Eighteen years ago today we arrived back in England after spending seven years in Dunedin, Florida. And what a journey we've had since then. We spent 9 years living in Hertford, and have lived here in Cornwall for over 8, now. We became vegetarians and then vegans. We took up running for a few years completing several fun runs (including the Bupa 10k in London, two 5ks in Bournemouth, and a 10k in York, to name a few. Dawn had three jobs spending over half this time at City University. I spread my time over four jobs with the last 3 plus years at Cornwall Council. We even opened an award winning vegan cafe called The Cornish Vegan in Truro.

Sadly we lost Dawn's mum, Brady, my Dad, my brothers George and Dave, and Tiny, too. Unfortunately we've lost too many down the years. They are all in our in hearts, and always will be.

All in all it just goes to prove that Nothing is as certain as the unforeseen. Life doesn't stand still, and we must never forget that. You need to embrace change when it comes along and cherish the time we spend with those we love. That's what we've tried to do. And also what we'll try to do for the next eighteen years.

This is me after on 9th March 2006 arriving at Gatwick Airport.

Poor Tiny had to travel in the plane hold. Thankfully it didn't take her long to settle down once we arrived at our rental in Winchmore Hill.

The following Sunday, 12th March 2006, we enjoyed a nice lunch with Dad and George at The Coronet in Holloway Road.  Gone but not forgotten, we both cherish memories like this.  

 

How to spend Mondays

 

What a healthy lunch! Cherry tomatoes, avocado and roasted garlic on some home made pan grilled wholemeal bread, with a side of kale chips coated in home made 'vegan parmesan'; made with nuts and nutritional yeast.

Thankfully the rain that kept us indoors yesterday moved out today and we were able get out for our walk. Today we headed to Mexico Towans and home via the North Quay and King George V Memorial Walkway. We didn't venture to our happy place because of the 45mph+ winds.  However, the view from the steps up to the Haven site was good enough to enjoy the view of the three miles of golden beach, white caps and crashing waves. 

Happy Valentine's Day to my wonderful wife

When we celebrated our first Valentine's Day together, back in 1997, we had to buy generic cards that never really captured our true feelings or sentiments. All we could do was pick from a rack in a local card shop and hope it was at least close to what we wanted to say.  Thankfully 28 years later there is something called Etsy.  There you can find a card that not only has the image that you want on the front, but you can even get them to include your own words, so that it says exactly what you want to say.

Remembering 1997, we had our fist Valentine's Day meal at Farringdon's restaurant in Islington, London.  Today, we had a homemade pizza and we couldn't have enjoyed it more had we been served out.



 

Weather perfect for our daily walk

The sun was shining and today we really enjoyed getting out of the house for our daily walk.  It took us through Phillack Church graveyard and over the Mexico Towans to the sand dune we have affectionately called "Our Happy Place".  The following image doesn't really do the view justice.  To the west from Carbis Bay to St Ives the sun reflected off the white buildings against the hilly backdrop.  To the east Godrevy Lighthouse stands proud off the headland at Gwithian.  In between the blue sea, which was calm today, complements the golden beach and tall Mexican grass on the Towans.  The word Idyllic really does capture the view, even if this picture doesn't.

After a rest at "Our Happy Place" we made our way through the Haven campsite to the South West Path and on to the North Quay and back home via the King George V Memorial Walk. Sadly the view of the North Quay development is depressing.  It currently looks like what it is - a building site. Worse still is that as the developer has gone bankrupt it's going to look like this for a while. 

Thankfully they completed the first phase back in 2021. Unfortunately for the locals as they weren't what you could call affordable housing they stay empty most of the time and only used when rented out to holiday makers.

Thankfully with Spring around the corner, or we hope it is, the walk along the Memorial Walk was a little more pleasant than usual.  The warmth of the sun sparked the yellow petal daffodils into life adding a little more colour to our day.

 

   

Reinstating our Blog

Today I came across this blog that I hadn't updated in over ten years. I guess I had forgotten about it because Facebook had became my 'go to' platform to keep in touch with people. I will admit it did a good job. But perhaps now it's time to go old school, and go back to updating our blog again. So here goes.  I will start with a photo that we had taken the day we sold The Cornish Vegan back in August 2020. 

