Chilly, Jo!!!!! 🤣 It doesn't happen often, I can tell you! 🫢 I have the most lovely pair of handknitted wrist warmers which my mum made me years ago, and I wear them almost all year round. And I wear proper gloves with fingers on pretty much constantly from September to May..... 😉
Oh I’m so glad you included Note number 3! I was imagining you leaving the warmth and comfort of that pub to head out and drive on to pitch a tent somewhere in the dreadful hail!! But you were ‘there’ already and just able to sleep in your van I gather once you were warm and cosy (and in between snow showers!) So glad.
Oh gosh, I think my tent-camping days ended as soon as I left the Girl Guides aged 15, Beth! *shudders* 🤣
Camping in a tent in that weather would have been absolutely awful. I remember when we were last up near Hadrian's Wall, and we met a pair of campers in a tiiiiiiiny tent who were on their way home to Manchester from Portugal on their bicycles! The weather was absolutely dreadful, but the two of them were absolutely amazing - they were so organised and happy, and it was fantastic to see. I would have been an absolutely wreck in similar circumstances (and there's no way I could ever cycle that far in a gazillion years!).
The van itself is pretty cosy once it warms up - and we have really thick, comfy sleeping bags. Before we bought the van I had no idea at quite how comfortable a 'home' it would be - I was - and still am - extremely impressed with it! 😊
So delighted to see a fellow Enid Blyton fan! I too liked The Secret Seven and The Famous Five, but my favorite Blyton series was The Five Findouters and Dog. Loved it!
Oh gosh, Punit, the Five Findouters and Dog! Thank you so much for reminding me about them! I can't remember all their names - but Pip and Bets were two of them, weren't they? And Constable Goon? And Chief Inspector Jenks? I can't remember the names of the others. Hang on, perhaps I can.... Larry? Daisy? Hmmm, I'm missing one. And I've NO idea what the dog was called!
YES!!!!!!!! He liked to be called 'Fatty', didn't he? I remember he once got kidnapped by a gang of baddies and they told him to sign the letter he was writing to his friends 'Freddy' so that they wouldn't be suspicious. Turned out nobody EVER called him Freddy... so that's precisely how suspicions were raised!
Thank you so much for these happy memories, Punit! (And to anyone reading this comment who hasn't read the book in question, I apologise for the plot spoiler!).
“The post-office is a wonderful establishment!” I internally shouted "YES! Indeed!!!". Also, thanks for the intro to Enid Blyton. I'm check our library for her books. I'm also going to ask my mum about her, as she (my mum) worked in the children's section of multiple city libraries before parenting became (very) time consuming activity (5 children in 6 years). My copy of Emma is looking forward to me finishing my ruglet project so I can turn my attention to her/it. 😊
Oh wow, I'm so pleased that you're seeking out Enid Blyton on your side of the pond, Mary! All of my friends grew up on The Famous Five, and I absolutely loved Malory Towers. There was a BBC adaptation of the latter as a serial on children's TV a while ago, and I watched about five minutes of one of the episodes. It really made me laugh, because I'd read the books when I was rather younger than the boarding-school characters and had imagined them all as young women - but the cast in the TV series was made up of much younger children! It's amazing how different 'other people's' portrayals are to the ones in our imagination. I guess that's the beauty OF books, though!
5 children in 6 years - gosh! Actually, one thing I really, really love about the family I come from is that we're so close in age - there are two of us, not five, but I love having a very small age gap between us. 😊
I put of Enid's books on hold at the library and hope to have them this weekend. Yay! I'm going to check out the BBC adaptation online, and I'm with you about imagining the age and voices etc. of favorite book characters, and yes, that's the beauty of books. Good reasons to keep me away from audio books . . . though I'm intrigued by them . . . And yes about loving age-closeness between sibs. It's great fun, especially as adults!
Britstops! I never heard of this. What an enlightened idea --and definitely good for business. Seems such a sensible, win-win plan. Certainly not the way of it here in the US, where those who try to sleep over in a ( totally empty) parking lot are instantly chased away by watchmen or police. It seems to be just meanness. I loved your weather-report videos and loved it more that you found refuge in a lovely pub that let you sleep right out in the back lot. Beautiful! I learn so much from you, Rebecca. Thank you.
Sharron, I gather that Britstops have recently joined forces with Harvest Hosts, which is a similar set-up in the States. Have you heard of them? https://www.harvesthosts.com Pretty good, right?
There are loads of 'wild campers' over here, too. That kind of thing is fine and legal as long as the landowner has given their permission, and I certainly wouldn't be parking overnight anywhere I hadn't made proper arrangements.
