Tent Sniffing for Beginners

The sun has been shining for 10 minutes so I'm instantly planning for festivals I'm off to this year. Starting with The Curious Arts Festival in the lovely New Forest . Running from Friday 22nd July until Sunday 24th in the grounds of Pylewell Park, I cannot stress strongly enough how lovely this festival is. It's not a full blown music and drugs affair, more a gentle meander though fields to some melodic relief as you sip a G and T. Rather than a rush of sex starved groupies to the back of the tents for a grab at a pop star you'll be more likely to see people wandering unhurredly over to the ice cream van, glass of bubbly in hand, hoping to chat to their favourite author who is lounging in the sun on a deckchair.  For this is a polite festival, a festival of art and culture. With deckchairs strategically placed around the grounds of a gorgeous stately home and snail races on the lawn. A festival where you can share a fried haloumi snack with an author and his do...

So each day brings us closer to the day we can get the tent out and I can't help but think there is bound to be something we need to buy as soon as we check our camping gear. I don't know about your kit but I'm sure mine either falls apart or is stolen by leprechauns over the winter. I always find missing tent pegs, a guy line oddly too short, or missing rolls of duck tape. Assuming you struggle with the same pain I'm going to run a giveaway for a £10 Amazon voucher - enabling you to buy a tin of reproofer, some insect spray or a new hat - whatever you feel your camping kit needs. Enter using the RaffleCopter thingy below. UK only. Ends 27th March 2016 a Rafflecopter giveaway

This poor neglected blog is feeling the spring creeping along it's edges, ruffling the grasses. The sun is shining, promising butterflies, warm nights and catkins. Everywhere in our garden new shoots are emerging, I've had to mow the lawn once already - dashing out between hail showers to do it. And soon, very soon, I will find an excuse to get the tents out of the loft for a check up. The one downside of canvas tents is the nervous fear that maybe they weren't BONE DRY when you put them away. That maybe mould or decay (or, as once happened, a mouse!) has crept into the fabric of the tent, damaging it. Last year I left Wilfrid wrapped up for only 3 days while he was wet and when I unfurled him I was horrified to find orange mould. I have since cleaned, scrubbed and dried him, but I admit I'm worried. The spring sunshine calls to the canvas and soon my garden lawn will look like a mini festival. And then I will have the excuse of eating outdoors again. So I have...

Yes it's 2016 and no I haven't blogged since Hector was a pup, but here we are. It is STILL raining in the UK and if I wasn't comforted by rainbows I might have begun to build an ark. It is looking increasingly likely that by the time my daughter is a grown up she will be having boating holidays (like in water world) rather than camping ones! All this water made me think of Wellingtons. Those rather fabulous boots named for a Duke and now cheerfully keeping the camper, farmer, and dog walker's feet dry. I seem to have got though a fair number of wellies in my time, I think festival life takes it out of them. Sun seems to make then brittle and then they crack and let in the very thing they are designed to save us from, the camper's nemesis, mud. As a festival girl I like a fancy welly, no plain black ones for me, or a smart functional green, no I like a bit of flair. The first wellies I bought for festivals were black with tattoo prints on. There are still...

I rarely share this sort of thing, but seriously how cute is this 'outdoors indoors' kids room design from Cuckoo land? I just adore it! I need to find an excuse to get the bearskin rug! “Set up camp in the mountains!”   Teepee Bed, £399 Clockwise from top left: SNURK Butterfly Duvet Set , £44.95 Stag Wall Sticker , £9.95 TweedMill Throw in Mustard , £75 Knitted Fox Hottie , £19.95 Henry Bear Rug , £89.95 Tree Bookcase , £565 Kids Wallpaper in ‘Into the Wild’ design , £70 Olli Ella Storage Basket in Coda design , £59 Zuny Owl Paperweight , £24.95 Teepee Cabin Bed , £399 Single Hanging Cacoon , £220 Finlay Fox Rug , £55.95

People sometimes show some surprise when they hear that a 50 year old woman goes to festivals. They show even more surprise when they hear that while I take my daughter and sometimes a friend, that I would still go to festivals if I had to go alone. My husband is not a festival goer.  I have been going to festivals since I discovered them relatively late in life. I was 41 when I attended my first festival, on a whim after seeing a flier, using a very basic tent I obtained via freecycle and really making it up as I went along. I would suggest that everyone go to at least one festival in their life . you may hate it (my husband is not keen, though that's mainly health related) but I suspect you won't. Festivals give you the ultimate excuse to be you. To wear what you like, to wake and sleep when you like, to eat and drink what you like, to be free for a couple of days in the semi wild of a field with only some material between you and the elements. The very things th...

An advent calendar can now be found over at Camp Bestival! They have prizes behind each window, and you can think about the festival and buying your tickets too while you are there! The 2016 theme is Space (and why not, we have astronauts, we have Star Wars) so pop over, play on the calendar and plan your fancy dress too!