January 2022

There was a moment recently when M found me almost buried under a mound of spaniels. I had one on my lap and one under each arm, all vying for attention, whilst I was actually trying to see over/through them to watch a film. ‘Well that looks cosy’ he said. ‘I’m in spaniel heaven!’ I replied with a big grin on my face. Given a few minutes more and he’d have found all three snoring in unison, once they’ve established who is sitting where they respond nicely to a film by late afternoon. Woe betide I should need to move though, the rigmarole has to begin all over again.

It’s a wonder that I ever manage to crochet with this much adoration going on. They do climb down for a stretch, the puppies in particular like to stretch full length alongside a sofa. Arthur will often twist over so that he’s belly up and baring all. Despite relaxed appearances they are up and on their feet in a split second if the need arises, machinery, dogs barking nearby or someone at the door for example. If I’ve put the oven timer on for natural dyeing purposes and they let me know I heap praise upon them and give them a small biscuit, though I think they are just pleased I’ve put a stop to the noise.

It’s quite the VW Campervan parts shop here at the moment. We’ve handed over the two new doors that came with the van, along with new metal panels that go across the middle of the sliding door. The dining room is full of smaller parts that will generally improve and maintain the van. It’s often the details that make a difference, last summer we finally fitted the glove compartment door and I’m incredibly happy that all our bits and bobs like masks, travel sweets, a first aid kit, tissues, small change for toll bridges and so on, are no longer on display. Likewise I’m looking forward to having the little black cog fitted on the triangular side window so that I can finally open it. It sounds like a simple job but it isn’t. The child/dog hammock has arrived but we won’t fit that until the work has been done. It’s an art form making the most of a small campervan for modern lives (not to mention 3 dogs) but it’s a challenge I’m always up for.

We took the van to a quiet spot near woodland recently. I packed a wooden crate with all the pots and pans and sieves and spoons I thought I’d need for an al fresco dye session. It was intended as a trial run to see if I needed to tweak my kit at all so that M can make a tailor made box/cupboard/table type thing to hold it all as well as provide the raised surface to put our Kelly Kettle on for the heat source. We bought the cooking attachment a couple of years ago and we’ve since used it so much more, often boiling the water for coffee or tea first and then putting the attachment on to cook a simple lunch. We also changed the standard orange stopper with the green whistling one, a totally useless bit of kit for me unless the dogs react to it or M is nearby to listen. For reasons I can’t quite fathom M insists on being the chief fire lighter, we often wait for 45 minutes or more for a kettle of water due to fire starting problems. As kids we had the luxury of being allowed to light a campfire in the garden whenever we fancied one, you soon learn what works and what doesn’t.

Winter really is a challenging time of year for natural dye plant material. I used bracken this weekend but I’d probably have been better off with brambles. In Spring the bracken would have yielded a brighter yellow/green colour and modified to a brighter green with a touch of iron. I stuck with the warm caramel tone this experiment achieved, thankful that it had even resulted in that because the ratio of material to wool wasn’t as high as I would have liked. I need to choose a deeper pot for future ‘on the road’ dye sessions. I also need to add ‘small stool’ to my kit list, there was a lot of standing around and bending over for me while M sat in the doorway of the van. Near to where we parked for this dye session (on the edge of the woodland) was a perfect clear running stream. Not only did it wash the dogs feet nicely prior to their re-entry to the van, I was able to rinse out and cool down all the pots and pans. It added that touch of dyeing in the wild and making use of what is around you. It’s that element that I like. A return to basics.

Although I must also confess that coming home to central heating and a hot shower is also pretty good. The older I get the longer it takes to actually warm up properly again. Even if we’ve departed van life with a hot drink I always make a hot chocolate on our return. After dyeing on a Kelly Kettle fire all afternoon we did stink of smoke and even after hot showers I could still smell it. Two days on and I finally twigged, it was my glasses! Somehow they’ve absorbed the smell, I think it’ll fade eventually. I don’t mind, it’s a nice reminder of a fun afternoon.