Britstops is a real win-win! We had a lovely chat with the landlord of the pub, who said that he hadn't been a Britstops host for long and wasn't sure what it brought him - and then later he came and thanked us for our business, because that was two meals and a load of drinks that he'd sold only because he IS a Britstop! We encouraged him to keep going, and said we looked forward to seeing him the next time.
Since my last letter (which included a sweet card passed along from a dear relative) to Australia never arrived, my usual support for them has waned. I'm told the mishaps are particularly common down under, which does not help my mood nor my interest in trying again.
Your glove removal brought some much needed cheer, as did the hat-bobble-hedgehog!! And then my hopes were dashed all over again with the horrid weather. Thank the stars for merlot, warm fires, and good reads. Like this one.
Thank you so much, Elizabeth! And gosh, that hat-bobble hedgehog - that was just the cutest story ever!
I'm so sorry to hear about your post going astray. Not strictly to do with deliveries, but on the accounting side of things the Post Office scandal remains high on the radar over here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal
The horror! Those poor wrongly convicted postal workers and their families! I am among the apparent many who were completely unaware. I do hope the proceedings move along more quickly now (though it doesn't yet sound like that's happening). Despite their many advantages, computers are not without their costs, a fact never more evident than when good people get caught in the cross-hairs.
It's such a horrid situation, Elizabeth. I hope that proper restitution is made, but those families will always struggle with what had happened to them. xxx
LOL - no, not Seattle - but having seen many episodes of 'Frasier' I know that the city is no stranger to precipitation!
Photos were fine, thanks for asking - it was a commercial shoot for a client in a mostly outside location, but thankfully some of the set-ups they needed shots of were inside. Every time the rain stopped we scooted outside for a while, then retreated again when necessary. They were pleased with the pics, so all was well.
LOL!!! 🤣 As a left-hander, though, I'm very grateful that our vehicles are right-hand drive, because when I'm driving changing gear is easy peasy with the gearstick on my left-hand side! I really struggled with a left-hand drive car in Germany, when I not only had to change gear with the wrong hand but had to drive on the wrong side of the road, too!
🤣 Yup! For a brief period we had an automatic car - which I drove only the ONCE thanks to nearly put myself through the windscreen because I'd forgotten that it didn't have a clutch..... 🙄
“The post-office is a wonderful establishment!” said she... (Emma by Jane Austen) I'm having such a brouhaha with our PO at the moment. I've twice filled in a request online for where any parcels should be delivered when the door remains unanswered. The delivery men either don't know, don't care or both. So no - the post-office is emphatically NOT a wonderful establishment.
As for the rest of your delightful letter, dear Rebecca, I commend you on your most excellent powers of observation and retelling. It is no secret between the Terrier and myself that I wish I was similarly endowed. With kindest regards until your next missive, post-office not withstanding etc etc...
Oh no, that's really annoying, Prue! We've got an old cardboard box by the front door with a note on it saying 'parcels okay in here' which seems to be good enough for around here - but once in a while we get a note through the door to let us know that something's been left with a neighbour. And if we're VERY lucky they'll even tell us WHICH neighbour! 🤣😉
I like the idea of the cardboard box! I was actually thinking of printing off a polite note and leaving it taped to the door. But I gather Auspost has requirements. Hmm.
That "hedgehog" story was on our news here in the U.S. It was hilarious. How you could mistaken it for a hat, I don't know.
Interesting on the camper vans parking overnight at businesses. I have seen a few in a local parking lot near me. But it isn't legal here to do that. I guess they decided to take their chances
Apart from on campsites, camping is allowed wherever a landowner and/or local authorities permit it - but that's not many places, and with BritStops and the US equivalent Harvest Hosts, people park up with owners' permission. Having said that, there are always some 'long-timers' parked up in lay-bys or in the car parks of disused business premises on outskirts of the big cities - or alongside arterial roads - but they're not allowed to do that, and police can - and do - move people on.
How did your hands feel being released into the great outdoors? 😁😘
Chilly, Jo!!!!! 🤣 It doesn't happen often, I can tell you! 🫢 I have the most lovely pair of handknitted wrist warmers which my mum made me years ago, and I wear them almost all year round. And I wear proper gloves with fingers on pretty much constantly from September to May..... 😉
Oh I’m so glad you included Note number 3! I was imagining you leaving the warmth and comfort of that pub to head out and drive on to pitch a tent somewhere in the dreadful hail!! But you were ‘there’ already and just able to sleep in your van I gather once you were warm and cosy (and in between snow showers!) So glad.
