Crusader adventures

Last summer we seriously splashed out and brought ourselves a folding camper, made by Pennine International. Ours is a 2019 Crusader, brought second hand from Camping International. It was a big investment, a huge step up from a tent and having been told that under no circumstances were we having a caravan, a fantastic compromise.

It was pretty scary hitching and pulling what seems like a big unit on the back of the car, but after the initial journey we are definitely more confident happy campers.

It's a 6 berth Pathfinder equivalent, with a double bed at each end, a toilet, heater and hot and cold running water. It's quite amazing. 

As it was second hand, in addition to its full awning, it also came with an air porch, which is plenty big enough for the two of us and Tulip, with the added benefit of being easy to set up and pack down.

Since having the camper we've mostly stayed at Painters Farm campsite in Faversham, Kent and I love it there. Beautiful walks, gorgeous sunsets and a pub next door, what more could you ask for.

There's been a few trips that so far and hopefully a lot more adventures to come.

A linocut of Tulip

A lot has happened in the last year, but part of that was creating a new space for me and my arty farty stuff. A dedicated room that doesn't have a spare bed it in, that I can just go in, make a mess and then shut the door. 

My previous space, having also been a spare bedroom was taken over as a home office as a result of covid and lockdown, its still a home office today. 

I love my little space but it's at the front of the house which is North facing and because of that the light is quite poor most of the time. But I am making the most of it and really enjoying it.

Yesterday I had some rare time on my hands and got my linocutting tools out. I spent way too long thinking about what I could do and decided to carve a recent picture I took of Tulip, who been quite poorly this last week following her neutering.

I'll need to reprint it as I the best one is still a little patchy, but I'm pretty pleased with it. 

                             

It's coming along.

It feels like slow going, but there's been some movement in the kitchen garden. We managed to find enough soil from around the garden to fill just over two beds and last week picked up a car full of quite smelly organic compost. We've now filled four beds and have three planted up.

The seedlings in the conservatory aren't doing too well, which is probably down to the poor potting compost we used, so we need to get them planted out as soon as possible.

First harvest

 Bed One update - from back to front:

• 3 rows of broad beans
• 1 row of rainbow beetroot (Rainbow mixed)
• 1 row breakfast radish - harvesting has started
• 1 row red beetroot (Perfect)
• 3 rows of heirloom carrots
• 1 row breakfast radish - harvesting has started
• 1 wide row of spring onions (Lisbon)
• 1 row of mixed salad leaves
• 1 row of rainbow chard - only 4 have germinated so will plant more

Bed two - from back to front:

• Half a bed of onion sets - 40 onions (Sturon)
• 1 row of lettuces
• Down the length of the bed a trellis, two rows of peas (early Onward)
• 2 courgette plants, to be grown upright, 1 green and 1 yellow
• 1 row of lettuces
• 2 courgette plants, to be grown upright, 1 green and 1 yellow
• 1 row of lettuces
• 1 row of radishes (round blush)
• 1 row of spring onions (pink)

Bed three - from back to front:

• 9 rows cauliflowers in 3 rows, interspersed with lettuces and spring onions
• 2 rows of lettuces
• 1 row of 3 tomatoes plants
• 1 row of radishes (round blush)
• 3 rows of, rescued from around the garden, strawberry plants