The Gerbil World Cup at the Bluestocking!

[Magpiecomplex]

New thread.

No pushing at the back, please, we have plenty of scones and kilts for everyone.

nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo that doesn't work - thank you for the suggestion

alt key hold down, then 0216?
Not that either, thank you Angle.

I'll work it out myself...sometime😏

Angle - IANAD - I am not a doctor - but I believe shingles is contagious not infectious, so you don't have to stay 2m away from people until you find out that you're OK
And if it is shingles - which I hope it's not - it may just be a mild dose, so don't worry too much

G'night all🌛

It works on my iPad.

I've not been about much as I've had a birthday this week. Not a 'significant' one, although I suppose it is an achievement to actually make it to a birthday these days.

It's been a good week though. A couple of days away in the Yorkshire Dales, a meet up with friends, an outdoor promenade performance of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' (very atmospheric) in the grounds of our local country estate and I'm out today for Sunday Lunch with family. Although it's comfortably warm here at the moment, I glad I'm not cooking it!

My, the last two weeks have been shite for me personally but today, I actually feel half rested, the sun is shining for the first time in weeks and I'm thinking of the things that make me happy.

Our garden has been (deliberately) bee friendly this year and it has been fascinating watching all the different types of bees going in and out the Foxgloves. I didn't know that there were so many varieties of bumblebees !

My scented roses and honeysuckle are having a very good year and it smells glorious in the garden in the early evening.

My weekly, fairly demanding commitment has now finished for the summer so I can have a bit of a break.

My wee one has now discovered chapter books so we've been re-reading the books of my childhood, a few chapters a night.

Bore da, all you fine people! It's warm and sunny, but not hot yet. Just waiting... and hibernating...

Bar gerbils, if anyone's around after yesterday's "activities " could I have a cappuccino and a croissant? (much nicer than my usual boring bran flakes)

What a nice thing to share! I still have many of my books from when I was a child. I remember especially being 10 or 11 and just reading voraciously. I would climb up a tree and spend the whole morning reading, come down for lunch, then climb back up the tree and read until dinner! Summer vacation was long! I wish I could read like that now. (obviously not up a tree, don't think I'd be able to get down again)

Poly tunnel watered, spuds earthed up, broody hen evicted from nest box for the 4th time, so I'd like some freshly squeezed orange juice, please, barkeep.

Might I also have a poached egg on toast when the morning rush is over?

🌹🌷Happy Birthday!

I’ve just got back from gym & brunch (poached eggs & squashed avocado on sourdough with a cappuccino).

That means I can spend most of the rest of today focused on the blanket & the Sunday Times crossword.

Happy birthday from Kitty & me, @DauntlessDamson!

Bee friendly is good, but my bedroom is beginning to fill up with honeybees so I'm glad I have started clearing the downstairs room so I have somewhere to sleep tonight. Tiddles is being vocal about my very mean expulsion of her from the bedroom.

Sorry to hear life has been difficult, Waitwhat23, and I hope you feel rested and restored after a nice sunny lazy Sunday observing 'all the live murmur of a Summer's day' in your 'bee-loud glade' -
there's a BOGOF offer on poets today, Matthew Arnold and WB Yeats for the price of one😁
and then reading loved books with your little one later💙

Happy Birth-week, Damson!🎂🍾🎉
The outdoor 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' sounds magical.

There was a TV version a couple of years ago, I saw it 'by accident' when I was channel-hopping, I thought it was wonderful, I was completely captivated by it. Entrancing.
Anybody recognise what I'm talking about? I recall there was music and dancing and some special effects like flying, but my memory may be adding extra sparkle
Deano, you're doing a bit of a Francis of Assisi by sharing your bedroom with honeybees, I'd be terrified of letting anything fly-y and sting-y anywhere near me😬I'm with Tiddles on this

It's shaping up to be what's called in Irish 'peata lae', 'a pet of a day', I hope the sun is shining on all Stockingers and we can all have a restful, enjoyable day.
🌞

When I was gardening earlier, I found that there's a wee natural hideyhole underneath/behind the climbing roses. We had a similar thing in my childhood garden with the honeysuckle bush and I used to read there for hours. I am extremely tempted to sit under the roses tonight and read The Secret Garden.

