Kitchen cupboard

Just saw this on Facebook, from the 60s or 70s.

We had a pale green cupboard, I think the same sort?  I remember the crinkly glass in the windows. We also had a cool pantry room, I don’t remember a fridge. I’m sure I remember my Mum stuck marble patterned plastic on the cupboard to make it look better. I’m not sure it did? I think it was sticky back plastic vinyl that she used? I may be wrong. We also had a boiler and mangle and a free standing top loading spin dryer, the water collected in a bowl below it’s nozzle. It dried better than my washing machine now.

We didn’t have fitted kitchens then.

Kitchen cat!

Four years ago the microwave was on the other side of the kitchen and our boy cat used to lie in the sun here. Now he’s hot a spot on the other side of the kitchen where he watches the goings on in the garden, still a happy relaxed cat. The windowsill is full of overgrown Christmas cactuses and two large metal cat doorstops. I’m happier he’s away from the washing up! Thanks for the memories Facebook!

Christmas cactuses, late

Only a couple of weeks late, but gloriously in flower now. It’s amazing how the tiny tips of flower buds grow swell and then unfurl. We have bright red, and pale pink and dark pink it’s a riot of flowers in the kitchen. Plus we have a cyclamen and a money tree. I like it at this time of year. It disguises the dying hanging baskets outside in the yard.

Christmas cactii

Pink and red flowers popping open like fireworks, following the curve of the leaves as they sprout. Some of them have flowered, some are open now and some are in bud… How do they know to flower? Day length. Apparently if you move a Christmas cactus about too much it may drop its flowers. I’m not sure if that’s true or a gardening myth. I do know you can break a few leaves off and put it in water and it will send out water roots, you can plant them up. Some of these (cactuses cactii?) were propogated from my grandmother’s plants forty years ago. X Nrxt- Easter Cactuses.

Lost lens and Masking tape….

Screaming for help from hubby this morning. I was just cleaning my glasses but with my shaking arm I wobbled and dropped them onto the kitchen floor. I picked them up, but a lens had come out. I tried to find it but having one focused and one unfocused eye didn’t help. Started shouting, but hubby was upstairs and is deaf. I looked all around, the eye with the missing lens closed so I was just looking out of the lens still in my glasses. I moved the fridge back a couple of inches very gingerly and moved the bin, no sign. I shouted some more and went upstairs and woke my hubby. Help! Please help! He came down and straight away found it! Half way down the kitchen under the overhanging base of the sink (how did it get there? Must have skittered across the floor). The lens wouldn’t fit in very well. So.. Tape? I found masking tape, and parcel tape, then a very broad roll of sellotape. I managed to cut a thin strip. The lens is just about in place. I’m going to get the opticians to fix it later…. So of course I decided to illustrate the glasses!

New Years Cactus

After watering these for a few weeks they are blooming. Christmas Cactii that I have on the kitchen windowledge. They don’t all flower at the same time. There has been a progression that started with a dark pink one before Christmas, then a pale white/pink coming up to new year and now these two. I’m not sure whether the light levels affect the flowering. I know I have one that won’t flower till sometime around Easter (if it’s an early Easter). I realise some people don’t like plants in the house, but to me it’s more about adding greenery to your life. The Cactii cheer me up. X

Christmas cactus

Christmas cactus flowering in the kitchen. These are a beautiful pale pink. I have some other ones that are red and dark pink.

How do they know when to flower? They always seem to come out around this time of year. As soon as the buds start to grow I start watering them and they soon grow and burst into flower. They are a lovely sight in the middle of winter.

Cat out of a box…

I wanted to take a cute photo of my cat sitting in a box on the kitchen counter but he will keep jumping out when he sees me! (he wants a love). So this was the best I could get. A couple of months or so ago he was having treatment after being lost for eight days. He finally came home with tarry oil on his coat and an ulcer in his eye and damage to his mouth. That’s why his tail looks a funny shape, I had to cut off some fur because it was so matted and the substance on it would have continued to poison him.

Now he’s perky, his fur is growing back, he’s leaping up on the kitchen counter again and playing with his toys. He’s happy and so I’m happy too. X