Soop's warm and welcoming kitchen for the sharing of...

Ann please don't apologise for coming into the kitchen later than usual. You come bearing gifts. Us lot are very grateful for your generous offer of delicious soup with crumbled stilton topping. How kind.

Feelingmyage I always wanted to be "an artist" but, because my dear father wasn't keen on me going to art school (he decided the Civil Service was a better bet), I never had any formal training. It was thirty years ago that I borrowed MacS's paintbox. At the time, he was an architect. I just went with my instinct. Even sold paintings from our home in which we had a large entrance hall and could display my work. I have four huge albums containing photos of most of my paintings. I am happiest when I have a challenge. I still feel very tired BUT the artwork helps me to feel inspired. I also love nature and photography. Have you ever tried one of those brilliant adult colouring books? the contents are both varied and captivating. Just a thought. (((hugs))) for the scones and fruit loaf. I have next to little skill as a baker.

Away for today. Care home visit in the morning. I will do my best to be with you all again early afternoon.

TOYA [mmon]

May I say reading GreyD`S description of a galloping kitchen is so very apt, and yes indeed, it has gained in popularity immensly in just the short time I have been fortun ate enough to be a member.
Miss a day at your peril!!!!
So difficult to catch up!!!!
You have created such a refuge and safe haven dear Soop and it is such a pleasure hearing you are back there with the easel, painting the beautiful dogs here within the kitchen.

The friends I mentioned tidying up our garden Charleyg are the sort you meet very rarely,no sooner than we have a need they are on to it,and not only see to the job but make sure it is done to the best of their ability.
The work done in our garden was outstanding and it made my dear man so happy, he had tears in his eyes.He had been so upset seeing it get slightly overgrown.It had been his pride and joy in earlier years.
These same friends when visiting never come empty handed either!
Now we are racking our brains trying to think of a very apt christmas gift.............certainly buying for their 2 dogs will be easy and since they treat them as their children, that will surely give them great pleasure.
I will welcome any ideas you may have friends.

You have not lost your touch at all Izabella and each posting carries with it a beautiful inspiration,so do keep on doing what you are doing, and please know it will be a massive boost to so many who maybe struggling to cope.

I am finding a niche within these new walls for sure and although of course I still am my beloved`s carer, I have some time to reach out around me........further more it makes me feel I am finding my feet again.

May those with "odd bodies" find comfort and healing soon,it comes to most of us at differing points in time!!!

After some dampness early morning the sunshine again reappeared before lunch making it very warm again.
We have a hectic week here as Ironman Wales event takes place with some 36 participating nations,these bring along friends and family, whilst many in several countries book this week as their holiday.
It has gained so much in popularity over a number of years and not only does the amazing area and views attract the people, but they are very uplifted by the crowds that egg them on from every vantage point of the various routes they take, this gives them the encouragement to complete what must be a very taxing couple of days.

An early goodnight from me and TOYA XX

Other than spring cleaning a bathroom and going to the gym I have had a very unproductive day.

Still feel tired as I had little sleep last night, for some reason I just could not nod off until the early hours and woke up before 6am.

Have a pleasant evening kitcheners

TOYA

Soop clearly a case of “One Man and Somebody Else’s Dog”?!

Izabella if it is any consolation I, too, am wrestling with a Bach prelude on the piano. It was the last piece we were playing when I finished my piano lessons; seems like ages ago now. I couldn’t get past the first twenty one bars without going off the rails then and I am still struggling. I’m sure you can find more ‘sticking power’ than me! But to me, just running your hands over the keys of a piano is a very soothing experience.

I have had a very frustrating experience trying to get through to the surgery on the phone today. I spent twenty minutes on the line only to be told I have to ring back again tomorrow morning. All I want is a bit of information from my GP; five minutes tops!

Panache so good to hear you in good form these days. Your move was the best thing that could have happened.

DD, who usually works two and a half days a week, is working a full week this week - it’s freshers week at the university and the medical centre is overrun with students trying to register - so we have stepped up to the plate for after school duty. It is a bit restricting but a Gran’s gotta do what a Gran’s gotta do!
Have a pleasant evening, folks!

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201909/medium-437347-06331709-3b0b-4ad3-931f-01d21a7cc4f5.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201909/medium-339030-3f1b43d7-9138-4595-bbb4-35652a1cc0f2.jpeg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201909/medium-420949-3aa4cdd9-e87d-45c3-889e-a0a5298b46fd.jpeg

Some of the dahlias has I have grown this year

Lovely dahlias, Izabella. They are such spectacular flowers en masse and the bees seem to like them too. I was once in the garden at Glamis Castle when the dahlias were in full bloom and in every single flower a bee was busy finding nectar. You must have green fingers. I am thinking hard about what I'm going to grow next year as my garden has been treated for an infestation of mare's tail and I will need to re-stock.
Have a good evening all.

