SOOP's kindly Kitcheners.

to Bella Galen and all others with problems....

Mine today is - I have to get to funeral premises in Oxford for a family/undertakers meeting and I haven't yet found out where I can park near enough to walk!
The website doesn't say, I don't know if I am allowed to park in their gated space - clearly visible on Streetview - and I have now phoned three times and been redirected to their 'support team' in Portsmouth each time with no joy. And cut off once.

I find this constant problem about parking very upsetting.
I know I can not walk from the main car park in Summertown!

Bella I am so pleased to hear that your husband is home again and can enjoy friends popping in and his GD entertaining him. It will be great when the entire family is together.

Thank you for taking the time to update us.

Bella your husband is surrounded by loving family and that is as it should be. My heart goes out to you.
Bless you all

Bellasnana to you all x

Bella I'm glad to hear your husband is home and has you by his side.

Bella it's good to hear the comforting news that he is there at home with you

Thank you for sparing the time to pop in Bella. You must all be glad to have you husband home with you where he belongs. Wishing you all a peaceful and loving time.

You're very much in my thoughts Bellasnana, along with all GNs struggling with difficult situations ((hugs)) and love to you all x

Bellasnonna I'm so glad to hear that you have your husband home with you and that your daughter will be with you very soon. i continue to hold you in my thoughts.

A quick visit to the kitchen to thank each one of you for all your lovely messages of support, all appreciated more than I can say.

DH has spent two days in the Palliative Care ward at the oncology hospital but yesterday I asked if we could bring him home. They were not doing anything for him that I can't do myself, and I was fretting about him being on his own when we weren't there.

Thankfully, the lovely lady doctor agreed with me that he could come home so here he is, back where he belongs. He is very drowsy most of the time due to the medication, but he has enjoyed seeing some friends who visited, and his face lights up when our little DGD sits beside him on the bed, or performs one of her invented 'ballet' dances for him

Tomorrow DD1 will be arriving from the U.S. So fingers crossed DH will be able to spend some time with her.

It is so hard to see the love of my life fading but I'm not the first nor the last to have to face up to the reality of life. We have had 34 happy years together and lots of lovely times to look back on, so I am grateful for having been so fortunate.

To Galen, Alie, and other kitcheners facing challenges I send my love and hope for happier times ahead.

My favourite Browning poem

I
Oh Galuppi, Baldassaro, this is very sad to find!
I can hardly misconceive you; it would prove me deaf and blind;
But although I take your meaning, 'tis with such a heavy mind!

II
Here you come with your old music, and here's all the good it brings.
What, they lived once thus at Venice where the merchants were the kings,
Where Saint Mark's is, where the Doges used to wed the sea with rings?

III
Ay, because the sea's the street there; and 'tis arched by . . . what you call
. . . Shylock's bridge with houses on it, where they kept the carnival:
I was never out of England—it's as if I saw it all.

IV
Did young people take their pleasure when the sea was warm in May?
Balls and masks begun at midnight, burning ever to mid-day,
When they made up fresh adventures for the morrow, do you say?

V
Was a lady such a lady, cheeks so round and lips so red,—
On her neck the small face buoyant, like a bell-flower on its bed,
O'er the breast's superb abundance where a man might base his head?

VI
Well, and it was graceful of them—they'd break talk off and afford
—She, to bite her mask's black velvet—he, to finger on his sword,
While you sat and played Toccatas, stately at the clavichord?

VII
What? Those lesser thirds so plaintive, sixths diminished, sigh on sigh,
Told them something? Those suspensions, those solutions—"Must we die?"
Those commiserating sevenths—"Life might last! we can but try!

VIII
"Were you happy?" —"Yes."—"And are you still as happy?"—"Yes. And you?"
—"Then, more kisses!"—"Did I stop them, when a million seemed so few?"
Hark, the dominant's persistence till it must be answered to!

IX
So, an octave struck the answer. Oh, they praised you, I dare say!
"Brave Galuppi! that was music! good alike at grave and gay!
"I can always leave off talking when I hear a master play!"

X
Then they left you for their pleasure: till in due time, one by one,
Some with lives that came to nothing, some with deeds as well undone,
Death stepped tacitly and took them where they never see the sun.

