soop's kitchen for friendly folk and precious pets.

N&G Well, your thick yogurt story had me laughing out loud. Bless.

Charleyg ...almost there.

Greyduster Your grandson's " charming intransigence..." put a smile on my face.

Shin cleaned and redressed. Nurse very happy that there is no sign of infection. Back to see her next week. MacSporran to do his bit in-between time.

Wasn't needed for ironing duties today. My pal needs me tomorrow instead. I shall pop in for the latest news bulletin when I return home.

N&G does that come under the heading of "don't try this at home"??? I read it out to DH and we both fell about!

soop so pleased to hear that your leg is getting better - tell MacS well done and keep up the good work!

N&G that put a smile on my face!

My TV downstairs is not working- a good job that there is nothing for me to watch tonight. The TV was moved and the wiring was tidied- too much I fear. No heating or hot water, the lights are on but nothing is happening.

I am cold so I am going to make a cup of coffee and go to bed with to read. Tara has beaten me to it.

A neighbour has invited me in for coffee tomorrow am- I may move in permanently. A pity that he is allergic to cats and his sister is none too keen as they were not brought up with animals at home.

soop that sounds better- it would appear that the dressing of the wound was not as painful as last week. Standing ironing is not the best for healing the wound. Please, when you return home you will sit down with the leg elevated.

Doesn't sound as if I can uncross my fingers, charley, a way to go yet. Please remain sane, the alternative is not good. Party when it's all done?

Please continue to look after your leg, soop, the progress sounds good but still sounds as if it would benefit from lots of tlc, which I know it and you have been getting. We do seem frustratingly to take longer to mend as we age, not sure why, but I am sure someone will be able to tell me.

Had a bit of a frustrating day today. Went off to clean up my parents headstone and discovered it had been under water again. Their area of the cemetery is at the bottom of a hill and floods from time to time. My protests to the appropriate department have fallen on deaf ears. Scarce resources need to be used elsewhere, for the living I guess. I can understand it but it's not good to see the green where the water has been, still, all clean now and hopefully the quantity if rain will ease a bit. It's made us think that it will be easier for our family if our ashes are scattered. Cheerful souls, aren't we , practical though.

Full of aches and pains so still fairly grumpy, rattle at the moment which upsets the tummy. Onwards though, refuse to sit and mope, have the cleaning to do tomorrow. That will be a fun distraction . Plan a rest on Friday as travelling to meet up with a cousin her three adult children and their families on Saturday. We meet roughly half way between our homes. It will be noisy in the little cafe we seem to be taking over, haven't seen my cousin since last summer and can't recall the last time we saw most of her family. No grumping allowed on that day.

n&g I laughed aloud at your yoghurt incident. Knew you wouldn't mind . Have visions of it becoming the stuff of family legend. Embellished with each telling of course.

N&G I sincerely hope that Sam has recovered from the trauma and that you were able to clean the grey carpet. It was funny though.

cornergran sorry but I cannot see the local council spending a penny on gravestones nowadays. One would think that some money would be allocated but obviously not.

Today is supposedly the warmest day of the year, not yet in this neck of the woods.

Tara is a pain, does not want to go out or stay in and it is too chilly to leave the rear door open for madam to come and go as she pleases.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201703/medium-405894-dsc-0503.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/201703/medium-609730-dsc-0525.jpg

Morning all !!

I am glad my yoghurt story raised a laugh . Even now I cannot understand why I thought it would be a good idea !! But you're right it will go down in the annals of family stories

Glad your leg is improving soop .

Your weekend get together sounds like the right medicine Corner I love days like those .

Sam is recovered Charley , although to be fair he loves a good yoghurt pot, has done since a puppy so I don't think he was too traumatised.

I am off to meet another Gnetter today, one of the ladies I met briefly a couple of weeks ago. She and I were the only two from this side of the Dartford Tunnel so we are meeting close to home.

I saw Beauty and the Beast last night with my daughters and granddaughter. It was lovely , very clever but not a patch ( for me ) on the animated version. Emma Watson played a wonderful role though. I sat next to my granddaughter , who lent over during the ballroom scene and said ' Nana I need that dress' !!!

Now she is 10 she is too big for the manufactured ( and expensive) Disney dresses , so it looks like I will be dusting off the sewing machine. I was on holiday in Florida when she saw Frozen and ended up bringing back several yards of sparkly fabric etc and spending hours making her version...I'll add a picture. So watch this space for Belles dress !

