Tales from Connievan :: Summer Loving

You may remember me chatting about Connievan at the beginning of June, telling you about how we moved her to a new home in the country? I've not written much about it since then, but in the six weeks that she has been there, we have managed to visit almost every week, sometimes twice a week. I don't always take photographs there to be honest. Something about being with Connievan makes me want to forget about technology and immerse myself completely in the simplicity of camping life. Weirdly I don't even seem to be able to crochet or read there either. I always take a project and a magazine with me but it rarely gets a look in. We tend to hang out as a family there, and the time passes easily without the need to look for diversions.

Here in North Yorkshire, like much of the UK, we are experiencing a really spectacular start to our Summer. We have had day after day of seasonal weather perfection, with blue skies and hot sunshine lasting well into the evening time. It has honestly been glorious, and life at the campsite in this weather is completely wonderful. There are many families at the campsite, and a really lovely gang of camping children for my brood to hang out with. It is sooooo wonderful to watch them at play, to watch the simple games they come up with, their joy in running, jumping, hiding, and (recently for the girls) learning to do cartwheels.

There is a sweet little play area at the campsite which Little B is very fond of, and often in the evenings after we have finished eating, J and I will bring a mug of tea each down here to sit on that bench and watch our littlest do his thing. He is happiest with an audience, that's for sure.

This time of day is so magical I think, it's about 8pm or thereabouts. Still another two hours of soft, golden daylight, another two hours of outdoor play before we all tuck into our cosy beds.

Our usual routine is to head to Connievan on a Friday evening, arriving around 6pm for a lateish dinner. I have found it best to keep the food very simple, and quick. Yeah, it has to be produced prettily speedily when we get there or else a small riot breaks out. Sometimes we have a cold spread of meats, salad, dips and crusty bread, and sometimes we have hotdogs in white bread rolls with lots of fried onions, ketchup and mustard. And there is always fruit. We eat a lot of fruit each week between the five of us, and it's especially good in the summer time. On a Friday I visit the market and come home laden with summer fruits :: bags of sweet cherries, plums and nectarines, punnets of strawberries and raspberries, and various varieties of melon. Ice cold wedges of watermelon are hard to beat on a hot summers day.

We have eased into the routine of sleeping in Connievan very well now, particularly Little B. Some of his initial sleeping-bag-induced over excitement has worn off and his caravan bed is now familiar to him and very cosy. Providing we all go to bed and have lights out at the same time (usually just after 10pm) then he happily climbs into his little nest and falls asleep within minutes.

I continue to love love love the early morning times best of all, oh I do LoVE it!!! I make myself a steaming hot tin mug of tea and take myself outside in my pyjamas with a camping blanket wrapped round my shoulders and sit. It is so peaceful, so tranquil and green and fresh and so completely different to being at home.

We have found that trying to sleep for two nights at the 'van simply does not work. It's just that weeny bit too long, especially for Little Man who misses his mates and his own space and is at an age (almost 11) where prolonged family time is sometimes a bit of a challenge. So we've come up with a compromise which seems to suit everyone. We arrive Friday evening, stay the night, then spend the whole of Saturday (including the evening meal) before closing up camp and heading  back into town around 8pm. Saturdays are usually spent in a very lazy fashion, lots of lounging, eating and drinking. Lengthy picnic lunches which sprawl into the late afternoon, hours of happy idleness.

Sometimes we wander the short way down the lane to go play in the river.

Down through this green and leafy pathway.....

....until we reach the cool water.

It's a beautiful spot, shallow enough for the Little Peeps to play and paddle safely....

....and extremely refreshing when the days have been so hot.

The light is so beautiful at this time of year, I love the dancing leafy reflections in the still water.

We are at the very height of summer now, and the landscape is starting to lose it's lush greenery and look a little more parched.

Still beautiful though, especially with the late afternoon sun beaming down upon it.

I sometimes have little in-my-head fantasies about living out here. It is only half an hour drive from the Attic, but it is very rural and quite isolated out here. It sometimes surprises me when I realise I have really become a Townie! I always felt so sure I should be a country girl.

Life in Connievan continues to be sweet. I just love the simplicity of caravan life so much. I love the little routines that form around mealtimes and bedtimes. I love the gentle domesticity that feels like such a pleasure.

