Surprise!

Well let me tell you a tale, as its Christmas Eve. Kim and I have been keeping a big secret for a while and now that everyone knows we can blog about it. We have decided to move back to Australia! What originally set out to be a holiday back home for Christmas has changed into a new beginning. Whilst looking at rental prices we found an amazing old unit in Brisbane that an old friend used to have, it's such a beauty that it was too hard not to apply for it. And once we got approved for it we decided we needed a car. After a lot of research and encouragement from other bloggers who have bought the same car we decided to buy the most expensive car we ever had, a Prius. We are so excited to save fuel on the hybrid vehicle and do our bit to save the environment. This is about as much of what we know the future holds for us, we will be looking for work in the big city and getting settled in. We are so excited to be home and had a lot of fun surprising friends and family the past few days. HUGS ALL ROUND. Where the blog is going to go from now.... Who knows, but sit tight. To all who have taken a moment to read this, Merry Christmas, please stay safe and we pray you find joy, peace and love this Christmas.


-morgan

Christmas tunes

We have had a few people ask if we will have a new Christmas mix out again this year, but unfortunately because our computer is still broken we can't make one. However, that doesn't mean you don't get to have any new Christmas music this year... Sufjan Stevens has put out a great new Christmas album "Silver and Gold" which is just $15 for 59 beautiful tracks. If that isn't a Christmas bargain, I don't know what is. On the blogging front, Cesar has a new traditional mix out this year and so do the Gallo's, so check those two out.
Also if you are new around here, you can download our last two Christmas mixtapes here and here.
Only two weeks to go, so get your Christmas music pumping! Kim has been at it since October.
-m&k

Living On Cloud Nine

Good friends of ours started production on a Documentary just as we left Australia at the end of last year. We have both been hanging out all year waiting to see the finished piece. Well the wait is over and we are so proud of our talented friends.
This documentary follows a group of young surfers heading overseas on a surf trip/life changing look at poverty. If you have a spare 30 mins please watch it.

Alsace Vineyard

Well we have hit the halfway mark of our job here in Alsace. We have made so many friends from so many areas around the world. We have eaten so many potatoes and traditional hearty dishes from the area that it becomes quite hard to get back into the rhythm of work in the afternoon. Yesterday we had a day off and visited Struthoff, a concentration camp not far from here, but more on that later. Life here is pretty good, the view is always amazing, the wine at night is last years harvest of the grapes we pick in the day and the conversations are a plenty. It's going to be hard to leave at the end of the week, but we have an exciting adventure in Eastern Europe to look forward to. So for now we will continue working hard and eating even harder.
-morgan

Rock en Seine

Source: gypsymeblog.blogspot.com.au via Erik on Pinterest

Yesterday was the start of a lovely 3 day festival in Paris called Rock en Seine. In Australia, festivals with such a line up would cost alot of money, so whilst in Europe we are taking advantage of cheaper gigs. We very excited to see Sigur Ros, The Black Keys, The Shins and many other amazing acts. Who would you most like to see play live? Our top 5 bucket list at the start of the year was Beirut (3 weeks time), Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Avett Brothers and Edward Sharpe.
-morgan

more donkeys

After some great little visits to some great French towns we have found ourselves on another organic farm. A loose relative of mine recently bought a 18th century farm house with 13 hectares of fields and woods all around it. Their vision is to restore the house using traditional and eco-friendly building methods and start a small organic farm. On the property they have 5 dogs, 3 cats, 5 new kittens, 5 donkeys, 4 chickens, two horses and a pony. Needless to say we are having fun helping them out and spending alot of time with the kittens. We will only be here for another week but we are making the most of it before heading back into busy Paris.
-morgan

On the road again...

Well we are back on the road, and it looks like we will be cruising around from place to place for the next 6 months. We have just spent the last few weeks finalising plans which includes a trip to the UK and Norway (September), more road tripping around France and a train trip through Eastern Europe (November-December). A couple of days ago, we arrived here in the French alps and over the next 3 weeks we will be making our way over to Lyon, and through Central France up to Paris. There is a lot planned and we can't wait to share snippets of what we get up to when we can. We will probably be instagramming more than we get time to blog, so if you want you can follow us at [morganandkim].
Are you ready for the adventure?
-kim

ps. Here is a little map which brings us to the end of September when we will be working on a Vineyard in Alsace, France.

Lac d'Esparron

On Monday some friends invited us to join them Canoeing around Lac d'Esparron. This lake is absolutely incredible and the colour is the water is breathtaking. We didn't want to take our cameras out on the water, so just have a few phone snaps to share. It was lovely to canoe and swim in the fresh cold water after many hot summer days. We felt very relaxed to sit and have a picnic drinking rose, watching over the lake.
-kim

happy TWO YEARS giveaway.

