Just Humans Being...

  Red lentils are an absolute favourite and we have both felt the same way about them for many years...our go to comfort food, whatever the weather!  Put them together with some vegetables, miso and brown rice and we have the ultimate in simple, nourishing food.  It's one of the first vegan ingredients we attempted to cook over 34 years ago - with very little in the way of recipe books and we had no idea how to get them just right; resorting to beans on toast over and over again, but sheer determination and much experimentation got us there in the end! Now we enjoy them at least twice a week, these days in a pan of seasonal vegetables cooked with spices and fresh herbs - sometimes using the leftovers for roasts and burgers...they are just so versatile and we adore their subtle, almost bland flavour and creamy texture.   Red Lentil Dhal Recipe   (4 Servings) Ingredients 8oz red lentils 1 medium onion 4 garlic cloves Selection of seasonal vegetables Selection of spices (black cumin,

We have always enjoyed road trips and you only have to search through our blog to find many posts featuring our trips. We like this independent, laid-back way of travelling. Staying away from the main routes and instead, exploring the quiet roads away from the traffic. On the rare occasions we have been stuck in hold-ups; we remain calm, go with the flow and if possible just look for an alternative way. Holidays for us start as soon as we exit the door to our home and not when we arrive at our destination. Travelling is very much part of the whole experience and we'll either pack a picnic for the journey or pick up food once we're on the road...sometimes even both! No hard or fast rules, just making decisions as we go and doing what we feel. Slow travel is quite wonderful, setting off early and seeing what happens. There are always opportunities presenting themselves - intriguing places we may come across on the way and the people and animals we meet. Leaving our plans open mea

  We seem to have quite a few pet sitting assignments lined up this year and we are very happy about it. We feel incredibly honoured to be paid to do something that is so enjoyable and adore spending time with such lovely furries. It's a pleasurable way of living for us and such a simple way of life...walking, cooking, eating, taking care of various pets, reading and sleeping.  A nice change from our sometimes crazy work schedule at home (well, crazy for us) we just can't help getting involved with folks in need of support, but what we really should be doing is taking care of ourselves too.  House and pet sitting means we can take things easy, no rushing around and it is truly wonderful; basically a paid holiday! We are currently in very hot Hampshire, arrivi ng 10 days ago totally unprepared with more food than clothing - pretty normal for us...which means we've already had to buy shorts and now an elderly neighbour has offered for us to cool off in her pool, which leaves

We want to share with you our love for each other, a powerful and intimate connection which continues to grow each and every day. Today isn't an anniversary or birthday...dates don't really matter, we just enjoy sending our love out into the world. We started writing this shortly after our anniversary in September and somehow became too busy to be blogging...so hello again, we are still here! 34 years married, soon to be 36 years together and over 50 years since we first met. One day we'll dig out the box of old photos under our bed and make a montage, but for now - here is a few from the last 5 years, as well as our wedding day on the bottom right. Last September, we enjoyed a wonderful celebration of our relationship with family and friends on the farm and created:  Our 80s Playlist . How can we love each other more than ever after all these years? We just do. The first time we declared our love was over a barrel of beer in a friend’s garage, while a party was going o

Cabin life... For years, we have felt the need to shut out the light from our bedrooms. We truly believed that our inability to sleep solidly was due to our curtains not being thick enough, long enough, wide enough... And yet here we are; over 10 months without curtains in a south facing cabin with many windows, lots of light and we sleep so well!  At a time in our lives when many folks of our ages are wakeful or needing the loo in the middle of the night...as we did before living here. We now sleep soundly and only extreme weather (torrential rain or howling wind) has disturbed us.  We don’t have any electricity around our bed. Our wooden cabin doesn’t have any built-in sockets and our only electric cable is in the kitchen, which is at the opposite end of the cabin. The fridge is the only thing that remains on at night and we switch everything else off...absolutely everything; including our phones and we pack all our devices away each night. We use candles, tea lights and torches on

When we think about all the wonderful opportunities that come our way, we sometimes have to pinch ourselves...what an incredible life we have created together! This is the beautiful place we are taking care of at the moment and although it's been a while since we were last here, it has felt like coming home and our furry friend has been very happy to see us. The huge garden is a peaceful haven for wildlife and it's a joy to wake up each morning to hear and watch the birds and squirrels feed, potter and play. There is also an abundance of butterflies and bees...being surrounded by nature is very much home from home for us, as our Cornish home is also a quiet haven with many birds, bees and butterflies.  Woodpecker Red Kite Our lovely furry buddy... enjoying some snuggles. Our roles here are to firstly doggie sit (feeding, walking and snuggling), then take care of the vegetable garden, feed the birds and look after the house. We do love all our work - helping others comes natural

  More pics of our wild garden. We are going with the flow and creating little pockets of growing areas without getting concerned about timings; happy to just see what happens. Sweetpeas along the path to the cabin. We have around 30 tomato plants, which we have repotted for now and they continue to live in the workshop until the posts for the polytunnel/greenhouse come to us...which they will! Creating another no dig area. We have lots of fruit vines, which we are gradually getting tied up. The bees are loving the wild flowers, so we are leaving them in place. Floober Toobs overseeing everything in his most regal way. Not easy to see on this photo, but the Globe Artichoke is looking quite magnificent and is already over 6 feet tall.  We have lots of raspberries and red campions fast taking over the chard and kale area, but we seem to be still getting some nice edible greens, so we are happy. Yesterday was very hot and having a south facing garden means there is only shade early mornin

Taming some of the wilderness! We have started clearing little areas and putting in a variety of plants we have very gratefully received. (Thank you Sadie and Amy!) We haven't pruned the raspberries, but Sime was eager to get them tied up. We are using some scraps of recycled fabric as ties...I think seams and cuffs from our friend, Kath who makes fabulous patchwork quilts and all sorts of beautiful fabric art from recycled material.  Compost Corner. Inside our bin...we started this one 7 months ago and we are already getting some lovely compost. We only put in raw vegetable and fruit waste, which we layer with brown paper, newspaper and cardboard. Garden waste is put into a separate open heap and seems to rot down pretty fast. Making progress in what will become our hybrid greenhouse/polytunnel... We have the side panels and hoops ready to go on and the roof will be made from the old polytunnel plastic sheet - just need the supporting posts to hold it all together. Some views from

 Holidaymakers are swarming down to Cornwall, so we are enjoying a couple of days being homebased and it's finally warm and dry... instead of the cold, wet and windy weather we have had over the last weeks or is it months? We have much to do in the garden  jungle, and after being crazily busy for what seems like forever - we were dreaming of spending some quality time at home with the kitties, pottering about outside...and now we have exactly what we have been craving. Yesterday we visited our local farm shop and for the first time we bought some Green Wheat Freekeh from Palestinian company  Zaytoun  and we love it! We cooked up some spicy veggies and added the soaked Freekeh at the end and served on a bed of salad and topped with chopped coriander. We have also been experimenting and decided to have a go at making our own version of a vegan frittata using silken tofu and buckwheat - it was delicious! We'll make it again and share the recipe soon. The weekend wouldn't be co