Just Humans Being...

Firstly, I'm going to have a rant about Chelsea Tractors, otherwise known as posh four-wheeled drive vehicles. Farmers use them - predominantly Land Rovers. They aren't green, but they serve a function. They drive over fields and tow trailers full of turnips. Now the Chelsea Tractors are not entirely dissimilar.They drive past fields, and are driven by turnips. The farmer often has his son/brother/sheepdog in there with him. That's a good thing. Shared occupancy equals greener credentials. The driver of the Chelsea  (Hummer, Shogun, BMW oil guzzler or whatever) is a loner. Usually named Ursula or Peter (never Pete). The only time Ursula shares Chelsea is for the 3 minutes it takes to deliver little Jocasta and Jonty from the gravel driveway and Farrow and Ball painted gates of her country retreat to the primary school. I've seen this. "OOH!" I hear you cry -"Simon, you live in an affluent area, why the nasty swiping tone of voice?" Well readers, it

I don't know why, but we're feeling quite disinterested in this year's festivities... We are really struggling to motivate ourselves to look for gifts & write the mountain of cards that we send every year & if it wasn't for the kids - we probably wouldn't celebrate at all! It's not a case of "Bah Humbug", it's more to do with being opposed to the commercialism that takes over this time of year. We have talked for years about the paper & packaging that is just a complete waste of resources & looking at alternatives to Christmas cards, so now as I blog - Sime is writing cards for the final time, complete with messages for folks to send us their email addresses, so next year we can send our own e-card instead... We have never spent lots on gifts & in fact, we usually buy from charity shops for the kids. We also do a "Secret Santa" with our friends & the rule is that it should either be home-made or second-hand &

Our Uncle Bill Scragg talks about leaving his home in Stoke-on-Trent for the first time & "going on the continent" - we took him on our road trip to Germany back in September! No doubt he'll join us again when we travel to the south of France in January!!! Check out all his videos on:  http://www.youtube.com/user/BillScragg?feature=mhum#p/u/5/WumTG6MAE0Q

We started out on our journey from Cornwall early in the morning, it usually takes us about 6 hours to get up to Stoke-on-Trent, where our folks live. There is one main road which cuts through Bodmin Moor & Devon before joining the motorway to head north. Unfortunately, there was black ice up near the Jamaica Inn, which had caused several accidents that morning, so the police closed both carriageways... We decided to detour & take the small lanes through the moorland villages & so our journey out of Cornwall doubled in time, as we met with more treacherous icy conditions. Although it was a bit hairy at times, it was a beautiful morning & at least we got to see sights like this - If you can't make it out, it's a natural tree root feature that has been decorated with white wellington boots! Several hours later, we were nearing our destination & got our first glimpse of snow on the fields by the motorway, just outside of Birmingham.  The delightful view from

We're having major internet access issues at the moment, so are going mobile for a while in order to snatch WiFi  where and whenever we can. Our ISP has been less than helpful, and we are considering a move elsewhere. We hope to be back soon with more tales both adventurous and humourous, so watch this space.

Britain continues to freeze and that's just perfect as we Brits obsess and discuss  the weather continually. It matters not whether the weather is mild with an incoming band of high pressure or floods and ice storms are raging - it all makes for some inconsequential  banter down the pub/launderette/dentist.You know the conversations..." Ooh Elsie, my joints are all stiff again! " , "It's the damp Margaret, I was only saying to Derek last week how damp it's getting. we didn't have damp when I was a girl, it's since them carbon footprints were invented".  You can hear crap like this everywhere in the British Isles all the time. It's great! I say garbage like this continually. We all do. I don't know an Isobar from a Kelvin, but it doesn't matter, it's all in the triviality, the sheer time -wasting joy of it all. What an uplifting thing it is to discover that this part of December is the coldest since records began in 64AD. I made th

Everywhere in the UK seems to have had some snow just lately, except our little peninsula. It has been really cold though! Only 2 weeks ago we had some serious flooding in the area.  Mevagissey, which is just a couple of miles down the road, was hit really bad... Sime took these a few hours after the flood water had peaked. It's going to take a long time for homes & businesses to recover again, but everyone involved seems to be strong & determined to get back on their feet! It seems strange that just a few days after the floods, we were plunged into freezing temperatures - weather that we really are not used to around here & our house, although we have heating, has been the coldest we have known in the 5 years we have lived here (the price we pay for living in such an old draughty farmhouse)! Anyway, a good way to keep warm is to keep busy & so we've spent lots of time over the last few days making & baking... My rustic 'no knead' loaves...