Wishing you all a great day x

Good morning
Your GD looks lovely N&G she is lucky to have such a talented gran.
The yoghurt story reminds me that when watching cookery programmes I always long for the newly whisked meringue to fall on someone's head when they lift the bowl to show how clever they are.
My H has a birthday today , he is 81, we both feel we have had enough and the feeling is of acceptance, certainly no excitement but we will have a birthday dinner tonight, just the two of us.
My GS1 was 18 yesterday and apart from his actual birth day we have only seen him once on his birthday.?

ann I was not sure if your H would recognise that he is now a year older today. He will be happier dining in his own surroundings.

I am waiting for the warmest day of the year today. It is mighty chilly at present.

Birthdays can have mixed emotions, ann, my good wishes to your husband and my hopes that you can both enjoy a relaxed meal later

I'd best not show our granddaughters photos of that dress, n&g , there would be many a comment about the lack of talent here in the sewing department. I try, I do try, but the outcome is often shall we say variable. . Enjoy your meet up, good to be closer to home.

It's not only chilly but overcast here, charley, hoping for better later. If the sun comes out no chance of the cleaning being done, it will be off to the beach for a walk. The council person was very kind in response to my question a couple of years ago about what is in essence flood minimisation work. Apparently changes to climate are to blame and no resources allocated as it was never thought to be needed. It's OK while we can go and clean, it will look very sad if we can't. Good luck with the builders today. Do you think they will be done by Saturday?

Time for the jobs, onwards!

Well it's windy, cold and rainy here. Bella is on the windowsill with her grumpy cat face. No sunbeams for her to follow round the house this morning. I am having an "everything aches" sort of day which is a minor tribulation amongst folk in the kitchenThese days. . I may have a hot bath and review the day's activities. Library van then gym. May skip the latter.

I shall return when feeling a little more sociable. Do others get days like this?

"They" say temperatures could hit 19 or 20 today - weird!
It is certainly gloriously sunny but all I have planned is DH's weekly blood test. He might do OK this week, seems a little more proactive and positive.
Feeling sad for my neighbour (and best friend) as she and the family will be going to the funeral of their close friends' 31year old son who was found dead in his flat just 2 weeks ago. A heart attack apparently. It has hit her hard as the young man and his sister were the same ages as her two and they were babies/toddlers together. Just too close to home. I think we can all empathise.

Izabella, yes, I certainly get days like yours. I feel like crawling back to bed with a good crime novel! My gardening lady is coming this afternoon if it stays dry. She is worth her weight in gold for the way she has tamed my jungle. It's now time to re-plant. Two Alpina clematis came in the post yesterday. I got them on Ebay which is a treasure house of horticultural 'finds'. I will nip down to the hardware shop and see if I can get some lime for the clematis.
On Wednesday I made a idiot of myself by cornering too tightly, bumping the kerb and blowing out a tyre. I was starving and dying to find a loo -on the A6? I wish! - and waited an hour for the AA patrol man who replaced the wheel quickly. Time was when I could have done it myself!

Isabella - the gym? Should you? Or is it for therapeutic exercise? You must be putting a lot of strain on your good arm.
Anno, how awful. Hope your bladder and tummy held out. On the driving front I received a fine for £130 last week for exiting a side road into a bus lane for all of a matter of seconds before joining the traffic queue. If I coughed up at once, which I did, the fine was halved. An expensive visit to my DD and DGDs. Apparently that particular Surrey Borough makes shedloads of money that way.

Well I ventured to see my pal gym after all. Decided sitting at home feeling sorry for myself was not really me. So yes Belladonna I did my exercises without stressing my hand and arm. Mainly stretches and treadmill plus the static bikes. I had a brief encounter with the cross trainer recently but my hand in particular is decidedly not ready for that. Lots of squats and a walking cool down followed by a long chat with a pal training for a cross country ski thing in Norway next winter. Impressed. She puts me to shame.

Still, it did the trick and I am feeling my usual positive self again. I may now venture out again into the wind and check on the seedlings in the greenhouse.

Also, with great trepidation having read some awful posts on here about electricians and builders, we are embarking on roof repairs and various other things followed by redecoration. Dreading it.

A bright and breezy good afternoon to you lovely lot. I've done two weeks worth of ironing in one session. We had a lovely, long chat thereafter, with coffee and a not-so-wee dram. I have to confess to being everso slightly tiddly. My friend's husband's niece has died of Cancer. We raised a glass of cheer in her memory - together with their much-loved dog that died last week.

Izabella You are making a fine recovery. Well done.

anno I also enjoy crime novels. At the moment I'm reading Mark Billingham 'Die of Shame'. Who is your favourite author?

MawB Thirty one is far too soon to die.

