Just Humans Being...

  It has been such a treat to have good weather again, especially as we are on another pet sitting assignment. We decided to take a longer route to our destination in Hampshire - taking a more scenic route out of Cornwall, along the Atlantic Highway and a wonderful stopover with our dear friends in Glastonbury. As always, we enjoyed feasting with great company and left with full bellies, feeling relaxed.  We had already travelled from Cornwall, through Devon and into Somerset and the next part of our journey took us slightly north through Wiltshire and West Berkshire before landing over the border in Hampshire. It was a gorgeous sunny journey with little traffic and we thoroughly enjoyed taking our time, soaking up the sights and loving the changing scenery. It seems such a long time since we travelled through this part of the country...Frome, Trowbridge, Avebury, and Marlborough. Seeing delights such as:  Westbury White Horse   Silbury Hill   West Kennet Long Barrow   Savernake Forest

It was our wedding anniversary yesterday and after returning from our pet sit in Devon, then catching up with work for a couple of days - we fancied just being at home, pottering about, making food and preparing our car for it's MOT this morning. We don't really need an official day to celebrate our relationship, we just find it quite funny that time is flying by and it's actually 36 years now since we made that commitment to each other. Anyway, our car "Earl" passed it's MOT early this morning and on the spur of the moment; we decided that that was definitely worth celebrating, especially as it was another beautiful day and we just so happened to be a couple of miles from Coverack, somewhere we hadn't visited for some time. While Earl was in Zoar garage, we treated ourselves to a vegan breakfast bap each from The Bus Stop takeaway, which is in the grounds of the garage. Sarah, the owner is really friendly and it's nice to be reacquainted with her and

  We have been in the Exe Valley for a week, on one of our regular pet sits and apart from venturing out to the farmer's market in Dulverton, we are very content to be here on the farm. Have to say, we met lots of lovely folks in Dulverton and spent a very pleasant afternoon chatting and purchasing a few bits and bobs...delicious home made preserves from The Selworthy Pantry,  Pain du Campagne from Lucho Bakes and we couldn't resist sampling some vegan beers from the Cottage Beer Project. Sime was also told that he should visit the music shop...Oggies Music and although it had closed for the day when we arrived at the door, a family turned up and said we can actually ring the bell and they were right...the friendly owner greeted and welcomed us all in. A wonderful shop full of second hand instruments, books and records. It is always a joy to be back here with all the animals, walking on the land, through fields and woods. In this truly peaceful place, we embrace the remote quie

We are gradually coming out of our winter hibernation and two weeks of pet sitting on The Roseland in Cornwall has been a wonderful way to slowly "wake up" and enjoy being with one of our favourite furry chums. We are all enjoying being outside more and after 5 years of caring for our little pal - we have finally made progress with her ability to listen, focus and follow commands! She has always been a delight to be with, but her excitable behaviour tends to get out of control...perhaps she is calming down as she gets older or maybe we are more relaxed around her. We have certainly felt our bond with her has strengthened over the last two weeks and in turn she is eager to please. She can now have time off her lead and is thoroughly enjoying beach play time, with excellent recall.  We had almost given up on the idea that Mabel could enjoy such freedom, so it is a joy to us all! We do hope that she will continue with her Mum, but are confident that we will slip back into our ne

This life is perfect for us - spending time with so many beautiful animals, walking, cooking, eating and being idle. We are on another pet sitting assignment...Dartmoor again and it feels like we are truly unwinding.  We are up early, out feeding all the buddies and walking with the furries. There's no rush, no clock watching. We get to start our days gently, enjoying the playfulness of the goats, chatting to the chickens, cuddling the kitties and then walking, talking, laughing. Taking in the beautiful scenery, the wildlife and collecting wood.  Life is simple, we have no desire to fill our days doing stuff and instead we return to base, light the fire, make up big bowls of porridge and take our time to sit and enjoy every spoonful. It feels right to do less in the winter, to rest more and just be. At home we do have to work, but we are always dreaming up plans to make life simpler; for caring people to walk into our lives and take on some of our jobs, allowing us to do something

  It's not often that we big up a food company, but since sampling a few pies from Clive's range we felt that we should extoll the virtues of these delicious products. We've been vegan for a long time now and it's commonplace to find plant based foods in most outlets, of course this doesn't mean that they are all nutritious and of good quality - you have to sort the wheat from the chaff.  We took a chance on a couple of Clive's pies some time ago when we discovered our then local wholefood store, Archie Brown's in Truro stocked them. We each tried their creamy mushroom pies and loved them...really tasty, well filled and with a good crust. We are not huge fans of pastry, so were pleasantly surprised as to how good they were. We dipped our vegan toes into the Clive's portfolio and were rewarded with pies of consistently good quality. Other brands we've tried have been a bit hit and miss in terms of taste and consistency, but Clive's hit the mark ev

  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,