Our first outing

 Weather wise we couldn't have picked a better week for our first caravaning adventure, there was only one night that we had a little bit of rain, but other than that it was hot and sunny every day, sometimes a little too hot.  

We chose Upton on Severn for our first trip, just 45 minutes down the motorway, a little longer If you take the scenic route.  The site was small and quiet and had everything needed, both the showers and toilets on site were clean.  The only downside was that there was no WIFI and it was hit and miss as to whether we could get online on our phones, although the call signal was fine, I was surprised how quickly I got used to not picking my phone up to check it every five minutes, lol.

We arrived on the Friday lunchtime and it was baking hot, Mark had never put an awning up before and although it was fairly straightforward, working in the heat made it difficult, while I sorted everything inside the van I could hear a fair bit of huffing, puffing and swearing going on outside, lol.  But as you can see he got there in the end.  

There were a couple of things that took time to sort out, the water wasn't coming through and it took the rest of the afternoon for Mark to sort that out, then the water wasn't getting though to flush the toilet so it was the next day before all the little niggles were sorted but there was nothing major and everything works as it should.

It's been an expensive month, besides buying the caravan its been like setting up another house with all the bits and pieces but we did have a couple good buys from fb marketplace, the porch air awning, roof bars, ground sheet and air pump cost us £140, they had only been used once and would have cost over £300 new and the awning carpet was another fb find for £40 again looked like new and the price ticket of £72 was still on the bag.

As I said the weather was great all week so we have spent a lot of time sitting and reading, listening to music and in my case some stitching and knitting and the occasional afternoon nap.  It was very relaxing, just what we both needed.  We did have a few outings, we walked into Upton a couple times and drove out to Tewksbury and Ledbury, both about 20 minutes away.

I'll leave you with some photos I took while we were away, we were both pleasantly surprised by Ledbury and will definitely try and get back there over the Summer.

Upton on Severn

We both fell in love with Ledbury, lovely shops, beautiful buildings and great history

Enjoying the beautiful countryside

Lovely sunset at the caravan park

Start of a new month tomorrow, hope you have a good one

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A finish and a day out

You might remember that I almost finished knitting the Whitmore sweater a while ago then decided when I'd got to within the cuff of the second sleeve that It was too big.  I didn't want to rip it back and put the yarn back into stash so instead I straight away cast on the Salty Air Tee by Samantha Guerin.

I'd had my eye on this pattern for a while, it's a similar lace pattern to the Whitmore sweater and the same top down construction.

The pattern Calls for 4ply yarn but I was using DK so I knit a smaller size and it came out a perfect fit, I'm really happy with it and have already worn it several times, and being a cotton mix it's perfect for our changeable Summer weather.

I can see me knitting more of these, It seemed to knit up so quickly because once you have finished the body there is very little knitting on the sleeves.

That's all I have in the way of finishes, I haven't stitched in ages and haven't picked up any knitting at all this past week.  Mark picked up the caravan last Sunday and I've been out and about sourcing the various bits and pieces needed.  I did raid my kitchen cupboards for some things that I have multiple of, but I don't want to be packing up items from the kitchen each time we go away, so after a visit to Ikea and various other stores last week I think we are just about equipped for our first adventure :-)

I had a mini adventure on my own today, a trip to Oxford.  When I booked it I thought It was on a Monday but no matter It was still a good day out.  It was only an hour on the coach, we arrived at 11.30 and pick up was at 5pm.  I'd never visited before and rather than wander around aimlessly I decided to take the hop on/off tour bus, that way I would see and hear a bit more about the City.  The price of the ticket also included an hour long walking tour, so I took advantage of that too.  There is far too much to see and do in the time I was there and I mentioned to Mark when I came back that perhaps we could see if there Is a caravan site near and we could visit again over the Summer,  I would especially love a browse around the historic Blackwells book shop which has a whopping 250,000 books,(might be in there a while, lol).  

 

As you can see it was blue sky weather today, we have mostly missed the heavy rain that some parts have had and it looks like the good weather will continue for our first caravanning adventure, yayyy.

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New adventures await us

 For a long time I've wanted a touring caravan and had a dream of touring the UK visiting all the wonderful places it has to offer.  We have been looking for several weeks and finally today we found one that we liked enough to buy 😀  It's not new, just new to us.

We had arranged a viewing of a different caravan but on speaking to the seller about another van we were hoping to view this afternoon she suggested that we look at another one she had for sale but hadn't  advertised yet.  As soon as I walked in I knew it was the one I preferred, and Mark felt the same.  The interior was lighter and although it was a little smaller it didn't feel cramped, and it has the fixed bed that we wanted plus the seating area also doubles as a bed if needed. 

 

We've looked at some awful caravans in our search that had price tags that far exceeded what you would expect to pay for the condition they were in, but I think we've had a good buy with this one, everything is in a good clean condition, It's obviously been looked after and it was bang on our budget.

I'm over the moon!  We are looking forward to many adventures exploring new places and of course I can't wait to go and buy all the little extras that will make it ours. 💕

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