It is over 3 years since I came out of hospital & I returned home like a zombie! My body had been living with an over active thyroid for at least 2 years, so it was a shock to be suddenly the opposite... Conventional medication for hyperthyroidism, means bombarding your body with high levels of beta-blockers (to slow the heart rate) & antithyroid drugs - the idea being to speed up the process of slowing the thyroid down (if that makes sense)! Once the thyroid is stable, it is highly recommended that it is either removed or 'killed off' using radioactive iodine. Without the thyroid, you have to then take thyroxine tablets for the rest of your life... I have continued to refuse both of these, as I have always been convinced that I will recover completely & therefore not need to do anything so drastic, I weaned myself off the beta-blockers as soon as I got home & my heart has been absolutely fine. I have also 'messed around' with the antithyroid drug to

The words I dreaded to hear were coming from my GP's mouth "Hospital". Now I knew I was in a nightmare... The ECG carried out on my heart showed that my heart beat had become irregular, as well as operating at 3 times it's normal speed! I had no choice - Sime agreed with the doctor & I was extremely scared of what was happening to me. Looking back, it was irresponsible to have let myself become so ill, but Sime was working long hours & I was trying to look after everyone else. It just crept up on me. One of the first thoughts that came to mind about going into hospital was of absolute fear, both my Grandad & my Sister died in hospitals through medical negligence, so I was really quite frightened! As soon as I arrived, a nurse told me that my dangerous heart condition needed to be dealt with quickly. She told me that they wanted to use some sort of injection to stop my heart. "You'll have a strong sense of impending doom, but it will only la

What a relief it was to find Claire the herbalist! She was (& probably still is) very knowledgeable about the thyroid function & was impressed with what I had prescribed myself, she had a lovely calming effect on me & made me feel secure in what I was doing. It was so nice to have someone else to lean on (other than Sime), someone who understood me & shared my views on the way we live. We agreed that if at any point she felt that the herbal treatment ceased working, then I would probably have to consider the conventional route. She also opened up communication with my GP & with my agreement, they shared information on my treatment & results, etc. Great! Claire treated me for 18 months, constantly tweaking the tinctures & although it did work - I just couldn't remain stable. She didn't fail - it was just my body wasn't ready to recover & another thing I didn't see at the time - was that I was under a lot of stress with extended family

I was first diagnosed with Graves Disease (an auto-immune disorder which causes the thyroid to become over active, also known as hyperthyroidism) in December 2005, although looking back - my symptoms started way before... Terrible mood swings, with totally unreasonable behaviour, intolerance to heat, profuse sweating, constant hunger, weight loss, muscle weakness & palpitations. It all came on so gradually at first, that I hardly noticed it! It wasn't until I was out Christmas shopping in Truro on a freezing cold day, stripped down to a T-Shirt & sweat dripping off my nose - that alarm bells suddenly kicked in... That night we did some research on the internet: either I was going through an early menopause or I had hyperthyroidism, another symptom was suggested in the research... A goitre (when the thyroid becomes enlarged), we had a look at my neck & sure enough there was a swelling - why hadn't I noticed it before? I had choked a few times while eating & put

We first met as children, just for a day - back in 1971. I knew that one day we would meet up again & 15 years later - we did! Our first proper time together, we sat up all night talking about everything that was important to us. We discovered how we both felt very different to our own families & so began our journey of what our folks have thought of as rebellion... Eighteen months later, we decided to marry; an impulsive decision & we did it our way - secretly, so there wasn't any fuss or pressure to have a big wedding. We bought a "special licence" & rings, asked a couple of friends to be our witnesses & off we went... It was brilliant, we spent our day doing exactly what we wanted to do & our honeymoon was a long weekend in Wales! This was the first time we disappointed our families & we seem to have continued to do so, throughout our lives together. From moving into a caravan when expecting our first born, to becoming vegetarian, giving u

We always knew where we wanted to be. In our imaginations we lived, in the countryside. A straw bale house, a yurt or little stone cottage would be perfect. Photovoltaic panels and wind turbine, our own spring water and three or four acres of land. Self-sufficiency and definitely off-grid. Getting there for us continues to be an ever- evolving  path that has at times been blocked or littered with surprising and often annoying detours. Looking back at the "What-ifs" it's easy to say we should have got those jobs in the south of France or took that extended holiday in a Catskills community. Where would we be now and what kind of people would we have become? Well, we made our choices, some right and some wrong, but  we still want that same way of life we dreamed about all those years ago, but now we know how to get there. What got us lost on the path was certainly negativity. Negativity about all kinds of things...Where is the money going to come from to do this? How do we