Just Humans Being...

Our veg box is delivered on Wednesdays.  So by Tuesday - we always end up with a bit of a concoction... Last night we made Carrot, Hazelnut & Millet Burgers... Served with the last of the salad, some leftover pasta, sprouted alfalfa, baked mushroom & a bread roll... When we first gave up oil & butter - we really were hungry & eating several meals a day. We decided to include nuts again, especially during the cold weather & we are definitely more satisfied. We're also eating olives occasionally, though not many & aim to stop eventually.  I don't snack at all any more & don't even crave anything sweet or stodgy - I can look at chocolate & am happy not to eat it, so it must be because of the foods we no longer eat. Sime does still fancy something sweet after meals & continues to eat muesli with nuts & fruit to help with that. Interestingly, I gave up drinking shop bought juices a while ago, but Sime drinks a small glass of either pre

 I get all misty eyed whenever I think of my school days. Just kidding. It's time to lay it on thick and Bastard (who we met in part 1) features heavily today. Did I say how hairy his legs were? Goodness gracious, how neglectful of me. This man had an unfeasibly wiry growth of black hairs upon his legs. You couldn't help but stare at them.I don't believe that anyone wasn't mesmerised by this forest of hirsuteness. One could be forgiven for thinking that at a distance he could have been sporting leg warmers. But I digress. It was all about the bullying. The big incident happened immediately following football practice at the end of a Friday afternoon. We returned to the changing room and Barry (not his real name) could not locate his underwear. To cut a long story short, Bastard menacingly informed us that this was such a serious issue that the only course of action was for us all - about ten of us, to follow him to THE PREFAB. This was an old prefabricated room that w

I've been meaning to get this off my chest for a long time and I know that by doing so I'm going to feel so much better for it. Kay knows the stories well. I've bored her to tears with them for years, so by getting them "out there", perhaps I'll get some closure and peace of mind with the whole thing. This blog is all about my experiences of abuse within the schools I attended between 1971 and 1976. Let's be clear right from the start about the abuse - it was predominantly of the mental torture and physical punishment kind and was not of a sexual nature - except for one incident I witnessed that made me feel uneasy and which I will describe later. Back in the 1970's, the cane or ruler ruled. I don't know what your stance on punishment is, but mine is firmly of the belief that it is fundamentally *wrong*. No human should inflict pain and suffering upon another (except in establishments whereupon a fiscal transaction has occurred) , but in school

Kidlets came to visit yesterday... It's so difficult to schedule time for us all to meet up with our various work commitments, so it has been pure fluke that we've managed to see the girls twice this month already! The first thing they always do when they get here - is dig out a board game... Cluedo was yesterday's choice... Rozzy bags a seat by the fire... Salla with her mountainous collection of books she's borrowing from Hugo. Mainly Game Of Thrones... (The bags are courtesy of Sime & the stash he collects from the holiday lets - none of us would set foot in such an awful shop, I'm even horrified that we're advertising them)! Ryan has been with Sal for 6 years now & as you can see - he adores his outlaws! Hugo's hair is growing like crazy again. He had wanted the girls to cut or shave it this weekend, but changed his mind - which we're glad about! Daddy & the girlies... Daft pair... Our family feast - vegetable & red lentil cu

More to be grateful for... Yesterday, in the health shop we were given a free loaf of organic rye bread - just because we're good customers! And one of our favourite property cleans is a second home, which in April is changing to a holiday let... Unfortunately, the agency it is being let through has cocked up the bookings & got the changeover day wrong, which has meant that all of a sudden we have realised that we won't be able to carry out the work. The owners are just as gutted as we are about it, but we are already committed to other properties. We thought up until yesterday that the agency would just use their housekeeping staff & after 4 very happy years we would be finishing... But no, the owners have been in touch & don't want to lose us, so they've told the agency to honour the bookings & at the end of the Summer the changeovers will revert to the previous day we all agreed on. In the meantime, they want to continue to pay us for any wor

Light My Fire - The silly version of course... Yes, think we could say we're excited!!! K&S xx

