly given that I'm on the periphery of their friendship group, but it's strange how some connections feel closer than they are. I know I'm not really making sense - probably tired and needing an early night before Back To School tomorrow.

Will try to get back into sock knitting as a way of remaining constructive. And I have promised waffle I'll coordinate a musical tribute for Rara at some point (if there are musicians and singers in the BlueStocking, I may come a-recruiting one day).

Sorry. Am waffling. Thanks for asking, and for the encouragement along the way. The blanket will be beautiful, and it is such a privilege to be part of such an important endeavour.

I’m doing a few more crosswords now I’m retired but mostly just the Times Quick Cryptic which aren’t too taxing.

That sounds interesting. I was not a maths whizz by any means, but there was something very satisfying about a simultaneous equation. See also proving things in geometry.

@AlexandraLeaving- of course you shouldn’t feel ashamed at grieving for this lovely girl gone too soon.

My recreational puzzles of choice at the moment are codewords. I also enjoy microsoft solitaire, particularly spider.

oh, yes, I am hoping geometry will be next. I've ordered Geometry for Dummies (or some such) from the library, so I don't spend £25 on a book that ends up looking like hieroglyphics to me.

I was never good at arithmetic, although I enjoy the bits I understand. I had to work extra hours after school just to get halfway decent grades. My brain just isn't built for it. Trigonometry is as far as they would let me go, and boy was that tough! I wasn't in the higher class, so I wasn't allowed to do calculus.

I remember simultaneous equations (the term), but I'm still on fractions. It's slow going.

Love solitaire!
What's codewords?

with codewords there is a grid like a solved crossword, but the letters are replaced with numbers, so you have to break the code. They usually give you one, two or even three letters to start with.

Oooo i like codeword

So, sort of like Sudoku? I can handle a small amount of Sudoku before I get frustrated.

I don’t think so.
I quite like killer sudoku

Sudoku, i love evil version.

It's not even patience that's my problem with cryptic crosswords, more that I just don't get it. At all. And even when cryptic crossworders try to explain it and say 'well, you get that word from this reference and then that means that it's a smaller word/a Bible reference/the nearest Munro to Loch Lomond', I still can't see how they got it.

Clearly my brain just doesn't work that way.

Cryptic crosswords remind me of the dusty bin game show.

The puzzles I got seriously addicted to some time ago are redactle and pedantle which have some or all of the words in a Wikipedia page redacted and the aim is to work out the title in as few guesses as possible. I had to give those up cold turkey!

I like samurai and killer sudoku, though I don’t do them every day, but I do do Wordle and Wordiply every day.

Beautiful squares - there's some very very impressive creativity and talent here in the Bluey👏

AlexandraLeaving, 'the heart has its reasons that reason doesn't know', your sadness at the loss of a young life doesn't need to be examined or explained, it just is, and maybe it is evoking other losses and other grief too

I hope you have a restful night and tomorrow goes ok.

I'm currently re-reading the Wimsey short stories and I love all the full books but one - the Nine Tailors is a study in tedium. I'm utterly sure it is beautifully researched but it bores the pants off me.

Dorothy sayers is on my ‘must re-read’ list. Not sure I’ve read the short stories!

Cryptic crosswords were something that DH and my mother used to do to together when we were visiting, which was rather good. DF and I were not so good with the words.

Although I have a Maths degree I don’t read Maths for fun - if it’s a new area generally it’s too hard for me.
My favourite bit of Maths is some sort of algebra, any probably, but I don’t like geometry. Has anyone tried algebraic long division? I quite enjoy that: if you know how to do ordinary long division and have a reasonably good GCSE Maths grade you might well like it, too.

For fun I do killer sudoku. It mostly just involves arithmetic with some combinatorics. I fancy that it’s keeping my mind working, almost as good as a visit to The Bluestocking.

I like the idea of somebody voluntarily taking up algebra for fun😄
I hated and dreaded 'arithmetic' as it was called in primary school, because, as I found out much much later in life, I have dyscalculia.
When it became 'maths' in secondary school, I loved it because it was geometry and a+b=x kind of stuff, and I was good at it - I can work things out using logic, just don't ask me to add or subtract!

The thing that can trip me up with maths or sudoku or sometimes even solitaire is a pattern recognition glitch - when I'm tired I can muddle 21 and 12 (because they're the same numbers) and solitaire game challenges (where the colour cue is absent) hearts and clubs are the same shape.

Someone explained this once - it isn't dyscalculia or dyslexia - it's more primitive than either, but I suspect the results can mimic both.