Road Trip 2010 in a VW Camper

Anyone who has been reading this blog will know that Kevin (my partner) and I recently did a website for a VW Campervan hire company up in Northumberland, North East England . We decided we should try out the hire - I have been a lover of all thing VW for as long as I can remember (in particular, the classic beetles and campers).

The first August finally arrived - I was so excited, I couldn't wait to get out and about in Felicity (Felicity is a Brazilian T2 bay camper converted by Danbury). We left York mid morning and arrived at Felicity's home at around mid-day. Paul and Denise, (the owners) have become good friends over the time doing the website so it was lovely to see them too. There was lunch waiting for us when we got there which was a lovely start to our holiday. We had a nice relaxed lunch and catch up with Paul and Denise and then we were on our way in Felicity.

We headed up the coast road first towards Beadnell Bay. The views were fantastic - beautiful coastline and it lots of castles!  The first night we stayed in Budle Bay which is just up the coast from Beadnell Bay and near Berwick-upon-Tweed.

The next day we decided to head further north and ended up crossing the border into Scotland and up to North Berwick.  We found a lovely campsite in North Berwick overlooking the coast and just a very short walk down to the beach.  Bass Rock could be seen from the campsite too.  Here we had some German neighbours with whom we had wine and snacks the first night and then on the last morning they invited us for breakfast.  They were a really lovely family and we intend to keep in touch and hopefully visit them at some point in the future.  We are also, possibly, having the daughter to stay next summer to help her out with her English (although it's way better than my German has ever been already).

From North Berwick we had a drive into Edinburgh for the day and had a wonder around.  We saw Edinburgh Castle and many of the other sights and sounds of Edinburgh - a really lovely and lively city.

After 3 nights in North Berwick we decided to head to the Lake District for a couple of nights.  We drove down to Lake Ullswater in Cumbria and stayed at Park Foot campsite right on the lake for 2 nights.  We drove around a few of the lakes and spent a couple of hours in Keswick.  We took Felicity right up to the top of Borrowdale where the views were absolutely amazing, we spent a lot of time up in the clouds!  The climb by road was very steep and very bendy but Felicity managed it all with absolutely no problems.

After the Lakes we head over the Penines towards Alnwick and then stayed our last night back in Northumberland.

Unfortunately, the time then came for us to hand Felicity back to Paul and Denise.  We had had a fantastic time with her and will hopefully have her again sometime.  She was so much fun to drive and to spend time in. Stopping here and there to make a coffee in the back was great.  And cooking dinner was also great fun.

Thanks to Paul, Denise and Felicity for a fantastic week.  I would definitely recommend North East VW Camper Hire to anyone with a love for campers, it's a great way to see some of the country!

Cats and Rabbits!

Last night our young cat (Dizzee) brought in a baby rabbit - the biggest catch so far (he had mainly been bringing in little voles up to now). The rabbit was still alive so I did the only possible thing to get the rabbit from Dizzee - I picked him up by his tail and swung him about until he let go. I then chucked the cat out of the kitchen and chased the rabbit around until I eventually caught it.

It was very scared - of course - and so I found a pet carrier and some lettuce and put him in there. He didn't have any obvious injuries and was just in shock. We then left him overnight and I checked him this morning, he seemed okay but I decided to keep him in for the day to be sure.

When we came home this evening we found two more baby rabbits - 1 dead and the other half eaten, I wonder how many more there will be to come.

After a coffee and a piece of carrot cake (quite appropriate) we took the rabbit round to the lake behind the house where we knew there were hundreds of rabbits and released it. I opened the pet carrier and he jumped out and ran off to a little hill where there are many rabbit warrens - hopefully this is where it came from and it has now found its way home - if not, a new home.

North East VW Camper Van Hire!

Here it is the website we've been working on this week.  It's been such a great one to do and we and our client are very pleased with the end result. Because of this I wanted to put a few words on here about Felicity the VW Camper.

Ever thought of hiring a VW Camper for your holiday, I had thought about it on many many occasions (not being able to get one myself - YET! - this was the next best thing). Nearly 2 weeks ago Kevin and I went to Scarborough for the day, had a lovely day there, we went out on a cruise around the bay and on a pirate ship, had fish & chips (you can't go to the seaside and not! - same goes for ice creams of course!).  Fran and her boyfriend joined us for part of the day and came on the pirate ship with us, we were then made to go into a haunted house (which I thought would NOT be scary)....we got chased by the guy from Scream and actually ran out at the end.

