Soop's kitchen refuge for the sharing of...

Yaaay! Bravo soop. Actually it has been a "bit of a day" for both of us. I too have been properly out today for the first time since lockdown. I started by going to places where I needed to go but where I was sure I wouldn't lose my temper - i.e. Pharmacy and Vet. That was just fine. Orderly and safe - except I went in and on pressing the foot pedal of the hand sanitiser machine (really?) at the entrance, I firstly cleaned my bare toes before I got the hang of it and put my hands in the correct place ! The weather here is so lovely, roaring wind and dark blue skies again, sun really warm and just the atmosphere in which to stop and linger at a pavement café. But no, I'm not that brave. The rule is that you can go and sit down (wearing a mask) and order from a waiter-with-a-mask. Once you sit down you can take off your mask. If you want to move from your table, or go inside for the loo, you have to put your mask back on. I want to see lots of people wearing masks whilst to-ing and fro-ing before I try that. We came home for coffee.

We are going out again shortly to pick up some difficult to find goodies from a large supermarket - we've used (or rather my DH has used) our local one since lockdown. I've just waited at home and got cross wiping down groceries!

Then later we will have our first Zoom call, to some dear friends in Norfolk who, apparently, are fed up with not speaking to us and want to see Languedoc wine being waved around in glasses and laugh and rant as we are wont to do when we are together. So, we are quite excited and longing to see if it works.

Bet you loved your outing through the village. Everything just smells so different somehow, from being in one place for so long - it's a whole new world out there. Maybe our senses just get dulled.

So glad that Mr Doodle's Nethers are recovering; don't know what to say about your bees' nest Lins. Maybe it depends on whether they are just honeybees and how near the nest is to the house. I could write a book about our experiences with bees and wasps and hornets! I won't attempt that on here, but one day.....it has entertained many since we have been in France. Oh dragonfly, you're lucky you didn't have to go through the full Emergency Ward 10 procedures with young Dexter!!!! That would have kept you occupied enough for 10 Lockdowns! Bless his furry little bear face - hope that his health problems are sorted out and that it doesn't take a re-mortgaging to pay for all the treatment. Hopefully, unlike dozy old us who have never got around to doing it even after many years and dozens of animals, he has a proper pet insurance policy which might cover his treatment. Our dog behaved impeccably at the Vet's this morning - she has some sort of fungus infection due to getting water in her ears in the shower! (Now who shall we blame for that, DH?) She's already a lot more comfortable and she just loves any kind of treatment, so we're hoping after 10 days she will stop shaking her head and looking sad.

Have a decent Monday, Kitcheners. If you are missing the sunshine after the lovely weather everywhere, here's hoping that it comes back to you very soon, and with warmth.
Hugs from French France. x

Your walk sounds sounds like a real tonic soop just the ticket. I miss the smell of wild garlic which grew in abundance in the countryside where I grew up.
DS came bearing gifts - bags of flour, greaseproof paper and foil containers for the freezer, all unavailable online. He brought our Easter eggs too, very late but very welcome!

Madgran Your painting is beautiful and your brushwork delicate. Is it on display in your home? It deserves to be admired and enjoyed.

Lins Your son's visit will have lifted your spirits. His hair sounds much like mine which has thickened and bushed- out but isn't very much longer.

This morning, we ventured into the village for the first time in over ten weeks. It was a sureal experience. We exchanged waves with folk we have missed during the lock down. We walked the usual walk. The aroma of the swathes of wild garlic was delicious. We saw a heron take off from a field and wee rabbits scampered in the undergrowth. The outing did us both good. I feel energised. Onwards and forwards...

Thank you for asking Doodle we've had a lovely day today as we've had a visit from our son. He looked really well, well apart from his hair which he normally keeps very short. He follows me in that his hair is thick and so it hasn't so much grown down as out!

I like your painting Madgran, a wise move to take photos and paint indoors.
Clearly Dexter appreciated routine when at Chez dragonfly, I hope his operation goes well when the time comes.

I like garlic too Galen, no vampires here.

There is a bees nest in an old nesting box on the garden wall, noticed it this afternoon. We had a wasps nest there about five years ago, not sure what to do really, I like bees and have a honeysuckle growing along that part of the wall, ironically grown to attract bees ?
Glad to hear that Cherry is feeling better.
Morethan, annsixty,BlueSapphire and all struggling right now ?

Dragonfly thanks for letting me know how old that lovely fellow is. It is still young for a dog to deveop arthritis I would have thought.

I thought that funny he has learnt bad habits from you and DH!

