Soop’s kitchen, filled with kindness, understanding and some damn fine cake ! Come on in.

OMG Carillion is that the best you can do, boil beetroot? I sincerely hope you are keeping it in your neck of the woods- I hate the stuff even to look at it uncooked. When is your DH having surgery?

tanith another lovely photo of your family.

Much more tennis for me to watch today- this retirement lark is hard at times!
TOYA

Hello everyone, getting warmer here by the minute. Watered the garden very early this morning to try to get ahead of myself.

Doodle, Charleygirl, NanaandGrampy sending you the first slices of Opera Cake now cooled and finished.

I agree Feelingmy age it's a real faff to make especially when you can buy it here in Super U or E.leclerc!!

anno you're right. The first time I saw the cake was on the Great British Bake Off and I've always tried to have a go at what's been on there, usually with not beautiful but hopefully edible results. DH eats all trial cakes thank goodness! ??

Nanaand Grampy ...Stevie sounds a lovely lad...I hope he's on the mend.x

Galen I'm sorry to hear about your ankle injury and I hope you are now more comfortable.

Charleygirl, DH and I have had a few dealings with our pompiers and as Galen explained they are firefighters. We have had contact with the branch called sapeur-pompiers who are in addition to being firefighters are trained as ambulance first responders.
They're so kind and competent and we meet our local ones personally each year at their Christmas fetes.
DH will have his operation in St Brieuc, northern Brittany, which although we're in central Brittany is our nearest main hospital. I had a hysteroscopy there four months ago and they were amazing so we are very happy that he'll be going there.

Just off now lovely kitcheners...going to boil a few beetroot!
Have a peaceful and safe day. X

? Callgirl and that quiche sounds good Anno!. Sausage rolls, vegan pesto palmiers (?) and cherry and almond cake on the side. We are off for a 12 person picnic tomorrow after the circus at Chiswick. Means we shall be off at the crack of sparrow s..t as my friend says. It is DH’s last day at work today, so I think he may sleep through tomorrow’s journey!

Sorry, didn’t take any photos of this cruise!
Could post one of my ankle, but, I don’t think you’d appreciate it this early in the morning

anno How guilty you make me feel.
I bought my quiche from M&S yesterday.
I had a slight panic this morning when I received an e-mail from M&S wishing me a Happy Birthday and giving me a “very special offer” on clothing. ( I won’t be taking it up)
and I thought I had slept for a week.
I have 2 dates for next Friday which is my actual birthday and I thought, I am not ready for them.

callgirl thinking of you and your family ??

Greyd, your fishing trip sounds to me like an excuse a good reason for a very fine picnic, fish or no fish. Better luck next time.
callgirl, best wishes and fingers crossed for your son's scan. We mums will always have qualms on occasions like this.
Have a great day everyone. I'm in the middle of baking quiches for a garden party with the NWR. First lot of pastry is blind baked and waiting for its filling - caramelised red onion and gruyere cheese.

Quick message while lying in my bed to say everything is crossed for your son, and all your family, callgirl very tense times.

Good morning kitcheners.
Sorry to hear you’ve been in the wars Galen. I hope that leg heals soon.

Callgirl fingers crossed for your son’s scan result??

Lovely photo of your family Tanith. We have a little train like that at our country park; it was always a favourite with GS. He’s too old for such things now?. I’m not!

I will draw a veil over my fishing day yesterday. We arrived at the reservoir and the conditions looked quite benign. I got to my usual fishing spot and the wind funnelling down the valley was horrendous and got worse as the day progressed so that eventually I and the few other anglers daft enough to be there just gave up. It was one of those “you should have been here yesterday” days. So we broke out our picnic and had ‘afternoon tea’ instead; sandwiches, sausage rolls, two different kinds of cake, and lovely strawberries! No prosecco, though! There will be other, better, fishing days (I hope)!

We have no plans for today other than to clean the insides of the windows. Guess who has drawn the short straw and is doing the conservatory?☹️
I will look in later folks!

Same here bellanonna, one of the operating system upgrades seems to have stopped the strike through working. No idea why.

Much less itchy thank you callgirl, minor in the way of things, I tried the vinegar, seemed to reduce it so something to add to my anti itch repertoire. Wishing your son well for today, it will be a twitchy one for you I’m sure.

Best get a wriggle on, off to see some planes today.

bellanonna Thank you. I think my iPad is too old for it to work. Thought there might be another way.

Callgirl all the best to your son for today.
Feeling if you scroll down you will see a list of things under ‘emphasis’ which includes how to strike through. Unfortunately it doesn’t work on my iPad, although it used to.

callgirl good wishes for your son for tomorrow. Since we are are kind to one another in the kitchen I will whisper that I would put money on it that men are the worst patients. But as it is the kitchen we will agree to disagree. Can someone please tell me how to do the scoring out thing.
galen. Please would you post a picture of your cruise - it would stop us all giving you (who definitely doesn’t need it) advice about your leg. For example I will not suggest bathing it in a saline solution. I would score that sentence out if I knew how to. For penance on my cheeky post I am leaving you all some new raspberry jam and crumpets.
Sleep well everyone.

I hope your leg heals soon Galen, they say there`s no worse patient than a doctor!
Ann, as others have said, take no notice of the nasty people, we all love you.
Tanith, lovely photo.
Opera cake sounds delicious, would go nicely with my mug of coffee.
Corner, did the vinegar do the trick?
Fingers (and everything else) crossed tomorrow afternoon please, my son goes for his scan now his cancer treatment is finished.

I think you’ll find it’s a picture of the firemen we want Galen ?. Hope your knee gets better soon. I have heard good things about the honey dressings too.

Thanks folks.

Honey dressings are good , our District Nurse got us some on prescription so I am sure they are safe , the really work well

PS Galen. When I had a gash on my knee that was slow to heal, I was recommended to try hydrocolloid plasters, available most commonly as blister plasters, but also as dressings and bandages. It worked for me.

Don’t be silly! Of course not!
Actually it’s quite clean and no sign of infection. I can post a photo if you wish? I took one for legal purposes

Have you seen a doctor about it, Galen? Apart from the one in the mirror?

Sorry to hear you were hurt Galen I hope it heals well.
I thought I’d post a picture of my lovely GS and family, it was taken on Weymouth Sea front last while we were on holiday in Dorset.

That sounds painful galen, guess patience is needed for now but hope you begin to mend soon. Take care.

Thanks Nannyt
I suspect it’ll take a long while as it’s deep and I don’t heal well.

Andy Murray playing doubles at the moment and it's amazing how well he and his new partner (Hubert) have meshed with each other. I love the speed and skill of men's doubles. Won't it be interesting to see how he gets on with Serena in the mixed doubles.

Galen that is a worry for you. I do hope it begins to heal very soon.