Re: trees, we are currently reading Pippi Longstocking and have just read the chapter where the children have a tea party in a tree. If I had a suitable tree....

Found it!
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a 2016 British television film based on the William Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was adapted by Russell T Davies, directed by David Kerr and produced by Nikki Wilson. It stars Maxine Peake as Titania, Matt Lucas as Bottom, John Hannah as Theseus and Nonso Anozie as Oberon. The film was first broadcast on 30 May 2016 on BBC One.
[from Wiki]

I wasn't alone in liking it:
The film received positive reviews. The Guardian called it "Doctor Who-ish but rather good" and said the ending "was infused with such a sense of sincere, undiluted joy that I found I had a lump in my throat".[4] The Daily Telegraph gave it four out of five stars and said "Russell T Davies made Shakespeare engaging, fresh and funny".

The ending "was infused with such a sense of sincere, undiluted joy that I found I had a lump in my throat" -
I had a very emotional reaction to it, it's nice to see that it wasn't just silly sentimental ol' me, but a big tough Guardian critic too😄

I need to up my accent shortcut game. I thought I had a pretty good handle on it in Word, but every time Microsoft do an update, I have to recheck all my shortcuts to see if they still work.

Otherwise my prose sometimes takes a weird turn, like in old times when I'd get a knock-off DVD and then wonder why James Bond appears to be speaking Macedonian. (Then again, this was Brosnan era, and Broz seems to have all sorts of unexpected talents)

It's Tiddles who wants to stay with the bees (not I suspect from Francis of Assisi motivations) and me who wants out for the duration. I found one on my pillow last night, not good.

I'm probably not going very far today, but strangely, a couple of cats from across the street who have been ignoring me for months have now decided that I'm their friend, and come charging over for a conversation when they see me.

Cats being what they are, they'll probably be blanking me again next week.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.

🐈🐈

The sleep gerbils outdid themselves, much appreciated.
Hope Cher slept well too. Also fingers crossed for not shingles for Angle, happy birthday to Damson and commiserations to Dean. Someone nearby is clearly breeding mozzies, although hopefully not intentionally, because I'm being eaten alive AND kept awake by the whiny little buggers.

I was forever finding secret places up trees or in bushes, places to be by myself and read (especially away from my sister and her "stupid" friends). I had quite a strict upbringing, but the one thing my parents let me do was disappear all day with the other kids or by myself, and they never asked me where I went! Luckily I never fell out of a tree and broke something!

When I was a child there was a big bush in the garden that was a perfect hiding place - I could spend hours in there with a book.

How’s your rash today, @AngleofRepose?

I had a similarly lazy day full of reading a couple of days ago. We’d stopped at the library on our way back from the DGD’s middle school graduation and I bought a book called “Longbourn” in the library book sale with a plot for the scarcely-mentioned servants in P&P and a good writer who managed to give it an Austen flavour without being a pastiche. The following day was hot without being scorching and the kids were in and out of the pool in DS1’s garden, and I sat on the deck with my feet up in the shade of the massive oak tree in his yard and literally finished it in the day. I’m leaving it behind for my DIL, who is also a great reader (currently working her way through the Harry Potter series with 7 year old, almost 8, DGS).

Today is DS2’s 40th birthday and also Father’s Day, so I’m remembering his father, DH1, wistfully, who has now been dead for over 25 years, but looking forward to DH2 arriving this evening with DS1. This is theoretically a surprise for DS2 but I suspect he’s figured it out by now. Still he’s probably a good enough actor to pretend appropriately!

Oh, I’ve read that. I really like books that show different viewpoints.

Happy birthday DS2!

Thank you. Loving the description of 'bee loud glade' - it is very apt at the moment!

Thanks, it's "better" - or, at least I can see that it's improving. It really just looks like two small patches of eczema. It's the weird skin pain that made me notice. That is also less, but still hurt this morning before I took some painkillers.