Morning Perambulations

The river's been high this past few days, remarkably so on Tuesday morning after really heavy rain all through the night.

  By Wednesday morning (when I took this photo) it had gone down by a good couple of feet, even though once again we had had a wet and windy night.  The daffodils that had been underwater in the field across from the river just the day befor were once again visible and drying off in the wind,  it's amazing how resilient they are.  I love the power of nature, but the high winds buffeting the van and causing thuds, bangs and strange noises have made the last few nights a bit disturbed. 

 Although little Suky snored through it all.

She loves her morning and evening perambulations around the riverbank.  She keeps her eyes open and her nose twitching looking for leftover food that has been thrown out for the resident wild ducks, but rarely finding any ... they're a greedy bunch and gobble up anything they are given.

Most mornings we cross the bridge into the fields on the opposite side of the river, dogs are allowed off their leads there and Suky has a little mooch around before rejoining me for a plod along the raised banks or round the far field. 

 We watch the trains rumbling past us high on the embankment, crossing the arched bridges every few minutes.  Passenger trains carrying people along the northern lines and long, long goods trains.  Every now and then I stand and count the goods wagons, I like the thought that every container being pulled by an engine is one less lorry thundering along the roads and motorways.  Sometimes there are more than thirty being pulled by one engine ... railways are good.

Crossing back we walk along the bank on our side of the river, circling the park and playing 'spot the difference'.  At this time of year, right at the start of the season,  vans are coming and going.  Being moved on the back of large lorries into or off the park, or towed from one position to another by the park owners tractor or Landrover as their owners decide they fancy a new location for the coming year.

We're happy where we are ... I don't think we'll be moving anywhere for the foreseeable future, especially after all our work last year around the Van.

Strolling back through the park owners vans ... the ones they hire out to weekly holidaymakers ... we head back to our van.  The thought of getting warm and a mug of hot coffee, and perhaps toast with homemade marmalade makes me quicken my step ... and Suky sensing we're homeward bound is happy to follow suit.

But there's just enough time to have a peek in the windows of the row of new vans for sale.  I love seeing the different layouts and imagining what I would do with them if they were mine.

It's not a long walk,  it takes us around half an hour on a wet day and up to an hour on a nice fresh day, but it's enough exercise for little Pug legs, and enough to get me in the mood for breakfast and of course more coffee ... always more coffee.

Sue xx

Smaller homes .

Oh gosh, how true is this.

Living my new Smaller and Simpler life my wallet really is fatter.  

Helped out by lots of yellow sticker bargains and an Aldi in the nearest town.   Here are just a few of the things I picked up last week.  I loved that they were all necessities and not the 'junk food' you usually see on the reduced yellow sticker shelves.  Booths leave most of the foods in situ, so you find these treasures as you browse the store.  Potatoes, onions, bread rolls (still with days left, it was just that one roll had been squished at the end), apples and Roasted Vegetable Cous Cous .... which was delicious.

Here at the van I own less, much less.  It makes for easy living and quicker choices  ... and after a Summer of car-booting I hope to extend that to both homes.

Our relationship is brilliant, when we're apart we phone each other every day to chat, to laugh at fun things we've spotted or read, to see how the other is doing.  We spend quality time with each other when we are together, well if I can keep Alan awake at the van that is ... he chills out so much here he literally falls asleep at every opportunity.

We have all of the good times and none of the niggles.

The cleaning time here is so much shorter, just a five minute whizz round with the rechargeable vacuum each day, a wipe down of surfaces and a splash of cleaner in the toilets and that's it ... done.

And the fun times ... well they are just the icing in a rather splendid cake.

Sue xx

The Simple Life

The simple life most definitely isn't bad, in fact it's really good. It's everything I knew it would be.

I've been asked a few times what I do with myself, and to be honest at the moment I am just going from task to task, but in a slower more considered way.  Still pottering through sorting out the Van, living day to day life and generally learning to slow things down a notch at a time.

No I don't have chickens to muck out, eggs to collect, fives acres to leave untended due to bad weather and internally stress over.  I don't have a leaking three bedroom cottage to do the housework for, or not as the case may be.  I don't do anything I don't want to do , and yes I do realise what a privilege that is.

Some folk have mentioned me being retired ... no you don't retire from being self employed when you own the company, instead you pace out the workload to suit any change of circumstances.   I won't go into financials on this blog, maybe in the future but not now.  But I am still a wage earner, I pay my own way.   I own a company that pays me a salary, and although it's not much it is enough to support this way of life completely.  

My income is low... but my outgoings are lower!

And Suky says ...

  'Who's the doggy in the top photo ... I thought it was me and you living a Simple Life".

Sue xx

Good Ideas and Storage

One of my best ideas came to me in Asda the week after the Shopping Haul Challenge on my other blog.  Perusing the homeware shelves I had spotted hot water bottles in cosy 'jumpers'.  I thought they would most likely be pretty welcome in the Van during the first few months of the open season. ... and then again during the last.

So I called back in the next time I was fuelling the car, and lo and behold there they were reduced to clear at just £5 each.  I can honestly say this has been the best ten pounds I have spent over the last few months.

I pop both onto my side of the bed sometime during the evening when I'm here alone, and then once we go to bed I move one to the edge of Suky's little dog mat on the bed, but still under the duvet, and the other stays by my feet while I read for a while and then goes in between me and Suky for shared warmth.

In their little 'jumpers' the bottles are good to cuddle up to without risking a burn and stay lovely and warm all through the night.

