Soop's Kindly Kitcheners

That was meant to be bags...

Well, I've popped in for a brief chat and a and it appears that you lot are enjoying the . Good for you.

Thank you soop, lona and bella

I do hope your DH is feeling a bit better bella

baubles. I hope the week passes quickly for you. Not too long to go now

Galen. Knowing you, as we do, it beggars belief that some one is accusing you of bullying. Please don't let this get to you. Keep your chin up x

Feeling a lot of improvement as in being able to raise my arm again as GP prescribed stronger painkillers and anti inflammatory meds. Can't quite reach to put my hair up as yet so I am training DH as my personal coiffure. A good deal of training is needed though as he is quite corrie-fisted.

Should read coiffeur!

Not quite sure what you mean by 'corrie-fisted' - does it mean you look like Bet Lynch when he has finished?

It's beautiful here, I came in for a cup of tea before I go back down to water the veg seedlings. It looks as if I shall be able to pick some baby rocket leaves for salad tonight, how lovely. It's been so much warmer than usual here this Spring. I think we've only had one -7C, none of the usual -12Cs.

Corrie fisted has a link to the Kerr family, who had/have a high proportion of left-handers. Kerr/corrie. Should just mean left-handed but also extends to mean cack-handed (clumsy). I suspect the root of that could be cack as in caca - as in using left hand for purposes such as bum-wiping, which is why in some cultures you absolutely do not eat with your left hand.

As you were.

You live and learn!

Ferniehurst Castle in the Borders was a stronghold of the Kerrs. Tthe original main entrance leads to a staircase known as the 'Left-Handed Staircase' based on a story that Sir Andrew Kerr having returned from the Battle of Flodden in 1513 and who was left handed, had his followers trained to use their weapons with their left hands. That bamboozled right-handed attackers.

janer It took me a couple of minutes to get the connection with Bet Lynch!Not my style at all though.

Dear Elegran I do love you. Is there anything that you know next to nowt about!

Agus the steroid injection in my shoulder helped enormously. At the moment the joint is less than fully mobile. I do know what you mean about doing one's hair. I almost gave up putting it up (the way I like it) because it gives me jip from time to time.

Baubles I am rooting for you. As Agus said...not long now...

janer The weather is amazing. It really is warm and the sound of bees fills the air. So soothing.

I'm about to upload last evening's sunset for you.

Elegran was that where "muckle mou'd Meg" lived/was married?

I knew I should have looked it up first, that was Ellibank. If anybody is not familiar with the lady, she was said to be "the ugliest woman in Scotland"!!

It (sunset) is at number six. Blasted programme never lets me put it in top slot.

Soutra

I have a left-handed sister-in-law who has Kerr ancestry, that is why I knew about the Kerrs. I also used to live quite near to Ferniehurst Castle. Each autumn our two Jacob ewes used to spend a naughty couple of weeks there, with the resident Jacob flock and handsome ram, as a result of which they would present us with adorable lambs in the spring. They never complained when loaded into the trailer for the journey - they knew they were in for a treat.

I don't think Muckle mou'd Meg lived there. Have done a quick Google (that is the secret ingredient, Soop, that and incurable nosineew they were in for a treatss) and it was at Aikwood Castle , a Border tower which David and Judy Steel renovated.

I don't know what happened just after "nosiness" in that post. Confusion reigns.

soop. Unfortunately, the steroid injections, which I have been having for a few years now, no longer alleviate the pain for more than a couple of weeks. I have already had two injections this year, January and this month but to no avail and it's just constant pain and immobility now without strong meds.

Forever the optimist, I am sure an arthroscopy is just what's needed (fingers crossed emoticon)

I never knew that was the origins of cack handed Elegran

Beautiful day here, raised veggie bed now stuffed with seeds, and somehow I've managed to get four squash seeds to grow, goodness knows where I'm going to plant them out! I've just read the packet and they grow up to 8' high, with each squash weighing up to 4lb (it says they're 'small'), more like ruddy pumpkins . I thought squash were a sensible size - these are called 'Sweet baby' but looks like I've made a major boo boo!

At this rate the lawn just might have to sacrifice a portion- not something I can sneakily do without the chief lawn-carer noticing.........

Now to stop slugs and slimy snails eating the lot...

Elegran I had no idea there was a connection between corrie-fisted and the Kerr family. Snippets of information like this fascinate me. Keep 'em coming!

Something I have noticed though is those who are corrie-fisted, in the true sense, many seem to be good at art. Something I first noticed at school.

Traditionally on a compost heap? Or with the roots in earth and the stems trailing across a patio? Or you could train it up a support and pick the squashes before they became so enormous that they would break the stems - or make hammocks for them (old grey bras?)

'Arts' actually - leftie DBH and his very leftie family are all musicians and artists, even the ones who have 'sensible' jobs spend all their time playing, singing or painting.

I think one side of your brain is arty/creative and the other side wordy/logical, agus. Left-handed people use the right side of their brain more dominantly, so maybe that side develops more.

A beautiful photo, soop. Haven't the colours come out well?

Loopy can you grow them up a wigwam, wired up to bear the weight? Or even up a fence. I've done that in the past. I shall take some photos of my new raised beds soon, but out of the ten I have only enough compost to fill four of them fully, so am feeling very frustrated. We were promised soil but it hasn't materialised - at least it made DBH get a move on with finishing them. Still, I was able to harvest baby rocket and pea shots for a salad tonight, so it's a start.

the fourth bed was going to be for courgettes and squashes, but squashes will have to be left out this year as my raised strawberry beds aren't completed yet and again, I have no soil, so they will have to go in with a few courgettes.

I'm going to try growing them up a fence if DH creates a stink refuses or a tripod of canes if I can shoehorn them in to a flowerbed.
Would definitely be a new use for discarded bras Elegran but even mine are that big !