Moaning Minnie is wanting me to go to bed so I had better oblige I think.
TOYA

Izabella That is a beautiful painting. You have captured the birds beautifully. I love painting landscapes but cant seem to have any success with birds, animals or people. Here is one of mine in watercolours. We go to Switzerland quite often and the views are amazing.. Having said that, it isn't really the weather of "plein air" so I take lots of photos and paint inddors!!

Hello all. Izabella a lovely painting. What talented people we have on GN.
lins thank you for asking. DH is well on the mend now. Doesn’t hurt so much but his whole lower region (!) is purple. Very fetching ? hope you and yours ok.
soop lovely photo of your son and the gorgeous Torbin ?
Sorry have read all the posts but can’t reply to all so please take care everyone TOYA?

Oh dear Dragonfly ! Are you in the dog house?
Lots more rain today but the forecast is for a couple of dry days. ?
Tonight we did a wine quiz with DD and SiL. I think they won but as we had to drink some of our wine for every wrong answer, I’m not sure!! ?
Sleep well everyone.

Galen

Dexter is only 4 and he is also scheduled to have an op to improve his breathing but they need to sort out the arthritis first. Chow chows are prone to all these things unfortunately and they have been lucky so far.

We have just zoomed with him and apparently we got him into bad habits. He now demands his dinner on time and his walks at certain times!

Do you think you could make a lemon and garlic flavoured cake?

Anno
No apology needed. Made me think of snails with garlic butter.
I’m having prawns with garlic butter tonight.
Ps I ADORE GARLIC

Torben is growing so rapidly.

Dragonfly how old is that gorgeous fellow Dexter? Sorry to hear he has got more problems.
TOYA

dragonfly Enjoy!

I am logging off for today. The photo has cheered us both greatly.

My very best wishes to you ALL. Back with you again tomorrow.

Wonderful picture soop
We are just about to Zoom with Dexter!

Opened emails and discovered something that made my day...youngest son and his son, Torben.

I know just what mean soop this lockdown gives us too much time to dwell on things that are not healthy for our piece of mind.
It was easier when the sun was shining.
I hope you are okay now.

The tray bake sounds wonderful Galen.

And.....did you ask it if it had climbed up, AD ? It could have been cheating and on its way down (from a stay in the gutter courtesy of a bird, perhaps?) But you were obviously very impressed.

I should apologise to Galen for this post following her appetising message! When I woke up this morning and drew the curtains, I was shocked to see what I thought was a slug on the outside of the glass. Looking closer, I spotted the shell and realised it was a snail which must have crawled all the way up the back of the house till it came to the window. The question that came to mind was: how does it get all that body into that little shell? I never found out because it turned round and disappeared. I looked at the back wall of the house but it was nowhere to be seen. If my house was covered with creeper, it would be easy for a snail to climb up, but my walls are bare.

Well, tomorrow, I’ll try something new with my oven. A tray baked poussin with lemon, asparagus, onion and carrot.
Wait and see how that turns out. I practically gave up cooking after dh died 17 years ago. Think it’s time I stared again.
Watch this space.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202006/medium-375560-p1013675.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202006/medium-711772-p1013680.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202006/medium-835895-p1013684.jpg

Top of the day to you lovely lot. Glorious sunshine. Much to attend to and doing my best to get my body motor into gear.

Thank you for all your messages. You help me to keep "stuff" that niggles away in my head in perspective. I need you right now. We need each other.

Last night, the sunset was another stunner. I took photographs throughout the evening and had trouble selecting my favourites. Here they are...for you...with love.

Sunday AGAIN. How does that happen and so quickly? Nice to see that the Kitchen fridge and worktops are groaning with goodies but it does seem that obstacles need to be overcome and tempers need to be kept when new ovens and cake tins are involved. I've lost count of the times that cake-y things overflow in my oven. But got very used to putting anything onto a tray which could be removed and dealt with in the sink without too much difficulty and bad language.

Your late Papa sounds like he faced life's buggerations head on, soop. There can often be something very amusing about hearing 'honest' descriptions of someone's (bad) day! Probably the difference between a moan and a rant. Rants can often be hilarious - as long as someone else is having one! Inside most of us is a Mr Meldrew trying to escape....

to you Morethan. Keep strong and hope your head gets better very quickly.

Glad you enjoyed your curry, Nannytopsy - a nice change from endless home cooking, I should imagine.

I'm so pleased to see that Cherry is up and running again. Well, maybe not quite running but the happy chat and empathy she always shows on here does sound like most of her cylinders are firing again. Have a happy day and happy breast of lamb. It's years since we ate that, must investigate if our local butchers will prepare that. Sometimes - especially for roast pork - butchers are quite baffled by English cuts of meat. Just as well we don't eat a lot of meat, we would possibly have had to open our own shop by now in order to cater for all the differences. Crackling? Are you quite mad? etc., etc.,

Susan - was most impressed to learn that you are going to seek help privately for Henry's diet. Irritating that you should need to do that but the main thing is that he won't be suffering from all the nonsense, inefficiency and delays any more. It's really scandalous but if you can do something about it, get on and do it is my motto. Fingers crossed that you'll be able to get your appointment soon.

