Soop's Kindly Kitcheners

Coffee pot on again. Is it too early for cake ?

Love your paintings as always soop what a lovely surprise for your friend.

I'm off to my drawing lesson today. This block of classes is portraiture, a first for me and such hard work. The teacher is terrific though, he appeared on 'Portrait Artist of the Year' so he really knows his stuff and his classes are great fun.

I'm grabbing a coffee and running but I've left a lemon drizzle loaf on the table. Don't eat it all bogoff!

soop the dog's expression and ears are so reminiscent of a Mallinois I know. What beautiful pictures!

not guilty of the cake!
I'm waiting for the plumber to come and fix a leaking radiator that has drenched my dining room carpet!
I swear he spends more time in my house than I do!

Are you sure Gallen ? or perhaps that Pompa guy is still lurking and pinched it. From what I see on the forum, he was a bit of a lurker (and a stirrer)

Lemon drizzle cake was right on the mark, luvely. Will be keeping an eye on the remaining piece.

Not guilty of the cake here, either! I am currently trying to pretend that Cake does not exist.

Lovely pictures, soop. I envy your talent.

Send the plumber over to me please Galen - my dishwasher is dead, I think. Although DBH says he will google it today and see if he can find the cause, I fear it is the electrics.

To add to all the other accidents and breakdowns yesterday, I dropped my lunch on the floor as I sat down, I caught the plate on the edge of the table. What a mess. Then, at choir, I sat down on my reading glasses after the warm-up session and they broke into lots of small pieces! It's not the first time I have sat on them, but never before have they broken like that. luckily I had a spare pair or three on me, as those of us with long sight have to do, a pair for every occasion and strength of light and distance.

My duck has left home. I bought a large bag of frozen peas for her delectation, took them (defrosted!) and clean water outside, and was faced with a nest full of broken palest green shells. At least they had a beautiful morning for their hatching out day, but oh how I wished I had been able to see them go. DBH and I shall now have to live on peas for all eternity, as actually I bought two huge bags!

Do you know where the mother has taken her ducklings ?

BTW, virtual cake is calorie free.

I know - but whenever I read the word Cake, I want some in real life!

We live in a lane that stops a few yards away and turns into a wide green path. It leads down to a small wood by a river. Our back garden ends only yards from the woods, we can see the river course, we have two ponds in our back garden, one of which is for wildlife and surrounded by tall grasses - yet the stupid thing chose to nest at the front of the house! From which she would have had to brave the lane and the village cats, also the vans driven down to the river every morning by the river authority men and Anglian water board. Then through the dark and scary wood where all manner of nasties may be lying in wait. I hope they all made it safely.

Mother ducks are good parents and pretty feisty (bit like some Gners) so I bet they are somewhere safe in the undergrowth near some water.
A friend of ours had a duck pond and two boxer dogs, the ducks would drive the dogs away and pinch their food.

Part of me is really worried that she may wish to nest by our front door again next year, I am not going to encourage it, the responsibility was too great! She has great taste though, the elymus hispidus she chose to nest behind is a beautiful steel blue. Don't grow it though, it's a thug.

Good company, free food, doubt she will want that again

Bum.

Hmm! Plumber has mended the valve but the carpet and floor length carpet are indelibly stained by the dye that has leached out of the hardwood rotating DVD stand that was adjacent.

Meant floor length curtain!

Sounds like an insurance claim

Hello my darlings. Back from a trip to the polling station. A queue of two...MacS and me.

I promised a joke that made me hoot out loud in the dentist's waiting room. I was reading the Reader's Digest at the time. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin...

A group of chaps, all aged 40, discussed where they should meet for a reunion lunch. They finally agreed to meet at The Red Lion in Uxbridge because the waitresses were attractive and wore mini-skirts.
Ten years later, aged 50, the friends once again discussed where they should meet for lunch. They finally agreed to meet at The Red Lion in Uxbridge because the food and service was good and the choice of beer was excellent.
Ten years later, aged 60, the friends again discussed where they should meet for lunch. They finally agreed to meet at The Red Lion in Uxbridge because there was plenty of parking, they could dine in peace and it was good value for money.
Ten years later, aged 70, the friends discussed where they should meet for lunch. They finally agreed to meet at The Red Lion in Uxbridge because the restaurant was wheelchair accessible and had a toilet for the disabled.
Ten years later, aged 80, the friends discussed where they should meet for lunch. They finally agreed to meet at The Red Lion in Uxbridge because they'd never been there before.

By the by...I am not taking the p* out of anyone. I'm not that insensitive. Sometimes, something or other tickles my sense of humour. Just saying.

Galen (hug)

Would mean completely replacing custom made curtains in lounge and dining room and same with carpet as the rooms open into each other. Looking at total of over £5000. If I don't draw the curtains they and the carpet stain will be hidden by the stand when its back in place.
I could trim the curtains back to windowsill height, but the other two pairs ( one at French window to conservatory and other to act as dividers between lounge and dining room across an arch) are full length. ( about 8-9ft)

Oh dear!!! Will you claim on the insurance? That's a heck of a lot of damage.

In my experience insurance companies can be surprisingly generous with genuine claims. Also, some carpets can be cleaned with bleach, if you have a spare piece you could try it. Again if you have a spare piece it could be patched, provided the lay of the carpet is correct, it shouldn't show, we did that with a burn and it was invisible after a week or two.

Galen - my experience is similar to Bogoff's. Our insurance company was fantastic after a house fire 18 years ago. Four years ago the dishwasher broke and flooded the laminate floor. The insurance company replaced not only the kitchen but the hallway, because the laminate ran through both areas. We hadn't expected that - the assessor on both claims was very sympathetic. I know it's a hassle and you probably love your curtains - but maybe a claim is needed

Soop - loved the joke!

Rather sexist and some other sort of ist that I can't remember.

janer Mother duck and her brood will be safely tucked away under the vegetation in the wild wood. Like you, I would feel very protective of the little family. I'm sure that Mother knows best...