It’ll be a while before we can go on a proper van trip, due to both the work and the holiday time available. The latter isn’t as flexible as it used to be but I’m learning to use the waiting time to get things done before we go. France is top of our wish list but Scotland has so much to offer too. Going outside midge season is imperative. Last time we went to Scotland we had the majority of our trip midge free but as soon as June 1st hit, so did the midges, meaning we needed to be in the van with every single window closed by 8pm or so. Given that M devotes a large portion of his life to watching cookery programmes I’ve subtly suggested that we might up our game when it comes to meals on our road trips. I’ve purchased several books that could potentially inspire him to move beyond the soup and tinned chilli con carne. To be fair we did have sausages in baps quite a few times in Scotland but I feel the potential of one pot cooking hasn’t been explored much yet. As with home meals I think I might need to contribute firm ideas and then leave him to enjoy the actual process, he really does seem to enjoy the cooking part of putting together of a meal, a concept which is totally beyond me. I’d probably live on soup and toast if left to my own devices.

One of the activities we both do much more of on a road trip is read. M is very easily pleased when it comes to books and we’ve acquired some of his reading matter from those ‘leave one, take one’ free libraries we seem to sniff out along the way. We know a few good bookstores in places we’ve been before or pass through and can’t resist visiting over and over again. Both of us fear running out of reading matter! The van could really do with a book shelf but at the moment that is still potential chewing material for the puppies so that’ll have to wait. I’ve started a reading challenge with E. we both purchased ‘100 Top Books’ scratch off posters and with no set deadline in mind we are going to work our way through them. E has kicked off with Crime and Punishment and I’m about to start with Moby Dick. I’ve added to my reading challenge with a related crochet make for some too, hence the white whale who I feel really needs to hang from somewhere to give the impression of being suspended in water. Not all the books are old classics, some are newer, some are even children’s classics etc ting pu like ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’. Although I’ve read some of the titles I’m looking forward to revisiting some.

Somehow I’ve managed yet again to leave a half written blog post in my drafts folder! I usually update them before I press ‘publish’ but on this occasion I will just mention it was written months ago! The less said about the van not being ready the better. We now have a valuable bank of work free days and no van to go away in. It looks like the wild garden might get a bit of a hacking down and the shed (equally wild) might have a sort out. My outdoor dye kitchen has already been dusted off and seen some action. Random warm days have been truly seized and made use of. As usual I can’t sit still for long and I’m always trying new things. This week I have returned to washing a sheep fleece and preparing it for spinning. I can’t repeat what the men have said about the appearance and smell of the soaking Jacob’s fleece but it looks fabulous and I can’t wait to try it on my wheel.

Van days

Harvey is really slowing down with age this year. Every few days it catches up on him and we skip a walk. Their beds are by a radiator, ideal for keeping arthritic bones warm. Riley however, shows no signs of ageing, he’s nimble and alert with clearer eyes. His knee injury has pretty much repaired itself thank goodness and we’ve avoided an invasive operation. Luckily for me he still has bat-like hearing. He lets me know if a car has parked several houses away or the postman is half way up the lane. I know when I’ve left a cooker alarm on (I wouldn’t have heard it in the first place so I’ve no idea why I use them). Lately I’ve invested in a whistling kettle, way out of my frequency range or volume for that matter. Every time I made a cup of tea in the van he woke from a deep slumber to react to the whistle, I praised him in an over the top way. After a few brews he knows it’s his job to tell me about the whistle.

This last week we’ve taken advantage of drier weather to venture out in the van. I’m working on finding nice places to park up with not too much chance of vw fans. It’s all very well if M is with me but it would be hard work for anyone who wanted to stop and chat. Just a short drive out through quiet countryside will invite plenty of beeps and waves from car, van and lorry drivers. When I’m concentrating on avoiding potholes I often forget to wave back. This weekend we discovered that there are also people who stare but forget to fix a smile on their face. Perhaps they are not amused!

