to think IPOAT gels will never marry well if they continue to be so fast?

[CaptainHornblower]

Panic over

Gino's turned up and he's going to do a feast for us

He doesn't appear to be entirely clothed, and he has a nasty spillage on his chest. Are you sure he can cook?

Take your point Hully - he is indeed less than clothed

However I like his choice of ingredients

Oh I do like the look of that unusual runny herb. Ok, just so long as his unclothed lower frontals don't accidentally dangle in the vichysoisse.

I think that I may avoid the food which looks to be laden with gluten and carbohydrates and go for the runny herb

Yes, Miss Fids is our herbal expert. Perhaps she will recognise it. I wonder if it might be related to the grape family.

That runny herb looks suspiciously like the old cook's trifle (which was happily lacking in sponge, fruit, custard and cream) I do have happy memories of us all tucking in to it last Christmas - although no memories of what happened afterwards...

I say we give the Italian chef a try. Lady Whippington-Stanley says they are very fashionable at the moment, and there are only so many apples a girl can eat.

Sidles in. Humming nonchalantly.
Wilkins/ Watkins has kept the boiler stoked in the orangery and there are roumers < I am indulging in creative spelling again> of pineapples, good for the digestion and humors.

Miss Mini!

Whereever have you been? Tatting, I trust?

The runny herb could well be the one made from a base of apricots and which tastes strongly of almonds.

Tis not to everyone's liking but apricots are good for curing constipation, earache and fevers.

Almonds are similarly beneficial, aiding in the treatment of anemia, impotency and skin diseases.

Pineapple is useful in curing gout.

We may yet cure Watkins' scrofula.

It is truly a wondrous herb. We should all have a tincture on our muesli posset each morn, before the kippers.

We could easily achieve that new-fangled 5-a-day which the quacks are now advising for good health.

A small glass of the runny herb with apricot and almond, a pineapple tincture, a juniper tisane and a grape-infused posset.

Voilà.
My complexion is tingling already.

Oh the indecision. Runny herb- gin-runnyherb - gin. What to do what to do. 'tis all too much and the weather so frosty, will there be skating on the lake? I am in need of vin chaud, and a hip flask.< where is my muff>

Runny herb for me. Anything that aids constipation is worth taking

what does IPOAT mean?

Impossibly Pleasant Otters Are Tiresome

Infused Possets Only After Ten.

Tisanes are for before ten of the morning.

Fig. It means you a slightly mad and trying to escape reality. Insane posters on a thread ...really.

I very much like Infused Possets Only After Ten.

I think we should adopt it.

Love it.

Perhaps we could have a new Coat of Arms with that as an inscription? We could have a lovely ceremony to commemorate the occasion with tatted bunting and we could wear the season's new fashions. Does anyone know what they are?

The Village Band will provide music as long as there's an ale tent. And plenty of buckets.

I am in agreement too the motto represents everything we hold dear.
Perhaps dear Rochester's leg could be part of the coat of arms.

As long as it is ten in the morning....

A coat of arms would be wonderful. We could hang it in the entrance hall next to the wolf's head that Hully brought back from Transylvania.

Perhaps we could have crossed hooks to represent our industrious tatting perhaps, and three empty gin bottles would perhaps also be apt..

hmmm how many 'Mr. Rochester's leg's' are there? Are we talking something like this?