N&G "That dress" is beautiful. You are such a gifted lady.

annsixty I hope that you and your husband enjoyed the birthday celebration. I have an idea of what it must be like for both of you. Our friend's best friend has Louie? Body type dementia. Friend has spent a week holidaying with the lady concerned. It was HARD work to the extreme. they returned home completely shattered.

Afternoon !!

Had a lovely chat with another gran who is in love with her grandchildren. It was a pleasure to indulge myself and listen to her tales of the little ones. Its definitely something we will do again I think.

Ann I think the whole meringue thing was where I got my yoghurt inspiration but lets not go there !! Happy Birthday to H !! I hope you can take some joy in just a dinner together, it will be in his comfort zone and may make it less stressful for you ?

I am feeling proud , we have cleared( sold, given away or donated) 5 bags of textiles, 3 bags of clothes that are like new, a number ( HUGE) of ornaments and some cuddly toys this afternoon !!!

This all came out of the loft. The remaining boxes of albums etc have been stored away in a wardrobe as we want to scan each picture and name it meaningfully. One of things I am sorry I did not do is help my Mum and Nan to do this as we now have lots of pictures we don't have a clue about. Its a shame to lose our family history.

Izabella you put us to shame with your exercise regime.... but it does sound exhausting so I feel a cheeky little afternoon nap is in order zzzzzzzz

I am on a very high pedestal having had an empty loft since the first day I moved into this house in 1996. The previous loft was jam packed full and as I had spent money transferring my rubbish from one house to the next, I decided never again.

I am certain all of my washing will dry today. I only have to make up my bed within the next hour or so and collapse in it early as usual. I doubt if I will sleep for 9 hours tonight as I have done little today. The silence is golden but I do hope that the fellows return tomorrow and get the work finished.

We'll move over Charley as I am now also clean lofting

Good afternoon to all in the kitchen. Gorgeous afternoon here; warm and breezy. We have been gardening but I've been peculiarly tired and out of sorts from the get-go today, so I have come in and left Himself - the 73 year old Duracell bunny - cleaning the patio. It would be a bad time just now for me to come down with anything! We have a busy weekend and then up early Monday (I mean, like, five o'clock!! ?) to drive down to Wales for a funeral. Maybe I'll follow Izabella's lead and have a soak. (Gym?? Phew!!) And join you soop in a wee dram (I'll skip the coffee, thanks ☺️). What is your particular preference?
N&G your GD looks every inch a princess in that dress. I admire anyone who can sew!
Ann my very best birthday wishes to your DH, and I hope you enjoy your meal together at home. It is where my DH prefers to eat too - he says it's the only restaurant where he can trust the chef to get it right!
MawB I am so sorry for the young man who died. You never think that that can happen to anyone so young, but my SiL had a heart attack when he was thirty seven and three weeks before his son, my grandson, was born but thank God he was lucky. It was a very traumatic time though.
I had an email last night from my stepGS - the one that came to visit last week. He sent me a draft of the graduation speech he has been asked to give and asked me if I would look it over and see if it needed any tweaking! I was humbled that he would want a pedantic old fart like me to do that. It was actually very good. I did smooth out some of his more florid passages and suggest some bits that needed more definition, but he's still speaking to me so my suggestions can't have been entirely unwelcome. I think he's very brave. He'll be standing up in front of a lot of people; some of them quite distinguished. I would be wetting myself.

I've popped in for news of your house Charley, it sounds as though progress is being made but it must be awful living in that turmoil. Our house is Victorian, made of granite and in 3 parts. Every time we invite workmen in to ask for a quote we get the deep intake of breath. There are 3 electric circuits, the walls are too thick to drill through, heaven knows which radiators feed from the boiler and which from the hot tank and the roof is decidedly delicate so I have some fellow feeling but I doubt I would be so forebearing.

The yogurt tale made me smile N&G - it's the sort of silly thing I might do - well not now!! Fabulous dress! Glad you enjoyed your meet up.

Ann enjoy your meal and, no doubt, a couple of You deserve it.

Maw, hope Dh's blood test was good. They lied about the temperature!! I met DD1 for lunch at a pub overlooking the river with a view to eating outside - we didn't as it was blowing a gale!! We had a lovely catch up and I realise that I mostly see her with the children around and we don't get time to chat properly - we have vowed to change that!!

Izabella and soop please look after your poorly bits - we need you hale and hearty.

corner, we have 'donated' a sum of money to 'The Friends of' the church where my baby brother is buried and they use any donated money to maintain the gravestones that need it and keep the area looking nice. That might be worth looking into.

