A weekend away with friends.

 My final catch up post ! Hooray..

Last weekend we set off in Stan the van to met friend's at a campsite just outside of Lynton & Lynmouth. The heatwave was still with us and the skies were blue . 

The campsite was up on the hill overlooking Lynton & Lynmouth. We stayed at Lynmouth Holiday retreat, and whilst we had  a small pitch with no views as such, parked in Motorhome  section !

Our friends luckily had a great pitch and great views. Lesson to self, don't always book a hardstanding pitch !

we even managed to sit and watch the sunset.

For some strange reason on Saturday we thought it would be a great idea to walk down the hill into Lynmouth, then walk back up though Lynton to our campsite. Luckily there is a funicular railway between Lynmouth  and Lynton so we hitched a ride part way on that.

It was a long hot day, by the time we were back at the campsite I was feeling very sick, through the heat and the exertion of walking up a very steep and long track, we named it the track that kept on giving ! For a very overweight late 50's woman I am so pleased I actually managed it. It was an incredible walk down and back up through some ancient woodlands and the views were great.  Lynton and Lynmouth are both lovely and well worth a visit if you are in the area.  

The campsite was ok, it was full and busy, very clean and good facilities but for me, I made a mistake booking the serviced hardstanding pitch. I would much rather have had the hook up pitch in the lower filed where our friends were. 

There was a great pub next door, The Beggars Roost, very friendly and great pub food. Rosie even made a friend

A little Border Terrier bitch a couple of months older. It was a shame we couldn't let them off their leads to have a good old run about. That's Rosie with the pink purple harness showing.   

It was a great weekend and I am so thankful; that I get to go and explore so many places.

Summer of Books and Yarn update.

 Back at the beginning of the Summer holidays a post by Louise Tillbrook caught my eye. A summer of Books and Yarn. How could I resist, 2 of my favourite things. 

I am absolutely loving the challenge of reading 6 books over the summer, alongside some knitting. In I jumped. I have actually ran ahead with it and have read 5 books already. A combination of mini breaks and long train trips for work have helped. 

My knitting project was to aim to finish my Richmond Hill sweater. The heatwave has slowed any real progress on my sweater but it is so close to finishing now. 

Here's my summer of books and yarn progress to date;

This was my original planned reads, obviously this has changed and I may well have purchased some new books !

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Now I am heading into week 4 and the prompt was A book with a location in the title. 

I may have just had to buy another new book.

Not normally my sort of book but as we are headed up to Whitby in the near future it caught my eye, so why not. I surprised my self by enjoying with the no 1 ladies detective agency so I may well like this one too. 

Knitwise, now its cooled down somewhat I am determined to get my Richmond hill sweater finished. I would actually like to take it to Whitby with me. 

Camp Bestival.

Still trying to catch up with my blog amidst a busy and hectic life. I'm not complaining I am having a great summer of adventures. So in a quiet moment on my non working day here is another catch up post.

 Pre children Hubby and I did festivals. In a moment of reminiscence I asked hubby if we could do a festival. He was up for it. Trouble was I wanted the comfort of Stan the Van [not a  tent] and any dreams of getting tickets for Glastonbury were just that, a dream. 

Then I stumbled across Camp Bestival. 'Your too old for that' 'its for families'  they said. Well sod that, it looked a nice gentle and smallish festival so I booked tickets, Stan the van included. I was not disappointed. 

We had an amazing time, we saw lots of bands, ate nice food and enjoyed the glorious weather. By day 3 we were absolutely knackered and feeling somewhat jaded but we had a great time.  I'm now looking out for some smallish festivals for next year, maybe 2-3 days tops, with Stan the Van of course.

The back of beyond !

 I am still very much behind on my blogging, so here's 1 of the many catch up posts I need to do.

Back on 15th July we snook off in Stan The Van for another weekend away. We headed towards the new forest to a campsite called The back of Beyond.

Trying to venture to places other than Cornwall, the new forest is somewhere we have not stayed near  before.

It was a lovely site but was near the main A road so traffic noise was apparent and there were a lot of yappy dogs ! luckily Rosie has not found her voice yet and remains a quiet little pup !

Part of the site was an 18 acre forest with lots of lovely walks. Every Morning I would get up with Rosie and we would head off to the forest for her morning constitutional. 

It felt safe to walk through on my own and there were lots of other campers there walking their dogs. I am not sure I would be brave enough to walk our local woods on my own ! Which is a shame as I absolutely loved doing these early morning walks. 

We took Rosie's pen so she could be off lead but she really didn't like it, much preferring to tie us up in knots on her long line !

Can you see the little Robin sat on the side? he visited regularly and was very tame.

Rosie still loves the van life and is a joy to take away.  We had a fab weekend and will definitley head back that way next year but will try a different site closer to the actual forest itself.