Our house... We've been upside down since Monday.  The builders are working hard to sort out the damp in the heart of our house - our dining room... We also got permission from our landlord to knock out the bricked up fireplace... As we thought we would buy a wood burning stove. Inside the fireplace, we found the wall was filled with pebbles from the beach... And we found a Jackdaw's nest... A massive nest - which explains the noises we would hear in the wall! This morning we had a wonderful surprise... Not only is our landlord going to pay for new curtains & a carpet in our living room... He's decided that he will pay for the wood burner & everything that goes with it! We have wept with joy & feel incredibly happy, we were totally prepared to purchase the stove ourselves - but his lovely kindness just makes us feel very lucky & highly honoured... He has offered us his bank card today, so we can purchase whatever we like - what an amazing man! How ma

Mrs W, who follows our blog by email has very kindly pointed out that we neglected to say what we are doing with regards to the WWF's ideas. So here's the post from Saturday:  Earth Hour 2012  as reference & this is what we are doing... Transport - As we live in a rural area, we would struggle without a car. There is a bus route a mile away, though it only runs 4 times a day. It's also expensive (£5.50 return to the nearest town). There is  a community bus, which tends to fill up quickly with older people who no longer drive & that's great. We need a car for our business & most of our work is within a 3 mile radius. We have cut down on our trips further afield & wait until we have several things to do before making a journey - even Sime's gig journeys get combined with doing something useful on the way. Growing and wasting food - A stumbling block for us, in that our landlord really isn't keen on us digging up his lovely lawn! We grow some gar

Thank you for all your comments over the last couple days... We promise to catch up properly tomorrow. We've worked all weekend & in the morning we have builders coming in to take over our dining room, so we're busy moving our clutter from here to another part of the house! The guys will be here at 8am, so we're going off to bed early ... Last night,  I had my arm twisted to venture out & see The Dolphins play - which I enjoyed, as I've not been for a while.  Sime's old band turned up too to watch, which was a surprise - a nice surprise! Anyway, I managed to fit in a quick video in between stuffing CDs & their inlays into cases - which was a thrilling job! Sime says you'd all love to see it, so here is University by The Dolphins Fly:  Hope you enjoy it! Kay & Sime  xx

It's Earth Hour again on March 31st at 8.30pm. Our transition group will be getting together again for a shared veggie meal & bonfire. The idea to switch off lights & appliances for an hour isn't about saving electricity... It's about being aware that everything we do has an effect on our planet. Supporting the WWF Earth Hour  shows your willingness to acknowledge your role in the world's future & wouldn't it be nice to know that that future really could be bright! Here's WWF's ideas for us all to think about: Top ten ways to reduce your ecological footprint Don’t drive when there is an alternative – use public transport, cycle or walk.  On average we can reduce our total ecological footprint by as much as 20% if we don’t own and drive a car. Using it less will reduce your footprint. Grow vegetables and don’t waste food.  Combining these actions could reduce our footprint by 11%. Growing our own fruit and vegetables reduces all the

It is vital that when we educate our children’s brains we do not neglect to educate their hearts by nurturing their compassionate nature. ~ Dalai Lama~ Since we started home educating the kidlets in 2000, we took a journey into a world where learning never stops.  We realised very quickly, that none of us really wanted to continue with the national curriculum, but instead we let the kids lead the way.  It w as amazing that when given the space, they became more creative, naturally wanted to learn and so did we. Once we'd all decided that home education was for us, we chose the end of school term at Easter as the perfect time for the girls to finish school.  Several months before, we had booked flights to New York for the 5 of us to mark the millennium and were due to fly out on the following Sunday.  What a fantastic start to life without school. We visited New York City, Long Island, Up-state NY, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania  and dipped into Canada - it was a wond

Rose & Sal both live in Falmouth with their boyfriends. They also work together at the same store... Read more here We dropped Hugo off at the home ed group in Truro, where it was wet & windy... And arrived in Falmouth in time for some lovely sunshine... This is our favourite town centre street... The Natural Store is one of our favourite shops - well, it's actually 2 shops now. The first one sells groceries & the second sells supplements & has a deli... There are lots of independent shops here... And they are all pretty funky... Something for everyone too... Jam is our favourite music shop. We haven't actually bought anything from them since purchasing our first Ani Difranco CD in 2004!  But we do like going in to browse... Vintage clothing...  Antiques... Stones make delicious organic bread... A rather posh charity shop... This is the window of an old hardware store. We always wonder if anyone actually goes in to buy braces... Steep climb up