The point of writing this was that walking back to the car we saw a beautiful VW Camper Van and spotted on the back that it was available for hire.  I took down the website details so I could get some more information when we got home.

Pretty much as soon as we got home I went online to get some information on the VW Camper Van hire, unfortunately the website was still under construction and there was no information on there except for a mobile telephone number.  I decided to text them and ask for some more information, in the text I thought it would be worth asking if they had someone working on the website.  Almost immediately we got a text back saying they would post out some information and asking if we do websites as they had a friend doing it and it was taking rather a long time.  Of course, I texted straight back saying that is what we do and would they like us to look at theirs the answer was yes and the rest they say is history.  Felicity's website is now online still working on the search engine optimisation side of things but it's there and - we think - looking great!

Felicity is a 2006 Brazilian T2 bay camper converted by Danbury, she is water cooled and is the height of camping luxury.  If you are interested in hiring her then please check out the website for more details including how to book. Also, more information below: 






There are seat belts front and rear for 5 people and sleeps four - there is a king size bed and a double bed above with mattress if required and for extra space you can hire a 2 or four man awning. The stereo system has MP3/iPod connection so you can take all your favourite music with you on your travels.  http://www.northeastvwcamperhire.com 

Toad in the Hole!

This afternoon I went down the garden to the vegetable plot to see if there was any sign of life yet. There most certainly was but it was far from what I expected.

While I was there inspecting the soil for seedlings I realised I was being watched - I spotted what looked like a little eye sticking out and looking up at me! I gradually moved some of the soil away to discover what looked like a frog.  As I moved the soil away a little more here is what I found. Anyway, I had a good look at him and then popped him back into the soil to bury himself again.

Then later when I went out to the car to get something I stepped out of the front door and guess who was there with something to show me.....

Gardening Time

The time has come and I have made a good start on the planting of vegatables.

I finished a temporary employment contract a couple of weeks ago and am finding it very hard to find something else at the moment - there doesn't seem to be very much around at present.  I am basically applying for anything that my CV matches up to but not hearing much back - I sometimes think that the majority of jobs advertised online don't even exist and they are just there to get you registered with the agencies.

Anyway, I have decided to use this time productively and while the sun is shining I thought it would be great to make a start on the massive garden we now have.

I started by sowing some chilli and sweet pepper seeds inside which I had saved up over winter, these are already growing very nicely and I have now separated them and put them in pots of their own.  I am going to give a few away as more grew than I expected.

Earlier this week I dug over the vegetable patch, I have now sown quite a few seeds both vegetables and herbs - the list so far is as follows:



Basil
Beetroot
Broccoli
Chillies
Garlic
Lettuce
Mint
Onions
Parsnips
Peas
Peppers (capsicum)
Potato
Spring onions


I have planted more than enough of each of these for now and in a few weeks I will plant more of some of the vegetables to ensure a good ongoing crop.

I will keep posting as things grow and I will also be adding pictures so anyone who wants to can see the progress - it's as much for me as anyone else really so I can see which things work best.  I am hoping everything grows as this will cut down the food bill by quite a bit - we get through a lot of vegetables each week.

I now need some sort of greenhouse as there are certain things that I want to grow that are unlikely to grow outside and space inside is limited to windowsills.  The problem with this is the two cats have a habit of jumping up there and I'm not sure how safe they'd be - I can imaging soil all over the floor due to one of the cats knocking things off.

For now I have a few that are growing on windowsills but am keeping a close eye - especially on the kitten who seems to think everything is his toy!

Oscar's Bedtime

Peppers

A couple of weeks ago I decided to plant some seeds I had left to dry out in the laundry room. Some were peppers - red and green as far as I can remember - and the others were chilli seeds. They started to grow within days and so far are doing really well - almost time to separate and replant. 

 I have taken a few pictures of their growth so will upload them later so you can see how well they are growing.

There's going to a lot of hot food served in our house due to a possible abundance of chillies that are going to need using! - everything will contain chillies for a while I think! I didn't expect so many of the seeds to grow although I'm sure I will easily be able to give at least a couple of them away.

Any recipes with fresh chillies in will be gratefully received and tested! As for the peppers I don't think there'll be a problem there as we go through so many of them anyway.