It would have been (IS) Paw’s Birthday today.
The daughters and I have been exchanging our favourite pics of him on WhatsApp and thinking about him.

Here he is on his 7th birthday in St James’s Park with his parents, brother and little sister.

Evening All. What wonderful photos maw, it must have been a funny old day for you today but so good to share memories with your daughters. A hug and for you.

I’ve no chance at all of recalling all today’s posts as they are spread over two pages, slow down a bit everyone, please. .

Hope your stair lift is sorted charley, it’s getting beyond a joke,

Good luck with the school runs greyd, we rarely get involved these days and I sort of miss it.

Somehow we can’t get dahlias to thrive in the current garden Izabella, yours are wonderful.

I think you said you’re still tired, soop, please look after yourself, constant exhaustion is no fun.

Off I go, TOYA and be good everyone.

Spot on description greyduster, I’m ridiculously late and stand no chance of ever catching up! Stunning dahlias Izabella, I saw some reduced last week and found it hard to walk away empty handed but they don’t always seem to thrive in my garden so I resisted. I love that poem you mentioned earlier, it’s such a good reminder to appreciate the beauty that’s all around us.

Maw A poignant day for you, lovely that you were able to share precious memories with your girls. I notice that Paw shares a birthday with my mother who died in 1990. A neighbour popped in this afternoon with some flowers, a thank you for a helping her out with a household crisis over the weekend. Amongst the flowers were beautiful irises which were my mum’s favourite and always remind me of her.

I seem to have been on a bit of a treadmill today, never quite catching up with myself so of course am now far too wide awake to get to sleep. But it’s time to at least try, the old boy always gets to sleep with seconds.... I should be so lucky!

I'll leave you with a photo of the small nasturtium plant that I popped in to fill a space, it’s gone wild. I can’t even remember what is hiding underneath it, but it does give a last burst of colour when other plants are beginning to fade.

It’s the middle of the night! I fetched the cat from the cattery yesterday morning and he seems to be quite happy. Only problem is that he has been awake for the last two hours and has woken me too. We don’t call him the Whingeing Tom for nothing!
Glad to say that we now have a sitting room free of boxes ? - just the rest of the house to go.
Hope all the rest of you are sound asleep. TOYA

There are some strange threads and posts out there - thank god for a safe haven.
Saying no more.

I think I know the thread you mean and I too was very disconcerted.
It put you, I and others in a very strange mindset.

Good morning dear soop and all kind kitcheners,
Just a quick post. Going to be missing for a while. Pursuing a second opinion regarding DH's recent change in painkiller prescription and still hopeful his operation will happen soon. I need to focus on him and not be on GN for a little while.

Sending love and will be TOYA. Hope to be back soon. Xxxx

Very best wishes to you both Carillion
I hope you get good advice.
We shall look forward to seeing you back.

I know many of you will not have seen the same bit of sky last night, but ours was the most delicious candy pink with clear pale blue, deepening to shades of cinnabar,carmine through to a sort of choclaty velvet in the gloaming. Wonderful. This morning we have the arrival of autumnal cobwebby lawns shimmering in the early morning breese as the sunlight catches them.. This has surely been around for a while, but I am not usually up and in an alert state of mind at this hour of the day anymore, so I am taking great delight in the vision before me.

MawB I agree. I ventured out the kitchen one day with CH's help. Even he (a decidedly opinionated political animal) felt disquiet at some of the threads. Suffice to say I shall stay here. And I know yesterday would have been full of mixed and heightened emotions for you. ?

My next note says the kitchen was off air for a while, but I have to say I never noticed. Where or what I was going I have no idea.

Thank you for the comments on my dahliah collection. My gardens have been a fount of solace, contemplation, meditation and a source of positive thinking for many years. Now even more so. I only hope my green fingers and my appreciation of nature do not desert me for some time.

Grey lovely to hear you too are struggling with the master (JSB) The written score alas still has little meaning for me, so I
am really struggling. CH has downloaded the sounds for me following my previous levels of non achievement . My fingers are now fine with placement, arpeggios and scales etc., the rest is rather a muddle. But hey!!