We took the kitchen unit out of the van last week and spent some time sanding it down and sealing it with a waterproof worktop sealant. It had gained a lot of water marks and whoever made it wasn’t a fan of sand paper. Once out of the van we could really see what wasn’t working, things like annoying big white plastic shelf supports that prevented complete use of the shelf space. I unscrewed all twelve of them and we replaced them with discrete baton. The unit has no back so things were falling down the back. We fitted rails to solve this. The door handles were changed to smooth wooden pebble like handles which are much kinder to your knees when you bump into the door (easy to do in a small space trust me!) We fixed the magnetic catch that wasn’t marrying up inside and letting the door ping open in transit. Wood effect laminate left over from the floor finished off the splash back nicely and below that we have cut a wooden board to size for both a cutting board and an extra bit of worktop space for when the kitchen lid is open. It slots in over the sink that we will probably never use but makes a useful hidden storage area for washing up liquid and tea towels. Previously a lot of kneeling down and reaching into the cupboards was required to gather plates and so on, fitting a wire basket to the inside of the cupboard door means they can be reached from the Buddy chair quite easily. Every time we use the van we iron out an issue when we get back. It’s beginning to work for us now.

Many moons ago I lived near a fantastic junk shop that was dirt cheap (and furnished a few of my early rentals for next to nothing). I found an old trunk for £6. It’s been used for various things including a coffee table, a blanket box, a means to store all my athletic and sporting trophies (ugh, long gone I hope). It’s now been given a coat of beautiful charcoal paint (by Mum) and fits perfectly in Bert’s boot. It holds all the stuff that previously just floated around; bedding, boots, dog bowls, etc. It also happens to be suitable for gently encouraging Riley up on to so that I can have my sofa back! You can see how generously spread out he likes to be. He’s never been a floor type of dog so maybe with the right kind of blanket I can entice him to sleep on the trunk in future. Harvey hates all modes of transport and only tolerates them because he knows the end result is a walk. It’s as much as I can do to get him to lie down on the thick pet mat. In a van this size wherever he is he is most definitely in the way!

I battle with several things when I take the van out for a chunk of the day. One is the thought that I should be doing something more productive. Though I try and balance it with the many jobs that are in constant supply at home. It still seems a guilty pleasure having a day off. I also never fully relax in case someone approaches for a chat. It sounds daft now but I really thought I could just park up and keep myself to myself. I suppose if I’m honest I also worry about looking completely weird just parked up in a van with my crochet or books. In truth it’s probably not that weird at all is it? It certainly provides welcome relief from the sight of jobs that I can’t tackle at home that need builders and plumbers.

This weekend we were on our way to a popular wooded area to walk the dogs and chill out in the van when we spotted a much quieter place with a wooded area at the end of a farm track. Most of the land looked unused, not ploughed, not planted, just scrubland so we parked in a concrete lay by and walked the dogs into the woodland for a quick sniff and explore. On my own I think I would have just worried about partially blocking a gate even though it looked like it hadn’t been opened in years. I would have also been pretty alarmed when a dark bmw with shaded windows pulled up (bear in mind that this is the middle of nowhere) and got out to rummage in his boot. M was not sympathetic at all when I said I would have been tense on my own, suggesting that I had nothing to worry about in broad daylight. Therein lies the difference between us I think. Not only has he got a lot less to worry about being male his mind just doesn’t calculate risks in the same way. The bmw had parked in such a way that I could not have driven away. I clearly need to work on being carefree once again, I think the last time was probably pre teens when I used to grab my bike and ride off down quiet country lanes with only a ten pence piece in my pocket ‘in case of emergencies’. The only emergency I ever had was a flat tyre and the dilemma of whether Dad would consider that emergency enough to come and rescue me or should I just push the bike home? (He rescued me graciously of course).

As the weather improves gradually, I’m intending to book myself into a basic camp site or two. I think that might improve my confidence a bit. It was always frustrating having a really nice caravan and not being able to take it anywhere on my own. M was away for three nights last week and now that the kids can stand on their own two feet I really ought to be making the most of it! Doing anything just for myself is still an alien thing!

