The Bluestocking, a unique location for daughters and sisters of earth, frost, feathers, fur, scales and spines

[AsWithGlad]

Welcome to The Bluestocking, the best (perhaps only) online women's pub. Nothing in the food or drink can harm you, everything is served by a very enthusiastic crew of gerbils, who enjoy doing this, and any curious menfolk are welcome at the Staunch Ally down the road.

Previous thread: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/feminism/5568996-the-bluestocking-pub-where-we-continue-to-read-about-gerbils-nobly-and-bravely-working-undercover-in-the-fen?page=1

Lorne or square sausage is amazing.

That is all.

Ow! Ow! I was quietly minding my own business wiping the worktop in the kitchen prior to making lunch, when I was treacherously stung by a wasp! It must have been hidden in a fold of the dishcloth and taken exception to being disturbed. Thankfully the old adage of vinegar for wasp stings and bicarb for bee stings came immediately to mind and I was only one step from the cupboard with the vinegar. You can now tell where I am by the faint aroma of vinegar which still surrounds me. 😉 The sting was just below the base of my fourth finger on the palm of my right hand, which is now really rather tender, so I now have a perfect excuse not to do the messy job I'd planned to do this afternoon. 😁

Poor you, Magpie!
Hope the rest, compression and elevation work - there's an I in there somewhere, it's RICE, but I can't remember what it is.
Maybe it's I for 'I deserve pampering until it gets better'😄

to you too, Not, that sounds really painful🙁

Ice. I'm on my third ice pack!

Poor you, hope you’re better soon Magpie.

I got up, fed Kitty, had breakfast, went back to bed for a bit & woke up just after 2. Eventually I bribed myself into going shopping with the promise of cake at my favourite coffee shop.

Citizenship in a Republic is a speech given by President Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, on April 23, 1910.

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

I am the woman in the arena. It is the best description of my character and I only found it today in the words of a man long dead.

And some of what I have done before which led me to this wonderful community was being the woman in the arena and to an extent I failed then.

For the last few weeks I have been, and continue to be, the woman in the arena, and right now it is not a comfortable place to be. But I continue to strive valiantly. I may fail. I suspect even if I do not fail I will not feel the triumph of high achievement, but that is not why I do it. I do it because it matters and I will not be a cold and timid spectator.

MyrteLionhearted💙

Oh, the injuries today! I hope you are all feeling better than you were earlier. 🌸🌺

And we love and respect you for that valiance, Myrtle.

Sympathy for Not and Magpie for stings and sprains.

The Pasta family woes are all mosquito-related - two of them look like comedy plague victims, and the other three of us aren't far off with big red welts all over. We are rubbish at bug bites, despite antihistamines. Our Dutch host once asked "what is it you people are made off?!" when she saw the state of DH.

However, a small price to pay for the glorious relaxation and happy hanging out together we've all done. And still a week until we go home ❤️

Thanks for the sympathy, everyone. It's been surprisingly painful, Marie, and is still reddened and swollen around that finger and on the palm and hurts to use the hand. It's a good thing I'm only a two finger typist. 😉 I've never been stung by a wasp before and the poor thing must have had a real shock and reacted accordingly. My only previous sting was when I stood on a bee in my bare feet in our old camper van and that's another story....😬

My sympathies to Not and Magpie, and to the entire Pasta clan.

I've been stung on the finger by a sodding wasp. Luckily I had the presence of mind to get my ring off, but unluckily I was visiting a very aged relation and didn't want to be a pain in the arse, so didn't like to ask for the vinegar (and he probably wouldn't have had any in stock anyway, he didn't like strong flavours).

I am very intrigued by the next move in the Gosie Chronicles, Myrtle, and I love the idea of the Chapter House. I'm assuming the Chapter House door had been treated with something, as untreated old oak goes grey, not black. It's called air burn, and you can see it on the backs of old oak chests, and most old church doors. I have spent waaay too long hanging about the kind of people who restore things like lych gates.

This afternoon I attended a local event, and it would have been rude not to have eaten two pieces of coffee and walnut cake.

We’ve been doing art galleries today; wasn’t too taken with the Modern collection except some of the Surrealists but the National Gallery is good - lots of Scottish artists plus a nice selection of international (well, European) art. Then we went back to the National Museum as we’d not spent as long as we wanted in the ancient part.