Its been two massive years since we started this blog. Woah time has flown. It has been so much fun for us to share our lives and adventures through this blog, and we wanted to stay thank you to all our readers around the world.

Today we are so excited to announce a giveaway from the lovely Andrea from Paper Sparrow Art and Music. Andrea creates beautiful music and animal themed pieces of art which are bound to make you smile. We can't get enough of the plush toys, paintings and of course this gorgeous print.
You can check out more from Paper Sparrow on FACEBOOK or THE BLOG

Here's how to enter:
To be in the running to win a copy of the "not all who wander are lost" print, head to the Paper Sparrow ONLINE STORE and comment below letting us know what your favourite item is.
For BONUS entries:
Share this giveaway on twitter or follow our blog and let us know you've done so in a separate comment.

The winner will be drawn next week, so get those entries in now. Good Luck
-morgan and kim

Lavender Hunting

Last week Morgan's grandma wanted to take us to see the Lavender fields around Sault. It was beautiful driving around and seeing all the flowers in straight lines and the contrasts of colours. We also decided to drive up Mont Ventoux, a frequent challenge on the Tour de France route. As we made our way up the mountain in the car it was incredible to see all the bicycle riders making the grueling ride. At the top, people were celebrating their achievements, so proud they had made it to the top. It was an inspiring sight indeed.
-kim

Quatorze Juillet

Yesterday was La Fête Nationale and was the first time in a while either Morgan or I have been in France to celebrate. We went along with Morgan's grandmother to the local village celebrations. There was jazz performances all night and it was nice to watch the sunset over the Luberon mountains. Surprisingly though there was no singing of "La Marseillaise" or fireworks, which was a great disappointment for us.
-kim

Super Summer Sprinklers

This side of the globe, it is summer. In winter we dreamed of summer, now that it's here we can't wait for it to leave. Ever since I was a wee child at 8pm each day in summer the sprinklers turn on for precisely 25 minutes. Almost every day, although the heat is not as intense as 2pm, Kim and I have been frolicking about, cold beverage in hand, running care-free through the cooling mists. I love provence.
-morgan

what a week!

It has been quite a roller-coaster week for us. Our last post proved a little hopeful and things didn't turn out quite as we had expected. Our friend had an accident on a motorbike which meant he wasn't able to install the new engine for us. We were stuck in Biarritz for 5 days until the neighbour from the farm we were working on came to our rescue and fixed our car for us. What a legend! On Thursday we were able to hit the road and start our way back to Avignon. It was a long drive but the car worked a treat and we are so happy to have our car back again. We are now back in the Provence and there is Lavender and Cicadas chirping everywhere. It is nice to be back.
- m & k

ressurection renault

Some of you may know but when in Biarritz our beloved Renault 4L died. A piston had blown and metal had gone throughout the oil and engine. This happened a few days before leaving for farm life 200km away. We left it in the hands of our new friend Rico, an old German rocker, who lives in Biarritz with whom we speak English. Rico initially was going to help us sell it as scrap and we would hitchhike the rest of the way home to Avignon (500km), but called one day to say he found a new engine for only 150euro!!! We are so happy to say we will be picking her up this weekend to take her on the road again. We have many more journeys around france to have with her and we just hope she treats us well.
-morgan

bon voyage farm

Our time is up on this amazing farm and we have truly enjoyed it. We may be a little sick of weeding, but our appreciation for where food comes from and the hard work farmers do has changed the way we look at eating. We have learnt so much about the land, organic living and sustainability. We hope to work on a few more farms in the future and are in the process of trying to find a cheese farm.
When in France!
-morgan

goûter

In French culture, as a young child you learn quickly that at 4pm most days, to fight off the pre-dinner hunger pains, you will eat a little something called 'goûter'. Directly translated as tasting this is often a chocolate biscuit, a cake of some sort, a fresh treat from the bakery or in my case a fresh baguette with a few squares of milk chocolate smacked in the middle. As we work big days on the farm we are eating more carbohydrates than ever and Kim has quickly learnt the art and joy of le quatre heur (the four o'clock). Everyday we stop work at 4pm, have a tea or coffee and a little sweet bread or chocolate. This is one of the many eating habits of the French that Kim hopes sticks around with us for the rest of our lives.
-morgan

animal traction

Our time working on the farm has involved many new experience. Last week we got to try our hand at animal traction using 2 donkeys, Parpaillon and Pinocchio. Animal traction has been around for many years, but has faded out of farm life. There is an orginisation in France set out to make it popular again. There are 13 different tools you can set up behind a donkey for weeding, plowing, airing and more. It's low cost, good for the environment and makes for true organic farming considering we don't use a tractor. It's great working alongside the donkey, not as it's master, but as it's friend. We were told to keep in mind, without the donkey and you working together, you both will not eat tonight. After we formed the mounds, we then planted pumpkin seedlings over the whole field.
-morgan