Just Humans Being...

Wishing you all well and for those of you who partake in the seasonal festivities, we hope you are having a happy and fun time! We had our annual family get-together early this year and enjoyed a weekend in a snowy Somerset. We stayed in a beautiful former church with all the kidlets, where we exchanged our usual Secret Santa gifts, ate, drank, played games and music, laughed and chatted pretty much non-stop! As the snow fell, we said our goodbyes and we travelled through a blizzard up to Stoke-on-Trent, where we sampled the delights of retirement village living with Granddad Gerry and Nana Stip-Pep! We then went on to Snowdonia, just the two of us and stayed in a little Welsh stone cottage, just outside Betws-y-Coed. There we experienced a big thaw with lots of flooding and then it snowed again! We returned home to lots of work and were busy up until Christmas Eve, but have now chilled out for a few days. It's just us and the kitties at home in this little ho...

The Pathway To Home From Amnesty International After having a wonderful week away - we returned to a difficult time with Bebe, resulting in her having emergency respite & input from the complex care team. She is home again & it's not easy, but we have had some quality time with all the kidlets & have finished work for a few days in theory (although are still on call) - so we are just going to make the most of our time - chill out & give Bebe the attention she craves, as well as eat, be merry & enjoy extra time with Rose & Asa who are joining us again on Christmas Day. We hope you all have a splendid yule! Love Kay & Sime xx

Yulembo , a set on Flickr. Hello Everyone! We are being our usual disorganised selves, which seems to be the norm, especially at this time of year... I am really craving a long holiday - it's 2 years since we were on our way to the south of France for a month & 4 years since we were in Bavaria. Cornwall sort of closes down in January & lots of folks go away at this time of year... It doesn't help that we are being bombarded with emails & post featuring special offers for this & that, but I am continuing to focus on saving & filling our sealed pot - ready for next winter. We have had a really great Solstice, Christmas & New Year. Our trip to Stoke was lovely & so nice that Rose & Asa joined us - the grandparents loved seeing them both too! Sime wants to get our photos up from the trip, so we'll sort it eventually. We also visited our friends, Kath & Jim in Glastonbury  - which was great! More photos to follow... On our return home,...

From here Hello everyone! Hope you're all enjoying the festivities, our feet have barely touch the ground these last few days - so we apologise for not visiting other blogs, let alone keep our own up-to-date! We have had the first of 3 days at home today, which has been great & in the usual Smith way - we are doing everything last minute, so there is frantic Secret Santa activity happening, baking, putting our tree up & delivering cards to our fellow villagers... It's all nice, hectic but lovely to be spending time with our young chap & kitties. The girls are working until this evening & will be over later tomorrow, when we shall be feasting & sharing our gifts. We have lots of photos to share of our recent trip up north & of Hugo's circus show, but think that'll have to be another time... Hope you all have a wonderful time! Love & best wishes, Kay & Sime xx

How time flies... It's almost a week since we were here... Perranporth Beach... The Watering Hole is the UK's only bar properly on a beach & The Dolphins Fly have played there! Perranporth is on the north coast of Cornwall & 25 miles away from where we live. We had dropped Hugo off at the home ed group & fancied spending the day enjoying the sun. When I heard that Perranporth beach is 3 miles long... I thought we should check it out! We had the most perfect time & the beach is amazing... Though we both agreed that neither of us would like it when it gets busy! Then it was on to Truro... This cafe has changed name so often that I can't remember it's name now... It used to be veggie & now sells meat & fish! :( But they did make a very nice vegan sweet potato, pumpkin & coconut soup. Sal & Ryan met up with us, as did our friend Jane - she had been supervising the home ed group ...

This week has flown... A whirlwind of food, laughter & lots of talking! Starting out with our Transition Group's Solstice celebration at  Cotna . We loved Sara's holly tree!  As always we all took along food to share... And enjoyed another wonderful feast... We toasted the sun with Patrick's Solstice Sloe Gin... And Sime got his first chance to wear a silly hat! We put our tree up on the Solstice, a real tree which we saved from being shredded & which will provide wood for our fire when we pull it down... Christmas morning we finished off our wrapping & waited for the kids to arrive... (Or in Hugo's case - get up)! Our first prezzie opening session... I think we chose well for Asa!  Happy kidlets... This year we decided to eat in our living room for a change. Sime remembered that we had an extra table & chairs in the garage (like you do) - which he's been itching to sort out ready for our B&B... Rose & Asa will be having a second ...