Category: UK

The Deadly Dozen – 12 Poisonous Plants Which May Be Common In Your Back Yard

Recently, we were contacted by tenants who believed there to be Giant Hogweed in the communal garden of our property. They were worried, because the sap from this plant can cause severe burns and blindness. We consulted with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) at Wisley, who verified that the plant in our grounds was definitely neither Native Hogweed nor Giant Hogweed. However, they identified it as another poisonous plant, Hemlock Water Dropwort. Continue reading “The Deadly Dozen – 12 Poisonous Plants Which May Be Common In Your Back Yard” →

A Brief Bark Around Britain – The Thames Path, The National Watersports Festival & ‘A Bit of a ‘Do”!

National_Watersports_Festival_Camping_2 — My wardrobe reflected my lifestyle of the last two years. And meet our Lagonda!

We had to go to a ‘Do’.

My schoolfriend’s mum – my “Other Mother” – Mrs H – had invited me to celebrate her 80th Birthday.

It threw me into apoplexy.

My entire wardrobe reflected a lifestyle which, for the last two years, had consisted of living in a catering-size Corned Beef tin with the many paws; sixteen of them – and generally muddy or sandy ones at that.

When I said it, I really did mean it. “I haven’t got a THING to wear!” Continue reading “A Brief Bark Around Britain – The Thames Path, The National Watersports Festival & ‘A Bit of a ‘Do”!” →

We Pack Up Our Troubles & Climb Back Into The Bubble!

English_spring_1 — “Oh to be in England / Now that April’s there” It was a bit wet and windy, to be honest!

“Oh to be in England /Now that April’s there…” wrote Robert Browning in his poem ‘Home Thoughts From Abroad‘. Like us, he happened to be in Northern Italy at the time.

However, on April Fools Day, after two years on the road, we arrived back in the UK. Never mind the chaffinch singing on the orchard bough, we were finding it quite novel to be staying in a house, rather than a caravan. Continue reading “We Pack Up Our Troubles & Climb Back Into The Bubble!” →

Black Monday – Trouble at t’Mill, Lancashire.

“Travel Broadens the Vocabulary.”

A woman once said this. That woman was me. And I said it today – the most vocabulary-broadening day of our trip so far.

Only yesterday, we had met up with friends in Donington and had been telling them what a wonderful lifestyle ours is; touring in a caravan; seeing new and wonderful places; enjoying the freedom of the open road.

This morning, we woke up in a waterlogged field in Leicestershire with Storm Angus raging around us on what shall be known henceforth as ‘Black Monday’.

I wasn’t sure that we’d even be able to get off our grass pitch. We did, but it was the only thing that went well all day. Continue reading “Black Monday – Trouble at t’Mill, Lancashire.” →