And having wondered at those mysterious Pictish symbols, this evening we watched a couple of episodes of Capaldi era Dr Who we’d somehow missed including the one about the Picts and the 9th Legion so now I know what the Pictish Beast and the ‘mirror’ symbols are.

Excellent choices, Errol - the National Gallery is one of my favourites, as well as being the setting for a scene in Sunshine On Leith (while we're all appreciating The Proclaimers). I was there last autumn and bought a number of prints after a really wonderful visit.

Eldest and I spent a happy half day in the National Museum when he was about 12 or 13. It's lovely. He also insisted we went to the fabled Elephant Hous nearby, where JKR wrote some of the first Harry Potter book

Mobility (or wingspan) permitting, have you been to Mary King's Close? He and I found that fascinating.

I keep waiting for Batshit to do something stupid that I can tell you all about, but she's currently behaving almost like a normal dog.

I took the two of them on a long trek the other afternoon. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go, so we ended up walking to the starting point of a walk that I usually drive to. We've always previously done the loop widdershins, but this time we went clockwise. We said a brief hello to the man at the last house at the end of the track that runs off the dead-end lane - he was out by his gate - and launched into one of those big blocks of countryside with no roads. It's out in these blocks that you usually see the fun wildlife, but this time, however, nothing in particular presented itself. Not even so much as a squirrel in the wood.

We came out of the wood with our route home taking us past the junction with the footpath to where I've often left the car. Except, of course, that the footpaths were entirely notional, as the whole enormous field had been tilled. Nonetheless, as we got to the notional junction, Brains - who has only ever, that I can remember, walked this particular route in the other direction - veered off towards the car-parking spot.

She wasn't just running wide as she often does: she was heading purposefully to where the car should have been. I had to call her back to the route I was taking about three times. Once she realised that we weren't going to the (not there) car, she got with the programme and kept happily ahead.

I'd love to know how her mind works. Clearly that field, in all states from bare tillage to full growth, is connected in her head to the car being parked just over there. Ergo, one goes over there to find the car, even if one is (as Brains always is) up for continuing the walk for another however many miles.

It's always said that dogs generalise poorly from one environment to another (hence you have to teach them the same thing in several different places before they twig that they're meant to do it everywhere). But from observing Brains, it looks as if they understand a single environment very well indeed, and understand it from more than just the angle they're used to.

Having bored you all to tears, I need to go away and think about this some more...

Ended up spending a fun couple of hours in A&E earlier. Been x-rayed but I wasn't hanging around until the advised 3 am to find out the results, so I'm back home now and have everything crossed that it's not broken. Foot rather than ankle, on inspection, and not painful unless I have to put weight on it. I got worried enough about it to want it looked at. Was advised that they should call me if they find a break on the x-rays. I got a compliment on my nail polish from the x-ray technician, which was nice.

Oh, poor Magpie. I do hope you don't have a fracture. Many years ago now I cracked the outer metatarsal in my left foot when I missed my footing and fell, banging my foot on the kerb as I went down. I managed to walk back to where I was staying, my foot getting more painful with every step and my host insisted n taking me to A&E where an X-ray showed the damage and my foot was put in plaster. It took ages to heal and still twinges if I'm on my feet too much. Please don't put any unnecessary weight on your foot until you know what's what.

Edith, I can assure you that you could never bore me with any of your tales of your walks with Brains and Batshit. They are such a pleasure to read.

Remembered that we have crutches in the cellar, so junior Magpie has brought them up for me.

I'm never bored by B&B stories 😊

Oh, Magpie 😑 Fingers crossed for you 🐹

Oh, and a mouse, apparently??? That was supposed to be a flower 🌻

It seems to have been a rather accident-prone day for Bluestocking members, so the gerbils have set up a first aid centre in the snug and are ready for every eventuality. Hope everyone feels much better after a rest.

I got a compliment on my nail polish from the x-ray technician, which was nice.
Valtra red?

But seriously, Magpie, proceed with caution until you've had the x-ray results. My DGM broke a bone in her foot when she was 20-ish, it wasn't properly set, and it gave her gyp for the rest of her life.

ETA, and RING THEM if you don't hear.

That's very useful, Magpie, if you are clever enough to be able to use them. I was loaned some crutches to stop me trying to bear my weight on the plastered foot, but I was useless with them - poor balance and very uncoordinated. DH had to borrow a folding wheelchair from the local Red Cross so that I could actually go outside the house.

Not a tractor colour this time. Well, I can't think of any tractor manufacturers which go for purple, anyway!