Monthly Archives: May 2015

Celebrating the positives of a wonderful life.

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Hello Dear Reader,

I thought I’d share a bit of mindfulness today. Here are the things I’m grateful for today

My healthy family who work hard on being positive, occupied, busy and well.

Being close to my family and being able to get together.

Great times with friends.

The positive attitudes of the people I surround myself with.

Cornwall won at Twickenham today!

I live comfortably.

I live in freedom.

I live in a country in peacetime.

I live in a democracy.

I have choices.

The changing seasons.

I have a job I love.

I am safe and loved.

There is food in the house.

Fresh air.

It’s not raining.

Warm breeze.

I’m well enough and motivated enough to exercise.

The lush green trees and fields I can see from the window as I type.

Clean clothes.

My resilience, health and tenacity.



I started writing this blog as a point of reflection where I could look at the sum of all my days. I no longer have any reasons to moan, to worry, to be unhappy and can now reflect on all the good times that make this life so wonderful. It might all sound a bit smug and self satisfied but no one has to read it. I could sit on my backside and do nothing but I would be bored and that’s just not me. Reflecting on this week, we’ve gardened, walked, cycled, met up with friends, gone out with family (offspring are well), eaten out, some more walking, some decorating, some de-cluttering, had my hair done, been to the salon, had lots of lazy lie ins, stacked away the winter logs, watched films and read books. We’ve spent no more than we could afford and had budgeted for and have topped up our relaxation batteries for the weeks ahead until the summer break when we go away.

Over to you to share your mindfulness; what do you have to be grateful for today?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx








Free fun

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Hello Dear Reader,
I’ll let you into some local knowledge, if you want the Camel Trail almost to yourself, then set off after four in the afternoon. We loaded up the bikes and drove the fifteen minutes to Bodmin to ride the Bodmin to Wadebridge section. You ride just to the right of the river. Earlier in the day the route is packed and is very much a victim of its own success. Another quiet route is to enter the bike trail at Dunmere and turn right and head out towards the moor. Either way, it’s totally idyllic. The trail, when it’s packed isn’t any fun at all, I like to get on it and give myself a good workout. It’s six miles to Wadebridge and we did each leg in just over forty minutes.
Parking is free as at Dunmere, turn into the car park by the Borough Arms and push your bikes down to the trail. We take our own bikes and the trail is free. Typical of us, free fun.
I love getting out on the Miss Marplemobile and prefer a bit of peace and quiet. I’m trying to fit in as much exercise as possible so I’m getting in a forty minute hilly walk each night. I do this purposefully when I feel low, or I lack energy or I’m not sleeping well as its proven that exercise raises serotonin levels and improves mood. I sleep better, I worry less and it’s good for my overall health.
We stretched our legs around Wadebridge and this made me chuckle. Socks for Alpacas? Alpacas who have an active social life or might need different socks, maybe for hiking or formal occasions? If so, there’s a shop that sells socks for them. Well, we all want cosy feet and I love the idea of Alpacas trotting round in fluffy socks.
I wish I could have shared ‘aroma blog’ as the hawthorn blossom was amazing. It also rained on our way home and the smell of rain on dry fields was delicious. We need to fit in plenty of bike rides as we’ll park the car when we’re on holiday in a couple of months and cycle everywhere. There’s a few untoned muscles that need some practise.
We love our simple quiet life, how happy we are and the peace we find in every day life.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxx

I’m H-A-P-P-y!!! I know I am, I’m sure I am.

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Hello Dear Reader,
I’ve surfaced after a migraine that felt as if I was being strangled, my arm was being ripped off and someone as squeezing my left eye ball! On the plus side, I slept for seventeen hours solid. In that time I didn’t eat, haven’t eaten yet so that’s great for weight loss.
I was thinking about one Dear Reader’s response to their time living in Cornwall, which wasn’t positive for them. I like that person have had episodes of depression, of difficult times and sorrow and loss. No one person’s feelings, emotions or attitudes can ever be compared as they are unique to them.
The last time I was ill, I decided that it was truly going to be the last time. I rejected medication (sick and tired of the numbness) and decided to work on being happy. It’s all a bit fluffy round the edges but I practise and work on mindfulness. I work on gratitude and appreciate what I have. I celebrate the love and happiness that I have and I get excited by: the seasonal flowers, food- I did a little dance when I saw Cornish strawberries in the local shops. I’m excited to be off to spend a few precious hours with a family member. I’ve celebrated being home with DB this week.
Before some one mentions it, I don’t suggest anyone else lives the way I live or have any answers for anyone else. Today, inspite of feeling horrid for several hours, I’m bursting with happiness today and most days because I choose to be so. I suggest the person who sent me four accusative messages re-reads this paragraph, everything I’ve written is an I message and about me, especially when I’ve had bouts of depression and chose to have NHS mindfulness therapy instead. It continues to work for me.
I truly believe that where you live had nothing to do with happiness, I’m happy because I am.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx

