Just Humans Being...

Do you trust your own instinct or prefer to rely on opinions supposedly based on facts? Over the years we have been advised against doing what we have wanted to do, we have experienced so many sharp intakes of breath by the people trained in the various areas we have disagreed with, but we have always chosen to stick to our guns and do what we feel is right. The thing is, our decisions came from within – we were never been influenced by others or knew of other people doing what we we wanted to do, we just felt something...a knowing. When we first got together in 1986, we discovered that we both felt repulsed by certain meats and we began questioning why we continued to eat it when we felt so uncomfortable. One evening Sime came over to my flat and made spicy veggie burgers from soya mince which were delicious and I then found a recipe for walnut and broccoli lasagne and we carried on learning more and more. In 1987, we bought our first house together and it just so happened that ...

We continue to be blown away by the amount of folks emailing us about wanting to change their diet or talk about home education & these are not just people following our blog... The comments to our posts are always great & positive, but the emails are mostly from people who have been inspired by something we've blogged about or from someone we've met & these sometimes reduce me to tears! Some years ago we were WWOOF hosts, we were living on a smallholding & we opened our home up to people (from all over the world) who wanted to come & help us on the land - creating an organic vegetable garden. In return for their help, we gave them a room, fed them vegan meals & treated them as part of the family. Some stayed for a few days, some stayed for a few weeks. It was an absolutely wonderful experience - learning from each other & so interesting for the kidlets too.  We made some very special bonds & continue to be in touch with some of those folks, but...

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...

Last week we visited this amazing place with the home ed group... Feadon Farm  is a wildlife centre attached to a holiday park near Portreath in Cornwall. They take care of the neighbouring woodland & it's inhabitants. As well as lots of mainly British wildlife at the centre.. Sime wanted this farty photo on... This is the inside of a hollow tree... At the top of the woodland is quite a nice view. As well as the centre's wild meadow... Gary is the main guy & he likes inspecting dung... And seeing what creatures are around. Under this piece of tin was a vole in it's nest, but it ran before everyone took their photos... Snails shelter from the sea breeze... Back at the centre - Harris Hawks... Hazel the Squirrel... A Grass Snake... Which took a liking to Sime... A Field Mouse... A Rat... And the animals we were looking forward to seeing - Foxes... Meadow is feeding & Copper is behind her... And Todd was hiding... Beautiful! Lunchtime in rather ...

We've had a hectic few days, but were thrilled to be sharing some nice times...   We were invited to Rose's graduation at Truro Cathedral...  The ceremony wasn't kicking in until 11am.  But it was suggested we got there early to ensure a seat... (This was taken at 9.30am)! It was certainly a grand setting & each graduate got a chance to be in the limelight, as they were called up one by one... And handed their scroll... Our lovely proud & happy girl... With her Foundation Degree in Graphic Design & Communication. The same girl who just a few years ago was painfully shy & would wear her hair over her face to hide... Finding the confidence to go to college was not easy for Rose, but she did it & wanted to do it.  Fortunately, she had a great tutor & lecturers who encouraged her to use her wild & wonderful ideas for projects...  Since then - she has blossomed! The only girl there wearing baseball shoes... Afraid she takes aft...