SOOP's kindly Kitcheners.

The one with bella is on royal princess. It's next year and she's already booked into my cabin

Well done, Galen , I admire your tenacity. I hope that you are feeling a little less stressed today.

We've been to visit our good pal in the care home. The group of ladies with whom I sit and chat, made me smile. One of the ladies is 94. When I told her that we had taken our visitors to the Mull of Kintyre, she remarked...oh, I wish I'd known that you were going there. I would have asked my father (who she believes still lives in Machrihanish) to taxi you back and forth.

We then visited our pal's twin sister who is seriously ill with lung cancer in hospital. She is our next door neighbour and we've shared some happy evenings and village events together. She is in a room apart and in a very deep sleep. We sat with her and then we were joined by her son who lives in Edinburgh. Our other dear friend, her husband, is suffering from vascular dementia. Carers are with him throughout the day. It has struck him severely over the last few months. At this time last year, all three friends were hale and hearty.

I'm thinking of you all the time, Bella xxx

soop How very sad for you as well as your dear pals. To see the three of them going down hill so quickly must be painful for you and MacS. I'm glad the ladies had been cheerful.
I hope you are recovering well from your tumble.
Also Galen,that must have been so frightening, lying there in pain and hoping to feel strong enough to get up again.

Bella I'm thinking of you. A very sad day for you.
The housework doesn't matter at all but if it's really getting you down you could always try what my very capable SiL did. Fed up with always having to ask time and again for her DH and three teenage sons to tidy up, she burst into tears of pure frustration. They were so surprised they made her a cup of tea and cleared up straight away.

Well, I am more sorry than I can say for all of you who have had a fall. Galen, it must have been very upsetting being unable to get up and it's no wonder you are weepy with all the other annoyances you've been having.

Soop - how very sad to hear your friends are suffering such dreadful illness. Life is so hard to take at times like these, especially when it has come upon them in such a short time.

The cleaning got done (by myself) last evening. I finished washing floors at midnight

My lovely pal from the Isle of Man,( we met at college in 1976), arrived today and has lifted my spirits considerably.

Tonight I have DGD sleeping beside me. She has picked up a nasty cough, but I love having her dear little self to cuddle. She is so sweet. Yesterday she sent a 70th birthday balloon up to heaven for her grandpa, with a picture she had coloured for him stuck onto the side. Children are so innocent at that age and although she misses him, she seems to have accepted he has gone.

Up early tomorrow to take the car in for the a/c to be fixed which will be a huge relief in this heat.

Goodnight Granspals

Hello to all our lovely Kitcheners...
Bella I cannot help but feel cross that the housework was left for you to manage. Thank goodness for your darling wee granddaughter. What a sweet gesture of hers to send a birthday balloon up to heaven.

We heard just this morning that our good friend's cancer has spread to her bones. Family are therefore coming together. I took a photo of a gorgeous peony as we were out for our daily stroll. The colour is her absolute favourite. Every time we've celebrated special events together she has always looked stunning...dark hair and vivid luscious garments.

I've uploaded two of our favourite images of our dear pals. They are in positions 1 and 4

Sad to hear that Soop.
Our deep pink peonies which came from my childhood home have sadly succumbed to the 24 hours rain we have had/are having. I have a lovely white one with a bright yellow middle, a bit like a fried egg, which is just coming into flower. Let's see if it survives the rain.

Very sad times for you, but what lovely photos soop, with marvellous memories of happier times with your friends.

Beautiful bride photo too, I love her dress.

I love peonies My dark pink peonies seem to be standing up to the rain, my pink and cream 'Bowl of Beauty' is flowering its socks off too. Despite it being said that they don't like being moved mine have had several moves, when I kept changing my mind about the borders, and continued to flower.
The roses are looking better for a soaking too, same can't be said for the cornflowers, all battered down.