Can't praise enough your fabulous Albatross painting, Izabella. How wonderful that you can produce something like that. Hope it will be framed and put somewhere prominent for visitors to admire.

Dreamkeeper - your trip to the sea is getting closer. Bet you'll be so excited to go somewhere with a different view and different air, but all seen from your car. My DH often says that it never fails to amaze him that we could just get in our car (in normal life!) and just drive and drive and pass through countries and see different scenery, all from the security of a little "box on wheels". I suppose it is something that so many take for granted. Hope a sea/lake trip with flask and picnic will soon become a reality for you both. In the meantime, take special care of yourselves and each other!

Lins you are often late to bed like me. Initially I felt that if I was really really tired I would sleep better when panicking about the confines to come. However, I didn't sleep better, I was just a lot more tired. Duh! . I would read which always makes me fall asleep, but am waiting for new glasses, so am anxious not to make my eyes more tired by struggling to focus late at night. I've taken to re-organising the garden (in my head) and this is better than counting sheep.( That never worked even when we had sheep!!!!!) Or I start planning a huge turnout of my clothes cupboards. Anything to keep away the worrying thoughts which clamour for attention when we think the whole world (except us) is sleeping, and all problems can feel so much worse.

Wishing you all a very happy day. We have a very warm day here but lots of clouds and lots of wind. Not very June/not very South of France! Take care everyone, sending hugs. x

Evening All.
I'm very glad that you had the procedure too Morethan and hope it heals well for you. The MacMillan nurses will take some pressure off your son and provide some personal care for your dil, I just wish the children didn't have to witness it all, no wonder you cry, there are many here who have shed tears whilst reading your posts ?xx.
Hope Mr Doodle's bruises are fading fast and that he is far more comfortable in his nether regions now.

A lovely painting Izabella very fine, made me start humming Fleetwood Mac's Albatross, a favourite of mine.
Naughty Sam for not liking his pup cakes N&G, lovely masks and medals for you grandchildren.
Went for a walk earlier and the wind was so cold I could have done with gloves. I made some beef chilli this morning and there is plenty left, so I'll put some in the Kitchen fridge, help yourselves, soured cream and grated cheese on the side.
Going to listen to the midnight news on radio 4 now, my only news fix of the day. Hope we all get some sleep xx

morethan, being mainly a lurker, I have just caught up with pages and pages on this post. I am without words for you and your family. My thoughts and prayers are with you all. Keep safe and well.

Always enjoying the artistic work you treat us to Soop and now we find yet another source of talent,indeed Isabella your albatross picture was truly stunning.Such a worthwhile and restful hobby.
You are a very talented lady,your way with words are also second to none.

You are truly wetting my appetite for sights and sounds of the sea Callistemon along with Susan and Daisyboots......I fear that Broad Haven maybe just too busy as we truly fear getting involved with any one whilst this virus is far too near the 1.
Bosherston Lily ponds are again such a pleasure to visit though much as we love the South side of our county where we lived for over 25 years,it will involve far too much driving for us now...........we know our limits!
I can honestly say that you will thorough enjoy the beauty and diversity that Wales offers Daisyboots,whilst if you enjoy wild,rugged stunning far reaching sea panoramas ........and plenty of castles!!....you would love Pembrokeshire.

Thank you for that lovely remark Annodomini,you too Soop but quite frankly with my latest brush with cancer I had little choice and was terrified of entering a distant Hospital in the mid of this Pandemic.
I watch the Covid-19 situation with great care and yes indeed the North West and South West are truly having a rough time.
I firmly believe that the virus travelled into the South West when the country were given the freedom to drive everywhere,the very next week the Hospital in Weston Super Mare was virtually filled with Covid patients.
We await much the same happening with great dread......when the England /Wales border is opened and we get inundated with holiday makers.

We honestly thoughjt that this was the day when we might get a good rainfall,in reality therte has`nt been enough to dampen the terraces as yet!!! Tomorrow and the coming week look promising again although much cooler than a week ago.

Sending best wishes to all,have pleasant dreams.

Lots of busy people, unlike us! I have finished sewing up a cardigan for DGD and ordered the buttons but that doesn’t really justify a whole day!
We had a tremendous thunderstorm with torrential rain then hail this afternoon, which livened us up!
It seems our quiz tonight is cancelled - people are getting quizzed out I think. We have made our first venture into JustEat - a curry will be delivered later! ?
Enjoy your evening everyone.