Soop's warm and welcoming kitchen for kindly folk.

Good afternoon kitcheners. Soop and others. Hopefully your bathroom refit will be done soon. Thank you all for your words about dgs1's sleepover. Today continued with a breakfast of fresh fruit salad and popcorn. Then a cup of tea. We went to Tesco for ingredients for making slime. Sadly it wasn't too successful so I will experiment with it. He was happy though. Second breakfast was a roll on sausage then we visited my neighbour who are not long back from holiday. He was given a warm biscuit and scoffed it. I dropped him off and came home to tidy up the toys in the house and garden. Then I visited mum for a while. I'm not long back and having a cuppa before I tackle a small ironing and make the bed. So a quietly busy day. Brook I hope you have enjoyed your two. Blossoming my heating has been off and on for days now.
A sirloin steak, asparagus tips and tender stem broccoli with chips for dinner. Maybe hollandaise sauce if I can be bothered. Then a choux bun to finish off a nice weekend. Enjoy your evening Kitcheners.

Good evening dear Kitcheners. It’s been a lovely sunny day here, but so cold! There’s a really chilly wind blowing off the river. Mr B did some gardening, mostly tending to his plants in the greenhouse. Meanwhile I had a walk around the Marina and watched the boats for a while. Omelettes for tea later.

Good to hear from you Soop, hope the bathroom renovations and the family gathering preparations continue apace.

Your little grandson is such a treasure Grandmabatty, I’m missing my little ones at present but will see them all soon.

You must be getting excited soop!
Whisper it quietly - it has stopped raining.
We went to a plant fair this morning and I have yet another hosta. It’s a giant golden yellow one. Now I just need to get in the garden …

Hi all, well it was dry here Nannytopsy, briefly, about an hour ago it bucketed down again and it was raining first thing, the back lawn is squelchy.
My cough had me up in the night, I start off with my head high on the pillows, then slide down!
MrJ has finished tiling, grouting tomorrow, I’m hoping by tea time Wednesday, we might be done, some price reduction to be discussed with the plumber.
Always a pleasure feeding children with a good appetite Grandmabatty what a lovely visit.

Jaxjacky both boys are good eaters but have different tastes. Dgs1 loves vegetables and fruit and tells you when he's had enough. Dgs2 loves cake, chocolate and biscuits. He will eat lentil soup with carrots so he's a keeper 😂

Our littlest DGS can spot a vegetable and carefully picks out every morsel. He drops them over the side of the high chair for the dog. 🤣

Hello kitchen people. Soop, you must be so excited about your forthcoming family gathering.
I am curled up on the sofa after a massive dinner. We had roast pork and rhubarb crumble. Friends gave us a mass of rhubarb last week so I made a crumble for today’s pudding, served with custard.
We had a short rain storm this afternoon. It was so loud that it sounded like buckets of water being thrown from an upstairs window!
Have a good evening everyone.

Hi kitchen pals, I’ve had a busy enjoyable day here, just sat down to relax now after DGS has gone to bed. We’ve had DD2 and family here most of the day, it’s lovely seeing them all but quite full on.
We’ve had rain on and off all day and it’s cold too - good job I wasn’t planning to do any gardening
Thank goodness MrJ can do the tiling Jax even though he wasn’t supposed to! Hope your cough goes soon
What a lovely family visit to look forward to soop you must both be so excited
What a lovely weekend grandmabatty 😇❤️

An absolutely flying through the kitchen door visit to say 'Hi' to everyone. I have been absent with leave...nothing horrible this time ..just lots of work and 'things' that creep up one after the other and eat my days. I'm flat out again this week but will still be thinking of you all.. and looking forward to a proper catch up very soon. X

Good evening kitchen pals, it’s been a good dry day here in Inverness. Lots of washing done and dried outside, a bit of gardening and a bit more gardening
Pleased to hear all is ok neine and will catch up soon

Hi all, we had some sad news this morning which has cast a cloud over the day.
The voluntary phone has been very busy, I’ve sorted all the lifts out, just the online updates to sort tomorrow.
It HASN’T rained today, hurrah, in fact the sun has shown its face intermittently, greenhouse needed a light watering.
Quiz soon, we’re a man down, but we’ll give it a go!
Catch you later neine.