Oh gosh, I think my tent-camping days ended as soon as I left the Girl Guides aged 15, Beth! *shudders* 🤣
Camping in a tent in that weather would have been absolutely awful. I remember when we were last up near Hadrian's Wall, and we met a pair of campers in a tiiiiiiiny tent who were on their way home to Manchester from Portugal on their bicycles! The weather was absolutely dreadful, but the two of them were absolutely amazing - they were so organised and happy, and it was fantastic to see. I would have been an absolutely wreck in similar circumstances (and there's no way I could ever cycle that far in a gazillion years!).
The van itself is pretty cosy once it warms up - and we have really thick, comfy sleeping bags. Before we bought the van I had no idea at quite how comfortable a 'home' it would be - I was - and still am - extremely impressed with it! 😊
So glad. 🤗🤗
So delighted to see a fellow Enid Blyton fan! I too liked The Secret Seven and The Famous Five, but my favorite Blyton series was The Five Findouters and Dog. Loved it!
Oh gosh, Punit, the Five Findouters and Dog! Thank you so much for reminding me about them! I can't remember all their names - but Pip and Bets were two of them, weren't they? And Constable Goon? And Chief Inspector Jenks? I can't remember the names of the others. Hang on, perhaps I can.... Larry? Daisy? Hmmm, I'm missing one. And I've NO idea what the dog was called!
The one you're missing is Frederick Algernon Trotteville. The dog was Buster. These books were the absolute best!
YES!!!!!!!! He liked to be called 'Fatty', didn't he? I remember he once got kidnapped by a gang of baddies and they told him to sign the letter he was writing to his friends 'Freddy' so that they wouldn't be suspicious. Turned out nobody EVER called him Freddy... so that's precisely how suspicions were raised!
Thank you so much for these happy memories, Punit! (And to anyone reading this comment who hasn't read the book in question, I apologise for the plot spoiler!).
Yesss, these books were glorious! 🙌
“The post-office is a wonderful establishment!” I internally shouted "YES! Indeed!!!". Also, thanks for the intro to Enid Blyton. I'm check our library for her books. I'm also going to ask my mum about her, as she (my mum) worked in the children's section of multiple city libraries before parenting became (very) time consuming activity (5 children in 6 years). My copy of Emma is looking forward to me finishing my ruglet project so I can turn my attention to her/it. 😊
Oh wow, I'm so pleased that you're seeking out Enid Blyton on your side of the pond, Mary! All of my friends grew up on The Famous Five, and I absolutely loved Malory Towers. There was a BBC adaptation of the latter as a serial on children's TV a while ago, and I watched about five minutes of one of the episodes. It really made me laugh, because I'd read the books when I was rather younger than the boarding-school characters and had imagined them all as young women - but the cast in the TV series was made up of much younger children! It's amazing how different 'other people's' portrayals are to the ones in our imagination. I guess that's the beauty OF books, though!
5 children in 6 years - gosh! Actually, one thing I really, really love about the family I come from is that we're so close in age - there are two of us, not five, but I love having a very small age gap between us. 😊
I put of Enid's books on hold at the library and hope to have them this weekend. Yay! I'm going to check out the BBC adaptation online, and I'm with you about imagining the age and voices etc. of favorite book characters, and yes, that's the beauty of books. Good reasons to keep me away from audio books . . . though I'm intrigued by them . . . And yes about loving age-closeness between sibs. It's great fun, especially as adults!
Rebecca! Thank you for the laughs this morning! Oh my goodness. What a post of delight. You and Terry crack me up. Keep going. :)
Oh, thank you so much, Julie! Terry and I have such fun with our letters! 🤣
I can tell!! Wonderful. :)
Britstops! I never heard of this. What an enlightened idea --and definitely good for business. Seems such a sensible, win-win plan. Certainly not the way of it here in the US, where those who try to sleep over in a ( totally empty) parking lot are instantly chased away by watchmen or police. It seems to be just meanness. I loved your weather-report videos and loved it more that you found refuge in a lovely pub that let you sleep right out in the back lot. Beautiful! I learn so much from you, Rebecca. Thank you.
Sharron, I gather that Britstops have recently joined forces with Harvest Hosts, which is a similar set-up in the States. Have you heard of them? https://www.harvesthosts.com Pretty good, right?
There are loads of 'wild campers' over here, too. That kind of thing is fine and legal as long as the landowner has given their permission, and I certainly wouldn't be parking overnight anywhere I hadn't made proper arrangements.
