Tent Sniffing for Beginners

This post will be appearing as if by magic while I am actually eating food outdoors! I am at Camp Bestival this weekend. Looking forward to lots of eating outside and drinking of course. I shall look forward to sharing my photos when I get back next week. As I set this to go live on the blog at 9am I'm going to assume I just woke up in my tent and I'm either Boiling water for coffee Wandering about to see if anyone is selling bacon Eating a pot of instant porridge Drinking a breakfast drink of vodka and cranberry. It probably depends on the weather to be honest! But hopefully whatever else I get up to at the festival I will have time to meet some other bloggers and online friends, sharing some proper quality time chatting, eating and drinking together. I'm also hoping to catch a talk about food for camping by Genevieve Taylor author of How to Eat Outside because if that doesn't sound like my sort of thing, then what does?! Have you been cooking or e...

Once upon a time I bought a tent (by mistake - I know - who'd have thought) on ebay. And because it was cheap and old and tatty and canvas, I decided to try painting it, as a test. It turned out brilliantly (read all about that here ) and so I was keen to try it again with a better tent. I sold my lovely painted Barry and decided to paint up Wilfred, while leaving the new 'Lord Lichfield' bare. (Lords like that sort of thing I think) Lord Lichfield I allowed DD to choose the theme this time. And she chose Japan. It's not perfect, but we are not artists! We opted for a panorama of snow capped mountains, a cherry blossom tree and a pagoda. A general consensus decided we needed some swallows too. Some Rushes at the foot of the North Mountain The Cherry Tree DD painting the pagoda We painted everything free hand, no stencils. And we used fabric paints from YellowMoon and some Fabsil to double check it would stay waterproof (this worked brilliantly las...

Ah Tuesday. Time for a Tuesday tip. This week I'm off to a festival and so are many others so I thought I'd refresh your memories about electronics in fields. We all love to get away from it all, when 'all' doesn't mean our mobile phones! I'm as addicted to the online world as the next person and so when I camp I have several options to keep my smartphone charged up (and my tent lit so I can read after dark) An alternative to using apps and smartphones but still having the ability to stay in touch is of course to take a cheapy phone with a new preloaded SIM (no panic then if you lose it or drop it into the toilet) For example the Samsung E1200 is available on Pay As You Go (PAYG) for just £5 (when you top up £10 credit) on Virgin. The 800 hours of standby battery life will probably last longer than you do and losing it won’t ruin your whole weekend. It’s the ideal festival phone! Available from: http://www.mobiles.co.uk/pay-as-you-go-mobile-phone...

I was lucky enough to win some festival tickets (I know!! massive thanks to Camp Fire Magazine ) and so last weekend I went to the Curious Arts Festival in Hampshire. It was all my favourite things in one, as I'm a self confessed 'Author Groupie' a literary festival is right up my street. My daughter simply adores comedy and loves stand up. We both love camping and I love gin! All of these things and more were catered for. Patrick Gale interviews Damian Barr A dog is tickled The festival allows dogs which made for a delightfully friendly and tail-waggy time, we made friends with one cute little fellow based on our mutual love of fried haloumi. A dog sits for more haloumi The sun shone, the decorated trees, scattered deckchairs and classy furniture in the grounds of the beautiful Pylewell Park just finished the delightfully upper class feel. I managed a little poetry writing, DD and her friend took a stroll to the lake, there may have been snoozing in th...

This weekend I'm at home, but last weekend I was in a field with gin and literature at a rather fabulous festival in Hampshire (more of that later!) The food as it happened was not a highlight of the festival unfortunately, as while it was very nice, it was quite limited, and possibly due to that some stalls ran out of food on Saturday night leaving us with only a 'take it or leave it' option. Luckily the option was hummus in pitta with salad, and haloumi fries! so not all bad. And of course there was always gin. Until the other week when I had a lovely vegan recipe linked up I hadn't considered the way a festival can restrict your choices. I shall be looking out for vegan, vegetarian, gluten free and dairy free offerings at Camp Bestival from next Thursday and shall report back. I'm lucky enough to have no allergies, and as I eat meat I confess I've not thought about this before, but at this recent festival we took one of DD's vegetarian friends and it...

It seems that what was once the destination for young late-night music lovers has grown up! British festivals are now becoming a hot spot for families, (maybe as those once young ravers just refuse to give up), fast overtaking the traditional summer holiday, according to new research carried out by ticketing agent Skiddle . Their survey of over 1,000 Brits revealed that 68% of respondents had either taken their child to a festival or knew someone who had, while 53% had been to a festival with their parents or knew someone who had. As you know I take DD to several festivals a year and I have met lots of other families that do the same, there are more and more festivals that include 'kids fields' that are more like the old holiday camps than a music festival! Nearly half (44%) of respondents stated that they attend festivals for a new experience, with 48% attending because family and friends are going, or as a break from work and everyday life - similar to the reasons many p...

It's Friday so it's time for an outdoor food linky. This weekend (actually later today) I'm off to a festival so I'll be eating outdoors for the next 3 days. I'm hoping for some excellent festival food. I am taking my daughter and her friend. Her friend is a vegetarian, so I may be having to try some options I don't normally look for. I am a fan of the falafel, partial to a pizza and often crave a curry but what other vegetarian options are good for festival food and camping in general? I know on last week's linky there were some great vegan vege parcel recipes, but there will be no camp fires at a festival. I'll let you know next week what I discover - until then I look forward to your linked posts, or ideas in the comments below. To link up you don’t need to be a camper or have a camping blog, or a food blog, you just need a recipe or story on a blog post that relates to food eaten outside. Please link and try and visit and comment on at lea...