O'er yonder...

Sadly, no, I haven't disappeared on a round the world trip. I'm still here. M and I managed to fit in a few nights away last week. There are still great big pockets of ignorance when it comes to my knowledge of all things Northern. When M mentioned Bradford I must admit I wasn't exactly filled with joy, it conjured up rather a different picture to that of camping bliss.

However, Bradford was where M needed to be for a couple of days so we eventually found a site that had space (should have taken that as a sign!). We arrived in a picture box village with beautiful window boxes everywhere, a lovely pub, a babbling brook... and a dreadful camp site with communal showers! The least said about the rest of it the better! Thank goodness we bumped into another couple who were also just leaving who recommended a nicer site five miles away. M made a phone call and phew, they had a space if we were quick. We were quick.

The site was terraced and it was a devil to get a long caravan pitched but it was well worth the effort because it looked out over hills and dales and the most amazing sunset every evening. My head was obviously not in blog mode because I didn't take a photograph! Argh! We were somewhere between Otley and Ilkley and the countryside was wonderful. Despite work in Bradford we managed a nice morning in Ilkley just browsing book shops and drinking coffee and chatting to small children... we concluded that M must have a friendly face because, on two separate occasions, a small child decided to strike up a conversation with him. In a cafe, a three year old, clearly bored with her mother and grandmother's conversation turned around in her chair and said, 'Hi, I'm Lucy'. When M cheerfully replied, 'Well it's very nice to meet you Lucy' she had an attack of shyness but recovered enough after a minute or two to have another go.

The other small child introduced herself as Bella. M agreed with her opinion that it was a very nice name. He explained that we had a daughter called Ella which sounded a bit similar (she disagreed) but that we sometimes call her, EllaBella. This was clearly the funniest thing she had ever heard and she went off chuckling heartily.

Indeed, EllaBella is doing the festival thing as I write. On the one hand it fills me with worry and on the other I am secretly glad that she is spending five nights in a tent and experiencing the delights of a single camping stove with no refrigeration facilities. This is a girl who would choose a hotel over wild camping any day of the week, unlike her Mother.

I dug out my Trangia cook set complete with meths burner. A visit to a camp shop for a new bottle of meths informed me that wow, these sets have gone drastically up in price since I bought mine, oops, that must have been at least 15-20 years ago. Jeez, time flies. I held out the set in front of E and asked her to guess how many cooking things it might contain (bear in mind the whole thing is about the size of a medium saucepan). She was miles off. I unpacked the three saucepans, the frying pan, the kettle and the windbreak/pan stand/burner unit, the meths burner and the handle for the pans and she did concede that it was pretty amazing.

Still not convinced that this tiny gold pot would heat enough water for an espresso let alone a pot noodle I had to do a demonstration on the patio. If this failed then she'd be paying £5 for a small frankfurter in a roll for her main meal every day (apparently this was the cheapest food at last year's festival). Not only was she surprised that it boiled a kettle of water, she was surprised that it was quick.

So last night I received the above pic, including boyfriends feet, of the stove boiling water for their packet pasta with the message, 'this thing is actually working!' Thank goodness these kids will never need real survival skills! I don't fancy their chances of making a shelter or starting a fire without matches.

All the river pictures were taken on a warm evening in Ilkley. I had to try and walk off a pint of cider (I'm such a lightweight these days). Unfortunately I kept pointing out that everything was 'lovely' but with a dodgy Northern accent, it wasn't my finest moment. Thankfully I kept quiet when a friendly older couple walked by and M had the most interesting conversation with them about the area. They were both Ilkley born and bred and still taking romantic, hand in hand, riverside walks after goodness knows how many years together (I think they were at least eighty). Their accents were almost indecipherable for me so M had to translate so that I didn't look like a complete idiot. Apparently the Heron was often at the same spot. They were also keen to let us know that if we came back in May then the woods 'o'er yonder' would be a carpet of bluebells. Oo, I bet those two had plenty of tales to tell!

A simple break...

It's very good advice to have something in your diary or on your calendar to look forward to. It's a shame I don't take that advice more often! When it comes to short breaks and holidays we are definitely more likely to be lastminute.com and although I love spontaneity I've also come to need that little box on the calendar to count down to.

The children had their own adventure this year and visited Cornwall for the first time. It wasn't so much of a trek along the south coast when I was growing up but it's now a major north to south expedition. However, they made it (with Mum clocking up a silly amount of driving miles) and loved it. J in particular enjoyed surfing lessons. E liked the laid back vibe (I knew she would). They visited the Eden project and Lost Gardens of Heligan amongst other places and generally made the most of it despite the lack of reliable sunshine.

Meanwhile M and I didn't want to waste a whole week to ourselves despite the fact that M still had work assignments in Wolverhampton, Derby, Liverpool and Sheffield. It made it rather challenging to figure out how to get a few days away in the caravan. I got the old fashioned road atlas out (I hate satnavs!) and figured out that Derbyshire would be an acceptable location for M to use as a base for work. From discussion and hasty booking of a site to leaving was approximately 24 hours!

