After Lockdown

Weather is glorious.
Spring tomorrow.

Travel in the motorhome is not allowed
because of Lockdown.
Good news.
We will soon be able to use our motorhome to visit places.

Campsite in Devon

 When I was travelling about
 the south of England last summer 

I discovered a couple of faults:-

• my fridge was smelling oddly
  
• one of the trims on a wheel arch was loose
• a hinge on the habitation door had snapped

With winter approaching and a lockdown imminent 
I decided to wait until the January to deal with this.

As I discovered the repairs were rather expensive.
However I do now have a new fridge.
Although it has a black generic door 
it still blends in with the décor.

 

The replacement hinge was ridiculously expensive
£100.00
Yes £100.00 just for a hinge.

With the van having to go back
to the rustproofing workshop
for the annual check up
I asked if they could weld the hinge
(they are expert welders).
They kindly agreed.
The van goes into the workshop middle of March.
Again I have to empty it as much as possible
so that it won't be too heavy for the ramp.

When it comes back it will need cleaning and polishing.
Not my favourite job.
(I am going to clean the inside before it goes to the workshop).

Just to loose wheel arch trim to sort.
Hope this will be done next week.

Then Pearl and I can think about going away.

Pearl  would drive it
to her favourite places
if she could 

Freedom and My Motorhome

Being a member of several Facebook motorhoming groups
has been illuminating.
It appears the default position is the facility motorhomes
give owners to wild camp; to pull off the road at any convenient place to spend the night.

It also seems to me they travel long distance to get to places
but I am not sure what they do when they get there. 

For me 

My motorhome

    I love my motorhome,

    But I like using campsites with some facilities
    (electric hook up, toilets and showers)

This gives me freedom.

The freedom 

• So my dog can come with me
• To explore interesting and different places to walk
• To mitigate the constrictions of my diet (I can cook on the motorhome)
• To be able to make the best of British weather
• To arrange things to suit me
• To be able to travel with or without company (human)

Swiss Alps 

    

As with everything there are constraints:

• The need to empty waste water and toilet
• The need to fill with clean fresh water
• Ensure safety of people and belongings
• It is difficult to drive and look around
• Using toilets and showers is unusual
• Washing up is a novel activity 
• Finally the unique drawback;
  using the motorhome for day trips requires packing everything away.
  
  

I like to stay in one place for a few days and
explore the surrounding area on foot
with my trusty four-legged companion.

Me and my companion

It seems the default for motorhomers is to wild camp.
This is not for me because being a solo traveller

• Safety is a concern
• Unease due to mechanical breakdown
• Keeping supplied off grid is too demanding for me.
   

I can see that there are
 different freedoms for different people.

My only caveat is the "Country Code" mantra

Leave No Trace

Photo of the Month (Feb 2021)

It is really cold.
Many of the plants are wilting.
Even so some small shoots are peeping through
A few have even flowered.
These are mostly snowdrops.
The daffodils are not far behind.

Snowdrops braving the cold.

 

Snowdrops in the churchyard

A profusion of snowdrops

Daffodils in the woods

Stick and Flick

 This post is going to be a bit of a rant.

Why?  

Because of this.

What idiot thinks it is ok to do this?

• Good; to pick up your dog mess
• Bad; not to bin it.  

WHY YOU SHOULD NOT DO THIS

1. Who is going to collect this and bin it?
   (The fairies?)
2. It is unsightly.
    (Spoils the countryside for everyone else.)
3. It is dangerous for wildlife.
    (The plastic is bad for all animals)
4. It takes years to decompose.
   (If not bagged the contents decompose in months)

So what to do.

Various organizations responsible for outdoor spaces such as the National Trust and Forestry Commission are now promoting a new approach;

STICK AND FLICK

When your dog messes
Find a stick and
flick it into the bottom of a hedge. 

Doing this also helps to reduce the time need for the mess to decompose;
weeks rather than months. 

Over the past few months I have seen so many full poo bags.

Please everyone stop this disgusting habit and 

STICK AND FLICK

Read of the Month (Feb 2021)

Over the years I have travelled all over Europe in my motorhome.

Initially I required many maps
and frequent stops
to ensure
I was going in the right direction. 

Nowadays I still use maps (often on the laptop)
but when actually on the road a SatNav is essential

Finding the way has always been a challenge
from earliest times.

To help lines were drawn on maps and sketches.
These we now call 
Longitude
Latitude

Using Latitude was easy because;-

• They were all parallel
• Star patterns were unique to each line. 
  

This is how Columbus first sailed the Atlantic

Longitude was totally different.
For centuries being unable to calculate longitude
hampered travel especially by ship.

The Read of the Month for February is
the resolution of this problem
which is the beginning of the

invention of the SatNav

Longitude 

by

Dava Sobel

This is a fascinating account
In the process explaining
why 0 degrees goes through Greenwich.