Britstops is a real win-win! We had a lovely chat with the landlord of the pub, who said that he hadn't been a Britstops host for long and wasn't sure what it brought him - and then later he came and thanked us for our business, because that was two meals and a load of drinks that he'd sold only because he IS a Britstop! We encouraged him to keep going, and said we looked forward to seeing him the next time.
Cool! Thanks for the reference. I never heard of harvesthosts either!
Aw thanks for the shout-out! Glad you liked the article :)
Since my last letter (which included a sweet card passed along from a dear relative) to Australia never arrived, my usual support for them has waned. I'm told the mishaps are particularly common down under, which does not help my mood nor my interest in trying again.
Your glove removal brought some much needed cheer, as did the hat-bobble-hedgehog!! And then my hopes were dashed all over again with the horrid weather. Thank the stars for merlot, warm fires, and good reads. Like this one.
Thank you so much, Elizabeth! And gosh, that hat-bobble hedgehog - that was just the cutest story ever!
I'm so sorry to hear about your post going astray. Not strictly to do with deliveries, but on the accounting side of things the Post Office scandal remains high on the radar over here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Post_Office_scandal
Such a tragedy for so many honest postmasters. Incredible that it took a television drama in January this year to put the story out there into the public consciousness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr_Bates_vs_The_Post_Office
The horror! Those poor wrongly convicted postal workers and their families! I am among the apparent many who were completely unaware. I do hope the proceedings move along more quickly now (though it doesn't yet sound like that's happening). Despite their many advantages, computers are not without their costs, a fact never more evident than when good people get caught in the cross-hairs.
It's such a horrid situation, Elizabeth. I hope that proper restitution is made, but those families will always struggle with what had happened to them. xxx
The videos— were you in Seattle? How was the shoot? Was hubby able to snag good photos?
The animal bobble is hilarious. I have a similar hat.
LOL - no, not Seattle - but having seen many episodes of 'Frasier' I know that the city is no stranger to precipitation!
Photos were fine, thanks for asking - it was a commercial shoot for a client in a mostly outside location, but thankfully some of the set-ups they needed shots of were inside. Every time the rain stopped we scooted outside for a while, then retreated again when necessary. They were pleased with the pics, so all was well.
Are you driving on the wrong side to keep the rest of us out? Cuz it's working : )
LOL!!! 🤣 As a left-hander, though, I'm very grateful that our vehicles are right-hand drive, because when I'm driving changing gear is easy peasy with the gearstick on my left-hand side! I really struggled with a left-hand drive car in Germany, when I not only had to change gear with the wrong hand but had to drive on the wrong side of the road, too!
I guess it's what we're used to though, right?!
😁
OMG I didn't even consider a manual : +
🤣 Yup! For a brief period we had an automatic car - which I drove only the ONCE thanks to nearly put myself through the windscreen because I'd forgotten that it didn't have a clutch..... 🙄
“The post-office is a wonderful establishment!” said she... (Emma by Jane Austen) I'm having such a brouhaha with our PO at the moment. I've twice filled in a request online for where any parcels should be delivered when the door remains unanswered. The delivery men either don't know, don't care or both. So no - the post-office is emphatically NOT a wonderful establishment.
As for the rest of your delightful letter, dear Rebecca, I commend you on your most excellent powers of observation and retelling. It is no secret between the Terrier and myself that I wish I was similarly endowed. With kindest regards until your next missive, post-office not withstanding etc etc...
Oh no, that's really annoying, Prue! We've got an old cardboard box by the front door with a note on it saying 'parcels okay in here' which seems to be good enough for around here - but once in a while we get a note through the door to let us know that something's been left with a neighbour. And if we're VERY lucky they'll even tell us WHICH neighbour! 🤣😉
I like the idea of the cardboard box! I was actually thinking of printing off a polite note and leaving it taped to the door. But I gather Auspost has requirements. Hmm.
Ah, 'requirements'. Sometimes there's no getting around those pesky things....!
That "hedgehog" story was on our news here in the U.S. It was hilarious. How you could mistaken it for a hat, I don't know.
Interesting on the camper vans parking overnight at businesses. I have seen a few in a local parking lot near me. But it isn't legal here to do that. I guess they decided to take their chances
LOL - it was pretty funny!
Apart from on campsites, camping is allowed wherever a landowner and/or local authorities permit it - but that's not many places, and with BritStops and the US equivalent Harvest Hosts, people park up with owners' permission. Having said that, there are always some 'long-timers' parked up in lay-bys or in the car parks of disused business premises on outskirts of the big cities - or alongside arterial roads - but they're not allowed to do that, and police can - and do - move people on.