We buried Mum's ashes on Monday and I have just arranged for the stonemasons to add her name and dates to Dad's on the very simple, sloping plaque that is there. I was at the £500 [ish!!!] price quoted. Time to train for a career in stone masonry I think!!

Thanks or the thought kitty, as far as I know from many visits and previously living close by there is nothing like that as it is a cemetery unattached to a Church. I will check, though, just in case. Its a sloping plaque, trouble is it doesnt slope enough so when the rains come and the flood appears it disappears. I was initially very upset as my Mum would have hated to be in the cold and wet, daft devil that I am. I've come to terms with it now and all it needs is a wash and brush up twice a year so keep it looking reasonably clean, well, not green anyway. We are about to ask the stonemason for the lettering to be re-painted, or whatever they call it, goodness knows how much that will cost. Mum died 26 years ago so if it lasts another 26 years then I guess I can't complain and am unlikely to be around to complain in any case. .

There seems to be a lot of death around. A funeral for you to go to Greyduster, hoping you can take some fine weather with you, I think it always helps a bit. That must have been a real shock for your friend, MawB, tragic for such a young man. Saw today that the husband of our former neighbour who died in an accident in February has also died. I feel for their sons who spent much time with ours when we were neighbours and afterwards until their interests diverged. They were in a car accident travelling to visit one of their sons, I can't imagine how he is feeling now.

Bit of a nothing day here today, grey and depressing and one of those days when many things get started and nothing seems to be finished. Must do better tomorrow or we will be in a right pickle.

Please, no mention of empty lofts, it gives me palpitations. . We had an empty loft in our last home, took me two and a half years but I got there. Our current tiny home has a very small loft which looks packed, I guess it is but it is only suitcases (9 at the last count plus smaller bags) and Christmas decorations as there is nowhere else to put them. No garage and the many sheds are full of man stuff. I sometimes grieve for my empty loft, but there, I guess it helps with the insulation.

N&G when my Dad died I sorted the photos as best I could and made albums for our two, all neatly labelled. The others I labelled and boxed. Never got as organised as you in terms of scanning but I might one day, I might, I might - well, no its so unlikely I guess I'd best be honest and say I will never get to it. .

Is a quiet day today a good thing, Charley? I've lost track of where you are in the process. We are all willing your home finished for you.

Best stop procrastinating, although I could win prizes for it, and finish something to day, anything really.

N&G I do enjoy chewing the cud with other doting grandparents. When I used to meet up with a friend in Cornwall, we would take it in turns "to go first"...out with photos and who's doing what and when...never failed to make us both extremely happy.
It is a good feeling to see the back of stuff that is no longer needed. Red Cross ladies were chuffed with our recent donations. Friend called by this afternoon to pick up "posh stuff" stored in the loft. She has a home in Edinburgh and will be offering some garments for sale in a posh frock outlet. I doubt that we'll make very much from the sale but we shall share any profits...I could do with a new batch of Sloggi knickers!

Chaleyg You are on the final stretch. Us lot will carry you over the finishing line.

Greyduster MacSporran and I enjoy the occasional wee dram of Ardbeg. In fact, most single malts are enjoyable. We do however differ when it comes to Laphroig. I think that it tastes like disinfectant. MacS thinks otherwise.

kitty £500-ish! Like you, I'm well out of touch with professional charges for services rendered. Whenever MacS asks me to guess how much something has cost, like a small job done at the garage, I'm invariably way out.

Away to attend to Rory. He's spent almost the entire day on the chaise. Yet, when I walk into the sitting room, he'll be awake and licking his lips. He far too clever.

Until tomorrow

corner our posts crossed. I shall catch up with you tomorrow.

soop I agree about Laphroig - it tastes like TCP to me too! Perhaps it takes an especially discerning male palate to appreciate its subtleties! My absolute favourite is Oban, but you need to take out a mortgage to buy a bottle!! I like Jura too which is at least easier on the pocket. I've seen Ardbeg - have to give it a try!

Lots of call for stonemasons these days, kitty. We know of one who is in constant demand and he doesn't do monumental masonry. He's pretty expensive too. I'm sure it will be worth it to have the comfort of seeing both names on the stone.

Corner I believe it should be dry here on Monday but I don't know about The Principality. We should have gone down on Sunday, but we can't get away until late and DH hates driving in the dark, hence the early start - if he can get me out of bed!!

Well the bath was disappointing. I haven't had a bath in our bathroom for about four years, and I was bored stiff after about ten minutes! Also the bath is so long that I can't sit at the sloping end without constantly sliding towards the taps! It was soothing to sit in hot water though. Feet up with a G&T now ??.