I was also reminded of the "Watch" episode of 
Only Fools and Horses.
The watch they had in the garage was sold for £millions

Photo of the Month (Jan 2021)

 A snowfall here this weekend.

Not a lot
and by Monday it had virtually all melted.

Still enough to enjoy;

So here is a selection of snow photos.

A snowman and his snow dog taking a rest

Snow on a branch

Pearl on a snowy walk

My favourite photo

Ruby and Amber playfighting in the snow

Dogs and Lockdown

This has been a difficult year for everyone,
especially during the lockdowns.

Those of us with dogs have been fortunate.

Our pet dogs have been a comfort during this time.

We also realize our dogs are encountering problems.
They have picked up on our worries and anxieties.
How they show this varies.

Those who acquired puppies in the past year
have had problems socializing and training them. 

Classes have been forced to close.

Though my wonderful dog Pearl is a mature dog
having just turned 6 years
she too is not the same.

She has become reticent meeting other dogs.
If they don't have very good doggy manners
(rush up, uninvited)
she becomes snappy.
Sometimes for no apparent reason she barks. 

Pearl(behind) and Lucy

Unfortunately right now there is little I can do.
We continue to walk with "family";
Her aunt Lucy 
and her son Toby

(I collect them and walk 2 dogs sometimes 3)

When we can finally meet up with people
(even if we have still can't hug)
I intend to find dogs of all ages to walk with.

To that end I have joined

South Glos Dog Walks & Events FB group.

Hopefully the groups will be smaller than
the Labrador Group I met up with
a couple of years ago at Ashton Court.

Pearl sitting in the middle (quite happy)

It was great fun
but
there were too many.
Pearl was continually looking for me
instead of enjoying doggy company.

Read of the Month(Jan 2021)

 With all that is happening at the moment;-

• the pandemic (insufficient information)
• the riot in the States (conspiracy theories) 

knowing a source that collects information and data from a variety of sources and then analyses it carefully is an essential antidote.

As it says on the dust jacket 

"...carrying opinions for which you have strong supporting facts"

greatly reduces anxiety, worry and stress. 

The tag line of the book is hugely encouraging

"Ten reasons we're wrong about the world and why things are better than you think"

What is the book?

The title is simply

Factfulness 
by
Hans Rosling

This is a book can be read many times.

As the title suggests it gathers facts and then orders them logically and systematically to clarify thinking. 

In order to continue to examine facts and inform people, the author, 

who is Swedish, set up the organization "Gapfinder".

https://www.gapminder.org/

As they state this is 

"an independent Swedish foundation with no

• political
• religious
• economic

affiliations".

Its mission is

"to fight devastating ignorance with a fact-based world view".

The author is now dead but his son Ola Rosling and daughter-in-law Anna continue his work.

This is a book I would suggest everyone read. 

Wonderful.

 

Goodbye 2020

 Well 2020 has been a strange year for everyone. 

Me and my motorhome

I have been very fortunate.

I even managed to get away in my motorhome for a few trips.
I visited some campsites in the south and south west researching for my next walk book. 

I went to 

• Devon
• Dorset
• East Sussex
• revisited Hampshire (New Forest) to check up on some facts.

Here are some photographs I took.
I hope they brighten your day.

DEVON
Discovering Dartmoor

Mountain Rescue Team out training

Widgery Cross on Brat Tor

DORSET
Chesil Beach

Boats in the Fleet

View across Fleet to Chesil Beach

EAST SUSSEX

The Weald

A cycle path through the trees

I'm looking at you
(even the trees have eyes)

HAMPSHIRE

New Forest

Some trees of the forest

Dartmoor pony on the moor

Christmas Cards

I  have been seeing posts that people are not sending cards this year but giving a donation to charity instead.
Really?

This year of all years, the sending of traditional greetings cards to loved ones near and far will surely mean so much more to say I am thinking of you, and wishing you peace, love and good health for the year to come, than a Facebook post which may or may not be read?

This may be the only contact you have with this person this year, Surely this is the time to make it count?

What about producers and publishers of cards? They're not all big companies, but often small designers who need our support to keep going, too.

You can purchase cards, which make a donation to charity, quite cheaply. The fact that you

• buy cards,
• write personal messages,
• send them.

Is very little effort for the response it will get

Or maybe you could hand deliver some of them on your daily walking exercise obviously taking care to socially distance and sanitise where you should.

If I know your address, I will be sending you a card if I do not know your home address, I will try to send a personal message; my love and blessings are unconditional.

If I offend then I apologise - that is not my intention.

If I choose to make a donation to charity that is personal - However, if I do so it will be as well as cards and not instead.

Pearl and I hope with all my heart we all stay safe and well, and that the next year will be better for us all and we can enjoy each others company again.