On a few occasions, we have found ourselves still longing for Connievan when the weekend is over, and have come up to see her for a few hours on a Monday night. It feels very special when we do this, as if we are somehow sneaking in extra time that isn't really allowed! But it feels wonderful to be making the very most of our summer months, of the long hours of daylight at this time of year, and the welcome time that we can spend outdoors surrounded by greenery.

As you can see, the campsite is very well kept. Only a small part of it is used for touring caravans like ours, and for tents. The rest of it is taken up with these pale green static caravans which are used rather like holiday homes.

On Monday night when we went there for dinner and an evening of warm, golden, sunny outdoor pleasure, I took a stroll around the site with Little Man. It's not often I spend time with him alone, he is actually great company, chatty and funny and such a good young man. As the camp site was practically deserted on Monday evening, we took the opportunity to sneak a peek through the windows of some of the statics. They are very, very orderly and caravanish inside, but oddly appealing. Little Man said we should make an offer to the owners of this one so that I could have it and rename my blog Static24. Made me really laugh out loud.....but maybe..........?

Actually what we ended up doing was going to fetch a bag and some scissors and making an impromptu elderflower harvest. We came across several elder trees at the camp site and I noticed with some vocal joy that the blooms were still pretty much at their peak, unlike here in town where they are pretty much over. We collected enough for me to make a second batch of cordial, and (still pending, but on schedule for tomorrow), a batch of elderflower champagne!! I'm planning on using this recipe, unless anyone can give me a better one. I hope it works out!

8pm now on Monday evening, and the Little People both ask if we can go for a short walk up the hill behind the campsite, the same hill that we climbed on the evening of Summer Solstice and saw the Super Moon. There is a vague pathway which winds it's way through the long summer grass.....



....isn't this pretty? It brought back a sudden but rather hazy stab of childhood nostalgia and out of nowhere I remembered it's name :: Quaker Grass. My memory often amazes me. It is so appallingly awful on a day to day short term basis, and yet the most quirky facts from many moons ago are still able to surface.

The hill climb is short and sharp. I am wearing inappropriate footwear (flip flops) so I am a little slow and a little clumsy, but eventually I catch up with my energetic Little Peeps at our agreed resting point. Oh, I do love a good view!

Interestingly, my Little People decide to lay down in the long grass and study the sky, which is something that I very often do and which they very often ridicule me for. I smiled inwardly and lay down to join them. Don't you just love summer evenings like this? I feel like I never want it to end.

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Comments

[Lindsey Toms]

Your site looks wonderful, we too have a little caravan and just love to get away in it although we don't get away as much as we would like to.

[Katie B]

Static24 - love it! That boy SO has his mother's sense of humour!!
Love, Katie B x x

[CJ]

What a wonderful post. Glad you are having such a lovely summer and enjoying Connievan's new location.

[Jo Roberts]

It looks great. We do the same in our trailer tent and also only manage one night but our oldest girl has the sleep gene and asks to go to bed at 8.30! The little one toddles around a bit longer then we all crash. Lovely scenery. Jo x

[Libby]

Lovely, lovely, lovely. Can't wait to start camping with my own small people. My husband and a friend made elderflower champagne a couple of years ago - wooHOO. I dread to think what the alcohol percentage was. We've still got some left, it's probably more like brandy by now...

[Claire]

Lovely post! Yep, static 24, what a brilliant idea! I make elderflower champers and cordial every year, the recipe is on my blog under the category "food and drink" I can confirm that you should use plastic bottles, and be careful when opening it!
http://diaryofapennypincher.typepad.com/blog/

[Metherer]

Hi Lucy.

Lovely photos - I do look forward to them as I grew up in the next village on from the camp site. Used to cycle past it most evenings on my loop round. (Village - caravan site - down the steep lane- through the village on the other side of the river - then back to my village on back road)

It definately takes a lot of thinking about to move further out. One of my village friends was apparently born in a helicopter as mid-march snows meant an ambulance couldn't get out to us. That was in 1979. I was born March 80 and childhood winters are full of power cuts and snow drifts. You have to be prepared and keep lots of candles and food in, just in case.

But, it was also full of summers spent at the bathing pool (in one of dad's fields) and riding out on our bikes. At the age of 8+ I would happily walk the two miles up dale to my grandparents, perfectly safely.

One last thing - got my Yarndale bag at Sheep Day, and love it. Really good quality.

Helen (Metherer)

[Irene Porter]

What a lovely post. We stopped in your home town on the way to the Lake District at the weekend. It was very nice to see it in "real life". The canals and boats are so colourful. I even found Purl and Jane (eventually!),but stupidly had left my bunting at home, so will still have to post it.

