Soop's welcoming kitchen for kindly caring folk...

Good night Urmston.

‘Evening All’
?

There’s a happier buzz in this kitchen tonight I can tell. All the news about long awaited vaccinations and negative test results. Good news indeed.

We’ve just eaten corned beef hash and really enjoyed it. I don’t make it very often but someone mentioned it on the sister-thread (Good Morning) and I just fancied some myself!

I had a routine dental appointment this morning and was very impressed with all the precautions that the surgery had put in place. I was happy to be told ‘see you in six months’!

Hope everyone has a pleasant and peaceful night ahead.

‘Goodnight All’.

I have heard that Soop and Chicken have found each other

Afternoon everyone. It has been a weird day weather wise here on the Welsh side of the Bristol Channel coast. The day began with a thick covering of frost and blue sky, by 11 it was raining and much milder. DD took the puppy Sam for a walk and got soaked, it is still raining.
I am sorry to hear about yourself friend Urm the loss of such a friend does indeed feel like the end of an era. I would send flowers to his wife, often they convey as much if not more than words.
I remember the Silvine exercise books and the times tables on the back. We are of a similar age I think.
I miss bookshops very much, we had one in our little town for years and went in regularly when our children were small. If one of their friends had a birthday, I always gave them a book as a present. I miss the smell of new books, particularly the new textbooks and exercise books I gave out in school.
Loved Waterstones, Mr Lins went to Waterstones in Swansea regularly to have an espresso and browse the books while I went shopping. We haven't been for nearly a year now so I don't know if it's still there, maybe Cherry will know??

I know that some have received the vaccine in our local surgery and a local taxi firm is giving free lifts to those without transport, a kind deed.
A warm welcome to Muse, lovely name.
I will leave a chocolate sponge filled with jam and chocolate buttercream on the sideboard.
We are having risotto tonight with a bit of this and a bit of that thrown in, only one rule - it must contain lashings of cider. Big panic a little while ago as I couldn't find any, then Mr L unearthed a bottle in the garage, it was bought in Brittany about five years ago and has a date of 2018 on it. It will be fine.....
I remember * Chicken* and Baker, I don't recall hearing from them for a while though.
Enjoy your flowers soop.

Hi all, another distanced doorstep drop for grandson’s 8th birthday today, the yearning for a big hug doesn’t reduce. DD told me from next week 2 self tests a week, for her, will be delivered, she works in a school. Fridays just meld into the rest of the week, used to be our pub night, catch up with mates and have some banter for a couple of hours, sorely missed. Anyway, that’s not cheerful....the sun shone most of the day and we may, big may, get some white stuff on Sunday here in the South, it would make me smile! TTFN.

Hello the kitchen! Did our click and connect and paid a visit to the butcher but apart from that, nothing. I am feeling very lazy.
DH waiter in for a consultant’s phone call on Monday ( their second offer) and Wednesday ( the original date) but nothing. Today he got a letter telling him off for not attending and giving a new appointment in MAY. When he phoned, the hospital told him there was no appointment for him this week on his file. Why can these people not listen to what a patient is saying? Instead of getting to the bottom of it, he accepted the May appointment. Honestly! Cross? Moi?!

Where be Chicken these days. I am somewhat confused. Do hope that I can solve the problem. I need to thank her properly and won't rest until I've done so.

N&G I am missing life as we knew it. I loved my ironing job and the blethering with friends. I miss hugging folk. I miss my family most. Please may these weeks in the wilderness have a satisfactory conclusion. A visit to the local inn/coffee shop/cinema...all simple pleasures that mean we can be sociable, these things I miss, as do we all.

I love you lot. Thank you for listening to my witterings. I trust that I shall be better company tomorrow. Each day is a new beginning.

Afternoon all,

Its a slow day here in deepest , darkest Norfolk. Come to think of it , they're all slow days now!

I miss life. Its certainly passing us by these days.

But what I miss most is NOT having to think about a meal, shop for a meal, cook a meal and clear the darn thing up ! Grampy does take a turn but I miss eating out. A small thing in these troubled times but there it is.

Other than that, I hope all is well in the kitchen and all the kitcheners are getting by !

Puzzler - I only just saw your comment about Duncan getting a calendar to organise his "small person-free days!! Love it - he knows when mum appears to feed him at 5.30 that it's going to be one of those days Haha!! Soop I will have to get him in a more paint-able pose for you

Soop, Chicken is Bakers Mum.

