Simple Things...

We spent the afternoon yesterday on our friends boat. Their mooring is just outside of  Birmingham in a beautiful spot. What a life, so simple, so free.

They've built the boat themselves, Carl is a carpenter and has finished the interior himself. This has obviously meant the initial outlay for the boat has cost them a lot less to do. One year later they are talking about selling up and starting it all over again... with a profit of £20,000!

It's wonderful to have friends who have the same outlook on life as you, I found it a breathe of fresh air to cruise down the canal, talking about what plants along the hedgerow are edible, growing vegetables on the roof, buying a small plot of land on the edge of a lake in Andalucia and setting up in a yurt.

We thought about buying a boat too last year, if we were planning on staying in the UK then it would be a definite option.  But for us it would take a substantial amount of our capital to make it happen and we need to buy our land in India first. That's the priority at the moment, a place we can finally call 'our home'.

We hope to be able to afford at least four acres of agricultural land in a quiet location somewhere in the hills of Kerala.  Build a small house as eco as possible and live as self sufficiently as we can.   

We can't go now because of the bureaucracy of immigration, but that's another story altogether...

So here in Leicester whilst we struggle to survive on one mere salary, I am doing my best to practice this life on a very small scale.

In a way it's hard to envision a life without all this commotion and chaos around me, a home and a garden that is all ours, planned how we want it, with all the things we need and none of the things we don't.  

A simple life where we can live and learn, love and grow, together.

My only little piece of paradise at the moment is our yard. It's not big, not beautiful, but it's the only place I can find peace, alone, potter around amongst my vegetables, watch the beauty grow before my eyes.  

Little things I didn't know before are more precious to me than 'shopping on a saturday', a flowering pepper (capsicum) that I've never seen before...

My perfectly formed little green tomatoes hiding in the shade, better than any episode of 'Eastenders'...

A tiny little flower has opened on a forgotten leaf of rocket, cream and deep claret, more amazing than any pretty dress I've ever seen...

A strawberry poking out of the leaves, still white but giving you a little dream of what you will have for dessert in a few more days, better than any genetically modified, tart and tasteless, plastic boxed cousins sitting in Sainsbury's...

How stunned I was to find that cucumbers and peas and beans (and probably a fair few of the other vegetables) have a mind of their own, they are very clever indeed. They hang on to their canes with just a few twirls here and a couple of twists there, they know where they are going and how to get there, and all without any need for a Satnav!  

While I marvel at the wonders of nature, I can free my mind for a while from the chaotic scrambling of lists and things to do, that seem to constantly flutter around my head.  

Talking of fluttering the butterflies are back, we've spotted a few out there in the sunshine

... too quick to click!