Soop's warm and welcoming kitchen for kindly folk.

Jaxjacky my best wishes to your poorly DH. I hope he gets better soon. Brook the process will take months!, The local office of guardianship is inundated. However I've started so I'll finish a la Mastermind 😂

Oh dear, it’s going to be a long process Grandmabatty

DH and I sorted out our P of A before Christmas, you never know what’s ahead, just want it to be as easy as possible for the children.

Galen

Hello. Just to say I’m still alive (just) can’t remember if I told you that I had a stroke last August and I haven’t really recovered.
I also have COPD and possibly heart failure.
I hav e a wonderful mother who and daughter pair of cleaner come carer helping me. The daughter is partnered by a very able qualified Gardner who has my garden looking wonderful after the mess Gary had left it in.
Hope to keep in touch with you all better in future.

Hello, I have been wondering why you haven’t been posting, but assumed that people knew and I’d missed it, as I only read the “kitchen” every so often.

You were one of the first people that I had contact with in 2011? Remember the party in Glastonbury? It was such fun, and Duncan provided the meat for the barbecue.

Then later our boats sailed out of Southampton towards the Mediterranean.

Well galen I am so sorry to hear of your stroke and health problems. I send my very best wishes for you to recover as well as you possibly can.

Whitewave

Hello kitchen people.
I’m back in Kew for a couple of nights. Back home on Saturday morning.
Granddaughter is currently at judo and when she gets back, pasta is on the menu.
OH picked his new car up today. I won’t see it until Saturday.
The drive to Kew is usually fine until I turn off the motorway. It is less than two miles to my son’s place, but the roads are a nightmare. There are no shortcuts.
I will spend a bit of time at Kew Gardens tomorrow. I need to stack up on honey marmalade. I might have lunch there too.
Have a good evening.

Grannygravy I did my poa last year too. "Ladyleftfieldlover* I have never eaten honey marmalade. It sounds lovely

soop I’ve just caught up with your troublesome trip, I hope you are both feeling rested now.

Good to hear from you Galen, I was telling the Glasgow Grans about some of the very early meet ups in Edinburgh and that several Gransnetters had travelled a fair distance join us, you were one of them I remember.

Grannygravy that sounds an awful situation with your house.
I’ll wave back to you, Jax, next week! I’m envious of you having a skip. I’ve always wanted to hire one but even when we had our mega-declutter before moving we didn’t have one. ☹️ Still, we did get to visit an industrial recycling plant instead. Members of the general public could go there to get papers shredded. We had nine boxes of papers to dispose of so our home shredder couldn’t cope. That was an interesting visit, lots to see!
It’s chilly here this evening, Brook. A nice day but not warm. I’m hoping it’ll warm up a bit for the weekend so I can garden.

We seemed to have a lot of deliveries here today. First the postie brough a new backpack for my travels. Then Amazon came with some leggings with pockets and 48 tins of cat food followed by a delivery of a new rug from Dunelm for when the house is finally repaired.

I’ve been out to an NWR meeting today which was nice and gave my brain some work to do. I’ve just made weekend arrangements to visit a garden centre with my closest friend. I’m sure coffee will be involved! Before then, it’s childcare tomorrow with GS. We haven’t seen him for more than a week so I expect we’ll get an effusive greeting from him. ❤️

Sweet dreams, everyone. Xxx

White wave. I well remember that party with whackybacccy vodka jellies Donald the cat dog and who could forget the firemen !

SueD, a skip is wonderfully therapeutic and gives you permission to get rid of all sorts of unrecycalable junk, leaving you virtuous and tidy and possibly a little smug. I thoroughly recommend one, especially if taking stuff to the local tip is becoming more and more difficult.

baubles

soop I’ve just caught up with your troublesome trip, I hope you are both feeling rested now.

Good to hear from you Galen, I was telling the Glasgow Grans about some of the very early meet ups in Edinburgh and that several Gransnetters had travelled a fair distance join us, you were one of them I remember.

