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| A pond located on Mount Gnomon Farm. |
Yesterday, we had a most interesting tour of a Penguin resident’s home which we’re excited to share in tomorrow’s post. You won’t believe our photos of one of the most unusual collections we’ve ever seen. Please check back!
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| A variety of flowers are grown throughout the farm. |
Today will be a laid-back day to include a walk down Main Road to the local market for roasted chicken, washing and hanging a few loads of laundry, and preparing the final expenses for our six weeks in Penguin, sadly ending in a mere four days.
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| Mount Gnomon Farm is surrounded by lush green hills. |
There’s no doubt in our minds that our stay in Penguin has been abundant in experience and fulfilling in so many ways some of which is shown in today’s photos from our recent visit to Mount Gnomon Farm. Tom has said that of all the places we’ve lived, Penguin would be the first he’d consider if we ever decided to settle for an extended period.
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| A spot to relax and enjoy the views. |
That’s not to say we’re considering “settling down.” We’re not. Early on in our travels, we promised ourselves and each other to keep an open mind for possibilities when we either can’t continue to travel due to health concerns or, in the unthinkable prospect of us tiring of living this life.
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| The entrance to the restaurant where seasonal dining is open to the public. Click here for dates and details. |
Tiring of living this life? How could we when we’re “living a dream,” a dream neither of us ever knew we had until it actually began and it became a reality? Now, as we look back we realize why neither of us had ever imagined such a life in our retirement years.
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| A pond on the farm. |
Prior to commencing on my way of eating five and a half years ago, the chronic pain I suffered from a horrible spinal condition prevented us from traveling much at all. As a result, when we considered retirement options, it never included world travel.
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| One had to look carefully to find this pig in the mud. |
During those many years, it was a challenge for me to fly on a plane for a few hours, let alone for the day-long (or longer) flights, layovers, and excessive periods of time we’ve spent in airports over these past four-plus years.
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| A duck tucked away in her nest. |
For us, my recovery was nothing short of a miracle. Only three months after drastically changing my diet in 2011, I was pain-free, albeit shocked that what I’d previously considered a healthy diet was leaving me in a constant state of pain.
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| Note the recently birthed piglets white bands like their mom. There are several breeds of pigs at the farm. |
Don’t get me wrong…eliminating most of the foods I loved along with my then passion for cooking, wasn’t an easy undertaking. The concept of never again having a breakfast including a toasted whole wheat bagel with jelly, a bowl of steel-cut oatmeal with raisins along a small plate of fresh fruit was beyond my realm of reality.
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| We arrived at Mount Gnomon Farm on a perfect day as piglets were born such as these, only in the past hour. |
Five and a half years later, I haven’t as much as taking a spoonful of any of the above while I continue to reap the benefits of a sugar-free, grain-free, starch-free, and chemical-free way of eating.
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| Various breeds of grass-fed cattle lounged comfortably on a sunny day. |
Now, it’s easy when I consider what we have (and I mean “we”) in place of those types of food, in place of my former passion for cooking… a life rich in experience, adventure, and mobility. Sure, from time to time, we fall prey to setbacks, such as the injury to my spine in June in the pool in Bali which took five months to heal. No diet will make one exempt from the pain of an injury.
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| Cattle and sheep are rotated to other paddocks as the grass regenerates. |
However, it did heal and I’ve returned to my former state of zero back pain. And, on occasion, like most of the over 60-year-old population, we have illnesses, aches and pains, toothaches, and other medical maladies that may or may not require medical care.
Regardless of how hard one may try to maintain a degree of good health with appropriate food, plenty of movement and exercise, restful sleep, and a positive and enriching state of mind with as little stress as possible, we still may have periods of time when we aren’t at our best.
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| The sheep were so friendly they approached the fence to be petted. |
In a few days, we continue on to the next leg in our journey. Our goal is to never feel a sense of urgency to see more of the world. Instead, we choose to travel at a pace that provides us with the optimum of joy, purpose, and pleasure while sharing it with special people we meet along the way, in special places along our path.
Thanks to all of our friends/readers who “travel” this journey with us. You mean the world to us!
Photo from one year ago today, January 12, 2016:
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| It was cold one year ago when our shop sailed through Milford Sound in New Zealand, prompting us to wear long-sleeve safari shirts with jeans, the warmest we’d dressed since Vancouver in September 2014. It was a cloudy, hazy day but the scenery was beautiful. For more photos, please click here. |