Mother's Day 2012 and more.....

Last weekend Dawn and I had a ride up to St Pancras and Islington Cemetery to visit my parents' grave for Mother's Day.  Even though we lost Mum over fifteen years ago, it was still an emotional occasion.  Visiting the cemetery now reminds me that not only is Mum no longer with us, but also that Dad and my eldest brother are no longer around either.

We only lost Dad and George in the last eighteen months and it's still hard to accept that they are both gone.   We had always worried what would happen to George when it was Dad's time. We never dreamt that he would go first.  I'm also sure that his heart attack also played a part in Dad's time too.  I think he stayed around to be there for George and with George gone, Dad felt he could go too. He hadn't been well for quite a while and went downhill pretty quickly after George was gone.

Our visit to the cemetery also gave me a chance to clean up my great-grandparents' grave too. I'd found it on my previous visit and it was pretty overgrown.  Clearing away the moss, weeds and even a few branches from trees close by made me think about our mortality and those we leave behind.   Over the last 15 years (while I have been in England), I have made a point of paying my respects on special occasions like birthdays, Mother's and Father's Days and anniversaries.  But what about my great grandparents?  How did their grave get so overgrown?  They had three sons who each had children.  My grandfather being one of them.  And they had grandchildren, too.

But at least there was a memorial stone for them. 

My grandparents (who passed away in 1936 and 1957 respectively) were both buried without a memorial stone. When I first visited their grave in the 80s , it came as a shock to stand over their last resting place with no visible sign that they were either buried there or had existed.  Thankfully, as their grandson, I was able to take ownership of the grave and get a small stone laid.  There was a place for Dad too, but he bought a grave for him and mum.  So when George died, it was decided to lay him to rest there and we got a new stone like Mum's.

But spending time around these memorial stones made me think about our future.  And not only ours, but others like us.  There were hundreds of graves with memorial stones completely overgrown having not been visited by loved ones in years, if not decades.  Which I found extremely disturbing.  How many generations must past before these memorials to our descendants become neglected? Visiting my parents' grave gives me comfort, but what will happen when I am no longer around? 

And what will happen to me?  I think I'll get cremated and have my ashes spread on the beach at Hayle.  This means that I'll have no overgrown memorial stone.  No grave for family to grieve over either.  I just hope this is the way in the future.  So I'd better lose some weight, get some exercise in and make sure that I look after myself more than I have been of late.

Pico de Gallo

Many moons ago the range of cuisine that adorned my dinner table was limited to meat and two veg.  Foreign food was limited to either home-made spaghetti bolognese made from canned mince meat, tomato puree and bay leaves; a pizza; or a curried take-away from the local Chinese shop.  No wonder the Brits had a reputation for eating bland food. Today my stomach cringes at the thought.

Then I met Dawn and my taste buds were exposed to pleasures they never knew existed.  In addition to Chinese, there was now Thai food with its coconut milk curries, spicy Indian jalfrezi, paellas, risottos with creamy rice, frogs' legs, raw and fried oysters, crawfish, pulled pork, cornbread, and an assortment of vegetables I'd never heard of let alone eaten. 

However, it was Mexican food that really opened my eyes to the concept that food could be pleasurable, nourishing and eye candy.  And the one dish that captures this more than other is Pico de Gallo.  This simple salad (or salsa, as it is better known) combines a handful of diced ingredients and spices and can compliment an enchilada or taco or another Mexican dish you choose. 

The refreshing tomato and lime juice bring the taste buds to life, while the red onion gives you a bite, the jalapeno adds heat, and the cumin and coriander takes you to exotic lands of warmth only dreamt about on a cold winter day in England. Best of all is that there is no cooking involved.  All you need to do place diced the tomatoes and red onion in a bowl.  Add a finely chop a jalapeno (remove the seeds if you don't want too much heat), squeeze in the juice of a lime, stir in the minced garlic and ground cumin and leave in the fridge for an hour or two (the longer the better) for all the flavours to mingle.

Credit for this recipe must be given to my mother-in-law, Brady Kerr.

Ingredients:

6 Roma tomatoes or two large regular tomatoes diced
1/2 red onion diced

1 jalapeno pepper seeded and minced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 clove garlic minced
1 tsp ground cumin
Salt and Pepper to taste