Just Humans Being...

It has been over six months since our last proper pet sit and for no reason other than all our regular clients decided to stay at home over the winter. Financially it's been quite a blow, but we have come to realise that neither of us are drawn to doing holiday let cleaning nor happy to work as employees anymore - it's just not for us and instead, we have made it through the last few months being more frugal than ever and with a little help from our friends - who we are incredibly grateful to! Most of all though, we have missed spending time in the company of all our animal friends, which is the thing that really makes our hearts sing, so now we are here with one of our favourite chums... We adore this beautiful buddy and we have settled into our lives together, even though her routine is no doubt quite different with us...she remembers everything.  We do see her regularly throughout the year and whenever possible we take her out, but life is much nicer when we are together for

  More pics of our wild garden. We are going with the flow and creating little pockets of growing areas without getting concerned about timings; happy to just see what happens. Sweetpeas along the path to the cabin. We have around 30 tomato plants, which we have repotted for now and they continue to live in the workshop until the posts for the polytunnel/greenhouse come to us...which they will! Creating another no dig area. We have lots of fruit vines, which we are gradually getting tied up. The bees are loving the wild flowers, so we are leaving them in place. Floober Toobs overseeing everything in his most regal way. Not easy to see on this photo, but the Globe Artichoke is looking quite magnificent and is already over 6 feet tall.  We have lots of raspberries and red campions fast taking over the chard and kale area, but we seem to be still getting some nice edible greens, so we are happy. Yesterday was very hot and having a south facing garden means there is only shade early mornin

Taming some of the wilderness! We have started clearing little areas and putting in a variety of plants we have very gratefully received. (Thank you Sadie and Amy!) We haven't pruned the raspberries, but Sime was eager to get them tied up. We are using some scraps of recycled fabric as ties...I think seams and cuffs from our friend, Kath who makes fabulous patchwork quilts and all sorts of beautiful fabric art from recycled material.  Compost Corner. Inside our bin...we started this one 7 months ago and we are already getting some lovely compost. We only put in raw vegetable and fruit waste, which we layer with brown paper, newspaper and cardboard. Garden waste is put into a separate open heap and seems to rot down pretty fast. Making progress in what will become our hybrid greenhouse/polytunnel... We have the side panels and hoops ready to go on and the roof will be made from the old polytunnel plastic sheet - just need the supporting posts to hold it all together. Some views from

Our cabin looking cosy from outside. It has been stormy all day today and right now we have gale force winds and the torrential rain continues, but we are experts at Hygge and feel so happy and grateful to be indoors, to be dry, warm and snug.. We have a pot of lentil dhal bubbling on the stove... And both kitties are snoozing. Floobs is on the kitchen worktop tonight... While Tiky is sticking with the table! The woodburner is crackling away and we have plenty of dry wood. Hope you too are keeping warm, dry and grateful for everything you have. Lots of love, Kay and Sime xx  

This is our new friend Tiky, we agreed to become his guardians when we took on the cabin, but as usual with us...his name has morphed and over the weeks he has become known as Tickety Boo! This beautiful chap is such a sweet natured kitty, who has calmly put up with the upheavel of his family leaving, spent 2 weeks more or less living in the workshop and to top it all – these strangers move in and with another cat!!! We are so happy that he has accepted us all...he and Floober (our old boy, Flea) growled a couple of times at each other while eating and now are happy to be close and can even be left together in the cabin for many hours. It’s funny really, we had both decided a while ago that we would not be taking any more cats in...but we agreed to having Tiky without hesitation. Our unexpected bonus. How lucky we are to be sharing our lives with yet another gentle soul.   ♥♥♥

We are in the middle of moving house. Our move is fairly simple as we gave away most of our big furniture when we left Meadowcroft...nearly 4 years ago! We don't need a van or a company to help pack. We are just getting on and doing it gradually...no rush, just a slow move. As always, we make time to sit still, take in the views, breathe and remain eternally calm. Life can be this simple. So why do many people make it complicated? Try to enjoy some quiet time each day, it's such a lovely thing to do. Love Kay and Sime xx

