Just Humans Being...

Feeling much gratitude... This beautiful house has become our second home this year and it's funny that we dreamed of living in a thatched cottage many years ago and now here we are.  We never imagined that when we first visited six years ago on a pet sitting assignment, that the owners would fast become such good friends - they offered to take care of Mabel while we are pet sitting and our arrangement is working out perfectly. We have visited frequently throughout the year and get to take over the kitchen and cook up vegan feasts for us all using fresh veggies from the garden. This time, we've been here for a couple of weeks - pet sitting their sweet chum as well as Mabel and today and we are heading back to Cornwall. I've found myself enjoying morning rituals again ( I go through phases of starting the day around 6am). I love early mornings and feel there’s magic in the quiet stillness, especially in this  quintessential English country cottage garden, which is a joy to s...

Most of us live in a culture that equates productivity with success and it's easy to feel like we're always falling behind. Our days are filled with tasks, meetings, and endless to-do lists, and we're led to believe that more is always better. But what if the key to a more fulfilling life lies not in doing more, but in doing less? Doing less is not about laziness or inaction - it's about living intentionally. When we reduce our commitments, we create space for what truly matters: joy, peace, and purpose. This shift allows us to focus on relationships, creativity, and self-care - the things that nourish the soul. Moreover, doing less can significantly reduce stress and burnout. By simplifying our lives, we give ourselves permission to rest, reflect, and reconnect with what truly matters. This practice aligns with the principles of simple living, slowing down, and intuitive healing - all of which support holistic well-being. In a world that never stops moving, doing less ...

A Deeper Connection, One Page at a Time In a time of endless scrolling and constant distractions, one of the most powerful ways to build a lasting relationship might be the simplest...reading together. It’s more than just sharing a book - it’s about sharing a mindset, emotions, and a journey.  Couples who read together aren’t just passing time; they’re building a life of long-term intimacy, understanding, and joy. A Shared Language of Love Books open doors to conversations you might never have otherwise. Whether it’s a novel’s moral dilemma or a memoir’s raw honesty, discussing stories helps you see your partner’s values, fears, and dreams in a new light. It builds empathy, trust, and a deeper emotional connection. Grow Smarter, Together Reading stimulates the brain, reduces stress, and slows cognitive decline. When you do it with your partner, you create an intellectual partnership. You challenge each other, learn new things, and grow wiser - side by side. Over time, this shared c...

We have always been astounded that we can go on many walks in Cornwall and barely see anyone else. Since having Mabel this has become very noticeable, as we are out daily - we do prefer to steer clear of touristy places, but it's still a surprise when we don't see anyone on most of our walks. We often start considering the idea that perhaps WWIII has broken out and we didn't receive the message, though usually end up wondering if there's something on TV that keeps folks hooked to their screens instead of enjoying being out and about. It's quite bizarre, especially as there were supposedly over 3 million extra people visiting Cornwall during the summer school holidays. We see evidence on the roads and on the beaches, though we tend to stay away from all the popular destinations and instead we get to indulge in the peace and quiet of lesser visited spots.  Mabel is having great fun in Hampshire for a while - we went to visit her and our friends over there and have ret...

It's nearly 15 years since we started this blog and it seems that we have been on quite a journey. There has always been much change in the 39 years we have spent together and we do seem to shake things up now and again. It feels good.  Right now, we are choosing a life that has more variety, more adventures and less stuff. We have fallen in love with the caravan we are living in and have been pleasantly surprised at how well the 3 of us sleep in here. We have started to clear our stuff in storage - getting rid of pretty much everything and slimming down what we have with us.  We love living simply and have come to realise how we really don't need much at all. We want to travel more and travel lightly. Food is the thing that we tend to have lots of when going away and on some pet sits we even take kitchen equipment too, though we are getting better at letting go and making do. We're streamlining, ridding ourselves of junk and starting to replace the things we need with bett...

Our beautiful chum came to live with us on the last day of March 2025. Mabel was just a few weeks old when we first began taking care of her and we very soon  became her legal guardians, agreeing to find her a lovely new home should anything happen to her Mum. Over the last 7 years we have grown to love this cheeky buddy and when the time came for us to help out - we decided that we would have her...just like that...we had only discussed a few days before that we didn't see ourselves having more pets, so it was such a bizarre thing that as soon as we were asked; we both said without hesitation - YES!!! She brings so much joy to our lives and to others who come into contact with her - she is our little angel and we absolutely adore her! We have lots of fun and we look forward to having many years of adventures together. Follow us on Facebook  and Instagram  to keep up with our adventures. Much love, Kay, Sime and Mabel xxx  

