Tent Sniffing for Beginners

So back from Camp Bestival and with only a day or two until Wilderness I read a fab article on the BBC website confirming my (and Stornoway' s) belief that we are Free Range Humans and need to camp more!! While at Camp Bestival  I met some rather delightful and scrumptious 'mummy bloggers' (and ladies that tweet) and many of them had small children with them, even babes in arms! And when I tweeted about it I had a few parents show interest in camping but who were also nervous novices to the whole 'life under the stars' thing. So I thought I'd compile a few top tips. I have camped with DD since she was 8, we go to several festivals a year and camp in between. We have camped from March to November and have met and talked to many parents camping with young'uns. (We listen out for parenting/camping tips too when we camp...nylon and canvas are thin...)   Camping is not scary. Any one can do it. You don't need lots of stuff. Too

I am missing being under canvas. Yes the joy of canvas - and when I say that I'm not euphemistically referring to all tents, I actually own two proper canvas tents. I have a nylon tent too and it's fine, waterproof, light, easy to erect (steady!) but it's not really the same. it doesn't have the authentic camping feel, it has the wrong smell.  Ah the smell of a canvas tent, the lovely warm summer smell of the tent as it warms in the sun, or the autumn smell as it dries after rain.  Rain which on a nylon tent is noisy but in a canvas tent has an oddly solid 'thump' to each drop, leaving one to assume that the Armageddon of storms is taking place when actually it's a light shower. At least the wind doesn't bend the firm steel poles of my canvas tent though. The canvas might snap and crack like a whip but the tent stays firm in the onslaught of a spring wind. I am longing to be back in the tent (and playing with my new storm kettle again!) with