A Dull Woman's Van Life

It’s been a busy couple of weeks., so we took a day off work and did an extended weekend away in the beautiful village of Hope. Pepper certainly enjoyed some downtime, taking the opportunity to sleep in late every morning. She must be the only dog that has to be…

This weekend, I was doing a different kind of birding during a visit to the Helmsley National Birds of Prey Centre. Whilst it might be cheating a little, watching the flying display did give me the opportunity to practice photographing birds in flight; a lot easier when you know the…

I never seem to see black caps; I only ever hear them around the Riverside walk. Until this week, when they were everywhere! I spotted males, females and fledglings all twittering and darting through the trees; they are beautiful and have the most delightful, sweet piping song. Have a listen…

After a long holiday in the heat of the South East, we returned to Helmshore with its familiar “pie crust” of cloud over the valley. The garden has flourished in my absence, with the purple emperor buddleja as the star of the show. It’s been alive with butterflies this week.…

The grammar of this place name irritates me, but that is the only negative point! We stayed for 4 days at the Pinewoods Caravan park, which has been in operation since before the 2nd World War. Backing onto the salt marshes, and close to many woodland trails, it was a…

It’s been a while since I posted; we’ve been on holiday exploring the beautiful Suffolk coast. We spent the first 2 nights in Market Bosworth, Leicestershire at the Bosworth Caravan Park. Our plans to explore the area and the site of the battle of Bosworth were cancelled by the scorching…

There is no shortage of foxes around Helmshore. Pepper always tells me when she is on the trail of a fox but I have not seen one for a long time. However, yesterday I glimpsed one in the long grass. I did try and get a picture, but Pepper’s heritage…

I am late in posting my weekend pictures due to “mourning” the loss of 7000 pictures from a corrupted SD card. I salvaged 2000, but the remainder are gone for good 😌 However, onward and upward!. I have managed to salvage some from the weekend. If you’re wondering why the…

After our Welsh Adventure, this week I am back to local deer stalking and Cuckoo hunting; my choice of weapon being a long lens, rather than a gun! Monday was all about Goldfinches. I captured a family feeding on thistles. Unusually, they were not too bothered by my proximity and…

Monday dawned wet and windy, and we headed up the coast towards Barmouth. The intention being to stop at some of the historic sites enroute, however the weather was so bad we simply drove all the way, alighting at Hendre Mynach Caravan Park for the 2nd part of our Welsh…