We found a site near Ashbourne in Derbyshire which is an area neither of us knew very well. It was extremely popular with walkers and cyclists. I'd have preferred a less busy site with fewer amenities but you can't beat having everything to hand especially when you're in a caravan that hasn't been used for over a year. There were quite a few children running about which made Riley nervous so he barked at them which in turn made him seem quite unfriendly. One brother and sister weren't put off though and came and made friends with him which was really nice. He settled down after he'd made a few friends, he's a dog that doesn't like new places. Harvey is a dog who is clearly old before his time. He's like an old man who likes an uninterrupted afternoon nap so he'll snooze through anything.

We liked Ashbourne, although it's small it has a few nice coffee places and everything you need. Tissington is a chocolate box tourist village but it was a nice spot for (more) coffee and to buy some homegrown rhubarb. I like picking up eggs, honey and whatever people have in a little makeshift shops by their garden gate. The large bunch of rhubarb was only £1 and enough to last the whole week!

The week was spent in a very simple and relaxing way. We picked up food day by day, we read books, we took the dogs to nearby streams for walks and swims, we threw a few things in a basket for simple picnics, we visited a few places, not many, we fixed a few things in the caravan with the help of a parts shop nearby. We had Coca Cola in glass bottles with straws in a pub garden; a trip down memory lane! M was lucky and had two cancellations which meant more time to put his feet up.

I did take some crochet but after buying some groceries in Ashbourne on day one I spotted some unbleached cotton and decided to make myself a decent sized face cloth. I'd forgotten to bring one and M uses his all the time (a face cloth is so much easier with a tiny sink). The face cloth went well and it was nice working with cotton in the summer so I challenged myself to use up the rest of the ball. I ended up making a sunglasses pouch since mine were getting chucked in my basket or bag every day. With the tiny amount left I made a cotton bracelet. We have a man drawer in the caravan which happened to yield the perfect button for a fastening. 100g of cotton turned into three nice things and not a pattern in sight!

We both agreed how relaxing and therapeutic the week had been. We were even able to calmly discuss the problems that need addressing with our property at the moment and how M blames work for not being able to deal with them and equally how he won't part with his hard earned cash to pay someone else to deal with them. A kind of stalemate I think. When we got home several of the tasks we had discussed miraculously got done! Happy days.

From our pitch round the corner from the little camper pictured above I spent some time being discretely nosey observing the couple who had come to England with it. M obliged and took a crafty snap so that I could share it with you. I'm not sure if the photo gives a sense of scale, perhaps the bicycles help show how tiny it is. They towed it with a hatchback which also held the bikes on a cycle rack. Isn't it just amazing!? I love it. It's clearly a well thought out little unit with its pop up top for standing room inside and even a mesh fly screen for the door. I'd have loved to have had a peep inside. Can you see the clever clothes line with the two dangling socks?

This little Dutch caravan got me thinking about how nice it would be to have a much smaller caravan that I could manage to tow myself. I'm sure there are women out there who are happy and qualified to tow a twin axle whopper of a caravan but I'm not one of them! I'd have a go of course but I'm sure it would be stressful. M is an absolute genius at towing, I've held my breath and clenched my knuckles at some very tight entrances and along narrow country lanes and he's handled everything that comes his way. He does get annoyed if I grab the door handle in fear but that's fair enough.

A quick browse for little caravans old or new revealed that it's just another idea along with one day owning a campervan that isn't going to happen any time soon! Small doesn't equal cheap! Not only that but even the small ones would have issues with windy days which is a whole scenario I could live without. This led me to discover teardrop trailers (google it!). The benefits of a caravan/campervan type thing but without too much of a towing hassle. Think 5'x8' a single axle trailer... as Catherine Tate would say, 'I can do that!'

So, I've given M his next DIY challenge despite the fact the kitchen needs finishing off and his workshop still needs a roof. He's downloaded a template and cut it out of wood just so that we can see exactly what we are dealing with. It looks pretty darn small to me. We're pulling in favours and quotes from people M knows who can weld for a purpose built trailer. It's a pay as you go project and there's nothing hugely expensive to buy for it after the base itself so I think we might just have a tiny caravan by next April. That's the deadline I'm giving M; it's the start of the cricket season and I'd like it finished by then so I can at least remove myself from these four walls while every weekend is taken up with matches.

Without electrical hook up you can usually camp for a tenner or less per night. Although this camper will have the ability to hook up it would only be for charging phones and iPads and maybe switching the fridge/cooler from battery to mains like our caravan one does. For a short stay though everything can run from a leisure battery that recharges from the car on the way home. Unlike the caravan there will be virtually no setting up tasks. It will be a case of pitching up, unhitching and getting the chairs out. Ella already has her eye on it for next year's music festival!