I’m sorry you’ve had sad news, Jax. I think I shared in that sporadic Hants sunshine today, though. I daftly assumed it would be warmer down south than in Scotland. Wrong! I had to go and buy a thick cardigan and wore socks in bed. 🥶

Ds has just dropped us off at LHR for our flight home after a lovely few days here with double birthday celebrations. We’ll be hitting the ground running tomorrow, lots of things to catch up on. Can’t wait to see the kittens again!

TOYA. Xxx

Good evening Kitcheners. I've gone to bed early to recover from childcare. I've had a good day with dgs2 but it's tiring. It's a luxury, lying in bed reading. Jaxjacky I'm sorry that you have had bad news. 💐

Good to hear you’ve had a great weekend SueD with the birthday celebrations, safe travels home
No wonder you’re tired grandmabatty hope you sleep well and recharge your batteries for tomorrow
Jax ❤️

Good evening dear Kitcheners. It’s been a cloudy day here, with some rain, and much warmer.

I went for a walk along the riverside path as it’s a bit more sheltered. I didn’t stop for a rest at the sitooterie as the rain was getting heavier and I was nearly home.

Glad you’ve eaten the weekend SueD, safe travels.

Sorry you’ve had bad news Jax ❤️

I’m in bed and so sleepy, I have more energy at the moment but am still exhausted by bedtime.

Goodnight all 🌹

Good morning everyone, I know it’s only 5.25am, horribly early but I’ve been awake for ages………
I need a cup of coffee please.
Not a lot going on here other than having a garden shed and a summerhouse put up in the back garden. I got rid of my greenhouse (it literally went over the fence into my neighbour’s garden with the help of four strong men!)
The shed is up thanks to a wonderful man from the village (there was absolutely no way I was doing it with DH, he doesn’t ‘do’ reading or following instructions and my patience evaporated with the very thought of being involved 😵‍💫)
So today it’s sorting out the bits that came out of the greenhouse and setting up the shelving etc.
The summerhouse gets erected Friday, I’ve paid for the company to install it, I am really excited!
It’s been bitterly cold here, we had over an inch of rain on Sunday night, everything is sodden. Will we ever have dry weather again?
I will leave a plate of pastries on the side, the coffee might be cold before anyone else joins me here!

Good afternoon Kitcheners,the pasties sound nice RosesandLilac but I think it might be iced coffee by now.
Hello Naughtyniene have a good week.
Sorry you had some sad news Jax thinking of you.🌹

It was lovely to see DS2 at the weekend.I won’t see him now until the hen afternoon tea in July.The confirmation of DGS3 went well and he looked very smart an so grown up.Posting photo.
Have a lovely afternoon everyone.I hope the sun is shining for you all.

Greetings to our lovely Kitcheners.

Bathroom is still in the process of being updated.

Neighbours have called in for a long blether. I was given a bottle of my favourite perfume; Oscar by Oscar de la Renta. Bowled over! What a wonderful surprise.

I am still searching for appropriate gifts to take to the family gathering. Not too many remain outstanding. I've enjoyed the challenge. It's a good thing that we've opted to travel by car. Hauling a large suitcase would be a bit of a buggeration.

It is raining. I must ride my exercise bike. After which, I shall exercise my grey cells and play Scrabble.

I wish all our poorly Granspals a speedy recovery. I always prescribe plenty of rest and copious helpings of TLC.

