Just Humans Being...

Tonight's dinner has been leftover Haricot Bean Bolognese which Sime added tofu and borlotti beans to make it go further, he fried the tofu in soy sauce and we served with rice, which we always cook with turmeric (yes we do eat a lot of rice!) and green salad. The Bolognese also has lots of garlic, onions, mushrooms, red pepper and courgette. Tomorrow we are off on the road again, so it we will show you what foods we pick up and eat on our travels! Love Kay and Sime xx

Today is Day 3 of World Vegan Month. We hope you will watch the video and if you are not vegan - perhaps you will consider a change. The Vegan Society have lots of information to help you make a start on How To Go Vegan And we are always more than happy to help. Please DO IT!!! Love Kay and Sime xx

Religion is still a big thing in rural France, especially in the Auvergne. We've seen it all before - the volcanic rocks with virgin Mary statues towering over communities, the altars and crosses just outside villages. The views from the statues are amazing, so always worth a climb.  Friday (All Saint's Day) was a day of families gathering. Everywhere was quiet and we took the opportunity to explore. Saint-Pierre church at Novacelles is a lovely little building. With a warm and cosy atmosphere. Day of the Dead is all about honouring our deceased loved ones, so we lit candles. Our Lupe died just days before we came away on our trip. Our beautiful companion of 14 years. We are still hurting and know when we arrive home next week we will miss him dearly. We continue to wish him a goodnight every night, as we do Fleaby (our other old boy) when we're away from home.  Lupe is buried just outside our bedroom window, under

The light is terrible in this kitchen at night, but here is our Day 2 food post for World Vegan Month. We've made a Bolognese with haricot beans and veggies and served with a green salad. Here is a previous post for the recipe: Our Bean Bolognese Recipe Enjoy! Love Kay and Sime xx

"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

We have set ourselves the challenge again to share posts of our food every day during November for World Vegan Month. As we are eating leftovers tonight from last night's stew, we thought we would show you our rather bland looking, but delicious lunch... Rice with miso and sea vegetable soup thrown in! We always have some sachets of miso soup or paste in our picnic basket for a quick snack and they are great for when we are travelling. If we're on the road, we can usually fill our flask with hot water for the day, although there are not many French hotels with kettles in the bedrooms - we usually ask the staff on reception or if we're having breakfast, just fill our flask then. We've not managed to find a French alternative that we are happy with, so we usually make sure we have plenty for our trip...Clearspring is our favourite. Happy World Vegan Day! Love Kay and Sime xx

We often get shocked at how much folks are willing to pay for vacations. Even if we become billionaires...no don't laugh, you never know...we will no doubt continue to travel simply.  We love camping for starters, so we can't imagine not doing it and then there's a real joy in bargain hunting hotels and holiday accommodation. We tend to camp if we can do more than 3 nights and the weather's nice. If it's not so good, then we usually look at self-catering accommodation and easily find great places. When we're on the road we tend to find cheap motels for overnight stays and book a few hours before arrival to save money. These can be anything from a motel chain to a more fancy pants country hotel...on our last trip to France we found ourselves staying in the grounds of a vineyard in Burgundy and it was lovely!  A lot of small hotels open up to business travellers out of season and when they still have rooms available, they reduce their prices and