Why I love camping, glamping, holidaying in a tent...

I do.
It's just lovely.
This year we went up north a few hours in to the Scottish Highlands, the land of midgies and mouintains.  Our campsite in the Rothiemurchus  Estate (near Aviemore)....let me rephrase that. We got to pitch our tent in the woods which happend to have a (fanatastic, clean, refreshingly unisex) toilet/shower/dishwashing block in it.  We literally found a spot to camp for the piddly price of 152 pounds for seven nights.  Don't let the cheapness fool you, we weren't slumming it.
Now, our tent is massive...

See? Big right?

If I could pass on one tip about tent choosing or buying a tent, is get bigger than the number who sleep in it.  Our tent sleeps six even though we are a family of four.  You need the living space for dodgy (normal UK) weather.  You need to be able to take your outside furniture inside and still have enough room for a cooking area.  As it turns out having a canopy that attaches to the front of our huge tent means we haven't had to move indoors yet as a canopy simply means we can stay seated outdoors and not be exposed to wind and rain.  We can still eat out there and still barbeque.  We have born witness to so many families squeezed into a 'perfect fit' tent in the pouring rain.  Get a bigger tent to 'live' in and if you can a canopy for more of an outdoorsy time of it.  I must admit that I refuse to do any type of camping that does not involve being able to stand up inside a tent.  We used to rent holiday cottages and since downgrading price wise to camping, I still want to be comfortable.  I don't want to have to crawl into spaces and sit on the floor. No way no how.

We pitched next to a burn surrounded by trees. That burn was a lot of fun for my boys and even though there was a couple of falling in incidents (one of which was mine but I still argue I did a ladylike sit down.  Okay I was a bit tipsy and my boys urged me to do the obviously obligatory 'You've been Framed' fall in the burn.  Unfortunately being drunk ( did I mention that?) I was a little eager and 'sat down' before anyone got their camera ready.  My boys were not impressed missing out on 250 smackers!!  I really didn't slip in on purpose but still too soon.  It felt lovely to my drunken bottom!).....but oh my it was a lovely spot.  Running water is a heavenly sound.  We saw loads of red squirrels which I have never seen in my life before even though I have tried and failed on many visits to the Highlands. They are so cute and very fast.  The mister manged to get a photo but you have to be quick.

You can spot the wee beastie in the middle of the shot.

 I love the sound of rain on a tent roof which is just as well as it rained loads but as I said it didn't dampen our outdoor life at the tent. It does get cold at night though.  No sleeping bags for us but duvets and lots of woolly crochet blankets and wool blankets underneath the airbeds.  You really need them.  I know sleeping bags are warm but who wants to sleep in a tube.  I don't.  Even in the height of summer with scorchio days, nights are freezing up north in Scotland.
Here's my Biscuits' bedroom...

Necessary midgie putoff-er.

We used the lidded bbq of an evening to keep warm, sitting out once the boys were cooried up in bed, in the glow of candelight drinking tea and chatting.  It was bliss.

 And just look at this view from up the Cairngorm mountain...

 It was driech but it really wouldn't be a fair representation of Scotland if it wasn't.

We traveled up the funicular (which is one of the best words EVER!) railway which was really cool (even if I still got travel sick on the way down, the shandy lightweight I am).
We loved hanging out at our tent, having scrummy one pot dinners and tasty bbq's.  We had tasty lunches out and about, lovely walks, got soaked, ate scones and drank lots of tea. What gets better than that? Crafting, you say? Well I did some of that too.
I have the camping bug well and truly now and plans are afoot for getting a van next year so we can pop off whenever we like.  One negative thing is the packing of the car, roof and trailer but next year it will all go into one van AND we will manage to take our bikes too.  Heaven or what?

X


You can find me on Twitter and Instagram as jammypudding.

"I'm home!" he declared........

You may know that in Scotland this year it's all about 'homecoming' or in typically tourist terms a way to encourage visitors by making them feel connected to the country; it's in their blood!  Now I can be as cynical as I like about such blatant attempts for drumming up finances but I partook in this notion for all of five minutes for Padawan, I 'freed' him from the US and brought him home.  It was the tartan ( I can't bring myself to say plaid, it feels thoroughly un-Scottish to do so!) I found at him at SeaPinks and I knew what I had to do.............

He arrived and as I unwrapped the postal packaging I could hear a faint muttering; a tiny trilling coming from inside the box.  I put my ear close, "Hello" I said.  Carefully I lifted off the lid and....

 

look who was inside.  My little Padawan wren. "I'm home!" he declared and he was.  He shall be my little Scottish apprentice, my little Padawan learner.  I shall teach him the ways of the (Scottish) Force and we shall be happy together forever.......

X

Just wanted to share...........

............these lovely photos of my boys enjoying sparkler fun.

 

 

My eldest out in the garden in his jimjams unable to go to his Cubs Bonfire Night because of being poorly, we made do.  He's never been ill for such a length of time before and although he's back at school this morn he is still not 100%.

I have no idea how my Hubby took these.  He used some mad setting on the camera.  I don't know what most of them do!

We also celebrated my mum's 60th birthday this weekend with a meal for her..............

I do love a laid table.  Don't you?

 

 

......of Chicken stuffed with Haggis and Black Pudding, wrapped in Bacon, Creamy Pepper Sauce, Roasters, Boilees and lots of Green Veg.  Followed by a Chocolate Lime Cheesecake from Nigella Bites.  It was delicious, if I do say myself!  The napkin rings are a purchase from chachkedesigns at Etsy.  I love them and managed to find the perfect flowers to go with them.

I also baked her a cake which felt like my first 'proper' one.  I have made many a novelty cake for my boys in the shapes of things like a Tardis, the Mystery Machine, a Ben 10 Omnitrix and the like, but that feels like playing with plasticine, this was from a Peggy Porschen recipe and even had marzipan in it for goodness sake.  I am very pleased with how it turned out and it tasted really good.

I have been asked to make a wedding cake for a friend next summer so this was a starter cake and I will be baking a tiered one for my parents-in-law's ruby annniversary in January as another practice run.  I have to say it's not something I would like to do as a living or set up as a business.  It's fun but only, I feel, for friends and family.  I don't think I'd enjoy the pressure of exacting standards required by the public.  I like knowing if it's not perfect my loved ones won't mind.  I have never had a disaster but am a bit of a perfectionist and am never completely satasfied with the end result.  I always think I could have done something better.  I bet I'm not the only person out there like that!!

It's a beautiful, bitterly cold, frosty day here in my part of Scotland today and I took lovely photos to share on my way home from school but my camera batteries died so I will show them tomorrow.

Ali X