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.

I’ve got some because it’s pretty spilling out over the edge of the flowerbed, but I don’t like the smell of the leaves at all.

That's cause you are a dragon not a cat!

I pronounce one to rhyme with gone and won to rhyme with sun.

I’ve just worked out that it’s catmint we’re growing on the balcony here, not catnip.

I think we might need to get some catnip too.

I thought the guinea pigs were here already and busy in the garden.

I also have a waterproof/windproof gilet. They definitely work on the principle that if your body is warm, the rest of you will probably survive.

I have a friend whose look for a chilly summer day is shorts and a padded gilet.

Gilets and wellies are the modern descendants of weskits and buskins.

Of course! Petal, Peony, Petunia & Perennial.

Not forgetting Pansy, Persicaria and Penstemon. And Puffball, who grows all the mushrooms.

Morning. Something has always puzzled me about gilets.

Before I leave the house, I think about what layers I’ll need based on the weather. I can’t work out why I’d think the temperature requires a padded layer on my torso but that my arms will be fine in just a long sleeved T-shirt. (Same weather, same skin…)

I think something iconic may have passed me by - I only discovered Beatrix Potter as an adult, she wasn't part of my Irish childhood, and I'm guessing from these images that her guinea pigs worked in the garden?

If I'd known, I wouldn't have promised the rescue guinea pigs jobs as pâtissières; but I think it's OK, they don't have very long memories and I'll just pop back to Oxfordshire and announce brightly
'Great news, little guinea pigs! you've all got jobs as gardeners in a lovely lovely place called Peak Woo in the charming gardens of a delightful pub called the Bluestocking, just like the guinea pigs you've read about in books!'
and I'm sure they'll be very happy.

So is that OK? We now have a team of guinea pig gardeners? with names beginning with P not G? working under the supervision of Capability Capybara?

Phew. Crisis averted. Memo to self: always familiarise yourself with local culture before making big decisions about guinea pigs.

Sorry, Swashbuckled, but give your username, you walked into this, and I'm helpless to resist:
Why are your arms fine in just a long sleeved T-shirt?
They just arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I'll get my gilet......

Bore da! Just popped in for a cappuccino and a croissant, please, bar gerbils. Can't stay long this morning!

I love gilets. I have several, fleece, puffer, hooded, non-hooded, etc. But, can someone please explain to me the concept (and usefulness) of a waterproof gilet?

Thanks. Will be in the Craft Craft Room, trying to sort the actual fabric from the scraps of tartan after yesterday's move.

Oh well that was just dreadful! I hope you are proud of yourself 😄

Sorry, just read the explanation by Edith. I understand the concept of keeping your core warm, but how can it be waterproof if your arms get wet?? One of life's mysteries, I suppose.

Ah yes @AngleofRepose
the waterproof filet question strengthens my puzzlement. Happy for my arms to get rained on, but not my torso. What did the arms do to deserve this…

LOL @MarieDeGournay☺️

Me too.

I used to have guinea pigs called Lola, Lotta and Clarice Bean, because they were small and very funny.

I'm 100% for guinea pig gardeners and would be delighted to give them a hand. Hunter will deal with any upstart outdoor predators. Before I retired and got a dog I had guinea pigs for years, we would open the hutch in the morning and they'd go off foraging and liked to nap on a warm compost heap but would come back for supper and to be safely locked in for the night. I'm feeling quite nostalgic now.

Oh no @AngleofRepose, are they still mixed up? I thought Gubbins had given you the tartan & I’d taken all the non World Cup craft stuff.

A waterproof gilet is also windproof (for maintaining a warm core). And useful on one of those sunny/ breezy/ cloudy downpour-prone summer days when you're wearing a t-shirt. If you get caught out in a squall, the skin of your arms will dry pretty quickly, and your body has stayed mostly dry anyway.

I never used to see the point of gilets at all, but I am a complete convert. DD takes the piss out of me.

Sometimes I feel like a walking cliché, but I have long since reached the point of not caring.

I think you wrote about Lola, Lotta and Clarice Bean before, and how very much you loved them, and it was very sweet - am I remembering right?

Yep, proud as Punch, never knowingly under-corny, that's me😂

You're right, Marie, I am repeating myself! They were a present for my 40th birthday from my best friend, and a huge surprise. But a very lovely one.

Gerbils, if you can drag your attention from the craft room, cheerleader practice and/or World Cup, could I have a bagel and a large painkiller please?

And a vat of coffee?

The exertions of the weekend are catching up on me and I'm tired and sore.

The Gilet.
no shelter from harms
for the arms
but moreso
for the torso.

If i was a vet ( I'm not) and kept having to stick my arm up the rear end of a cow, I might appreciate a gilet.

Look, its the only reason I could think of.