Bluestocking Women’s Pub - it’s Maytime!

[ErrolTheDragon]

Welcome to any women who want the company of women!

Thats it really….ok so this place is staffed by gerbils with the occasional quokka or capybara but it functions like a friendly pub where you don’t have to know what’s going on all the time.
The drinks don’t intoxicate and the food is delicious yet healthy so please do come in.

@Thehorticulturalhussie I agree with Myrtle.

I'm in awe of the Teal Jacket (Central European Principality Available By Negotiation).

I have just spent £85 buying my replacement birthday present (for the cancelled workshop) and I think I may finally have lost my tiny mind.

It's an enamel stock pot from the 1960s from Finel of Finland, their Vegeta range. A companion piece to the wedding present Tatti enamel bowl (black and white with mushroom illustrations) my parents were given as a wedding present.

It is rather marvellous, though

That is rather amazing, @PastaAllaNorma - and I don’t think you have really lost your mind - though I do think sanity is overrated!

I bloody love that pasta well jell!!!

Oh well, in that case I'll start saving up for the Neptun fish design by the same illustrator 😘

Here's a screenshot of a Tatti bowl like Dad has. (Not sure why it's in front of a hedge (I'm deffo inheriting this rather than any other item in the house.

Hi
It's normal for all dogs here, very rural area. No deer has ever been caught to the best of my knowledge and those who do stand a chance (Hello Rhodesian Ridgebacks) are muzzled off lead. When the does give birth in a couple of weeks the sighthounds and hunting dogs, including my boy, will be on leads for a while. Salukis were bred to hunt and he just loves to run. The deer are regularly culled by the landowners, you can usually find someone with venison to sell.
So on balance I do think it's ok.

I was thinking more that your dog might be shot by a landowner...

Well some of us it all sorts of meat but we do not go around allowing dogs to chase cows sheep, or pigs, or any other livestock for that matter.

It is down right cruel.

Deers can get injured in the chase suffer severe stress and have a heart attack. Doe’s can miscarry or be caused to abandon their fawns.

Here is just some of the laws being broken which could attract a hefty fine and your dog being killed

Hunting Act 2004

Dangerous dogs Act 1991 (if endangering livestock and Wild life)

Deer Act 1991.

So i beg to differ.

I am born and bred in rurality BTW

I wanted to let you settle in before discussing wildlife, but the conversation has come up, so...

I've lived in various degrees of rural most of my life, and I have two dogs with very high prey drive: they are absolutely bred to hunt, and do so under control. Gaining that control is bloody difficult (especially when your spouse is crap at dog training), and takes time and dedication, and in our case e-collars (which I barely need to touch around prey now: both dogs will either not chase at all, or stop on the whistle).

So I understand where you are coming from, having had a terrier who would fanny off rabbiting, and having watched one of my current dogs bolt across a road in pursuit of a hare (it was that made me e-collar train her: hares were her crack cocaine and nothing else had worked).

Leaving aside the law and the risk to the deer, chasing deer can be very dangerous for dogs. I know one couple whose previous dog was killed by a deer (kicked by a red deer) and know of another (friends of friends) whose dog was killed by a muntjac. They can also wind up getting lost, getting onto roads, or chasing livestock. A friend's dog chased a deer onto a road. Fortunately the lorry barrelling along was able to stop in time, and the driver (IIRC) caught the dog. Traffic was stopped in both directions on a busy trunk road until she arrived, panting, to collect him.

Besides the risk to the dog, I know a lot of landowners who wouldn't be happy with someone else's dog (or even their own) chasing deer through their woods and fields. Controlled culling is one thing; uncontrolled pursuit is something else.

I'm not having a go, honestly. I agree that dogs need to run (especially the high-drive breeds), and I know how hard it can be to keep them under control. Just please be aware of the risks that you are running. You have the most gorgeous dog who you obviously love very much, and given his breeding he needs to run - but he needs to be under your control when he does so.

