A holiday in Herefordshire

We've come away Crusader camping in Herefordshire and its for two whole weeks! My first two week holiday.

The campsite we've chosen as our base is Arrow Bank Country holiday park, just outside Leominster and centrally located for visiting Shropshire, Monmouthshire and the Malvern Hills. The campsite is located within the village of Eardisland, one of the prettiest villages I've ever been to. 

After a pretty cold wet August we've arrived at the start of a mini heatwave and the weather is amazing.

As we brought our camper secondhand it came with two awnings, the main awning and a blowup porch awning. Until now we have only ever used the air awning, but as we are away for two weeks we decided to use the big main awning and they don't call it the divorce awning for nothing. 

For some reason we made a bit of a meal of erecting the camper this time, so we were already very hot and fractious before we even started on the awning, but what seemed like hours later we finally had it up, (It felt like it because it actually was hours). Was it worth it? My immediate reaction was never again, but the space is amazing and I'm sure if we had a break long enough to justify using it again we would know what we were doing and be quicker, right?

We arrived on Saturday and Sunday decided we'd just hang around the camper, stroll into the village, potter about unpacking and generally take a day to unwind. 

We were also treated to a beautiful sunset at the end of the day. 

Suffolk and Cambridge Folk Festival Part 2.

We had amazing weather the day we visited Bury St Edmunds. Such a lovely little town, full of history and architecture.

We walked to the National Trust Theatre Royal but sadly there were rehearsals going on that day and we couldn't go in. Opposite the Theatre Royal is the Greene King brewery, so we obviously had to pop in there to pick up a couple for later.

Greene King brewery 

Abbey of St Edmunds

The Abbey of St Edmunds is very imposing as well as beautiful.

Just further along there is St Marys church. I am not a church goer but I do love going inside churches, apart from being in awe of the stained glass windows, they always make me feel so calm and peaceful. We went on a Wednesday, the day they have open lunches and we were greeted as we came in by some lovely ladies who asked us if we would like to join them for lunch. We gratefully declined but I was touched by how kind, warm and friendly everybody was.

Inside St Marys church

We did however stop off for a quick half in The Nutshell, the pub proudly holds the title of the smallest pub in Britain, with a bar that measures just 15ft by 7ft. 

It may be small but there is a lot to look at once inside

Market square

Once back at the camper it was packing up time, as we had an early start in the morning.  

Thursday morning we were hooked up just after 7:30am and left Suffolk to arrive in Cambridge by our allotted 8:30am time slot.

Cambridge Folk 2023

A quiet one this year, not so much wandering about, but some great music, even if the weather was pretty unpredictable.

Suffolk and Cambridge Folk Festival Part 1.

Last month was Cambridge Folk Festival. Usually it's just me and my daughter for the weekend but this year she stood me up for a cruise and who can blame her, so I dragged my husband along for a change. 

There was a house on the market that I'd spotted in Suffolk a little while previously so we decided to make a week of it and spend 5 nights there exploring the Bury St Edmunds area before going onto Cambridge. 

I thought I would fall in love with Suffolk and although it was beautiful, there was something that didn't quite do it for me, but maybe that had something to do with the hit and miss weather we had and the campsite we'd chosen. Regardless we visited some lovely places so maybe I shouldn't discount Suffolk straight away. 

Our campsite had a beautiful view, once we'd chosen our spot away from all the other campers.

Dinner with a view

Ickworth Estate was definitely worth a visit and we were lucky with the weather that day.

We spent a day in Lavenham, which again is so pretty. Described as 'Englands finest medieval village'. 

Church of St Peter and St Paul 

The Guildhall

The sun came out and we got to enjoy walking around with glorious blue skies for a while.

The famous crooked house

To be continued.....

Kitchen garden update

All six vegetable beds are finally up and running and harvesting has begun.

The first two beds we planted are doing amazingly well, apart from a slight disaster with the broad beans. I thought I was spraying them with soapy water to get rid of aphids but it turned out the sprayer I used had weedkiller in it. We still have some to harvest but having given them a good soaking with the 'soapy water' we have lost a lot. At the same time I sprayed the artichokes that I grow for the bees and now we have no flowers.

Beds three and four were filled and planted with a brought compost but that burnt the roots and killed off the seedlings. We then had to dig all of that compost out and start again with new top soil, saving all the plants that we could. They are now also doing pretty well.

Bed six has only just been completed, filled and planted, so has a little catching up to do. 

The garden on the whole is a bit of a mess, but once the paths are done it will make a big different to how it all looks and now the stress of getting everything planted is done we will have more time to concentrate on this.

Bed six

Bed One update - from back to front:

• 3 rows of broad beans
• 1 row of rainbow beetroot (Rainbow mixed)
• 1 row red beetroot (Perfect)
• 3 rows of heirloom carrots
• 1 wide row of spring onions (Lisbon)
• 1 row of rainbow chard - only 2

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) - harvesting
• 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 spring onions (pink) - harvesting

Bed three - from back to front:

• 3 cauliflowers
• Purple sprouting broccoli 
• 2 rows of lettuces
• 1 row of 3 tomatoes plants, interspersed with marigolds
• a block of Florence fennel 
• a block of perpetual spinach
• Nasturtium 

Bed four - from back to front

• 9 sweetcorn - Ambrosia F1
• 1 mystery squash
• Cucumbers
• A block of leek
• A row of cabbages - Golden acre, planted with Borage
• 2 rows of Celery -Golden self blanching 3
• Calendula and marigolds

Bed five - from back to front

• Brussel Sprouts - Evesham Special
• Cucumber - Marketmore
• A row of radish
• A row of spring onions
• Runner beans
• Salad leaves

Bed Six - from back to front

• a row of Cavolo Nero
• Spring onions
• Climbing Beans - Blue lake
• Brussel Sprouts
• 2 short rows of Cavolo Nero
• 1 short row of curly kale

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.