One of the nice things about being out and about this last week was being able to take my carving kit and hooks with me. I sat in the opening of the sliding door and prepared new wood for carving, did the first stages of new carving and also fine tuned a few. All the shavings went outside ready to decompose naturally instead of being swept up with the hoover from our sunlounge floor! I’ve been lucky enough to get some wholesale orders for my hooks which has been really encouraging. I’m trying new wood all the time and lately I’ve been tweaking the proportions a little. I’ve also had a go at carving some little figures roughly following a book I received for Christmas. I need a bit more practice and maybe stronger hands, there’s only so much I can do in one day. I intersperse the carving with reading or crochet. At home crochet would win hands down but in the van for some reason I’m more inclined to read. Either way I have some crochet bunting underway for the van. I have no idea how I’m going to hang it yet. Fairy lights were a pain in the neck and eventually got cut in half by the tailgate. Magnetic clips might be the answer. I’ve already discovered magnetic hooks, how have I lived without those all these years? M never knows what might arrive in the letterbox next! Actually I can tell him… a new water carrier (the old one leaks), maybe a new van sticker or two (I hated all the surfing related ones!) and a nifty slimline bin for the inside of the other cupboard door. He will roll his eyes at all of that and then later say ‘good job’ in an American accent, he’s predictable if nothing else!

Road Trip #1

I’ve pointed out pretty much all the vw camper vans that we’ve ever seen on journeys over the years and nearly lost hope that I would ever own one. M’s illness really has been a wake up call to make things happen rather than just dream about them. There were a hundred more sensible things to do with the money but on reflection this seems right for us as we come to realise the therapeutic benefit of being able to load up a few supplies and take off. I shouldn’t compare caravans to camper vans but we stopped using our caravan and it was mainly because it’s a bigger undertaking just to take off with it for a few days. Things have to be planned and prepared in greater detail, you can’t just roam with a caravan. That’s the part I dearly wanted to experience.

Having spent two weeks exploring France and Italy in peak tourist season with no accommodation pre booked and having no problems whatsoever, you’d think it would be easy enough to find a camp site in October in the U.K. It wasn’t. So many sites were fully booked, one was being refurbished. Towards the end of our trip we discovered that there’s such a thing as motorhome club sites. Previously we used camping and caravanning club sites. It was quite an experience being parked up with a large number of motorhomes we knew were second mortgage types (having seen plenty at the motorhome show earlier this year). Our camper van was like a dinky toy in comparison. However, we parked with no greater difficulty than a car, hooked up our electricity and then sat comfortably and watched as others tried to manoeuvre their huge vans into short bays. As caravan owners we were fortunate that M could reverse a 23ft twin axle caravan into any tight space without drama but I would still hold my breath and close my eyes! With Bert I’m much more part of the event and we were able to swap driving shifts as and when we felt like it.

I am not a big fan of satnavs. M puts total faith in them. I am tempted to accidentally on purpose leave ours behind next time. Our latest model seems to love getting you in the vague area but doesn’t want to get into too much detail after that. We developed a system of using the satnav for the motorway turns off etc but resorting to m’s phone for the country lanes. M would never agree to leaving all technology behind but that’s next on my wish list! One step at a time!

On the night we couldn’t find a site we decided to find an unofficial offsite place to park for the night. I know plenty do this and if it had been something we wanted to do more often then we would have chosen an inconspicuous modern transporter, not a bright and shiny obvious campervan! The spot we chose felt perfectly safe and in the morning we were surrounded by bird life, dog walkers, cyclists, joggers, all drawn to this beautiful lake. I didn’t take a single photo! Argh! It was our first pitch without the little heater but it really wasn’t a problem since it belted out too much heat anyway and we never did use it all night long. The duvet and crochet blanket were perfectly adequate. Nights were cosy and warm but daytime driving if the sun wasn’t out was bloody cold. That’s something we will try and rectify.

On the theme of keeping it real, the main thing about longer stays with a campervan is not having a fixed bed. Everything we transported in our ‘boot’ had to be passed over to the front seat area in order to pull the seat bench forward which effectively makes the bed in one swift action. We soon learnt that meant not travelling with anything you aren’t prepared to keep passing back and forth. Once we’ve got a waterproof trunk or cover for the roof rack there are several bits of luggage we can store up there. For this trip though we optimistically packed our camping chairs, a small fire pit and a bag of small logs. They were all a pain in the neck. Lesson learnt.