Preparing for winter?

Saving money
Hello Dear Reader,
We’ve had a quiet day at home. Dearly Beloved has painted the hall; we paint everything white. It’s the cheapest ‘colour’ and we can touch up when ever it get grubby. I paint all the woodwork white too, can you see where I’m going with this? In between I got on with paperwork, banking and looking at budgets. We’ve a new roof, insulation and a new shed to save up for and I’ve put together a savings plan to make sure those plans become reality.
I got in touch with our log supplier who was able to deliver our logs. The logistics are interesting; they get delivered to the public car park, we wheelbarrow them to the garden and then they get stacked in the shed. It might seem a bit daft to buy logs in May for next winter but prices fluctuate and whilst they are low, we stocked up.

It’s a funny little way that I try to save money, those logs dry our clothes, keep the house warm and they look so cute in the shed!

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxx

Girly gossip and a catch up

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Hello Dear Reader,

I spent the day with a friend I made at the school gate when both our daughters were at nursery school, they are now young women in their early twenties so we’ve been friends for ages. Today, it was my turn to take her out. I live close to Liskeard station and it has a small branch line that took us to Looe on the coast. It’s a gentle twenty minute ride in a single carriage through beautiful countryside that follows the river down to the sea. The train was packed to bursting with families and tourists taking the ‘park and ride’ option to save them driving the winding road to the port. The stations along the route are tiny and my favourite has the name St Keyne Wishing Well Halt.


I took a quick snap at the station with the river, that by now forms part of the tidal estuary, as people waited to get on. From the station, it’s a fifteen minute walk into the town. It’s half term so understandably, it was really busy. It was lunch time when we arrived so we headed off to a fish restaurant on the quay. The food was ok in the end but the gluten free choice was extremely limited so I had fish and salad. No menu adaptations, it was a take it or leave it option. I won’t dignify the place with a review and suffice to say, I will not be going back. It’s no wonder I don’t go out very often! Lunch was good and we had a great time. Cornish sardines are amazing cheap little fish and if you haven’t eaten them, then that’s another reason why you should head on down here.


After lunch, we headed from one side of Looe to the other, taking the bridge and walking round from East Looe to West Looe and then we headed off for a walk up the hill to Haanafore point.


Here, the gull has its back to East Looe and I love this picture as it shows how clear and clean the sea is in the harbour. The light was amazing today and the harbour, which is tidal was full of water. Accents let us know that families were there from all over the UK and many of those families just sat on the harbour side, dangling their legs over the side relaxing by the water.


We walked up the hill and looked back at Looe beach, it was packed with families. There really isn’t anything more lovely for children than a day at the beach, with a bucket and spade to play for the day. Our walk ended at Hannafore with a coffee at the outside coffee shack and we sat on a bench outside and caught up with each other’s news.


Here are said friends, trying as the old birds that we are to master the ‘selfie’ as we crossed the harbour on the water taxi. It’s 50p each and saved our legs the long walk round. We made our way back to the station as the tide was dropping and the day was cooling.


Here’s the view if the estuary from the tiny railway station of the tree covered hills in the back ground. Looe isn’t one of Cornwall’s trendy hot spots and if you don’t like or can’t eat pasties or chips, then healthy food is hard to find. All that aside, it’s a lovely little place that to visit and it was great to treat an old friend to a train ride, a bit of lunch and a coffee and a chat.

Anyone else wishing they lived in Cornwall?

