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

They are amazing, aren’t they? When DD found the right ones (first 4 were a fail) she wandered down looking a but stunned and said: is this how NT’s feel? Cos the noise and chatter in my head is gone and I can hear myself think.

I’ve not had quite the same response: it was more like the fog lifted, as though I had new glasses as everything looked clearer, sharper, more in focus. And my thoughts and ability to focus flowed from that. I can still procrastinate and struggle to get started on something that I’m reluctant to do, but I was staggered that all my life admin and the kids was sorted within a week or so, backlog of housework cleared and I no longer feel stressed by that stuff. And the shift in mood was a bonus.

I was just googling Baron Bigod cheese and saw that there are BB cheese and onion crisps. madefordrink.com/products/baron-bigod?srsltid=AfmBOopn-oVBZ6qIRhfi1FBiBNs3PEsfj2cUkYoAsZchPFKQSY_bmaB6

Hot chocolate bowser please, bar gerbil, with a chaser of extra strength antihistamines and lots of food. First day of induction today. Most of them don't understand how to use Ctrl Alt Delete and were pressing Backspace instead. I've got about a dozen bites on my right arm alone. And I managed to stick to the fasting so I'm now ravenously hungry.
Still, the first day is usually the worst.

Re cobwebs, you're just getting a head start on your Halloween decorations.

Marie: 'I think it might be more like 'why can't I just leave the newspaper open on the floor/coffee mug where I last put it down/etc., Deano wouldn't mind, her house is lovely like that...'
and the DWs will start to hate you because it's Deano this and Deano that and Deano's house is lovely and relaxed and well if it's so great why don't you go and live with Deano..'

I think you may be right. I remember a male friend visiting my house & saying with a sad, envious tone, "Oh, I like your place. It's so lived-in!". 😂

Edith: 'Perhaps I should try One Damn Thing After Another. It was one of DM's frequent comments, as yet another financial or related crisis hit.'

Who was it who said, "They say life is one damn thing after another but it isn't. It's the same damn thing over & over again"?

Before I write today’s exciting instalment I need to make a Public Service Announcement.

The recommended book is Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor, the first of the Chronicles of St Mary’s. Not One Damn Thing After Another, which is the memoir of some bloke & probably not nearly as much fun.

And the rest of the series, and the Time Police spin-offs (and her other books) are just as good.

Today was about trains, rain & phenomenal views. And good food.

After checking out of the Oslo hotel this morning (scrambled egg & a couple of very tasty rolls with Gouda cheese for breakfast - they didn’t have Baron Bigod) I stopped at a bakery someone had recommended & picked up a hefty salad roll to have for lunch. Baker Hansen, if anyone else goes to Norway. Well worth a visit.

Then it was a train from Oslo to Myrdal & changing onto the Flåm Railway.

As I said earlier, I was flipping constantly between reading my book & grabbing my camera. It was a bit drizzly first thing but that soon vanished & the views were utterly glorious & very atmospheric, especially with the mist over the mountains.

We stopped for photos at the waterfall in Pic 2 & a woman in a long scarlet dress appeared dancing & singing on the rocks. She was very effective & reminded me of Kate Bush.

@ChristmasStars, thanks for the tip about sitting on the left!

When we reached Flåm it was pouring. I checked in to my hostel, wrapped up, went to explore a bit & ended up sitting under a gazebo having a hot jacket potato that was just as full of good stuff as the roll I had for lunch.

Tomorrow is a trip up a mountain in a minibus, then on to Bergen via a fjord cruise, a bus & a train. Rain forecast again. I’ve been really lucky with the weather so far, though, & somehow rain feels a lot more natural at this time of year.

Have you read the new Smallhope & Pennyroyal, Chickadee?

@EmpressaurusKitty i have! I had it on preorder :-) . I wasn’t disappointed.

Oh and I saw a moose, and some friends of Harriet’s, and something else that might be a tractor. And are we missing a camel?

@EmpressaurusKitty thank you for the pictures! It all looks so beautiful! 💜

Difficult to tell but I think that might be another forklift type thing. Volvo this time. Excellent pictures though, and I have train envy!

There were some blue might-be-tractors too but I didn’t have time to get a photo.

Gorgeous views, whatever the weather, Kitty. 😍 They remind me strongly of the glorious North-West Highlands of Scotland where DH & I used to holiday at least once a year for about 15 years until the pandemic and age meant the journey up there from Mid-Wales was just too much for us.

I got the first one as a Christmas present last year and finished it that day!

Thanks, Rum. Now ordered, having just laughed out loud at a quotation from it in an Amazon review. It's the kind of book DD would enjoy too.

Kitty, stunning scenery. I've wanted to go to Norway for quite a long time, and your'e giving me itchy feet.

And Magpie, after a day like today, you sound as if a stiff gin to wash down the hot chocolate and food might be a good idea. Remember, it won't give you a hangover.

I’ve just realised I’m going to a Viking village tomorrow, Edith.

Loving your travel journal, Kitty. I have also been wanting to go to Norway for several years, especially as my niece visited Bergen last year for a music festival and waxed lyrical about it. I'm sure you will love it. Enjoy your viking village trip

p.s. I think your camel may have been a llama or alpaca in disguise🐪

Thanks Damson. I’m getting to Bergen tomorrow evening.

You don’t think it might be one of our camels disguised as a llama or alpaca?

Hmm, could be she is also on her way to Bergen, to visit the cathedral. Apparently, it is an unremarkable building, built on the foundations of a much older church, but said to have some very nice stained glass windows........

ETA: And Bergen was in the Hanseatic League, so there is another connection to the Bluestocking. (It feels like years since the gerbil World Cup!)

I have no wildlife news to report, other than that over the past week or ten days, the swallows have departed for warmer climes.

Tractoring, on the other hand...

Today's soundtrack had two parts. The tenor line was some poor sod several hundred yards away bashing in fence posts the old-fashioned way, with a piece of kit I only know as a post-basher. He was at it for hours. THANNNNNG!.... THANNNNNNG!.... THANNNNNG! Minute's break as he gathered his breath and flexed his arms and fingers. 'THANNNG! THANNNNNG!.... I've done that job. It's exhausting. OTOH, it did result in a fence that actually worked.

The bass line was provided by one of the Valtras, going slowly round the big field opposite, flailing the hedge. It's an unmistakeable noise, the hum of the engine, and the grind and crackle and occasional SNAP of the hedge being walloped and chopped and beaten into submission by some pretty brutal machinery. It's that time of year: September, so they can legally crack on with it.

I opted to walk B&B the opposite way, away from the noise, only to come out of the copse and find the other Valtra towing some complicated cultivator and trailing an enormous cloud of dust. As it ground uphill towards me I called B&B in, but then it stopped, the engine idling. This was my cue to jog briskly down with the dogs so as not to hold up the work. I gave the driver a wave and a thumbs up and he called out of his back window,
'Didn't want you to get covered in dust!'
'Thank you!'
'Take care!'
'And you!'

And so it was for the rest of the day. I walked past another field with a similar, but larger, machine being hauled along. I drove into town, and saw at least two clouds of dust with tractors attached. I drove home, and on the final leg I came up behind a tractor with a hedge flail on the back.

What we need now is rain. Because there is no point patiently preparing the seedbed if you can't drill, and no one is going to want to drill until that sky-water thing starts to happen.

It does look more like an alpaca.

Their feet are just bloody strange.