I was thinking about that Edinburgh "mini national" yesterday. It was December 2013. I came up from Essex, Galen from the West and Cari flew up from GNHQ.

Lovely to hear from Galen again.

Glad to hear your grans meet up went well .Galen Sorry to read you are unwell good to see you posting again. Seems a lot of you are getting out and about ,I am going to physio this afternoon More exercises I suppose.Soop what a day you had ! Have a good day all

Lovely to see you again Galen. SueD now you have a lovely amount of food for those darlings, they are likely to turn up their noses and walk away. I was well used to that when I had a cat and she ate wet food. For medical reasons, she had to eat dry for many years and she just loved it.

soop the pair of you need to rest at home and put that recent nightmare behind you.

I must go for my Covid vaccine on the way to the charity shop to drop off a lovely selection, some still have labels I am ashamed to say.

TOYA

GrannyGravy Someone was known to say..."this too shall pass..."you deserve all the comforters available to you. The large glass of chilled white wine is an ideal starter.

Galen I was one of the grans that visited your lovely home in the early days. We had great fun. I have a group photograph somewhere. It was a super happy memory.

A special get-well-soon hug for Mr Jax.

The sun is shining and Mr S is cutting the grass. I've been wiping down the grubby outdoor paintwork with a solution of some yellow stuff for which one needs to wear rubber gloves.

I'm going to ride the exercise bike for half an hour. After which, a friendly game of Scrabble.

Hello kitchen people.
It’s good to be back home. I was supposed to be staying in Kew a second night but my granddaughter was slightly under the weather so her mum wants to keep an eye on her tonight. So, I dropped her off at school, returned to their place and broke the end off the front door key! I contacted son’s partner and told her I would stay in until she got back. I looked up key cutters in the area but I would have required proof of ownership, which I obviously don’t have. Anyway, son’s partner got back and said she had been in touch with my son (who is away on an Army thing) and said there was a spare key in a safe box. She didn’t know the code. But, I did!!! About five years I had to put a key back in the safe box and had made a note of the code on my iPhone and it was still there. Such a relief and all was well.
I then had a 2-hour drive in torrential rain on the M4. I am now shattered. I texted OH, who is off shooting targets somewhere, and told him I had booked a table for dinner at one of our favourite restaurants. He said a friend had given him a huge trout, but I said that we could freeze it.
Have a good evening everyone. This rain should stop soon, surely?

Hi all, liveliest part of the day, sun and blue sky after cloud and a stray shower. Both grandchildren are here, pizzas in the oven, MrJ can’t smell or taste, but he’ll eat one, I’m having fish pie. The shower tray arrived today, gardening friend and I put lots of bark on the garden and planted cornus, a dwarf buddleia with some fuschia. Our local roads are mayhem as fibre is being put in.
Good job you remembered that key llfl.

Good evening dear Kitcheners. I missed catching up yesterday as I fell asleep right after dinner. I’m managing to do more, pacing myself, but I’m exhausted by bedtime! However I’m also sleeping better so have more energy in the morning, though it takes a while to get going if I want to avoid dizzy spells.

Big hugs to anyone under the weather, TOYA ❤️

Good evening Kitcheners. We've had a dry, sunny day here. Cold though. Ladyleftfieldlover you deserve that meal out. Jaxjacky a busy day for you. Soop I have that yellow stuff too. I haven't used it for ages.
The meeting about mum was fine. My difficult brother was ok and we are starting to look for a care home. I went to see mum afterwards and got emotional when I left because she said, "Bye, take care Toots," which is what she called me when I was younger.
The rest of the day I have been lazy and pottered about. Good news from dd that dgs1 has a place at the school they wanted. Its across the playground from the nursery so he knows it well. Have a good evening Kitcheners

Good evening kitchen pals, it’s been a lovely sunny day here in Inverness, a bit of a cold wind though so still needed my coat
on
Hope your DGD is ok llfl and feeling much better soon. Sounds like a busy day but at least you got the key sorted!
You must need the rest Blossoming especially if you’re doing a bit more
I was out all afternoon with my pal, we enjoyed a longish walk and then a coffee to recover 😀
Pleased to hear the meeting about your mum was ok grandmabatty and brilliant news that your DGS got into the school he wanted! He can look forward to it now!