So warm in fact that I use the water out of them to wash the first pots of the morning.  We're not on metered water here, but I still don't like to waste any if it can be used for something else.

An area of storage that I absolutely love is hidden under the king sized bed.

It's this huge space ... the full size of the bed.  Which cleverly lifts up easily with just one hand and lowers equally simply. 

At the moment it looks pretty full, but that's mostly because the twin beds aren't made up so all their bedding ... Winter and Summer duvets, mattress protectors, four pillows and four bedding sets are all under here, as well as the Summer duvet for our bed and four spare pillows in case we decide we ever need to use the pull out double bed, that is hidden under a couple of the sofa seats in the living room.

Talking of the living room, there is also a huge void for storage under the rest of the sofa seats but this is empty, we just don't have any 'stuff' that needs storing ... and hopefully it's going to stay that way.

And talking about storage ... the little homemade shelf in the kitchen is working out brilliantly. 

As is the idea for having some fruit and vegetables out in a basket on the worktop for the few days ahead.  Seeing what you have makes you want to use it.  Since this photo was taken though I have used some of the garlic, so the rest of the cloves were seperated and popped into a little box in the freezer.  I find garlic stores much better this way.

Sue xx

And Finally ... The Master Suite

The Master Suite sounds very grand ... it's just a reasonable sized bedroom with a diddy little en-suite toilet and sink.

But you're welcome to take a peek.

If I  stand in the corner by my bedside table you can see the chest of drawers (two drawers for each of us) and the little dressing table with the radiator underneath and mirror above.

  I made myself a little bookcase, if you can call it that, out of two of my little crates from home.  Lightly sprayed with white paint to tone down the orangey wood they were made from, they do a good job of holding some of the books that are here with me at the moment ... more will be coming no doubt over the course of the next few months.

The bed is a full sized king-size one with a little bedside cupboard with cubby hole on top at each side.

The two door wardrobe with hanging rail and full width shelf above is plenty big enough for both to us to use.  Life is pretty casual here ... jeans, t shirts and jumpers or hoodies for now, and then later in the year it will be jeans and shorts, and perhaps simple cotton dresses if I'm feeling girly ... a rarity but it happens!

Through the door next to the wardrobe unfortunately it's not Narnia, instead it's the little en-suite.   There's nothing exciting in here I'm afraid ... it's all pretty bog standard.

A tiny little hand basin with a mirror above completes the room.

And that's it ... The Grand Tour.

Thanks for all the comments.

Next week, if the weather improves I'll get some outdoor photos of the site, it's a lovely little tucked away campsite and somewhere I've known well since I was five years old.

Sue xx

The Spare Room and Main Bathroom

 Let's step through the hall doorway ... it's time for a quick tour of two of the rooms in the other half of the van.

To our left we have the little twin bedded 'spare room'.

 Just the width of two 2' 3" wide beds and a 9" bedside table, so just a smidge over five foot wide.  Not much space but planned out well enough for a couple of guests to sleep overnight if necessary, and perhaps in time ... to be turned into an office rather than a bedroom, we'll see.

There's a small wardrobe with a hanging rail and a shelf, currently storing the little rechargeable vacuum cleaner and broom ... but ready for action if we need it.

The room is finished off with a mirror and a little shelf over the radiator ... handy for storing teddy bears.

Directly opposite the spare room on the other side of the corridor is the main shower room.  

I don't know how estate agents manage to take photos in such small spaces ... because I really struggled!!  As you can see there is the heated towel rail/radiator to the left.

There are lots of shelves for towels and toiletries and a cupboard below for storing things you don't want on show or to get dusty.  The cupboard to the left houses the gas combi boiler,  which provides heating and instant hot water to the van and runs off bottled Calor Gas.

And then the other side of the small room is the full width shower ... truly the best shower I have ever used.  I'm usually a bath person, but this shower has me fully converted.

I'll be back on Sunday with the final part of the Van Tour.

See you then


Sue xx

The Dining Room

Now it's time for the final 'room' of the living space ... the Dining Room.

Just a table, four chairs and a little wall cupboard which to be honest is neither use nor ornament.  It looks ridiculous if I leave it empty,  and to me a bit cluttered if I put things on it.  BUT, and yes it's a big BUT ... if I leave it with less on it will acquire clutter, so I try to set it out in an eye pleasing fashion.

I guess the little cupboards hide a multitude of sins, and are at least handy for hiding the keys to various places in.

My little drawers from Poundland are  handy addition to keep batteries etc from rolling out when the door is opened.

The table always looks like this ... I like to keep it set up ready for a dinner party. 

Haha ... yeah right ...

... this morning it looked like this.

This is real life not Instagram!!

The picture under the wall cupboard is my Jack Monroe artwork, from the 'Cooking on a Bootstrap' books Kickstarter plan.  I thought the grey frame and the monochrome words and images fitted the Van perfectly.   I shall bring her other 'Parsnips' picture here too one day.

Suky says "is this a shopping bag Mum?"

I say no ... it's my mobile office.

So, no food then!!  😔

And here we are back in office mode ... but tidier.

It was good to get all the crockery and glassware out for the photo earlier though as it gave me chance to wipe out the cupboards 🙂

We usually eat at the table at breakfast time, but tend to have lunches or other meals over in the living room.  I love eating out of bowls rather than plates as I'm a real pasta lover these days, and no matter what anyone says I like to eat in front of the television.

So that's the living end of the van thoroughly dissected.

Tomorrow a whizz through the remaining rooms.

See you then.

Sue xx