Meet Clara-van!

Just because we obviously don’t have enough to do we have just bought a retro caravan! I’ve wanted a caravan for ages as tent camping just always seems such a hassle but I do love camping! It will also be hugely handy with visitors in the summer (yes that could be you!) and means we can look at getting Work-away people to help us with all we have going on as well.

We couldn’t go past her as she was very close and cost next to nothing (which is what we could afford to spend!). We went to see her and had a night to think on it then went back and made a list of what we needed to get to get her on the road. We ordered new tires, lights and tow bar hitch. While we were waiting for them to arrive another van of the same make came on the market, we went to have a look to see if it had lots of parts we may need and we managed to get the gas bottle holder, step and gas / electric fridge for the princely sum of €50 – a steal! Sadly the windows were broken so we still need to find a solution for the broken rear window. As to the rest there is a huge amount of cleaning, painting, reupholstering and fluffing but I have great hopes that she’ll be gorgeous when she is done. She is a 1980 Digue (a French caravan maker) 365T. Here she is once we pulled her out of the trees in the woods where she has been parked for the last 15 years or so! Note the moss I didn’t manage to get off on the roof. Hello Clara-van!

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Watch this space for the renovation progress!

The Potager 2017

Months have yet again gone past without a post! In my defence I spent March in Australia for my little sisters wedding and then packing up and shipping the rest of stuff that we had in storage – it was a frantic, busy trip. When I got home it was straight into mad gardening season including playing catch up with all the seeds that should have gone in or got started in March!

We had wonderful peas but they all got wiped out a couple of weeks ago when we had a heatwave come through:

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I’ve also extended my growing area into the space under the hoop house, a new round garden, a potato bed and a soft fruit bed. I’m growing butternuts, decorative gourds and baby watermelons on the edges of the hoop house and will train them up over the hoops. Tomatoes run down the centre with ropes hanging down to support them, I’m hoping it works really well, we are also going to install a drip system to help with the huge watering job.

We have so much in: beans, melons, tomatoes, 19 strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, 3 types of basil, courgette (zucchini) – both normal green ones and a climbing yellow variety, potatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflowers, kale, rainbow swiss chard, lettuce, carrots, radishes. Lots of companion plants in too – nasturtiums, calundula, marigolds and borage. The grapes look amazing this year and the plums, peaches, apples, walnuts, hazelnuts and figs seem to be no worse for wear even though we had a late frost that sent a lot of the new budding leaves black.

I’ll get some up to date pics shortly!