Soop's kichen for friendly folk and pampered pets

oldgoat The sun is shining. Long may it do so.

N&G Grampy You are a star. A tree house (in our garden) would be wonderful. I'd have a wee pulley to hoist me up to it. A Tarzan rope to swing my way back to ground.
I loathe "designer wotsits". I would never want a T-shirt with a name printed upon it...no matter who the designer happened to be. Same goes for specs and sun glasses. All so unnecessary. I'm not a fan of "celeb" stuff. Couldn't give a flying fig. Just as well. I'm a happy bunny with simple, refined taste.

Maw take good care of Paw.
I spent some time with the optician this morning. The left eye has been a tad uncomfortable. It appears that the lens inserted when the cataract was removed (some time ago) is fogging up. Drops will help. In time, laser treatment will rectify. Aren't we lucky to have a free annual eye test? After having drops put in for a scan thingy, I could barely walk straight when I left the optician. Has anyone had a similar experience?

morethan What is she dogs name? I think she is a sweet looking girl.

Mr Nonna Take a bow. You are a lovely man. Much like MacSporran

Welcome back Galen...we've missed your merry banter.

kitty Photos of kitten please? Us lot will then put forward suggestions for her name. Black and white - Zebra crossing - Zebby. Possibly not!

bags I put on a pound just reading the recipe!!

Maw just read that the rose is called Grace. How lovely, I hope you can remember her with joy whenever that rose blooms. She will be happy, asleep at home.

GD,

Maw, its beautiful! I have got my Tango buried in the garden as he died at home.

Lovely MawB, a suitable tribute to a beautiful lady.
I`m off for an eye test tomorrow, when I booked it she told me my last test was in 2009, I hadn`t realised it was so long! Last time I got 2 pairs for £90, hoping for something similar again, I go to Specsavers.

Maw A fitting tribute beautiful Grace. Perfect!

I am logging off until tomorrow morning. Before we leave for the plant/cake sale in the village, I shall pop in to see whether or not we need to open the new kitchen extension.

The weather couldn't be nicer. Rory is basking in the sunshine. MacSporran has cut the lawn. The garden looks lush.

Bye for now. Enjoy your evening.

Not sure if I dare admit to it but it's been sunny all day here. Chilly wind but I'm not complaining.

Sounds as if your eye test was well timed, soop. A friend has also been advised that laser treatment is needed following a cataract operation. She understands it's quick and painless and an instant fix. I'm often staggering about, my balance is dreadful and I tend to lurch a bit. Goodness knows what people think .

No, I don't get pulled into designer anything, n&g. Thought I might for one of the weddings, but couldn't find a designer anything that made me look anything other than ridiculous. Like the sound of those glasses, will remember Asda when our next lot are due. Mine aren't too expensive, Mr C on the other hand is another matter.

Those cakes look great mawb, sorry paw isn't so good. I sympathise with the coughing, had to sit down in the middle of a supermarket this morning as I was coughing until I couldn't breathe. Embarrassing or what? Grace's rose is very fitting, a beautiful rose for a beautiful dog.

Would you believe the flipping iPad just jammed, I unjammed it by selecting the preview option and now I can't see the previous posts. The only one I can recall is about leftover chocolate cake. Looks good bags but leftover chocolate cake just doesn't exist in our home .

My apologies to those I have missed or mis-remembered. Need to be thinking about some food. Take care all.

I can recommend ASDA for glasses. I bought two pairs of varifocals for £99 a couple of months ago and they are fine. They will also tint them for you at no charge if you wish.

Morning all !

Cakes are looking fabulous Maw . We are currently 'cakeless' so if you're sharing.......

A new kitten Kitty ? That's lovely. I'm with Charley I think it will be obvious once you have ity what it should be called but if you're asking Jackson suggested 'Mittens' and Cooper thought 'Gekko' would be better!! ( Gekko is a superhero by the way LOL)

I too would love a tree house soop . I sometime watch a programme called Tree House Masters and I am amazed by the luxury they put in a tree house. Grampy is back off to my daughters to put the finishing touches to it this morning as the boys are chomping at the bit to use it ! I am sure there will be pictures.

I have those drops when I have my yearly diabetic eye test soop . They aren't much fun and I always need dark glasses when I leave as the iris is so open everything is super bright.

That's a wonderful tribute Maw .Sorry to hear Paw is poorly , hope he's feeling a little better today.

I'm looking to a peaceful morning without Grampy!! I am working on some decorations for a baby shower so shall get lost in my craft room for a few hours.

Happy Saturday everyone x

Another day! Another cake challenge! (Icing them that is)
I can remember sweating blood over the DDs' birthday cakes - the fairy princess (cake baked in a pudding bowl with a Sindy doll stuck in it) the pillar box baked in a large dog food tin ( red fondant icing made with food colouring, I was "red handed" for weeks after) that one I had iced the night before and when I came down the next morning the icing had slithered down the sides and lay in wrinkles round the bottom , the gymkhana one -a big green rectangle with playmobil horses, fences etc strategically placed on it, that was actually easy, but best of all the birds nest with mini eggs in the middle. I was anxious to get the icing really DARK brown and had read that a drop of blue food colouring would get the right shade. It did. But the children all went home with blue/black lips and gums. That was also the cake which only got half eaten at the party and was left on the side overnight. Subsequently found by our omnivorous and very greedy Labrador who scoffed the lot (mini eggs and all, fortunately I had removed the candles) and was spectacularly sick, then the other end and lay groaning in her bed (but licking her chops) for the rest of the day.
I bet we all have happy memories of our children's birthday teas, parties and disasters cake stories! BTW I have (accidentally) been very PC as one cake is gluten free, and one is vegan -very Walthamstow ???

