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.

I like reading the Lord Peter Wimsey books and also watching the televised versions, and the same for Inspector Alleyn and Campion. Campion is being reshown (again) on Drama on Sunday evenings.

It's these ones. I think my favourite is 'The Fascinating Problem of Uncle Meleager's Will'

Oh yes, the sustained frivolity!

Two maths A levels here, and I wouldn't do maths for fun either!

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.

My grandmother taught Mum & me to do cryptic crosswords when I was a teenager.

Mum & I sat on the sofa together on Sunday afternoons with the Sunday Times & a pile of reference books. We raced Granny every week & the winner(s) would phone up to gloat.

Mum & I actually did win it once & received a gold pen which was the prize in those days.

I've never got into Wimsey, and keep meaning to. Maybe it's having got into Ngaio Marsh first - she noticed that all the literary detectives had quirks, and Wimsey had an abundance of quirks, so she deliberately wrote Inspector Alleyn to have no interesting quirks at all.

Sometimes when I'm doing boring stuff, I like to put on the old radio versions of Jeeves and Wooster, with Richard Briers and Michael Hordern, who are both fantastic. I don't mind Stephen Fry's Jeeves, but in the books he's older than Bertie and in some ways a substitute father, so Hordern hits just the right note for me.

Also, they're a bit old fashioned and mostly forgotten now, but I like to dip into Cyril Hare's short stories. It's interesting to read a crime writer who was a judge in his day job. He's very fond of stories where an enterprising criminal thinks they've committed the perfect murder, but get tripped up by some obscure facet of the law of wills.

Speaking of old fashioned, bit random but I don't suppose anyone watches the old episodes of Face the Music or Call my Bluff that come on the TV sometimes? Just watched both this evening. I remember watching them with my Gran as a child. They are from a different world!

I find I get impatient with full-length puzzle-type books, as I want to know the answer & start skipping bits. So the short stories are better for me. I didn't know the Wimsey ones existed, but the other day an intriguing one was mentioned in a Shedunnit episode & I went searching for it & found a goldmine of Ian Carmichael narrations. The short ones are easy to work out the answer to, but some of the writing is wonderfully inventive & unformulaic.

Ooh, I've still got some to track down!

Hi Gertrude. Please may I have a serious G&T? Please could I have it served in the quiet corner where nobody is doing competitive sudoku, crosswording, algebra or fucking knitting?

@SionnachRuadh - I love all the Peter Wimsey books - Murder Must Advertise is my favourite.

I had a great morning. The gas engineer came and removed the gas hob, leaving a very convenient hole in the counter so we can just grab cutlery without having to open a drawer. We are having an induction hob fitted tomorrow morning, along with two outdoor electric sockets for the garden lights.

Then a friend came over to discuss my knitted squares. You may remember I knitted over 125 squares last summer while I was recovering from my ankle operation, but before the infection landed me back in hospital for three weeks.

I was stuck because I didn't know how to join them together.

We laid all the squares out and realised I had enough to make a large (single bed) Little Hug blanket from 80 of the squares, and three tiny Little Hug blankets from the rest, and I had already made another tiny one.

We worked out the colours and i took pictures of the layouts.

Then she taught me ever so quickly how to use double crochet stitches to join them all together and to use treble crochet to make a border. I actually finished one this evening and am mostly through a second one.

I am so delighted that she came over and showed me everything. Nothing beats having someone sit with you and show you in person. 💙

Spider is my favourite - I enjoy the daily events.
I'm not bad at Chronophoto either 😌
Have finished my latest crochet project. It's not bad. I do read 'woollyhugs' but tend to think my skills are not up to creating the lovely offerings on there
Should be though, with three arms

The TV version of the Harriet Vane trilogy is on YouTube, with Edward Petherton & Harriet Walter.

I prefer Petherton’s Wimsey. Carmichael is good for narration but he looked all wrong dressed up as a harlequin.

Morning all!

Apparently being awake and out of bed before 8am is a thing... Who knew?

Electrician arrived at 8.10am. The Walrus has completely rearranged all the furniture so there is access to the Dark Corner of Cables. And they said it couldn't be done.

This is so the electrician can run a line outside so.we can have outdoor sockets. And he will install the induction hob.

It's an exciting day so I'll keep you posted.

Ooooh get you, all matitudinal, Myrtle! 😄
It sounds like a real up-and-at-'em-get-things-done-day, and I hope it goes according to plan.

['Matitidunal' is a word, I believe, but spell-checker isn't convinced]

I on the other hand have woken up in a mood of deep philosophical reflection and enquiry - the origin of life? the meaning of evil? the quest for world peace?
no: why have blue-footed boobies got blue feet??

I think they may be a stage in an evolutionary process towards avian Crocs...

There is a Spanish word madrugador,from madrugar meaning to get up early, and a saying “Al que madruga, Dios lo ayuda” - God helps the early riser.
So you're a madrugadora today, Myrtle!

There's another saying which I can't remember in Spanish, but it's a good one: remember: the earlier you rise, the sooner you can eat lunch😄

edited to take a flit gun to random asterisks😠

One of my very few (and this case very tenuous) claims to fame is that I know someone whose grandfather features in a Dorothy Sayers mystery.

I'm terrible at cryptic crosswords. My level with crosswords is the one in the village magazine - I usually finish that one, but forget to post it off so never win the 'box of chocolates' which is the inevitable prize.

I can do Wordle, though.

Out last night for a family birthday meal at a new-ish Italian restaurant. I had frutti di mare (shared), then cod in a tomato sauce with fennel, which was divine. Didn't have a pudding as we had birthday cake to devour at home. After all that fish I should be exra-brainy today, but I still don't have any urge to tackle a cryptic crossword or Soduko.

Still managed to be up early this morning and get two loads of washing out as the weather forecast was for no rain before 4 p.m. Only, the forecast has just changed to rain at 11 a.m. Grrrr! 😠

The usual explanation always seems to be sex. Any unusual feature or colouring? Must be because the opposite sex is using it as a proxy for being healthy and worth procreating with.
It's the sort of thing that makes me want to spend a lot of time trying to nudge human mate choice in an unlikely direction and then seeing if it has an effect on evolution.

Bore da, everyone!

Marie, can't find "matitudinal" in my dictionary (admittedly from 1985), perhaps it's under a slightly different spelling?

Edith, someone on another thread recently was talking about Matilda Electa Joslyn Gage, one of the earliest, original Suffragettes, of the Susan B. Anthony gang. And I thought "I know that name!" so did some research, and it turns out, Matilda was my great-great grandmother's 4th cousin, or something or other (Joslyn side). Feel so proud! It also means that I am distantly related by marriage to the author L. Frank Baum, one of my favs.

Unfortunately, am also directly descended from the Salem Putnams, of the witch-accusing variety (ouch), so I'll stick with the Suffragettes, thank you very much!

Grrrr indeed. Last night forecast here was for mostly sun, so I planned a walk. Woke up, and it's pouring rain, naturally! And cold. So, a walk in the rain it is, I suppose. My blackbirds are building their third nest (is that due to failure of the other two, or is it an insurance policy), so I am worried for them in this cold and wet.

You are correct. Matitudinal Is a word but was spelled incorrectly 💙

Or even "matitidunal" either...? The closest is "matinee" or "matins" neither of which helps.