Good evening Kitchen types on a miserable drizzly day when certainly the rain has been really quite wet !! ?
The winters are a lot easier here, Brook, but never fear you will be soon reunited with travel to warm foreign parts. Our world torment must surely be at an end, soon-ish? (Everything crossed for that!)
Lovely photographs of the lovely 3, soop. Sorry to hear that your usual upbeat and positive spirits are taking a bit of a beating at the moment. I too have my moments! I think we are all sick to the back teeth of living like this, quite frankly. We've done all the moods backwards, forwards and sideways - positive, determined, stoic, sad, tearful, desperate, uplifted and maybe by now we've arrived at Can't be Arsed?!! ?
Friends keep us going, family keeps us going, partners keep us going, but I think there are limits. So....if we've all had quite enough and we want to sit in a corner, just sometimes, and sulk or just stare out of the window and do nothing, then we've earned that.
Meanwhile, back in the real world.....wonderful to hear that you may be making a bid for freedom soon, Galen. You will have everyone's permission to clean your local shop out of all their Marmite stocks!
I too had a very pretty Russian doll set when my kids were very small. The smallest doll was tiny and, as you say, GrandmaB it pays to keep an eye on very young children with little wooden bits. In order to save any accidents, one of our dogs chewed the very tiny ones - so thoughtful; but the other dolls survived for many years. I don't have such a set now. Instead I have a round (difficult to open) wooden set showing a rather rakish Pussy Pirate and his fluffy Girlfriend in nautical mode, supposedly rowing around the world. The set has seen quite a bit of wear, possibly due in part to its having been hurled across the room in frustration when various small people couldn't open the wooden balls easily.
Laughed at your raiding squirrel, Nannytopsy. We do have supplies of nuts and sunflower seeds which are vacuumed up in the mornings by visiting starlings, blackbirds, and finches. Yesterday afternoon we came home to a solitary figure sitting in the middle of the bird table in the sun. A lovely young Siamese cat from a near neighbour who always visited to play with our recently deceased old boy cat. I think she might have been waiting in vain for him rather than birds, so we gave her the benefit of the doubt.
Grandmajet - so welcome with the drop scones. You MUST visit when you can, especially with cake! You won't find a nicer thread than this if you feel like some company later in the day!
We're eating Moussaka tonight, so even though it's quite tempting - I do love baked chocolate semolina - I shall give it a miss, today, Mollygo. Do hope you are not trying to get us into further bad ways. You can be "portly" if you wish, N&G. I shall try to remain "comely" - and seriously avoid "stout" or "ample" for a while!!!! What a struggle it all is! Glad you are feeling so much better. I did laugh at "Porky". Little boys just don't care - but at least it was aimed at Sam, so be grateful?
All the missing persons - we miss you and just hope you're well. I shall include dragonfly in my shout out.
Stay safe, stay sane. Hugs to all. x ?
Not! Seriously, that is good news for you. Will you have support when you are back in your own home? You will need it. 
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now and back later.
