The Bluestocking Women's Pub: Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs

[AngleofRepose]

Croeso/Welcome to the Bluestocking Women's Pub, with our lovely gerbil staff, the icy Mojito foot-bath for those of you fed up with the heat, a Quilting/Craft Nook, lots of yummy food and drink with zero calories, gluten, or allergens, the Gerbil World Cup, and a brand new magic pool that becomes a babbling brook whenever you want it to!

Come on in! All women welcome! (Men welcome at The Staunch Ally pub down the road aways)

(security provided by the capybaras, lovely folk, but try not to get in their way)

(oh, and don't mention triangles, please. Gubbins gets very overexcited)

(did we mention the Gerbil World Cup?)

Well done @Boiledbeetle - you are an inspiration to me.

Congratulations @Boiledbeetle and @MyrtleLion

Sympathies to you @Thehorticulturalhussie It's such a horrible and strange time to go through.

That's a very impressive amount since March. Keep going 💐

Excellent!

I will admit I wasn't actively trying to lose weight. If I had been my diet would have consisted of less bacon butties, cheeseburgers, donner kebabs and chips and more green fresh things.

How did you do it then, Boily?

I can only presume that the few changes I did make to my diet: I swapped my twice daily stilton for mushrooms, Krave for porridge and doughnuts for yoghurt, was enough of a calorie deficit to lose a lb a week.

It certainly won't have been the 3 carrots, 4 brocolli florets and 4 handfuls of green beans I've had this year.

YAY! for Myrtle - good luck for the next stage.

Also YAY for Chickadee and Boily. Bloody well done, both of you. Losing weight is so hard once you're over about 50.

My body would like five meals a day, plz: breakfast, second breakfast at about 10.30, lunch, afternoon tea, and something substantial at about 6.30. And perhaps an evening snack. Usually I can resist the siren calls of half-ten-ses and afternoon cake, but the past 18 months has been a bit rough (MH issues in the family; Disastrous Diagnosis of threads passim - now no longer with us; ailing elderly relation; employment issues in the family, etc etc) and I have piled on just over half a stone, on top of the excess I was carrying anyway.

I keep saying that I'm going to cut out booze, cake and chocolate and then we have guests, so I drink wine and make sugary comestibles and eat too much in general. Or we go out or stay with someone, and I eat too much. And drink.

Anyway, if Chickadee can shift 24lb in four and half a months, surely lard-arse Edith can shift 10 to 14lb by Christmas? Watch this space...

And Hussy, that waiting for someone to die is so horrible. You want it over, for their sake as much as for your own, and yet you don't want them to die. I had it with a very old family friend a few years ago. I'd known him since I was a baby and he was very old. He knew he was on his way out and was entirely philosophical about it and had said several times - including in my earshot - that he was ready to go. Wishing you well with it all.

I was on a low carb diet earlier this year and lost 12lbs, but I still have at least another 2 stone to lose and it's hard going. The hot weather did help as I didn't want hot food, but I haven't dared weigh myself yet. I have lost a dress size though, so something must be happening. I'm not buying any more clothes until I know I can keep it off though.

Sorry to hear about your MIL Hussie it's such a horrible time. We had the same last year with my aunt, who was also in her 90s.

Fingers (and everything else) crossed for you Myrtle

Congratulations to Boily and commiserations to Hussie.

For some years we’ve been thinking we should take the train along the mostly coastal route from Lancaster up through Silverdale and over the bridge at Arnside to south Cumbria. But we decided it was something to do at a point when for whatever reason one of us wasn’t up to much walking. So, with DHs sprain limiting him, today was the day. We only went as far as Ulverstone because some of the route beyond was a replacement bus service but it was a pleasant outing and interesting to get a different perspective. I could have wished for the train to be much slower as we went along by various salt marshes, lots of birds.

That sounds hugely tempting, @ErrolTheDragon.

I am so sorry you and Mr Hussy are going through this, @Thehorticulturalhussie - it is such a stressful time.

Might it be worth trying an over the counter sleeping tablet, just to allow you a couple of nights sleep?

I think you had the best of that route Errol. The line around Morecambe Bay is by far the most scenic, although there is a nice section a bit further on around the Duddon estuary. I used to take that train to visit my grandparents during the school holidays, but haven't been on it for many years.

I do have antihistamines that I (smuggle in) buy when visiting one DD who lives in NYC thanks. Much much cheaper in the US and sold in grocery stores. We’ll probably resort to a nice single malt tonight though. Needs must.

Thank you, few of us avoid this.

I’m sorry too, Hussie. I had similar with my mum.

Gosie tells me she might be ready for you all to hear about her latest adventures from Monday.

But only if you want to. She doesn’t want a big fuss…

I discovered today that there are two either identical or very similar combines in the immediate area, and that the local Valtra is two matching Valtras. 😮How have I missed this?

One combine churning along in the field behind the house. Matching combine spotted in a distant field at the bottom of the hill. Definitely not the same combine as when I got home 20 mins later, the field behind house was still being cut. And it had two Valtras in attendance, one with a yellow trailer and one with a blue one. One seemed to be being driven by a 12 year old girl, but she must be at least 16...

They're now out on the field at the front. If they're done before 10pm, they'll be doing well.

The local hares are much more visible now than they were a month ago, and the big ones have a sort of casual arrogance towards the dogs. We had one the other day, about 40 or 50 yards from Brains, sitting up looking at her. It loped off briskly, but at something sub the Mach2 a hare can manage and then, at the edge of the field, it didn't go into the grass and shrubs of the hedgeline. Oh no. It did a sharp right-angled turn and loped at middling speed along beside the hedge. It then sat up for another look. I called B&B to me, and in the few seconds that I was focussed on them, it vanished.

Either it recognises B&B and assumes from past experience that they won't chase, or can get the vibes of a dog that isn't going to chase, or it is just so breezily confident about that Mach2 capacity that it just doesn't care.

Leverets, on the other hand, tank away from dogs as fast as they can the second they notice them. They're also idiots on the road. I was driving along a lane earlier this week and saw a Mercedes approaching, very slowly. I realised it was trying to avoid hitting a leveret. I slowed right down too. Leveret ran right and froze by the roadside. Leveret ran left and froze in the middle of the road. Leveret ran right and froze on the verge, so the Mercedes and I both edged cautiously forwards. Leveret ran out into the middle of the road and froze. I inched forward to persuade it to move, and stopped when it carried on and froze on the opposite verge for about a second, before doing a 180, running back over the road, jinking through 90 degrees and running off down the lane past my car. The Mercedes and I passed each other, and I saw him in my mirror, creeping along playing avoid-the-leveret as I sped up and away.

Between leverets, young rabbits, young squirrels and juvenile moorhens oblivious to the Green Cross Code, driving is a bit a challenge at the moment.

Oooh, Gosie's due back...
<sits on edge of chair>

This holiday cottage has been ace for watching agricultural machinery. John Deere combine has gone out and back (very tight fit) plus JD and Claas tractors either pulling loads of grain or bits of combine. Straw littered all over the roads, which prompted a conversation with Mr Magpie about the difference between straw and hay. We both used to be committed urbanites, and he's not really kept pace with me taking up a rural career. Still, he found me an absolute gem of a walled garden today, so I'm prepared to allow the occasional stupid townie question.

Yes, please. ♥️

Ooh ooh ooh.

<Sets alarm>

And Maud says she's at a loose end if Gosie needs a wingwoman. Her passport and innoculations are up to date and she has £3.33 in Dutch guilders.

I’m watching the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games. Apparently at the last games, in Birmingham, there were dancing Tunnocks tea cakes.

Is Boily around?