Camping in South Wales

Bank holiday and camping seemed like a good idea.

We tried to make the most of the English summer. Weather forecast was not fantastic for Sunday and Monday but Saturday looked ok. We packed up and decided to go to south of wales.

We camped in  the National Showcaves Centre for Wales. Once everything was set up and the wood burner was on....

...we toasted for a good weekend.

Ate pasta...

...and the girls roasted marshmallows for pudding.

Almost forgot to mention the short walk from the campsite before dinner.

Within five minutes walk we were at the animal farm.

 A very happy little girl.

Emily loved stroking the animals there. They were not shy at all. I think the animals at the farm are quite used to people.

Then we were guided to the playground by Emily.

 

 

She tried few times to hit the golf ball but...

 

In the end decided to just pick it up and put it in the goal.

 

I sat down and watched her play.

 

Later that day we made tea and just almost behind the woods where we were camping was the river so decided to sit and relax for a while.

Emily as always likes to throw stones in the water.

Olivia decided to cross the river across. Thankfully the level of water was quite low.

 

Sipping tea, knitting by the riverside all so good. Emily asked me to knit her a scarf. I am using the leftover wool from one of her very first cardigan I knitted for her. She grew so quickly out of it. I think next time I should knit one size big. Anyway, this scarf is a very easy knit. Just blocks of knit and pearl.

 

Next day the weather forecast was rain from about 11 o'clock but unfortunately it rained almost the whole day with some lighter drizzles in-between. We made sand castles and there were many surfers and body borders at the sea side.

We drove to the Gower beach from our campsite.

Martin and Olivia love body boarding and the rain didn't stop them in fact the waves were better they said.

Awwwww! Little Emily was so happy to see Daddy and big sister back.

 

Sunday almost whole day it rained. It rained the whole night and Monday morning was the same. So we enjoyed few cups of tea inside our caravan and the girls played some games.

By half past nine the rain stopped and we took the opportunity to walk up the hill.

Beautiful walk, I am glad we could still do it.

The view from the top was amazing. We do like it here in Wales.

 

 

We were camping somewhere down below, by the river where the arrow is pointing.

 

Camping in the Peak District

Tiffany (our caravan) was out again. Yes, it wasn't long since we went camping but the weather was nice and would have been a same not to go anywhere. So we drove to the Peak District. We camped in a farmers land, that's what we like with just few caravans. There were only Two caravans and a very small tent other than us there and the field was so big that we were all spread out.

As we were not far from Ilam, we went for a walk there. This is the tea room which was packed...

We sat outside and had a cup of tea.

 Saw some land sculptures.

 This was Emily's favourite spot to sit. She called it home.

Was not easy to get her out of there.

Of course, we always collect woods and pine cones. So handy for campfire, cooking in my new outdoor wood burner and maybe some possible future craft work.

And... I can never have enough photographs of these beauties.

They look so adorable and full of character.

Little Emily wanted to give them a hug. She ran, and ran and ran after them for a hug.

We followed her.

 In the end she gave up sadly as the sheep ran away from her. Poor thing.

I gave her my sketchbook to draw them...

But she decided to draw herself instead.

The Lamb watched Emily while she was drawing in mummy's sketchbook.

Then, it was my turn. I have so many photographs of these sheeps from before already so I decided to cut one around and use it for a quick mixed media  work in my book.

I always carry lots of different vintage emphera, Variety of scrap decorative papers, paints and anything and everything almost with me. These are really done very quickly and are not a perfect image or finished work but its more about capturing the essence of  a place or of that particular moment. I don't like planning my paintings at all. Once all dry, some journalism would be done here.