Hello kitchen people. What a treat, Soop! I love perfume.
OH has gone to buy some thicker gloves. He aggravated his bees yesterday and was stung five times! Twice on his chin and three times on his hand. He was wearing proper bee protection too. There is a lot of redness and swelling even though he took an antihistamine and lathered on copious amounts of cream.
I made our favourite very rich chocolate cakes this afternoon. Half to keep and the half to take to my friend’s this evening.
My daughter and I are planning to go to Helsinki in July. Our last mum and daughter trip was to Vienna a couple of years ago. Before that we went to Stockholm.
Have a good evening. I will be cobbling together a dinner combining left over pork, rice, curry powder, soy sauce and peas…

Good afternoon kitchen pals, it’s been warm here today about 16° but cloudy
Lots of exciting garden news rosesandlilac can you share a picture? I’d love a summerhouse but I don’t think we’ve got the right space to enjoy the best of the sunshine, but I do really enjoy sitting in the sun in my conservatory
Sounds like your doing well in getting everything sorted soop well done
I met my friend for coffee earlier, we’re really good therapy for each other, generally having a wee moan about this and that and putting the world to rights! Home now and DH is cooking dinner
Your poor DH llfl I bet those bee stings are painful, what a shame for him especially as he had all the gear on too
Gorgeous picture of your DGS Yia you must be very proud
Blossoming 💐

Good evening Kitcheners. The boys are long gone. Dgs2 was a challenge today. Lots of toddler behaviour to deal with. He wasn't bad, just wild. Dgs1 got an excellent report from nursery. Tesco has delivered and I've eaten a ready meal curry. I never do that! I've tidied up the house and hoovered so the evening is mine. Brook sitting in a conservatory in the sun sounds blissful. Ladyleftfieldlover your poor husband. It sounds very painful.
Have a good evening Kitcheners.

Hi, all white goods for the en-suite delivered today, fingers crossed tomorrow should be shower day, I’ll be thinking of you soop.
What a lovely colour suit Yia I like it, not boring.
I bet *SueD has had a great kitten reunion, or maybe not, cats can be rather aloof.
Enjoy your garden buildings Roses our shed is so tidy, now to keep it that way 🙂, it’s been sunny today until about 4, then a few spots of rain, seed trays out, now in.
Ouch llfl.

Evening everyone! WI committee done, gardener has been and DD and DGC arriving tomorrow. DS and his tribe are joining us for pizza at tea time so another busy day! On the other hand, it’s lovely to have everyone together. You’ll soon be with your crowd soop!

Soop what sort of gifts are you buying for people? I’m getting a bit stumped for new ideas! The older GC are happy to have money nowadays, which makes that simpler, but adults are challenging especially when they already have everything.
A summerhouse, Roses&Lilac! How lovely.
Yikes at the bee stings, LLFL. I hope your Dh is in less pain today.

We arrived home late Monday night. The cats were very happy to see us and have been especially loving. That may not be the case for the girl this evening, as she is at the V.E.T. right now, for her ‘op’. She’s probably going to be a bit cross when she gets home. Also, next door’s cat has been terrorising them, staring through our French doors at them. It’s hard to know how to deal with that. I know the standard deterrent is to chuck water at him, but he scarpers before I can get the door open.

We’ve caught up with laundry and restocked the fridge yesterday - GD will be wanting her snacks before her ballet class this afternoon! My garden is making me happy, as so many bulbs are out now. Today is dull but in yesterday’s sun, they looked lovely. The garden is still new and raw but I feel as though I’m making a difference. My son down south had spent wild primroses in his garden so I collected some seed heads and will try to grow them for my own garden.

I collected new glasses yesterday but I’m not getting on very well with them. The varifocals are terrible, I can’t see to drive so will have to use my old ones for now. I was also talked into getting some fancy reading glasses, too, but wish I’d stuck to the old school type for that, as well. Oh dear.

I hope everyone has a good day. Xx

Good evening dear Kitcheners. My good intentions for a daily catchup have fallen by the wayside. I’m managing to walk every day but I am so tired by evening that I fall asleep. I’m pleased with my progress and I’m sleeping well most nights.

Today I have been for a walk involving quite a lot of steep and tricky steps. I like to ‘pay my respects’ to the river from time to time and it’s May Day 😊 I love watching the water and the reflections of the clouds.

MrB set off in the opposite direction, he can walk further and faster than me!

Chicken curry and rice for dinner, after which I will probably fall asleep 💤

Sending a virtual hug to you all, lovely people ❤️