Roughly speaking our trip covered 550 miles; from home and stopping at Bexhill on-Sea, Shoreham by Sea, Brighton, Chichester, Portsmouth, Winchester, Odiham and home. Mechanically everything went just fine. We overtook approximately three vehicles in total, with a celebration for each one. Driving a classic campervan is a lot like driving a Fiat 500, people assess the vehicle they are behind and then fail to assess the safety of overtaking so great is the need to just get past what they perceive is a slow moving vehicle. Trust me, I’m no slower in E’s Fiat 500 than I am in my fairly powerful jeep. The van cruises comfortably at 55-60mph which is plenty fast enough for a 60mph road!

I don’t know what goes through other people’s minds when they embark upon campervan ownership and consequent road trips but I’m a sucker for good old fashioned seventies style leisure time. Drive, park up, explore, drive, admire the scenery, park up, read, relax, drive, park up and feel so tired you dig the duvet out at 9am and fall fast asleep! It did help that I knew a few nice spots to show M. His mind tends to always be firmly on the next few days rather than the one he’s in the middle of. It’s a work thing and I completely understand it but I still try and gently remind him, just enjoy today.

Without so many caravan related jobs to do I thought I’d get lots of crochet done, some hook carving and a travel journal written. In reality I just got stuck into my latest book which was great because I tend to choose crochet over reading when I’m at home unless it’s in bed. M ploughed through his latest novel too and we stopped somewhere with plenty of charity shops near Brighton to select a new one for him, donating the finished one at the same time.

Part of the trip incorporated a job in Portsmouth. It happened to fall on my birthday itself which was unfortunate but we are still catching up in the finances after M’s long break from work and couldn’t turn it down. It worked out just fine, though it was mildly alarming to be parked up in the middle of university buildings with lots of admiring students with cameras! I stayed mainly with the van but did venture out for new scarves for us both, pot noodles for emergency warming up food and a birthday cake! Can you believe that M has reached his age (9 years older than me) and never had a pot noodle? Clearly a big oversight. I think they might be an essential part of van life, being so easy to ‘cook’.

The best part of the trip was most definitely the Bexhill on-Sea stop over. Not only catching up with my Grandad, Uncle and Aunt but also just being able to relax in the van on the seafront in blazing sunshine. It’s uncanny how it’s always warm when we visit. We happened upon an upmarket craft event at the De La Warr Pavilion and sat on the terrace for a bit too. I was sad that a couple who had returned from South Africa thought it had gone downhill. Economically the climate might have changed but it’s still very much a happy place and although often labelled God’s Waiting room we only ever see a huge range of ages enjoy the promenade whether on motibility scooters, rollerblades, skateboards, bikes, trikes or on foot. Unlike a lot of other beaches and seafronts it’s also largely dog friendly, with just the sailing club section out of bounds. I love the fact that there are two huge stretches of parking for free with a view of the sea, so many resorts are less generous.

We’ve got minor bits to do to the van and by choice we will probably build a whole new kitchen unit even though the current one is perfectly ok and brand new with a sink and two ring gas stove. Design wise it needs a re think – a split lid so that half can remain down when not in use and be used as a worktop. Deep drawers instead of just cupboard space because everything is low down and we don’t want to be kneeling down to find mugs at the back of a cupboard! Also, we need a pull out table and there’s room below the stove without it having to be too low. M likes to plan it all on graph paper and then run it by me for design input, of which there’s usually quite a bit! It’s good team work and I’m hopeful that will make life a lot easier when it comes to brewing tea and coffee and preparing pot noodles! We packed a moka pot for coffee which scented the van for quite a while afterwards. Our original plan was to use coffeemate but half way through the trip we invested in a 12V/mains cool box which conveniently fitted between the front seats, holds plenty of milk and had external cup holders for our coffee. We could incorporate a proper van fridge but they seem to be quite bulky and I’d rather have the cupboard space for now.

It seems to be a bit like a house, you need to live in it for a while to know what to improve. I wish I was the sewing type because I’d probably have run up some new curtains by now. The current ones are fine, could be worse but somehow seem a little too floral for my taste. They fit the surf dude type and we aren’t surf dudes.

I’ve taken so long to finish off this post that we’ve done lots of little van jobs, stocked it back up and we are setting off again for an unexpected three day trip, squeezing it in just before M’s next operation. We agreed to be grown up, face it head on and not bury our heads in the sand but sometimes that’s not a bad thing and it’s our plan for the next three days at least.