Just Humans Being...

  The joys of tiny home living. Our furry friends sneakily end up in places we'd prefer them not to be, which is mainly the bed or the kitchen table. The trouble is they just don't care what we say and they know that if they persevere - we will end up giving in! We do make allowances for our old chap, Floobs (Flea) and how can we treat young Tiky differently? So they both get away with doing whatever they want, though it is a relief at the moment that they have both moved on from sleeping on the bed, which caused us to have a few disturbed nights with Floobs desperately trying to sleep between us or on Sime's pillow and Tiky on our feet... Both purring loudly! They are now going through a kitchen phase and leave us to sleep solidly, which we are very thankful for. We are also grateful that they continue to be fine with each other and we can leave them in together when we go off to work - They love the cabin as much as we do!  When Lupe died last year, we never imagined that

  As a child, I think I drove my folks mad by always questioning them, whenever I was told to do something a certain way – I would ask why? More often than not, the reply would be “because I say so” or “it just is” which meant I never got a satisfactory answer. Perhaps this is why I have gone through life always questioning and if the answers don’t make sense – I do my own thing, luckily I met someone who feels the same way and together we continue to follow our own path. Why couldn’t I wear bright red woolly socks with my navy blue school uniform? Or a T-shirt instead of the silly round collared blouse? What was wrong with yellow or blue nail varnish? It was quite ridiculous that I was pulled up daily from my third year in high school for not conforming...I was sent to see the head teacher, given detention, but I continued to wear my own versions and actually enjoyed finding ways to bend the rules. I was told that the uniform was to give us a sense of belonging, an identity...re

Who needs a TV when you have several bird feeders? The cabin is a bit like a bird hide and we get hours of entertainment watching our feathery friends flying around and chomping. They have already gone through a large bag of peanuts and are now on some mixed seed and sunflower hearts we picked up from the local garden centre. We have also made our own fat balls – which are probably a lot healthier than the ones you can buy and the birds love them. We put all the ingredients in the food processor...Peanuts, sunflower seeds, ground flax (linseeds), oats, polenta and water. Whizzed it up and left the mush to stand for about 30 minutes, then separated the mixture and rolled into balls. We didn’t weigh anything out, just whizzed it all up until the right consistency. It’s really easy to do and probably much cheaper. In the garden each day, we have mostly Great tits, a couple of Blue tits and this morning we have seen our first Coal tit. We also have Greenfinches, Goldfinches and Chaffin

  I could capture the breathtaking views from this cabin, wrap them up and send them out as gifts to folks who need some beauty in their lives, but our camera just doesn’t cut the mustard! This morning is quite magical and is one of those occasions where I want to share the joy... I had to get out there - not just content in seeing the beauty from the warmth of the cabin, but I wanted to be out and to feel it. Witnessing the world awaken is quite an incredible experience and although this morning is probably no different than any other, I feel excited for the day ahead. We know that being in nature recharges us...perhaps living in nature supercharges us! As our feathery friends arrive to feast on the goodies we leave out, my rumbling tum is telling me it’s time for our breakfast too. Enjoy the photos! Love Kay (and sleepy Sime) xx

  This is our loo...I can almost hear some of you shouting “How Primitive!” at the screen, but we are very happy and grateful for it. It’s called a “Long Drop” and is basically a pit with a toilet seat over it. Instead of having a flush, we sprinkle sawdust each time we use it and not just any old sawdust...we came across a pine furniture maker who gives away off cuts of wood – which are great for the wood stove and big bags of sawdust, so our outdoor facilities are smelling pine fresh! When we saw this little hut I was transported back to the film “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” – it reminded me of the kidnapping of Caractacus Potts senior. The whole shed gets transported over the sea to Vulgaria, while Caractacus (Lionel Jefferies) sings a song about the posh travelling life...Wonderful stuff! We don’t really sit in fear of being kidnapped, but we have had some windy experiences...and I’m not just talking about eating pulses! The shed can feel like it’s about to take off, though in rea

  We work hard at being present, enjoying the moment without thinking about the past or future. It seems to be an easier thing to do in nature – watching the waves crashing over rocks and shorelines, the wind blowing in the trees or looking up at the sky on a clear night...for a few seconds; sometimes minutes we can feel totally immersed and connected to nature, the planet, even the universe. We have a tendency to operate on autopilot - especially if we are doing something mundane and monotonous, but we challenge ourselves to quietly concentrate on what we are doing, observing ourselves doing the task...it’s like a wakeful meditation and it’s not easy to achieve. The beginning of freedom is the realisation that you are not “the thinker.” The moment you start watching the thinker, a higher level of consciousness becomes activated. You then begin to realise that there is a vast realm of intelligence beyond thought, that thought is only a tiny aspect of that intelligence. You al