Oh, I completely misunderstood you! No, we're mostly arable and cattle here. There are sheep flocks but personally I go nowhere near them. But thank you for expressing concern. I do like this pub a lot, I get the sense that you're all capable of disagreeing agreeably which seems to be rare elsewhere.

On another note, I love the Ruritanian jacket, and would love one of my own, but it would get worn at most once a year (to a Christmas party), so sadly I have zero excuse...

Gorgeous, I adore that sort of thing but I’d look ridiculous - I think you need to be quite statuesque (as I believe Magpie is) so you’re wearing the jacket rather than it wearing you.

Meanwhile I’ve been out today at an actual real life informal discussion group - I think we have a mix of left/centre/right politics but all sane re matters of sex and gender thank goodness.

One baby dress finished - apart from the button at the neck, but I’ve lost the sodding buttons. I guarantee that, if I buy more, the original ones will turn up.

Oh @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius that is absolutely gorgeous! I remember the struggle you were having with the pattern around the hemline when you started it, so congratulations on having finished it so successfully.

That’s fabulous, @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius.

@EdithStourton thanks for coming along with your sensible contribution.

I do not own a dog and have no expertise in the area although i do like dogs.

@Thehorticulturalhussie i do not wish to offend so lets move on now.

I have been lazing around as my back is very sore, am itching to rip out the Spanish bluebells in my garden that have ran all over the ruddy place.

no rain today but garden is nice and soaked.

That dress is gorgeous!

I want to zap a lot of Spanish bluebells too. Particularly the pesky single-bulb plants that have intruded into otherwise more interesting space.

Every year I say I’m going to plant snowdrops in the front lawn - well, actually, I’d buy the bulbs and get dh to do the actual planting. I do have a tendency to forget at the right time of year, though. Could one of the gerbils come and remind me, maybe?

I thought that it was unwise because he'd get his lovely coat and especially tail all mucky!
Glad to see Colin and Hunter amiably sharing some doggie treats outside, and Horti inside having a nice drink in amiable company💙

That dress is beautiful, Woley! Lucky the little one who will wear it

Your Finnish stock-pot is fantastic, Pasta, and cost a lot less than that Reiss velvet jacket, so you have actually saved money by buying it and not the jacket.
Impeccable logic there, n'est-ce pas?

Amazing! I'm in awe, Woley.

I've have a good day out today. The rain kept off, though it was cloudy for most of the day. I met up with some friends for a lovely brunch at a farm shop near Northwich, then for a walk around the gardens at Arley Hall. They are always beautiful but I think they are at their best in Spring, with the azaleas and rhododendrons in bloom, as well as a lovely bluebell wood. Then time for tea and cake before the drive home again.

Welcome to the newcomers to the Bluestocking <waves>

I have actually planted them, oodles of them, in a suitable corner of the back garden. On two occasions. On both occasions: zilch😠

I'm glad to say I have lots of bluebells, the native kind, and they just get on with getting on every years - my kinda plant

Snowdrops are tricksy things. Need to be planted "in the green" ideally, otherwise they just sit and ignore you.

I'm kind of running on fumes now I'm home again after springing Dad out of hospital on Friday after a horrendous Bank Holiday journey. He's at home and relatively comfortable. His range of movement is astonishing for someone whose right shoulder has been disassembled.

We've rearranged furniture and cleared pathways in the garden and through the house and garage for Dad to move around with his zimmer frame until they can rebuild his shoulder.
All the antibiotics have left his mouth sore so we've filled the place with soft food, soft sandwich fillings like egg mayo (from our hens), soups, casseroles and suchlike.
The fridges and food stores have been blitzed (how did they have this much expired food) and everything disinfected within an inch of its life.

The second fridge in the garage, once I removed all the shelves and drawers, seemed to have grown a new biosphere. Shudder.

Christ, it's all been intense, trying to help my 83 year old Dad who lives over 100 miles away, to NOT DIE.

Thank you, alll my lovely friends at the Bluey, for helping me get through this. You've been a wonder.