Welcome kitty's new kitten!
I know what I would call her - P***** Kitten, but that might get confusing
Bagpuss was always a particular favourite though......

Morning all.

First things first - our kitten. She will not be ready to leave her mum until election day and we wanted to name her so she can get used to it before she arrives here. I would have liked to call her Grace but that is Persie's middle name. For some reason she is quite often called 'Persephone Grace!!' We I have decided on Maisie!

Enjoy your Crafting N&G. We had a tree house in our last garden and the children terrified me by jumping out rather than use the rope ladder. The only person to hurt themselves was the daughter of a friend who spent the whole of one summer in plaster.

Maw, hope Paw is well enough for the party and that the cake making goes well. I hope your lovely rose bush brings you happy memories.

I hope your cough improves corner, it has hung around for long enough now.

soop, I hope you can walk properly now - it's a horrid feeling isn't it? Enjoy your Saturday.

I'm now off to do a risk assessment of the garden for the opening - presumably I'm taking my life in my hands.

My H'S Uncle and Aunt lived in Walthamstow They bought their house in 1929 and as they had no children they were required to share their home with a married couple who were bombed out during the war.
It turned out to be a good arrangement and the couple were still there when we visited around 1960.
His Aunt ended her life in a care home after the house was sold and I have often speculated what that house would be worth today.
Good start weatherwise today I just hope it stays good in other aspects as yesterday turned out to be a day of worrying family problems, as if there are not enough of the other kind to deal with.

Well annsixty little 2 up 2 down (knocked through of course!) terraces are on the market for around £4-500K , anything bigger or in the old heart of Walthamstow, like around the church or in the "village" much more.
Just glad the DDs and SILs got their houses when they did ?

Sorry to hear of family problems, as if you don't have enough on your plate

Risk assessments are, well, risky kity. Hope you can declare your garden risk free. Will you have a certificate? It does seem a bit ott, I suspect many garden openers just don't bother. Nice name for the kitten, won't be long before she is home. Now, that could be a reason to carry out a risk assessment . The cough does have its uses, Mr C says when he hears me cough he knows I am still alive. .

That doesn't sound good, ann, you don't need more pressure. It's hard not to take family worries and problems into ourselves.

Your cake and Labrador experience made me smile, mawb. Our first very small and usually impeccably behaved dog was left in a room with an iced Christmas cake at doggie eye level. Well, he had never touched our food so thinking of kitty the risk seemed negligible. We thought all was well until we discovered one side of the cake had no icing, all licked off and enjoyed by a very sleepy and very sticky dog. No, we didn't re-ice it! Good luck with your icing today, looking forward to the photos.

Enjoy your quiet morning n&g, hope its dry in your part of the world for grampy, our sunshine of yesterday has become our more usual cloud and drizzle. No drought for us.

I'm supposed to be doing admin. Hate it so procrastination rules. Now, what can I do next to avoid it?

Welcome Liaise...it's good to have you with us.

This is a very brief pop-in for me. I wanted to be sure that the kitchen wasn't about to close. Seems we have a little longer. I'm off to the plant/cake sale. Back just after lunch. The key to the new kitchen is under the flower pot. Should any of you lovely lot be the last to do the dishes in this 'ere kitchen...please do the honours of opening our new one. We should be okay until I return.

Mr & Mrs Oldgoat...it's damp out there. Fingers crossed for tomorrow.

Oh I laughed at the dog disaster tales.

We had a little cavalier called Lady when we were in Northern Ireland. One Christmas she managed to not only eat all the foil covered chocolate decorations from the tree that she could reach but a full box of King Edward cigars with no ill effect at all !!

Tough dogs cavaliers.... Sam's looking smug now !!

N&G

The sale was very well attended. Lots of tempting goodies. Had long chats with local friends over tea and . Returned home with a deer crafted from tree bark by a young. Now stands outside the door.

The homemade cakes were to die for. I succumbed. MacS won a rather posh lotion on the tombola. The colour goes with the bathroom colour scheme. It was fun. Glad that we attended.

Ta-dah!

Just added some more balloons
OK??

They are wonderful! Flynn's a lucky boy! What I want to know is if it's the grans who get more adventurous with the birthday cakes as their grandchildren grow older, or the GC whose requirements are more "challenging", shall we say? Goodness knows what I shall be faced with next year; I'm just happy to be asked!

I can remember having Jane Asher's Party Cakes as my inspiration 30-40 years ago plus a very handy little Sainsbury's book of party cakes. Sadly I have no idea where they have gone now. But I have always enjoyed the challenge and the DDs seem to have inherited that. (The DGCs couldn't care less I suspect! )
DD3 baked a very unusual but magnificent 3-tier cake for DD2's wedding d curated with Christmas baubles and fresh flowers.

Love the cakes mawb, the more balloons the better . That sounds like a good morning soop. Please everyone be proud of me, I not only overcame the procrastination I achieved more than I had intended to. Very smug now. . Off to iron now, strangely I enjoy that.