Soop's new kitchen being built while she's absent!

N&G those boys have had a fabulous childhood but they will not appreciate it until they are adults because they have known little else!

My cleaner has two sons, one is 8 and wants a cat to cuddle all day long. As I say to her- where is Tara- does he realise that very few cats sit in a chair waiting to be cuddled but it is good he is fond of animals.

I am not sure if the hens will enjoy being cuddled but Cooper will find out.

The sun is peeping out here- I am hanging around waiting for a parcel from Amazon.
TOYA

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Morning all ,

Its a bright morning here so we are off out. Not sure where yet but its too good a day to stay home and do chores .

NannyT our Cooper would have been most excited to find a hall half full of chickens, given his proposed career as a chicken cuddler !! He is visiting this weekend for Grampy's birthday celebrations and our very local free range farm has kindly invited him down to feed the chickens ( and do some cuddling). So eggs will be extra special this weekend !!

Love the picture Grey , but don't envy you the mud and cold lol

GrannyG oh I laughed at your picture . No one expects to find two foxes in a 'tie' in their garden do they. We have a lot of pigs in nearby fields and they often are having a high old time together , Cooper ( our chicken cuddler) always seems to spot those getting frisky and points them out. If you ask what they are doing he is confident they are playing 'piggy in the middle' !! Ill go with that!!

Sending a little bit of our sunshine to all those with grey skies !

Ill leave you with a picture of our little ones who had a lovely weekend together just being boys ! And one of the Queen of the Universe celebrating a win at bowling with the chicken cuddler lol !

Lovely Kitty and not far from us!

corner just to make you feel jealous- we have had lovely sunshine in NW London. Wherever you live you appear to have more than your fair share of rain and horrid weather.
TOYA

Lovey clear sky kitty, I’m envious, raining and grey here for most of the day . Enjoy your break, well deserved. Hope Mr Lester is OK after his procedure.

That’s a lovely photo kitty !

Presumably you went to buy snowdrops Topsy - did you buy chickens instead?

The east coast is very windy, at least the Suffolk bit, and the sky is lovely.

Charleyg Message received and understood.

Nannytopsy Hilarious!

I am utterly exhausted right this minute. Away to read the news and hope that some of it is more cheerful than of late. Are the protesters still doing their thing in Hong Kong?

I am thinking of you ALL and will return to our kitchen tomorrow.

soop I was brought up in the middle of nowhere near St. Andrews and hated it. Having no transport, St. Andrews seemed to be a million miles away. I did think of returning but hospitals would be a major worry.

I rarely hit the bright lights nowadays but it is good to know they are there. I am fortunate not to be on Heathrow's flight path but I am for a military airport but it does not bother me as the planes are not that low.

Put your feet up and rest- that is an order!
TOYA

We just went to a Snowdrop Fair, only to find the village hall full of chickens! Snowdrops are next weekend!

Charleyg Tara is a very canny feline. As we all know.
Scotland enjoys it's fair share of decent weather. I could not contemplate ever leaving here. It is a marvellous location.

soop like yourself, I also need to get out a bit more re the photo!

Tara had a duvet day indoors yesterday and until lunchtime today but she is now outside hopefully enjoying the sunshine.

I do think many of you need to move because we do appear to have much better weather in NW London.

Hopefully, all with major buggerations are back on the road to recovery.

Carillion My only hope is that your DH is not discharged too soon and the pair of you can cope.
TOYA

Nannytopsy Your aunt has inherited good genes. Oil of Ulay has much to recommend it. It calm herebouts on the west coast of Scotland. Not such a good outlook for the rest of the week. Compared with some, we are beyond fortunate.

Doodle I thought that the two were playing games...which was about right. I've lived a sheltered life.

kitty That's men for you.

I sense that Spring is here for many of us and I hope it is only just round the corner for the rest. Bless you all.
My aunt is 100 today and we went to her party yesterday. It was a round trip of about 8 hours but a chance to meet up with people I have not seen in years. She has memory problems but is otherwise in very good form and a living advert for Oil of Ulay, as it was then! Her hair is a dark grey and was freshly styled. A very elegant lady.
Hope those of you in the West don’t have too much awful weather this week, TOYA!

gg I wasn’t quite sure what your photo was so I enlarged it.
?. I see you loved the photos soop. Did you actually see what was going on ?

maw it’s lovely to hear that there is a little tentative lightness in your life at the moment. I hope it continues and that thought is a help to others on the same path.

Dh never wwars pyjamas except when there are dgc about or when we are on holiday. He always leaves them in the hotel when we go on holiday.

The author is - Professor Sue Black.