Good afternoon lovely people - hope everyone is as well as possible in these strange times. Puzzler what beautiful amaryllis . I'm just enjoying a cup of lady grey, a chapter of my book and Duncan has just come to join me. Mr BA ordered me a football shirt for Christmas (I did want it in case anyone is wondering!!), around the middlle of November. Christmas came and went with no sign of the shirt... anyway santa must have been in the area today because it has arrived!! And it was not on a slow boat from China - it was from Sheffield . Chicken Kievs and salad on the menu tonight and - cheers everyone

Galen I bags a slice of your boiled fruit cake.

I'm also heartened to hear that some of you lot have had "jags" and some have appointments. Us lot in Kintyre are waiting for supplies of vaccine to arrive at our local surgeries.
We are patient peoples.

Today I received some gorgeous flowers from Baker's "Mum". I remember Baker well. An exceedingly handsome boy cat. I have a photo of his portrait in my album. Only thing is, I'm ashamed to admit that, in the heaps of names and addresses and other pertinent details, I have mislaid details of Baker's Mum. I wish to thank her. Please help me if you can.

Some really heartening news here today! Soop I hope you feel more like yourself soon. Still no sign of the gas engineer though but I refuse to let it annoy me. Blue skies outside and a very clean and tidy house.

Yes Urmston flowers are always a joy and lets them know they are in your thoughts.
I tend to write quite long letters describing good times we had together. It is something they can read and look back on.

We have had great excitement this afternoon in the dragonfly pond. We got a call from our GP at 12.45 asking us if we could be at the surgery by 1.15. They had two vaccinations over and thought of us. We dashed down there so now we both have had one. I told the doctor it was the most exciting thing that had happened to us all year.

Boiled fruit cake just gone into the oven.
The phone went this am. It was our local surgery asking me if it would be ok for their nurse to come on Monday morning to give me the COVID-19 VACCINATION!
Of course I said yes.
My opinion for what it’s worth is that only an idiot would decline!
GNHQ, if that’s controversial, hard luck.

I am feeling a wee bit "spaced out". My concentration is not firing on all cylinders. I can only think that I have cabin fever. This fogginess will lift.

Although it's sunny, it is cold and blustery. We didn't take our daily stroll earlier today. Being outside with trees and birdsong is uplifting. I keep reminding myself that there is new life ready and waiting to emerge. When it does, we'll all share in the sense of new beginnings.

Greetings to Namsnanny, do hope that continue to come into the kitchen.

Maw Thank you for the quotation. Beautifully melodious.

Grandmabatty I am pleased that one of your recent major concerns has been proven to be negative. We are all hoping for positive news post surgery.

Important message. PLEASE will Baker's "Mum" pm me?

Sorry to just launch myself into this thread, but wanted to say Amaryllis still being sold, but planted up grannysyb

What a beautiful amaryllis, wonder if I can still buy a bulb? Lovely day here walked to the butcher with DH for supplies . He gets the bus back carrying the shopping while I walk back. Glad to hear better news for Grandmabatty, hope the problem can be resolved. I can't believe that Soop is still waiting for BT to get their act together. Hope everyone has a reasonable day.

“Other things” oops.

Hello Kitcheners!
Relief on your behalf Grandmabatty that’s one fear out of the way. The thing is, because we have this huge danger in our faces, we may forget their things like Norovirus (also charmingly called the Winter vomiting virus ) E. Coli, food poisoning, or what we always knew as “gastric flu”
Hope he feels better soon and good that it is being followed up.
The Germans have a saying “Kleine Kinder, kleine Sorgen, große Kinder, große Sorgen ” =“little children little worries, big children, big worries “
We never stop worrying do we?

Thank you*Puzzler61*. I love an amaryllis but weirdly have never grown one. I always buy one for mum at Christmas and used to get one for my best friend's mum too, now sadly deceased. No sign of the gas engineer yet. I have a funny feeling they aren't going to appear.

Oops sorry, the Amaryllis.

We are happy to hear “partial good news” Grandmabatty, still a worrying time for you. Hope you have better news soon. Your SIL needs a diagnosis to understand what is going on with him.
Here’s an Amaryllis that’s just come into bloom this week. I wish I could say I had grown it but mine died before it was more than a stump. My friend has greener fingers than me.

Urmstongran for me flowers are always welcome and can convey so many messages. A lovely gesture for your friend IMO.
Thinking of all the homes and lives being wrecked by floods especially in Cheshire. They must be distraught and I can’t begin to imagine where you start to clear it all up when the water subsides.
Take care everyone.