[Jane]

Sounds blissful! x

[Frances]

I visited the UK as a young woman and found it enchanting. You bring the magic back with your photos. Thank you so for including us. I am pretending to put my feet in the stream too;).

[Sarah west mids uk]

Dear Lucy I had to smile when I read this post about you being a townie.
I think where you live(from seeing all your wonderful photos ) is the countryside! Our back garden has been a real haven this last week. We have been out from 8.30am onwards until the light fades. Only thing missing here is the sea. Still you can't have everything can you?
Enjoy the start of the school summer holidays!!!!! x

[Taylor]

What a nice way to celebrate all that summer has to offer! A nice walk up a hill, picnics everything for a contented getaway. Lovely post as always!

[jeannette]

lucy, it sounds like paradise. thanks for inviting us.

[Lizzy]

Please be very careful if you make elderflower champagne. The first year I used glass bottle and the top of one broke right off when it exploded and another sent broken g lass and sticky wine all over the garage. The next year I used plastic coke bottles and one exploded in the kitchen, thank goodness I was on the other side of the room. It took me hours to clean it up. I have promised never to attempt champagne making again, I stick to the cordial and normal wine!!!!

[Angela- Southern USA]

What a beautiful retreat you have Lucy!Thanks for sharing. Glad you found one close at hand for so many more memory making times.The static caravans are called mobile homes here in the states,some people live in them year round(and come in bigger sizes too) and some use them as vacation homes like there.Good luck with the champagne,I've never tried making any.Here's to many more connievan adventures!

[leirasarah]

Such a lovely memories for the little people! It reminds me my "golden days". How I missed it so much..

[Carole Williamson]

Lovely photos Lucy
Love Carole from Rossendale xxx

[Sandy]

Somehow Lucy, you always manage to stir up emotions in me that I find hard to explain. But I love them. Understand?

[Zorana]

Dear Lucy, your posts always make me happy. Lots of love form Bosnia

[Theetje]

What a funny man he is!!!!!!!!
And what a B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L memories you are providing fot you're people......love it!!!!
Love Theetje

[Dominique]

I have been reading your blog now for 2 years and always look forward to your posts about the bits and bobs of family life. You, your crafts, your posts, and the lovely pictures you share inspire me to try to slow down, make something pretty, and bake something yummy. Thank you very much for giving so much of yourself to us your readers. I look forward to future posts and wish you a happy and sunny summer filled to bursting with lovey, yarny, family moments.

-Dominique
(Canada)

[Cindy Bee]

Hi Lucy, I still read your blog faithfully, just don't always comment, but I had to this time. My Shug and I moved (back in October) to our house in the country, that WE are building OURSELVES. Crazy..I know. Anyway, we are living in 500 square feet in one room in the basement, while we build this big house around us. I told someone the other day we should have built 'this' (the 500 sq. ft) as the house, and just built two garages for our hobbies. His and Hers!

If you love your connievan that much, and we all know you do. And you've tried moving it around, and leaving it in one place, and you all seem to love leaving it in one place. And if you can afford it, then buy the static! My Shug and I tend to go to the same place on vacation. We even know the owner of the B&B in Charleston, SC now, because we even like to stay at the same place. There is some comfort in getting to know your vacation spot. And when it's only 1/2 hour away and you love it so much you visit it in the evening, then why not? As long as you don't lose the cozy feel of the Connievan - which-when it comes down to it, is what we all love. 500 square feet-cozi connie van...it's the familiar and the cozy that we love.

Cindy Bee

[SOL]

Lucy, it all looks lovely. You were kind enough to tell me places to go in Dorset, and now I am coming to the Dales. Skipton, Malham, Bolton Abbey and Saltaire are all on my list. I’ll trawl through your blogs and see if I can find some more lovely places – you have posted some wonderful pictures but I don’t always know where they are. There’s the crag to climb. I’m staying in Hellifield and I can’t wait. Roll on Sunday…..

[Leslie Ann Cambridge]

How idillic! I can't wait for our holiday in a static near the New Forest! Just love your photos!

[Martinsa]

Beautiful post!
I've spent all the winter weekends of my childhood with my own "Connievan". I live in the south os Spain so the weather is awesome even in winter so we went to the camp site for the whole weekend. Then we spent the summer travelling around the country or Portugal or France. Those were marvellous years...
Enjoy these times with Connievan.