Love the photos. Enjoyed reading all your latest updates. You are a lovely lot.

Ironing done. No rugby that I wanted to watch. We can't have it all.

Ordered pyjamas for MacS. He also had a voucher and has spent some of it on a book - 'All that Remains' by a lady we both admire. She has appeared on television. Dame Sue something or other. Her surname escapes me. If I leave this page to check on the details, I am bound to lose this message.

Away for today. TOYA and I trust that we shall gather for a blether sometime tomorrow.

Don’t think we ever got to that page!?

gg

So glad to hear positive news from many of you with health issues, and if not complete cures, it does sound at least as if there are some glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel. Izabella your holiday is sounding like the trip of a lifetime and well deserved. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us, too.
I wish I had stirred my stumps and got out this morning while it was still sunny. There is a bitter wind now and the sky is growing greyer by the minute - but a dog needs a walk (and if I am being honest, so do I)
I don’t know if I am speaking too soon, but I have felt much more positive of late. Without thinking things through consciously I feel able to admit to enjoying things without that gnawing guilt that Paw was not here to share them. Somehow that seems to be enabling me to move forward. I wonder if anybody else in a similar situation knows what I am trying (albeit inadequately) to say?
Beats sitting crying every day which was never going to bring happier days back.
Soop I sincerely hope there will be progress on your problems and that this year brings you relief from the discomfort.
Carillion you have been very brave on your DH’s behalf and I hope you too can take things a bit easier as he convalesces.
Dragonfly , you are showing such fortitude as are others including Synonymous. Inspirations to us all.
There now, I have probably missed somebody, being a Maw of “very little brain” and certainly not wishing to ignore the sadness Cornergran is feeling.
Annsixty I think I can recognise what you are expressing and what you are going through. People often do not realise that when a huge burden is lifted - whether because of going into residential care, bereavement, or whatever- there is not an immediate sense of relief. The grieving goes on, the sense of purpose in one’s life is unclear and the body not infrequently has a few “twists” up its sleeve, resulting in physical expressions of the emotional trauma.
So, still missing word from Panache, I do fear the worst,
But I wish everybody in the Kitchen a peaceful weekend.

Hello the kitchen. Please don’t all yell “I spy strangers!” like they do in the House of somewhere or other - I know I have been naughty and not looked in.
Soop good news about your surgery date - I hope they get to the bottom (excuse the pun) of all your problems and put everything right. My fingers will be crossed for you!

N&G not surprising that the cafe staff were charmed by Sam! Who would not be? We were in the cafe in our park today and they have a “doggie side” too. They don’t have a toddler side though and I nearly came a cropper as a yellow plastic lorry appeared where I was about to put my foot and just missed giving me a lift! Its owner was a complete sweetie though.

The reason we were in the park early (apart from a cheeky bacon sandwich) was to watch GS run in the senior Schools Cross Country. It was eventful. A long course - four kilometres - two laps, and near the end of the first lap he lost a shoe in the mud (there was a lot of mud)! I saw him pause and look back, and then he pulled the other one off and ran the rest of the race in his socks - through a stream at one point!! He came in twenty fifth out of a field of over seventy and we were very proud of him for even thinking about carrying on without his spikes. I didn’t offer to wash his socks though?. They were white once. I expect they’re in the bin now! Blurry photo but you get the picture!

I hope all those whose struggles with health I have been following are now on the road to recovery. I would give my back teeth for a good nights sleep, but I’m sure I’ll get there. I need to dream about Izabella’s dolphins, I think. What a joy that must have been.

I will look in later. TOYA.

Not what I expected to see on the lawn this morning when I opened the curtains???

Have youngest three AC and their families coming round this afternoon, arranged by them as they want to “get together and meet new baby”.

So we have been to the local shops for “snacks and fizz” for AC and appropriate snacks for GC!!!

I do sometimes wonder why they moved out as I am sure they spend more time here than at home,

Hearing you all talking about piles of ironing underlines how it just sits and glowers at us all! When the family leave there is always a huge mountain of linen requiring attention and while I managed the washing the rest is just too much. Thankfully, my ironing pile has been tackled by my home help who is such a blessing. All the bedding, tablecloths, tea towels etc etc are all neatly stowed away, phew, what a relief! Now we are just waiting for someone to come and stow away in the loft the boxes of tree decorations and the tree bag.
Not only is the house slowly returning to normal but so are we. We actually slept the whole night through and are feeling that we have hopefully turned the last corner and are on the strait heading to good health! Yay! Just the last vestiges of 'that cough' to go now.
TOYA

I also have happened across a hillock of ironing. May tackle it a little later. Very much depends on whether there is a rugby match that I can watch at the same time.