We are pet sitting on Dartmoor again. We love the bleak and wild countryside, the beauty and being surrounded by the quiet nature. This stunning house we are in for the wee k is very comfortable with all mod cons, it is incredibly warm with ground source heating, solar panels and huge south facing windows in the sunroom.  Our home for over 4 years has been like living in one big sunroom and we can't imagine ever choosing to live anywhere gloomy. When the sky is clear the cabin fills with sunshine through the day and moonlight at night. We don't have curtains and only 3 low energy lightbulbs, so we rely on natural light. It's always a shock when we go to somewhere with bright artificial lights and find ourselves itching to get out. We like a quiet, simple life - nothing brash, bright and loud, just peace and harmony.  This year we have decided to leave the farm.  It's time for some adventures; to travel and possibly find another place to be. We would like a motorhome aga...

Wisdom demands a new orientation of science and technology toward the organic, the gentle, the elegant and beautiful. ~ EF Schumacher ~ Schumacher wrote his book "Small is Beautiful" in 1973 and for us - it is still relevant today.  We haven't had internet at home for nearly a month and it's interesting how we first saw it as a big issue and ventured out daily to get a signal to keep on top of messages, but as time's gone on - we find ourselves not bothering and instead embrace a gentle and quieter life...apart from when digging out old CDs for a bit of music now and again! We realise how wonderful it is to have time away from the world and the little impact the fear mongering propaganda really makes to our lives. We have no interest in news, but unfortunately many people on social media are fully immersed in it's misery and like to shout out about it. Having time away from all this is great.  While technology is moving faster and faster - with AI and the push...

  Are you living your best possible life? "You grow old when you lose interest in life, when you cease to dream, to hunger after new truths, and to search for new worlds to conquer.  When your mind is open to new ideas, new interests, and when you raise the curtain and let in the sunshine and inspiration of new truths of life and the universe, you will be young and vital." ~ Joseph Murphy ~ In our little world we see much beauty and try to take time to enjoy the simplicity in our lives. We love the flexibility and variety of our business and feel good about doing what we do. Working with people and animals is definitely our thing. Earlier in the year we considered taking on extra cleaning work, though neither of us really wanted to venture down that road. We were looking at ways of increasing our income, but we have no desire to clean up after tourists anymore - we did it for many years and are happier now that our business has evolved to focus more on people and animals rath...

It's nice having the time to update the blog, tweak some of the settings, learn and re-learn how to do a few things! We often think it would be great to write more regular posts as we did some years ago, but book reading has become a much bigger part of our lives - especially as our internet signal is not always great at home...so as we are pet sitting, we really thought we'd be writing more! Instead, we have been venturing out everyday, exploring old haunts and new places with our little chum and we also seem to have taken on a new client! It never ceases to amaze us - how the universe works and what we are all capable of manifesting. We had put the thoughts out there and along came the person we were looking for, so although we wished our work was closer to home - we wonder if deep down inside we are both still very much connected to the Roseland area and so  "home" continues to be here. The intention to unravel ourselves from this part of Cornwall just hasn't h...

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...

It was over 10 years ago that we wrote a blog post about nurturing, simplicity and  Slowing Down  and we are happy to say we still feel the same way. We enjoy helping others, being with animals and nature - somehow we have carved out this path. We can manage on a small income with enough money to do what we want...buying decent food is always our priority and  maintaining our car. We do want to go on a road trip down to our house in France and that will happen at some point soon, but for now - we continue to creep and go. We live very frugally, but always feel our world is abundant and believe as a result, we often receive wonderful gifts - things we require often show up when needed...food, clothes, wood and books are always gratefully received. The kindness of others just blows us away.  A few weeks ago we met a couple while out doggy walking. It turned out that we had a connection with this couple - the chap's mother had been the housekeeper for one of the grand p...

We are spending a week on Dartmoor again at one of our regular pet sits - taking care of the usual menagerie... Along with this lovely chap - who is staying with the gang temporarily and we have come to adore him. Being professional pet sitters means we can only leave the animals for up to 3 hours per day, which suits us fine as we are content being here and pottering about. We have visited The Beehive Farm shop in Chagford and the Zero Waste shop in Moretonhampstead. Both shops are great for us and nice that they are close by. As well as feeding all the animals, walking the dogs and generally keeping an eye on them all, we are enjoying cooking simple meals, reading, sitting by the fire and watching YouTube videos of folks building and renovating small houses in remote places!  It has mainly rained since we arrived with just yesterday being dry, which was nice! Amazingly, we've only got a thorough soaking once and seem to be quite intuitive regards venturing out and have mostly cho...