CURRENT MISSION

To help my children grow up happily. To understand consciousness

ABOUT ME
We are mostly not accepting guests at the moment while we get better organised, but do get in touch if you want to meet us and maybe stay

We are Catherine (53), Andrew (60), Freya (15), and Jamie (13), who are home educated and `naturally nurtured’.

The rest of this profile was written in 2007. Things are mostly the same although my image of how the world works has changed somewhat.

We are both left handed and rather disorganised. Catherine works 2 days a week at the local train station.

I did a doctorate on modelling the performance of a water pumping wind turbine. Now I spend quite a bit of time with our children, growing our food, and doing things around the house. There seem to be more things to do than time to do them, partly because we tend to take a long time to do things, but it would be nice to also be more involved in things outside our life, for instance using my engineering training on environmental problems.

We mostly travel by bicycle locally, and by train for longer trips.

PHILOSOPHY

I have been through various philosophies, such as Taoism, Christianity, and slightly New age, and I still meditate a bit. I feel happier with no defined philosophy.

I try to do what I enjoy and enjoy what I do.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

We have had quite a few surfers stay with us, but have yet to stay with one. We have been Servas hosts and travellers for over 10 years.

Usually not that many people come to Coventry, but one year we’ve had four groups of Servas guests already.

We’ve travelled in France, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Cuba and the Netherlands with Servas.

Interests

Natural nurturing, home education, environmentalism, organic gardening, sustainable lifestyles, car boot sales, meditation, science, cosmology, quantum mechanics, consciousness, how the world works. Most things are interesting. I also like using Linux, and haven't had Windows on my PC for over a year now.

• performing arts
• education
• dining
• meditation
• gardening
• traveling
• christian
• teaching
• engineering
• science

Music, Movies, and Books

I don’t listen to that much music these days, though I usually have a tune in my head.
I like most types of music, mostly folk and world music, and not too polished or produced.
I used to make up lots of rather unfinished songs, and make musical instruments.

Books I've read recently - The life of the Cosmos - Lee Smolin - wonderful book

We don’t have a TV but our children like movies like the Sound of Music, the Aristocats, The Secret Garden.

We don’t seem to get much time to read, I (Andrew) tend to read mostly non fiction, eg about science. Catherine sometimes reads novels (eg Harry Potter, Isabelle Allende) in French, German or Spanish.

We read a lot of books with the children, eg The Secret Garden, Narnia, Famous Five Matilda etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Drifting off to sleep with my baby asleep on my chest

Teach, Learn, Share

This sounds a lovely idea. We home educate our children and I like the idea of them learning through play.

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