A Quick Update

Well it has been a long time since I posted! 2015 was essentially a repeat of 2014, Camperjam, Brittany, The Pudding Room so not much new to report,
The season was curtailed early due to a health scare, now resolved so its all been a bit quiet. One of the corner steadies sheared when winding them up so much drilling by my son and the use of nut and bolt remedied the problem. It was a really good reason to make sure all the joints are well oiled!
The only addition was this canopy sourced on ebay as a sun shield

It is designed for the rear of a 4 x 4 but for £50 I thought it was worth a shot. Its really easy to put up and packs down into a very small and light bag

We will give it a try at the Retro Caravan Club meeting near Banbury at May Day and report back!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Puck..............................

I had been hunting on Ebay for a 1 metre length of white led's for the Khyam Motordome having refused to pay nearly £50 for the approved version, when a thought occurred looking at some multi-coloured leds. They may look cool around the poptop just for a bit of fun. So for an extravagant sum of just over £10 I acquired the kit below

You basically get a 5 metre length of led's on a roll a little remote control and connector and a mains adaptor. I added a 12v cigarette lighter type plug from elsewhere for about another £2.50.
I have located the led's hidden under the lip of the pop top facing in and protected from the weather although they are supposedly water proof. They come with a self adhesive backing which isn't really man enough for the job as the inner surface is too rough so the addition of a smear of Evostick (other instant grab adhesives are available!) was called for.

As the leds are longer than actually needed you can cut then to length.
The ends and the controller were secured using some velcro sticky pads so they can be removed.

the lights were then plugged into a multi socket that I have located behind the wardrobe top taking a power feed from the kitchen light so it is all hidden

The cable just feeds through the pop top opening. The controller allows several different effects.
Example below!

So not a tricky job, possibly a bit tacky but who cares!

The Pudding Room

Our camping season has started late this year by virtue of the need to run in Mr Happy's new engine prior to letting him loose with the camper on the back. So with its (expensive) 1500 mile service out of the way we picked a site fairly local to where we live.
We chose the Pudding Room because it was close, it had loos & showers and decent reviews and was small & informal.
Its located just above Carsington water between Ashbourne & Wirksworth in Derbyshire. The first thing to say if you want a quiet rural site where  the only thing which disturbs you is birdsong then this is NOT the site for you. It is located on the junction of 2 busy roads so there is road noise, not that it bothered us.
The site nominally operates as a C & CC CS site but has 20 pitches in 3 adjacent fields. The main field has 10 spacious pitches around the edge and they work on the principle of your pitch is between here and here park as you wish, which is just how we like it!
Even when the site is full as it was this weekend then there is still plenty of space as the picture below shows.

This is how we chose to pitch as usual

The "facilities" are situated in the main building & just behind and consist of two toilet / shower wet rooms and two extra spacious toilets and wash basins in separate building

They were kept clean and serviced through the weekend and we never had to queue, although slightly bizarrely non of them were actually finished with missing tiles. grouting, extractors etc even though they had been built at different times and some time ago, just odd really!
The main building also housed aside from a washing up room the kitchen for the business of the same name in which Angie who is a welcoming host prepares the most amazing cakes & puddings too many of which were consumed over the weekend!
The only real drawback if you are that fussed is that there are no electric hook ups, but for a weekend that did not bother us. Also it was only £42 for the 3 nights.
Here's the link: http://www.thepuddingroomderbyshire.co.uk/
There are several good pubs in the area one right across the road, we ate in the Red Lion in Hognaston which was superb.
There is loads to do in the area, a cycle track leads down to the nearby Carsington Water where there are a range of walks cycle tracks and water activities.

There is lots of other stuff like the High Peak trail, assorted stately homes, preserved railways, things to suit most interests in fact.
So there you have it a quick trip away and we will certainly go back, if only for the cake!!

A Bit Of Upholstery

At some point in their history the cushions in Le Puck had had their springs replaced by foam and this had now seen better days, and we decided to redo them whilst retaining the original fabric.
The first job was to to unpick the seemingly hundreds of staples that had been used to attach not just the the outer fabric and the under calico cover.

This revealed just how long ago the springs were dumped - wonder why?

2nd August 1984 at 3pm in Reims to be precise!!
For replacement foam we went for a firm blue foam topped with 1" of memory foam. This was supplied cut to the correct size by Ace Foam in Telford whose service was good and delivery swift.

The next job was to clean off all the old foam debris. and of course discover in true Puck fashion that they were not square!

The foam was then stuck to the base with a small amount of evostick in each corner

Next job saw the calico undercover stapled back into place, making sure it was pulled tight.

Followed by the top cover as demonstrated by my glamorous assistant - Alison

So the final result complete with washed cover. They are so comfy! Will be tested in anger at Spring Bank Holiday weekend.

And so the season ends.................

We ended our Pucking year with a quick trip to the C & CC club site at Ashbourne less than an hours drive from where we live, for the last w/e in September, aside from being glorious weather it gave us a chance to try out the Khyam Motordome Classic we bought in the end of season sales, finding one online was a struggle but eventually got a good deal from Lightening Leisure.
It goes up as easy as it claims with only one person. There is a bit of pegging but nothing too arduous. The link canvas to the Puck does sit a bit low and would fill with water if it rains, but I have a cunning plan to literally prop it up which I will try in the spring.

The picture shows us cooking and eating breakfast in the late summer sunshine on the Sunday morning. The site is very pleasant and friendly about 3 miles above Ashbourne on the Heanor road with great walks and bike riding in the area and Ashbourne itself is a good place to visit.
Le Puck is now tucked up under its cover and will at some point get new foam under the seats as the springing is long gone, and Mr Happy is due major open heart surgery (engine rebuild!) in the next month or so

"Tracks to the Trenches"

Sunday 14th September saw us head off in Mr Happy to Apedale in Stoke on Trent to Apedale Heritage Centre in Apedale Country Park where the Narrow Gauge Railway there were hosting a WW1 event.
Now I am self confessed Narrow Gauge geek, but this was much more than just trains which were,granted, superb. There were other WW1 transports as well as re-enactments by the WW1 Society. The group had built a trench network complete with a simulated gas attack and evacuation.
There was also a cavalry demonstration.
It was a great day out even if Milo the dog pretty much had  a nervous breakdown with the gunshots and explosions, and was only happy when we headed for the exit.

A Belated Bank Holiday Report

August Bank Holiday saw us make a return visit to Cannock Chase for a quick break before the return of school for Alison and college for Zoe

Aside from the usual walks and a stagger too & from the excellent Park Gate Inn for lunch the highlight was a visit to the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust at Westport Lake Visitor Centre. It is a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hour walking by the lake on the banks of the Trent complete with Kingfishers a resident Terrapin, and a great boardwalk.

Monday night saw an absolutely torrential downpour with no wind at all which all but overwhelmed the Gazebo and which saw me shoving water off the roof at 2 am & 4 am!
This made me determined to find an alternative quick erect awning. We thought about an AirBeam type thing but these tend to be a tunnel type which previous experience has told us are restricted in available space.
So we opted for a Khyam Motordome Classic in the end of season sales. It certainly erects quickly and we now need an opportunity to try it out before the real autumn sets in.