For some strange reason Blogger has decided to censor this lovely quote from James Allen... If anyone out there can tell us why, we would be very grateful.   Cherish your visions;  Cherish your ideals;  Cherish the music that stirs in your heart,  The beauty that forms in your mind,  The loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts,  For out of them will grow all delightful conditions,  All heavenly environment;  O f t hese, if you but remain true to them,  Your world will at last be built. ~ James Allen ~ We have written many posts about how we have always spent time together "scheming an' a dreaming". We still have the book we wrote our list of 101 goals from over 10 years ago and we are always pleasantly surprised when we dig it out that we can tick off a few more! Amongst the completed goals we have: Live by the sea  Own a house in France Live on a mountain Live in a wooden house Grow our own vegetables Recently, we thought again about living in a wood cabin...influen

New opportunities have presented themselves again and the time has come for us to move on. Since coming to Cornwall in 2002, we have lived in some amazing homes and have promised ourselves over the years that we will continue to stay and live in places with beautiful views. We love the view from the kitchen door here and this will always stay with us...especially early mornings and seeing the sunrise. This year has been quite wonderful for us...being in the right place at the right time.  We have found joy in gardening...preparing beds, growing vegetables and fruit, as well as clearing and weeding.  Enjoying the peace of the Cornish countryside, connecting with nature and continuing to slow down.  We are both absolutely committed to this way of life...living simply and eating well.  With this in mind, we are moving again - staying in Cornwall and becoming the new guardians of a quirky little cabin in a community of lovely folks. We are looking forward to having our own little space wit

The height of summer, with most probably more people than ever in Cornwall.   We are the kind of folks who crave quiet and can always find beautiful places to spend time away from the noise...even on a hot summer's evening.   Oh what joy!  Hope you are all well and finding your own peace. Love Kay and Sime xx

Do you feel like an outsider looking in on the world? We do. We have stopped listening to the news, the radio and stayed away from most social media. We ditched TV many years ago and cancelled a streaming service we were sucked into earlier in the year. Taking a break from all this is quite empowering and instead we are concentrating on eating well and filling our spare time with nice things like reading, educating ourselves (at the moment we have somehow got into studying psychology) and meditating. In September 2001, we were on a camping trip in France with our kidlets, completely unaware of the 9/11 incident in New York. We had noticed lots of folks on the campsite sitting around their radios, but we assumed that it must be an important sporting event...something we have no interest in! Several days later our Dutch neighbours realised that we were the only campers enjoying ourselves and the wife must have drawn the short straw; coming over to announce "New Yo

Less traffic in the air and on the roads is making for a much more peaceful life. This area of Cornwall is already pretty quiet and now we are really noticing the difference... Trips to the outside compost toilet can be quite eerie - especially in the evening, but we do admit to loving it...Peace and quiet, clear skies and an increase in birdsong. Last year, we stayed in rural Hampshire near the border of Berkshire and we were genuinely shocked at how noisy it was each and every day. The constant hum of traffic and planes flying over. We wondered whether the lack of quiet was the cause of many people seeming stressed and impatient. This trait we usually see in city people, but it was intriguing to see in the countryside. It is amazing how quickly we become immune to what is going on around us, but do we still feel it subconsciously? The life we lead would not suit most people, but we love it. We were never cut out for life in a city or town and living on a housing estate

We have arrived home to a chilly and wet Cornwall, where our lovely Fleaby was waiting in the barn for us and has wanted lots of cuddles and fuss. We took a ferry from Roscoff in Brittany to Plymouth and for the first time, we experienced armed military police on board the ship...apparently for our security! As always, we take our picnic basket with us and enjoyed our usual feast of salad with rustic baguette and a vegan forest vegetable p âté. Last night, we were welcomed home with a supper of foraged food prepared by Sara at Cotna, which was delicious...unfortunately, we didn't get any photos. Today, we have cooked a simple stir-fry for Day 10 of World Vegan Month. We fried carrots with spring onions in soy sauce, ground turmeric and cumin... Then added chunky cloves of garlic, mushrooms and kale. Plus a Puy lentil and soya bean mix from France and some brown rice.  Finishing off with the juice of a whole lemon and some ground black pepper.