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx







Sam’s in the city

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Hello Dear Reader,
There are amazing restaurants in Cornwall and it is a county of amazing food. It has its fair share of Michelin stars, high class dining and tariffs and prices that will leave an oligarch breathless. However, there are some which are reasonably priced, informal and family friendly. I’ve known about Sam’s since a young bloke and his mates started selling amazing burgers and seafood on the main street through Fowey. Now, there’s the original Sam’s in Fowey, Sam’s on the beach in Polkerris, Sam’s on the Bay at Crinnis beach, his mobile catering vans and Sam’s in the city in Truro. We went there today.
It’s brilliant for families, with plenty of pram parking, lots of high chairs, child size portions and a really relaxed atmosphere where you feel welcome, best of all, it’s still affordable so young mums can meet their mates for lunch.
I asked to amend the order (with IBS, so I need to eat low fat and Coeliac so I can’t eat gluten) and usually when I do this if I eat out then I feel a nuisance. This was no problem at all today and everything was changed to suit me. I loved the chef, who really looked as if he’d just stepped off a surf board and oozed Cornish cool and came to speak to me so he made sure he knew what I could and couldn’t eat.
Here’s what I ate. My started was a half pint of prawns, it came with a piquant herb salad. DB had the calamari on a pile of salad.
DB’s main course was a massive homemade burger with blue cheese and bacon, their burgers have always been mammoth with celeriac coleslaw and mounds of salad.
My haddock was grilled, lightly seasoned and on a generous bed if salad. It was not on the menu (the haddock was with something else). Plus, my lunch was low in fat, low in calories and really fresh and healthy.

DB’s dessert was sticky toffee apple tart with ice cream and a caramel sauce. I didn’t have a dessert but his looked lovely.
I don’t often eat out, so if I’m going to part with my money, then I like to go somewhere that’s good value and the food is going to be of great quality. Now, before you go thinking this was a freebie, it wasn’t and we handed over cash money and I genuinely love this small but ever growing chain of local restaurants. If and when you are in Cornwall, look up Sam’s Cornwall and try their food http://www.samscornwall.co.uk Sam’s in the city, is just along the street from the cathedral with plenty of parking nearby.
Oh, as a p.s, I lost another 2.5lbs this week. Any local readers or visitors to Cornwall lucky enough to have eaten at Sam’s?
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxx

It’s not much……

frugal home, staycation


Hello Dear Reader,

We’ve been gardening on and off for a few days. Not solidly but popping out to do a bit more when the mood took us. We’ve cleaned the house, laundered, ironed, put away and read and put our feet up in between. A proper bank holiday weekend. We live in a terrace of thirteen slate hung cottages with tiny gardens and the neighbours have been out cutting the lawn, or I could hear them chatting with friends in the sun. It’s been beautifully warm here today.


I’ve repotted some patio plants.


I dug up plants that were in full sun and not thriving and I’ve planted them somewhere that gets some shade. I moved a lavender that was too near the wall and put that in full sun. I’ve planted a tiny hydrangea that I bought a few weeks ago for a few pounds from Lidl and hope it makes it.


The stones? They were all in the border, I think the previous owner was going for the Bodmin moor stones every where sort of look. I’ll have to pay to take these to the recycling centre as they don’t take stones or soil. The ‘shed’ looks a total mess but I will sort and tidy. I’m trying to find some logs at this time of year so I can stock up whilst I can afford it. No one seems to be selling any.


Here’s my back lane. It’s pedestrian access only and I’ve pulled up the weeds and swept up and rubbish that was there. Now that it’s tidy I can keep on top of it. Some neighbours do their bit, by which I mean the bit by their house, some don’t and I’ll get their permission to do the rest of the lane so it all looks presentable.



Here’s half my finished border in front of the house. You can see DB’s growing pallet collection at the bottom of the garden, he’ll break them up for fire wood this week. It’s a good job we’ve got them especially as I can’t find any logs to buy. The pink flowering shrub has had a tidy up and been pruned back. I watched Gardener’s World and remembered the advice that if you prune hard when the Chelsea flower show is on, that there’s plenty of growing season left for it to come back to full strength.