TOYA
(Edited by CH to make sense)

As always you have once again put my own thoughts into a colourful picture our Izabella.
For many years especially during nursing my terminally ill, crippled foster mum,then again during the aftermath of my several near death experiences with cancer the garden has been such a dear place of solace,that refuge and haven of peace when the mind and body is fighting several storms.It offers the answer when seemingly one is devoid of any other.In fact my garden plaque saying "One is nearer to God in the garden than anywhere else on earth" speaks volumes.
It was such a bitter pill when my gardening days came to an end.I had enjoyed the entire gambit from mowing and edging large expanses of grass,to making my own hanging baskets,window boxes etc and indeed all the weeding as well as all the planting and nurturing.
However I then took to indoor gardening of sorts and no room in our home was devoid of plants!!!
That era has now totally come to an end as this establishment is so very warm,even cut flowers last only days.However not to be totally thwarted I brought a copper trough complete with 3 differing "green" plants of varied heights and it stands at our entrance to our apartment and thus far has not only survived but is growing and so very lush and green,I am now tempted to try extend this "experiment" as it seems one is not allowed to add any embellishments to our long (and wide) corridors,a fire hazard has been quoted.I rather think a deaf ear is called for!!
Please Izabella continue and enjoy growing,caring and enjoying your garden paradise,the dhalias are such an uplifting colourful plant, so you have chosen well.

Sunshine continues and out barometer indicates it is getting better so do make the most of this late summer treats my kitchen friends.
TOYA xx

Izabella those are particularly nice dahlias you have grown there, any ideas of their names? Dahlias remind me of my favourite Uncle whose whole garden was dedicated to growing them for showing. He won so many competitions, cups etc. He used masses of manure as he said they were very hungry plants.

GQ and Corner Our gardening friend potted up dahlias for me so that we can have them wherever we want them and they grow really well. He doesn't need to dig them out, just barrows the pots into the greenhouse for winter and 'sorts them out' again in the sping. They have been spectacular this year and I have vases of them in the house atm.

I am currently trying to resist buying more (not just dahlias) for the garden but not succeeding - much to the consternation of Himself. (That is mainly because he changed our credit cards and hasn't got to grip with the due dates etc just yet. )

Maw x So glad you had a lovely time away and another milestone achieved.

soop it is still early days so do be kind to yourself. Glad you are enjoying your painting again. Think of you often when we look at Smokie's portrait.
Dragonfly just rest as much as possible!

There is a nip in the air so coffee or hot chocolate and warm shortbread fingers are on the side.

TOYA

Panache I was chatting on the phone so I missed your post before I posted mine. You sound so happy and settled already. Hope all comes to a happy conclusion with the house sale very soon.

P.S. you could try succulents and cacti Panache some of those are so beautiful and would survive and even flourish well. Just a thought.

The sun is shining, my washing is nearly dry but I can feel the autumnal nip. The door is open but not for much longer. This sunshine is staying until the weekend. I still have not switched on the heating in the evenings which is a minor miracle.
TOYA

Oops my iPad jumped and I posted this on the wrong thread

ue 17-Sep-19 11:59:27
Oh I am fizzing over a comment directed at Annsixty and others elsewhere ???????
Spoiling for a fight if necessary! grin

I honestly do not know why I stray from the kitchen, some people thrive on being “hostile”. I truly hope they are not like that in their real lives?

It’s just not worth it Maw
If folk would just have some basic kindness they wouldn’t post before considering.
Let’s move on.
I couldn’t get Stilton so I sprinkled danish blue into my celery soup.
It was very, very strong.
Please provide your own cheese.

Help! I have come into our kitchen for what I thought would be a quick catch-up. Wrong! There is no way that I shall catch up this afternoon. You lot are super-charged, extraordinary peoples.

and tender (((huugs))) to Carillion01.
We fully understand your need for a break. We all send the very best of wishes for a positive outcome for your husband. A brief message from time to time would be greatly appreciated.

Izabella Those dahlias are delicious colours. I particularly like the pale pink variety.

Maw As I looked at Paw as a young lad, I immediately saw a striking resemblance between him and his beautiful mother.

Panache Thank you for your daily news bulletin. Always a pleasure to read.

Izabella I also tried to enter our kitchen lateish yesterday afternoon. I was locked out. Buggerations galore, I thought. Then, almost like magic, the door opened and in I waltzed.

Time for a coffee and a wee session with the cat watercolour portrait. Back a little later.

Dear Carillion I hope you will at least be able to keep in touch. It’s at times like these that your friends - online or RL - can help lift you up.