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.

Dogs do generally like water with a bit of body don’t they?

It’s clouded over here and forecast for today and the next few days has cooled off significantly.

Oh… I think I must have been looking at the forecast for somewhere else.

You can imagine the tasting notes:
A lively tipple from the southern slopes of the playing field car park, with rich tannins from the nearby oaks and a lingering aftertaste of engine oil....

There was me wondering where you are: not where I thought you lived.

It's 25deg here in the east of Ireland, but probably hotter towards the midlands.
I don't mind the heat - because I don't have to work in it!
I feel so much sympathy for people who have to just carry on regardless when it's this hot. I keep bottles of water in the fridge to give to delivery people on days like this.
I went out early, and will go out again in the evening, but I'm dodging the hottest parts of the day🌞

When it gets very hot, like it is in mid/SE England, it reaches a point where you should keep the windows closed because the air coming in is hotter than the air inside the house.

I hope everybody is coping.

In particular, Angle - if you're not feeling the best anyway, high temperatures don't help🙁so I hope you're OK today.

My lovely neighbour has just been round to check that I'm OK as he saw that my front blinds and curtains had been drawn all day. The ones at the back are all open as the sun is no longer shining directly onto those windows.

ETA my weather station says it has been 30 degrees today although it has now cooled down to 29! This is in the north of England, where it's supposed to be a bit cooler. Commiserations to those sweltering in the south, inc ROI.

After our early start - and tbf DH was probably awake quite a while before he roused me - he sensibly retired for a long siesta after lunch. I managed to stay in doors for an hour either side of 1pm but I’m crap at daytime napping (except if I’m a passenger in a car when I tend to be off like a baby!).

Teabreak then back out to finish edging the drive.

Aren’t you lovely? 💙💙💙

They're not bad little catties, all the same. One of them left me a regurgitated rodent in the middle of the living room floor. Generous and thoughtful. Bank vole I think, from the length of the tail.

That’s real love.

My leaky heart valve definitely doesn't like the heat, but my dodgy kidneys appreciate all the water I'm drinking!

Lovely DH bought a fan a few weeks ago. Isn't he clever! I am most appreciative.

I've just spotted the #1 thread in Trending:
Is this cake embarrassing?

Oh dear. What have you been up to, Cake?😁

Nobody has checked on me, but then again I didn't get as much as a crumb of banana bread during lock-down, when most old people seem to have disappeared under a pile of it left on their doorsteps by kindly neighbours
And I even like banana bread, which was not a consideration before it was left on doorsteps, it was just What One Did At The Time

So it doesn't surprise me that no-one has checked in on me.
Then again, most of my neighbours are probably my age or older, so who is there to do the looking in?

But it's not bad here, it's only mid-20s, and the house is always nice and cool - E/W orientation so half of it is always shaded.

Myrtle, will you put me up for Canonisation if I add that I have put a bowl of water out at the gate for passing doggies?😇😄
I won't leave it out overnight for passing foxes since the last time I did that, one of them pooed in it😖
Inexplicably horrible, unless it was a comment on the poor standard of water treatment and the release of raw sewage into rivers? Foxes are clever, so maybe it was a political statement... coming to think of it, there was an example of a very political fox recently, wasn't there?

I was wondering where @Swashbuckled has been and then I saw that she’s leading the fleet in Westeros on House of the Dragon.

Canonisation is definitely on the cards!

We see your kindness 💙

Please forgive me. This character is played by Abigail Thorn, who is a man. It’s obvious when watching closely. Not @Swashbuckled at all.

My car was reading 34° when I left work. I've opened the windows and curtains for a cross breeze. Mr Magpie has huge trouble with the concept of "if it's hotter outside than inside, close the windows". Can't seem to grasp the idea at all, and behaves as if I'm eccentric for insisting. You'd think he might trust the woman with a handful of science degrees to understand thermal transfer, but apparently not.

Hot here - 28C when I last checked, but that's a fine temperature for watering the garden.

Tis the season of lectures on SM about when one should and shouldn't walk one's dog. There is someone called Jackie on a local FB page who regularly posts dramatic graphics and expresses her outrage at people who walk their hounds when it's hot. I know that high temperatures can cause heatstroke in dogs, but I also know that my two are neither very old nor very young, that they are very fit and have proper length puzzles, and that I can find them shade, breezes and damp ditches, and am able to stop them charging around. I sat in the garden this afternoon drinking elderflower cordial and contemplating the issue. This was the result:

Walkies time in a Heatwave

Brains and Batshit want a walk
But all the social media talk
Demands that they should both be laid
Still and resting in the shade.

But Batshit's rolling on the lawn
Paws flapping in the baking air
While Brains is spread like something dead,
Sunbathing hard, without a care.
And then I move as if I might-
Brains hits me with a gimlet stare.

'Walkies time now, walkies now!
Come on, you idle biped cow.'

I think I know what I should do:
I have two dogs who like the heat
And there are shady grassy paths -
No tarmac for their dainty feet.
But if Jackie from the Facebook page
Spots us she will get the rage!

Tomorrow morning is booked in for Laundry and Gardening.
After the recent rain, the garden is in urgent need of a good weeding spree.

Excellent poem @EdithStourton!

it is a very pleasant 70F here today with the odd sprinkle of rain.

I’m very glad I’ve got a DH who has a firm grasp of physics! And, for that matter, basic powers of observation.

Kitty’s barely moved from the balcony all day. I’ve just been going out every so often to check it’s not too hot for her.
It’s tonight I’m not looking forward to.

The blanket is parcelled up & ready to post on Saturday. One side is a bit wonky still but I think that’s forgiveable.

Enjoying the poem and the typo ‘proper length puzzles’ - presumably long and challenging for Brains, simple for Batshit?

While Brains is spread like something dead,

Best line in a great poem!

Bar gerbils, ice coffee with loads of ice! I think it hit 31C here today, although the earlier part of the day had a lovely easterly breeze. This afternoon is like an oven. Hotter tomorrow and Thursday. I am hibernating.

Thank you for your concern xx I'm just fine, just waiting for it all to go away. My arm hurts again, but no worse than it did two days ago. The heat isn't helping, but it's only about 24C in the cool part of the house, and I have a giant fan. Lots of ice water. And I don't have to go out to work, so I'm much better off than a lot of people.

Especially those in the areas around London. Someone has a thread about their leasehold flat in London, and how they're not allowed to have AC! And, although they have two windows, they both face the same direction, so no crosswinds at all. So I do feel fortunate that, if I have to be ill, at least I'm not roasting to death.

My London flat only faces one way but it’s east facing & shaded by the roof over the balcony, both of which help.

What doesn’t help is that the England game is on tonight so having my window open isn’t an option, even if it cools down a bit.