I’ve had this trio helping me in the garden all day. They are very good at barking instructions but not a lot of help with digging! (Dolly Knockers at the back, front left Scruffy/AKA Ronnie Barker and to his right is Bobby Dazzler. The garden team, special skills: using the kneeler as a pillow, chewing the trowel handle and lying in dirt when they’ve just had a bath)

I live in a tiny cottage, it’s not much but the capital left to pay gets smaller every month, it doesn’t take much maintenance and I love every single inch of the place. It’s not much but it’s very nearly bought and paid for, cheap to run, tiny to heat and perfect for DB, myself and our four legged friends.

I’m loving this staycation! We’re having a day out in Truro tomorrow and I promise I’ll take photos.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogsxxxxx

Light Caesar Salad

cornwall, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, Slimming World

Hello Dear Reader,

We’re loving our time off. We spent yesterday gardening the communal areas around our terrace of cottages. Like a lot of old Cornish cottages built before cars were even thought of, the only access is on foot. We carry what we’ve bought or brought home from the car park. We don’t mind, those communal paths are where we meet our neighbours, stop and chat and usually have a good moan about the state of the paths. Some people can’t be bothered, feel they don’t have time or would like to do something but haven’t got round to it. I totally ‘sweat the small stuff’ and weeds and overgrown hedges fuss me so as no one seems to mind, I’m tidying the place up. Dearly Beloved and I have done this together and we’ve bagged it up (several car loads) and have taken it to the recycling centre.

Today, I had a long lie in and a lazy lunch. Really not feeling like a big Sunday roast lunch right now so made a lower calorie version of Caesar Salad.


I started off by making ‘croutons’, normally that’s cubes of bread, deep fried and sprinkled over the salad. Instead, I sprayed two slices of bread with Frylight and popped them in the toaster. It came out crispy and then I cut the slices into cubes. Gluten free for me and every day bread for DB.

I’ve discovered Morrison’s Nu Me range of salad dressing and I mixed four tablespoons through the salad so two spoons each and then when I served poured another spoonful over the salad which came to 27 calories (1g of carb and 1g of fat - it must be mainly water!)


We both had 25g of grated cheese each, mine half fat cheddar and DB had full fat Parmesan. He’s lost 15lbs so far so it’s doing him good too!

I grilled five rashers of smoked back bacon (I’ve included a link to show what this looks like - our bacon is quite lean and as I grill it on a raised tray and all the fat renders out) and then cut them into chunks and sprinkled that over the salad and gave it a drizzle of the low calorie Caesar sauce.

It was heavenly, and the scores on the doors? 351 calories, 35g of carbs, 15g of fat, 24g of protein. Cost just under £1.50.

My indulgence at this time of year are seasonal local strawberries. They taste lovely, I had mine with some defrosted blackberries, a sprinkle of stevia and a big spoon of fat free natural yogurt. I felt I’d earned it after all the weeding and tending.


If you live in the UK, you’ll have a lot more weeds around the pavements and car parks, it will be cleaned less than usual and hedges might not get cut at all. It’s easy to wave the banner of entitlement and sit back and do no more than moan that the council doesn’t do its job properly or realise that unless we want higher taxes then we can save money and find our community spirit and do it ourselves.

Over to you, any Guerrilla gardeners out there? In case you think there’s a whole pile of health and safety regulations about doing such a thing in your community there usually isn’t. It’s the case of using common sense and doing what you can. I’ll have another go tomorrow. I’m also going to try and speak to neighbours and get them to do ‘the bit’ by their back/front doors to keep the place looking tidy.

Until tomorrow,

Love Froogs xxxxx

Back to life again

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Hello Dear Reader,

My head is in holiday mode already and I’m feeling full of life. I’ve been home a few hours and caught up with the laundry, cleaned the front door and front room window and got through a pile of ironing. This is going to be a ‘get it done’ staycation where we have lots of jobs to on quite a tight budget and I’m going to get right on with it tomorrow.
I thought I’d add some photos of our warm balmy evening
Our ferry crossing and looking up river at the dockyard, DB took this from our ferry ride home.
Woodland walk this evening.
The bluebells are fading, the wild garlic has gone but the hawthorn blossom fragrance was heady and hung in the valley below our house.

DB is home with me for the week and we’ll fit in plenty of doggie walks, some local rambles, a bit of charity shop foraging and plenty of home cooking.
Thanks to DB for his wonderful photography. I wish I had his skills.
See you tomorrow
Froogs xxxx