Rewilding Our Life - Days 15 and 16

Tuesday was beautiful, but the easterly winds were freezing...

We spent 30 minutes in the garden at work, but struggled with the wind.

We managed to finish with an hour to spare before picking Bebe up, so we decided to drive up to Caerhays, where we had a walk around the churchyard & a much needed warm inside the little church.

It's difficult to see just how strong the wind was...

Our activity was to think/write about things we have learned & unlearned since starting the challenge.

We have learned how if we put our minds to it - we can make time available to do the things we really want to do & what we want to do is be outside in nature, have time to take off & enjoy ourselves... Cooking outside, camping... Just simple pleasures.

We are unlearning putting others before ourselves & working long hours... Which isn't good for our health & wellbeing.

We have worked hard the last couple of weeks & finally got on top of everything, which has enabled us to enjoy a day off in the week... Yesterday started with a lovely celebration, a chap we have worked with for a couple of years now has been sober for over 12 months. After many years of heavy drinking & several attempts to quit - he finally did it at the beginning of last year. We feel privileged to have been involved in his journey, it's truly wonderful to see him blossom & we love him to bits... The local vicar whispered to us both that we had played an important part in him getting better & that he couldn't have done it without our regular input - which is sweet, but of course - at the end of the day, it still took huge determination & willpower for the chap to do it... He did it & we are really happy for him. :-)   

The rest of the day was spent with Hugo & Jess. 

As the weather was wonderful again & not cold like Tuesday, we decided to venture out to one of our favourite places... A little known Forestry Commission site called Dunmere Woods, we know it because we used to live there when we first moved to Cornwall. It was like a dream come true for us... Moving from a large, industrial town in the north of England to this beautiful part of the country & just from answering an ad in a vegetarian magazine...

Dunmere Woods is along the Camel Trail heading towards Poley Bridge.

We decided to detour from the track & have a peek at our old house. 

We paid a low rent for the house & land, while also taking care of the owners furry friends too - 2 chocolate labradors, a ginger cat & 3 donkeys. It was a wonderful experience & all 5 of us are still incredibly drawn to the place. The owners split up, so had to sell & so we moved on.

We revisited some of our favourite spots along the trail.

This used to be Hugo's favourite tree, but it's been chopped...

Our very favourite part of the woods.

We enjoyed sitting next to Sime's tree for a while, just taking in the sights & sounds...

We hadn't received the activity before we left yesterday, but amazingly, we did it... We were asked to listen & think about communication.  

We had watched a duck & her tiny ducklings swimming on the river, close to the weir, we were concerned that they would go off the edge, but she guided them to safety on the other side. We were upset that such vast areas of the woods had been chopped down & not really a lot of planting was going on, we heard trees being cut down & wondered about the devastation it causes to wildlife. We discussed the communication between trees, using pheromones & Hugo told us about the smell of mown grass being a distress signal.  

We spent 3 hours walking & sitting...

And enjoying the views...

So lovely to be with family.

We had a wonderful day, finishing off with a picnic above Daymer Beach.

Kay & Sime
xx