Just Humans Being...

All civilisations are impermanent and must come to an end one day. But if we continue on our current course, there's no doubt that our civilisation will be destroyed sooner than we think. The Earth may need millions of years to heal, to retrieve her balance and restore her beauty. She will be able to recover, but we humans and many other species will disappear, until the Earth can generate conditions to bring us forth again in new forms. Once we can accept the impermanence of our civilization with peace, we will be liberated from our fear. Only then will we have the strength, awakening and love we need to bring us together. Cherishing our precious Earth–falling in love with the Earth–is not an obligation. It is a matter of personal and collective happiness and survival. ~ Thich Nhat Hahn ~

Here is a link to the full article:
We Need a Revolution; It Starts with Falling in Love with Earth

Now is the time to be thinking about the way you live your life.  To lower your impact as much…

As a lot of people know, we love our porridge and eat it every day. We are often asked for the recipe and have probably shared it on here many times, but as we do constantly seem to tweak the ingredients - we thought we would share it again, so here is our current recipe.  We use all organic ingredients too! 💚
Porridge Recipe Serves 2 Place all the ingredients in a large saucepan. 100g/4oz oats 1 teaspoon ground rosehips
1 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 teaspoon ground dried seaweed (we use kelp) 2 heaped tablespoons of a groundseed mix (we usually grind 1 tbsp linseeds and 1 tsp each hemp, chia and pumpkin) 1 tablespoon dried fruit 2 tablespoons fresh berries (we use blueberries, blackberries or blackcurrants)  1 or 2  chopped apples (with skin left on) 2 chopped bananas Approx 1 litre cold water
1 heaped tsp blackstrap molasses (add to the porridge before serving)
Heat slowly, adding half of the water and stirring every few minutes - you may need to add extra water as the porridge thickens. If th…

Some photos from our recent road trip through France...


Old road sign in the Vendee

Old meets new
A private house now...hope they're still dancing!
Spotted this in someone's garden...

Looks like Romeo's been busy!
Picnic area with quite a view
Beautiful old car, but no idea what it is...
Organic zero waste van
Street art
Biocoop Kitty
Breton Marais
Free books - take, deposit, exchange as you wish. 
About to drive over the Saint-Nazaire Bridge
Les Moutiers-En-Retz in the Loire-Atlan

"Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. It's presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought." ~ James Allen ~
As August was coming to an end last year, we decided to make September a month of gratitude - writing down 10 things to be grateful for every day. It proved to be such a powerful thing to do that we've kept it going. Every night before going to bed, we compile our list together. At first, we were writing about all the big stuff happening in our lives and as time has gone on, we've found ourselves noticing all the little things too and just how quickly these come to mind.
The list writing quickly became a habit, it's the last thing we do after cleaning our teeth and it feels so good to do every night. Our mornings also start with even more good habitual routines...meditation, our Tibetan Rites exer…

After many years of bread making, I have finally learned (thanks to Sara at Cotna Eco Retreat) how to make sourdough this year - using a wonderful old starter made from organic rye flour and pure spring water. As usual, I've tweaked the original bread recipe just because I like to make things simple and we both prefer denser breads. 
♥ Scroll down for the recipe ♥
Feeding the starter. I keep the starter in the fridge until ready to use, then add organic rye flour and warm water.
This is how it looks when mixed in...
And this is after around 8 hours.
The starter gets added to the other bread ingredients and forms the dough.  I use Shipton Mill organic flours and mix it up for variety. Our favourites are stoneground wholemeal, extra coarse wholemeal, wholemeal spelt, light malthouse and dark rye.
This is how it looks after being left usually overnight.
I line the banneton (proofing basket) I like to use polenta and sesame seeds, instead of the traditional semolina.
The dough after …

This year we have taken the opportunity to get homebrewing again and so far, we've made over 200 pints... All vegan and organic, using mainly foraged herbs and flowers, along with organic sugar and malt extract, yeast and pure spring water.
We started out making our old favourite - nettle, goosegrass and ginger with a few dandelion petals thrown in for good measure.  Next up was the very popular lemon balm and lavender and then we decided to purchase some dried hops...we visited a small organic brewery where we were treated to a little tour and were able to buy a couple of different types of hops - one quite bitter and the other more floral. This resulted in a light, hoppy lemon balm bitter.    Our fourth brew was using the floral hops with rosemary and lavender, then using the floral hops again - we made a hops and lavender beer, which wasn't so good. We think the bitter hops would have worked better...nevertheless it's still very drinkable. Our latest beer (in the photo…