Soutra I have never seen a white peony. I imagine that it must be stunning. Can you take a photo when yours opens fully? I would love to see it.

loopylou My late Nana had a wonderful cottage garden sweet william, hollyhocks, delphinium, sweet peas, marigolds, pansies, cornflowers, lily of the valley, honeysuckle, mimosa, scabious...and a great favourite of mine - wallflowers. I believe that she called them "jillyflowers" or something like. The perfume was heady. She also grew all her own vegetables. I can almost taste the peas as I helped to shell them.

Has anyone heard from AlieO recently? I am hoping that she is coping well.

Wonderful images in my mind soop, somehow the 'simpler' flowers not only have the best perfume but they've stood the test of time too.
I've got many of those in my garden

loopylou I agree with you. My Nana's garden, 'though small, was very like the gardens that feature in paintings of cottage gardens long ago. Nothing grew in straight lines. Colours clashed, Bees were in abundance. It was perfect. Her cottage was thatched. It had one bedroom with no indoor lavatory and certainly no bath. Kitchen led into a small sitting room with an open fire. The stairs were steep and sloped alarmingly. She kept chickens. The eggs had an orange yolk and tasted heavenly. She was such a hard working lady. Walked everywhere. Died from Legionnaires disease during a brief spell in hospital. I loved her such a lot. She was special.

I love peonies to the extent that I have 6 bushes in the garden AND bought some from the florist this morning for the hall chest!

Good for you kitty

Clearly she made a huge lasting impression on you soop, a very special lady in your life
Sadly my GPs weren't anything as welcoming (I didn't know my maternal GM, she died when mum was 6, her father barely featured in my life)

My garden's somewhat 'chaotic' but has all the flowers I love, which surely is the purpose of a garden. It's heaving with bees etc and wildlife too, just as I intended.

Free range eggs, how I miss having chickens......

A friend walked around my garden the other day and said 'I do prefer overgrown gardens'.

The phone rang early this morning and woke me up, it was FiL to say that MiL is in hospital after a minor stroke yesterday, they are doing tests. So there is always that little bit of worry at the backs of our minds - but in the meantime, we have been having to organise ourselves and DCs ready for a trip down to Kent to attend a good friend's funeral. I found myself hoping I wouldn't need the outfit again too soon, it's been worn at least once a year for the past five years. Hopefully all MiL needs is some medication and a rest.

Loopylou My maternal Nana had my mother "out of wedlock". She did a wonderful job of raising my mother (no hand-outs) but sadly my mother never really forgave her.

janer I'm hoping that you hear news of MiL that eases your mind.

We've been with our dear pal's family this morning. She is unconscious and on a morphine drip. Bobby, her dear husband of barely two years, has visited her this morning and is distraught. Her twin (in the care home) is also heartbroken.

Oh dear, how sad - but I expect they were very glad that you were there.

On soop how very sad it all is

I feel really angry with her, if I am honest. They lived three hours away, now they have recently moved to over six hours away, as she got bored with the village in which she lived. As DBH is still at work, it will be left to me to do all nursing/travelling etc. I asked them not to move so far away, but they got itchy feet. They used to complain bitterly about the Aunts moving down to Cornwall, and all the driving it entailed for our whole family - then three years later, with both of the Aunts dead, they upped and moved in the opposite direction.

I'd also be pretty unimpressed janer, especially when it's all landing on you.
DF's daughter and family decided to move away from a 2 hour drive to a 6 hour drive and expect DF to drop everything and go whenever it suits her, then moans incessantly about it!

Unfortunately DF does just that, whether it's babysitting or because daughter can't cope. She admits there's no way she'll do it for her two sons who live closer.....

That's so sad soop, and not being able to do anything more must make it heartbreakingly sad.

Just being there to sit with your friend and her husband will mean so much, soop. Such a sad time for you all

Knowing that our friend is not suffering pain (thanks to Morphine) is some consolation. She used to nurse at the same hospital in which she is now spending her final days. Many of the staff know her well. Her dear husband looked so confused when we saw him this morning. It wasn't more than three weeks since we sat chatting to our friend. She was making a list of things to do once she returned home. She was hoping to have a ramp fitted, so that her twin (in the care home) could make a weekly visit.

Her twin is now confined to a wheelchair. Hence the ramp.