XI
But when I sit down to reason, think to take my stand nor swerve,
While I triumph o'er a secret wrung from nature's close reserve,
In you come with your cold music till I creep thro' every nerve.

XII
Yes, you, like a ghostly cricket, creaking where a house was burned:
"Dust and ashes, dead and done with, Venice spent what Venice earned.
"The soul, doubtless, is immortal—where a soul can be discerned.

XIII
"Yours for instance: you know physics, something of geology,
"Mathematics are your pastime; souls shall rise in their degree;
"Butterflies may dread extinction,—you'll not die, it cannot be!

XIV
"As for Venice and her people, merely born to bloom and drop,
"Here on earth they bore their fruitage, mirth and folly were the crop:
"What of soul was left, I wonder, when the kissing had to stop?

XV
"Dust and ashes!" So you creak it, and I want the heart to scold.
Dear dead women, with such hair, too—what's become of all the gold
Used to hang and brush their bosoms? I feel chilly and grown old.

pompa that must be weird. I watched a programme last night and I recognised the local streets around here. That also was strange.

One of the couples on "Dine with me Couples" are good friends of ours, weird watching them.

bags It's bloody darn chilly here too. I'm wearing a pair of MacS's heavy-duty socks!

anno We're so lucky to be able to visit a dentist. Not my favourite venue but very worth while as I still have all most of my teeth.

ffinnochio Lovely to have you pop into the kitchen. The more, the merrier.

Bellasnana...we are with you in spirit.

Cats to feed. Washing up to do. Laundry to sort. Exercise bike to pedal...I really do not know how I cope with so much unbridled excitement.

until the morrow. x

Been to the dentist to have crown fitted on broken tooth. Nearly finished when he discovered that a bit of porcelain had broken off the crown and he couldn't use it. So back I go next week. Frustrating! But I did have a nice lunch out with a good friend.

Galen - it is so hard when our offspring are unhappy, whatever their age; and someone who is transgender has a lot to deal with. It must be such a worry for you, especially this week. I hope that there will be some better times for you soon.

Good to hear your news, baubles! And that you were able to go out without a jacket. Southerners may not understand, but such days are not common in bonnie Scotland. I have just come in from sitting reading outside, again something rather unusual — no midge bites yet this year. I think it's a record! Granted I have got two teeshirts and a thick woolly on but no hat. A real summerlike day.

Bella and galen, sending hugs.

I haven't been in the kitchen for a while, and have just been catching up with the news.

Bella A very sorrowful time for you and your family. You're all in my thoughts

Galen I do hope your difficulties and worries are lifting.

soop What a good place your kitchen is.

Thanks all

I've been out to lunch with a friend and didn't wear a jacket!!!! It's so good to be out in the sunshine. We wandered around a local garden centre but managed not to buy anything. [halo]

Galen such a difficult time for you and her. I wonder if she realises the effect her postings have on you.

Also thinking of Bellasnonna.

Great news Baubles . Enjoy your celebration.

Great news Baubles, so pleased for you and MrB. Sorry you are going through a hard time Galen, what a difficult situation for you.

Some of us have times of relief and others times of hardship. for some and for those who need them

Baubles that is excellent news as is yours pompa but for different reasons!

Baubles Happy news!

Baubles, that is great news for both of you, such a weight off your mind, another excuse for a .

New printer up and working

Been out for the daily stroll through the village. In a field was a magnificent Highland bull with huge horns. Would you believe that I could almost touch it...yet the camera was here at home.

A gentle good morning to you all.

Baubles Thank you for sharing your joyful news. I am happy for you and your dear husband. Treat yourselves to a well deserved special lunch.

Dear Galen All that I can do is to send loving thoughts your way. Both you and your son are going through a hugely difficult time. I thought that janer expressed herself most eloquently. Us lot are here for you.
And...may I add that your funny story made me hoot with laughter.

Today's poem...Summum Bonum...Robert Browning...

All the breath and the bloom of the year in the bag of one bee:
All the wonder and wealth of the mine in the heart of one gem:
In the core of one pearl all the shade and the shine of the sea;
Breath and bloom, shade and shine, wonder, wealth, and--how far above them--
Truth, that's brighter than gem,
Trust, that's purer than pearl,
Brightest truth, purest trust in the universe--all were for me
In the kiss of one girl.