Better weather here, too, Brook though I hesitate to say warm.
I’m glad things were straightforward with your bro, GMbatty.
I also got into the garden later this afternoon, Jax. Mostly tidying, taking out grass and moss from between paving slabs and cutting down spent daffodil stalks and ornamental grasses. I’m not sure they’ve survived the winter but there’s still hope. Ditto for my rosemary, which seemed to have come through the winter ok but in the past few weeks of bitter winds from the north, it’s gone brittle and grey. I’ve cut it back and will 🤞it recovers.
Proof of ownership to get spare keys cut, LLFL?? I’ve never heard of that! We’ve had lots done for our new house and it’s never been questioned.
GSomerset I want a skip even more now.
I did think that, Charleygirl when I ordered so much cat food. It had to be done, though, as I need to leave enough for the cat sitters while we’re away. They do eat Hills biscuits as well and ideally, they’ll eventually only have those, once they’re fully grown.

I made another step in house repairs today, managing to locate the supplier of the original carpets, so the replacement can be matched in. A very pleasant and helpful company to deal with.

We had GS today though not for as long as usual as they’re away for the weekend. We took him out for lunch and he then had the cheek to tell him mummy he was ‘starving’ when we returned him home! Luckily, I’d sent dd a photo of him happily eating his lunch. 😂

We have the weekend to ourselves as dd is away. I’m going to a garden centre tomorrow with a friend, where I am sure coffee will be part of the outing, and then as it seems the weather will be better, getting out into the garden on Sunday.

Have a good weekend, everyone. Xxx

Galen I am sorry to hear your health news. I have a Campsis Madame Galen in the garden and I thought of you only a couple of days ago, then suddenly here you are in the kitchen!
Been a busy few days but I have been keeping an eye on you all. What an awful couple of days soop. Love to you both.

Just a wee visit - (the computer is giving us buggerations) to say, please take good care of yourselves. May your weekend be pleasant and peaceful. And, long may the sun continue to shine.

Good afternoon kitchen pals, I’m just in from the garden and enjoying a cuppa before I get something in the oven to eat later
I’ve been painting the garden fence, it’s not a job I enjoy but it badly needs doing. I thought I’d do maybe a couple of panels a day and then it’s not too bad …
I didn’t get chance to see DD2 today but I did have a chat on the phone with her. I think they’re all coming round for something to eat tomorrow teatime so looking forward to that
Sounds like you’re making progress SueD and good that you’ll be able to match up the carpets
I had to look that plant up nannytopsy it looks really nice, it’s probably too cold up here though as only the hardiest things survive
Good to see you soop sending 🩷

Thinking of you both Soop.
I’ve had some very sad news this week so not up to posting much.Our very best friends have had terrible news.He has end stage kidney disease and now on palliative care.We always did everything together.Probably the best discovering Greece together with our children!Sorry for bad news I won’t post for a while plus nothing very interesting to say.
Wishing you all the very best,will be thinking of you all.

Yiayia that is very sad news indeed. I'm thinking of him and also you and your family.

Yia so very sorry to hear that, you must be heartbroken, hold your memories close.
SueD, GrannySomerset is so right about a skip, I’m clearing daft areas like the cupboard under the sink in my enthusiasm to fill it. Sadly MrJ is not improved, so the shed remains intact, despite his minor protestations I’ll be pushing for him to see a GP first thing Monday.
The grandchildren have now gone to stay with my daughters best friend tonight, they are a pleasure, our grandson is like The Hungry Caterpillar too.
Imogen and I sowed some flower seeds in pots, the greenhouse was pleasant, but distinctly chilly outside.