Monday 16 May 2011

Cheshire Weekend

Morning Campers. I see our neighbours found a tree to lash their aerial to last night. Must have happened in the dark, I missed the fun. That's one hell of a length of coax they're carrying round with them.

Weekend over for us. I'm off today but poor wife has to go to work at 12. Ahh! I get to unpack.

Sunday 15 May 2011

The Uncomplicated Life of the Caravanner

I've been watching the caravan opposite for the last hour trying to get
the TV aerial sorted. At first they tried various configurations of
attaching it to the roof rack on the car. Then the wife was sent out
again, armed with a mobile phone to enable instant feedback of the
results, where she has been trying to attach a 20 foot pole to the
hedge.They're still trying. We started watching when we came back from
a walk. Since then we've had soup, sandwiches, fruit, nibbles, washed
the dishes, put away the table, fetched water from the tap and still
they're at it.What strikes me about this little performance is that it
is the wife who does the aerial work. The husband is in charge of the
more technical aspect of sitting by the TV coordinating the operation
via his mobile phone.I'm loving this. I wonder what they want to
watch....ooh, ooh! I was about to sign off, but there's been a
development. The wife is out there with pliers, straightening all the
twigs on the aerial. I'll give her this - she doesn't give up easily.

Back in the Box

It’s a new season and we’ve had a couple of outings in the van. Right now we’re at a site near Congleton in Cheshire. This is part of a plan to discover areas close to home that have so far slipped beneath the radar, and Cheshire is definitely one of these. Cheshire is a place we drive through rather than to.
It’s raining, so, there we have it; it rains in Cheshire just like in Wales. The site we’re on is basic, no electricity, not much of a mobile signal, but it is so quiet. The noisiest thing here is the tweeting of birds. When a car goes past we look up and raise an eyebrow and say, “There’s a car just gone past.” It really is something unusual.

 We are not far from Brereton Heath, where there’s a small lake and a wood of oak and ash and even a caravan selling decent coffee. Give us a bit of sunshine and this place would be fabulous.

We had a trip into Congleton yesterday. We ate in a little oldy-worldy place, all lopsided black and white timbers. Just an sandwich and a coffee, but they made a real effort and we would go back for more. Congleton seems the kind of market town that has been battered by the big Tescos outside. Most of the survivors are charity shops, which is a pity, because it is quite a pretty little town. There’s a country park outside of town around Astbury Lake, and the pity there is that there are not many signs to tell you where it is or even that it’s exists at all, and, like the lake at Brereton, it’s worth a visit. A lap of the lake is just over a mile and it is a very pleasant stroll.

So, Cheshire. It’s on the map, now. We have a list of things we want to see here so we will definitely be back for more.