Just Humans Being...

We are spending a week on Dartmoor again at one of our regular pet sits - taking care of the usual menagerie... Along with this lovely chap - who is staying with the gang temporarily and we have come to adore him. Being professional pet sitters means we can only leave the animals for up to 3 hours per day, which suits us fine as we are content being here and pottering about. We have visited The Beehive Farm shop in Chagford and the Zero Waste shop in Moretonhampstead. Both shops are great for us and nice that they are close by. As well as feeding all the animals, walking the dogs and generally keeping an eye on them all, we are enjoying cooking simple meals, reading, sitting by the fire and watching YouTube videos of folks building and renovating small houses in remote places!  It has mainly rained since we arrived with just yesterday being dry, which was nice! Amazingly, we've only got a thorough soaking once and seem to be quite intuitive regards venturing out and have mostly cho...

We are back in Devon on one of our regular pet sits and after arriving a couple of days ago to torrential rain and flooding...we woke this morning to blue sky, sunshine and a beautiful mist across the valley.  After our early walk we jumped into the hot tub to make the most of this glorious weather, soaking up the warm rays from the sun and marvelling at the clear blue sky - a rare occurrence these days! We are here for 6 days and arrived with everything we need for our stay - our intention being to use this time to completely chill out and enjoy the peace and quiet. It's great that we both feel the same way and neither of us has a desire to race around sightseeing. Instead, it is a real joy to get into a rhythm with the animals, walking, cooking on the Aga, eating, reading and spending time in the snug by the fire in the evenings. Every day is pretty much the same and that's just fine by us...we always bring lots of books with us and the dogs love to snuggle in the snug... Th...

  We are coming to the end of our stay in Hampshire and the last 2 days have seen autumn arrive, so it sort of feels right to be thinking about leaving. A bit like Vianne and Anouk in Joanne Harris' book "Chocolat" - our work is done, though I think it's a south westerly here, rather than a north wind.   It is always a joy to be staying in this beautiful thatched cottage with our furry chum, to totally unwind and relax. The woodland walks are peaceful and we feel that we've reconnected with nature and got into a lovely rhythm.  The great thing about regular pet sits is that they feel like our very own holiday home, everything is familiar...especially the pets and with this particular sit, we have got to know the neighbours and their pets too over the years, so there is much merriment when we arrive and see everyone.     We have enjoyed our quiet morning walks, as well as the pack gatherings every afternoon with the crazy furry gang running around the big fi...

  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 B...

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 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...

We're having such beautiful weather here at the moment, so we're making the most of it! Last week we decided to do one of our favourite local walks... Taking the lane past our hamlet... And the footpath down towards Caerhays... There had been a thick sea mist all morning, which started to lift. 1 mile from home... Tim Burton's film crew were starting to take over the beach. After feasting on fruit & handfuls of nuts on the beach, the mist cleared & we got on our way... We joined the coast path to head home... Looking back down on Porthluney Beach. A mysterious standing.stone.. Neither of us remember seeing it before! Taking in the view... These steps through the woodland are never-ending...  Out the other end... Down more steps... This little chap ran across the path - we do see lizards a lot in our garden too. We think the only way to get to Lambsowden Cove is by boat... ...

There's always lots of filming going on around here, but a few weeks ago we noticed a film crew base in a field near here, with security manning the gates even in the middle of the night (we were returning from one of Sime's late gigs). We were told that it's a Tim Burton film as he'd visited a local Indian restaurant & we were intrigued. After bumping into some neighbours in the week who told us to have a walk along the coast path, we decided to go along to investigate with Hugo today. The film is based on a children's book, set on a fictional Welsh island & is starring Samuel L Jackson, Judi Dench, Rupert Everett, Terence Stamp & Eva Green. Although there were only security guys around today. On the coast path. Looking down on the village. This whole set has been built on the village car park - Hard to believe that this isn't a real building... Nor this one... These too are part of the set... Sime tapped...