  Six weeks have passed now since we moved into the cabin and we adore this little place. We have experienced quite a lot of stormy weather, with huge amounts of rain and some very blustery nights. We have held our breath on a couple of occasions, half expecting the roof to be ripped off, but have been pleasantly surprised and will be ever grateful to Scot, who built this amazingly resilient house. We also love our second-hand wood stove, which easily kicks in - warming the cabin, keeping our furry friends and us happy! We’ve even been through a little cold snap and while there was frost outside a couple of weeks ago – we were toasty and snug inside. There is an abundance of birds around us and when the mornings are calm and mild, the birdsong is absolutely wonderful. We are situated at the top of a beautiful wooded valley, so the climate is almost rainforest-like. We see the sun rising and setting, the clouds forming and moving across the sky, the rain coming in and the mist r

  It’s 3 weeks since we finally moved into the cabin. We are still upside down...well that’s not quite true, there is now some space and order to where our things live and we are gradually making the cabin our home. We are also getting closer to realising a dream we first had over 30 years ago - to live off-grid and have our own power supply. At the moment, we are reliant on mains electricity for our fridge, lighting, radio and a few kitchen appliances...blenders, grinders, etc, as well as charging devices. We don’t have internet and thought we’d see how we get on without it in the cabin and instead just continue to use a communal area on the farm to catch up with the outside world. We don’t have a phone signal in or outside the cabin either, which means we do feel a bit cut off, but pleasantly so. I’m pretty sure we have written before on the blog about our desire to live off-grid...we are planning to have solar panels and I’m pushing for a small wind turbine. The cabin is s

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

We are probably in a minority of people who hope that life will never return to the way it was. We hope that people learn to be resilient and stop being materialistic. Stop flying all over the world and stop shopping in supermarkets. We would love to see people support local small businesses, watch their children thrive without government indoctrination, continue to unschool and slow down...is there really any need to work so much? Think about what you want to do with your life and if another pandemic happens in the future - where would you like to be? We can highly recommend living simply, sharing with others in a community.  Learning from each other, helping and supporting each other.  Life really doesn't need to be a struggle - it can be wonderful, just set the intention and if you are living in an unhappy situation, work out a plan to make your life better.  If we can do it...then anyone can! We are very grateful to be here and to have a lovely farm

Bakes are a great way to use up the end of a loaf and any leftover cooked veg. The mixture can be made into patties, sausages and balls, but the laziest easiest way is to bung it all into a tin and bake! We make them a lot because they are easy, tasty and filling... This one has 1 tin of chickpeas, 4oz of our homemade sourdough crumbs, leftover purple sprouting, leeks fried in soy sauce and spices, a blob of tomato puree, wild garlic and nettles. We put all the ingredients together in the food processor...  Then into a loaf tin and bake on a medium heat for 30 minutes. Take out of the oven and leave for 10 minutes before turning out. We had half the bake between us for our second breakfast on Sunday and the leftovers on Monday with bread, salad and pickles. It really is easy to eat simple, healthy vegan dishes and we love it! Hope you are all keeping well. Love Kay and Sime xx

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 realise just how lucky we are to be living in the countryside. Lockdown for us is quite different and although, like lots of other people, we have lost the majority of our income - we find it easy to adapt and already live very frugally... Our work on the outside world has reduced to one day a week and instead, we are able to help out on the farm in return for rent and some food. We have an organic veg and fruit box still being delivered to supplement what is available here and have no need to venture out to supermarkets or nearby towns. Those of you who know us are probably aware that we are not big supermarket shoppers anyway, so we feel no loss for them.  We don't have a freezer and cook from scratch, often making extra for the next day.  We eat simply...oats for breakfast, homemade sourdough for lunch and usually rice, quinoa or very occasionally pasta for dinner. All served with fresh veggies and pulses. Easy.  We've already dried a jar full of you

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.

"Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts." ~ Rachel Carson ~ Isn't it beautiful how nature has a desire to cover up abandoned human junk? All our stuff lying around roadsides, in driveways, gardens and waste ground slowly being absorbed by nature. We find it fascinating and although it's sad to see so much discarded stuff around, we love how nature always fights back. Luckily, we both share similar views as to what we consider to be beautiful because otherwise, we probably wouldn't have our little house. It needs lots of TLC and was so overgrown when we first saw it - as it was again this visit, but we both absolutely love it and don't see it like others do...our new neighbours think we are crazy to have bought the house, although it's more the size which makes them laugh rather than the condition.  We think it's rather sad that so many folks don't