Sunday 24 July

Vibrant blue flowers of the fields of linseed

The English summer continues with really warm days, school broke up on Friday so everyone seems to be on holiday enjoying this weather, and the crowds are pouring into Skegness and the neigbouring beaches. Think we won’t be heading back there as they tell us it is a real bottleneck over the summer holidays.

We have been enjoying the past few days, setting Ruakiwi up and trying to learn how to use the appliances and fittings, last night I very successfully cooked some chicken pieces in the gas oven and the fridge is doing a great job keeping the beer cold.. very essential with this weather. Managed to get the water heater going, and washed up the dinner dishes. Today we mastered the satellite system, very impressed as it automatically searches, twisting from side to side and up and down until it has the right spot. We have been able to listen to the BBC news and some other stations, although have yet to find other English channels. Seems to be quite a few European Channels. Ruakiwi is really starting to feel like home with all our belongings in it. Will post some photos of the interior in a few days, once we get it all ship shape.

Went into Boston yesterday to get a few extra things and called into Steve and Kathy’s to pick a parcel of travel guides I had ordered from Amazon. S & K put us onto Rough Guides and they are excellent, so easy to read, a good chance to learn a bit as we play the waiting game!

Have been going for a good walk in the morning before it gets too hot. There is a pathway heading towards Skegness and it passes a very nice Garden Centre which also stocks preserves, cheeses, cakes etc as well as homewares, outdoor furniture and plants. Popped in this morning and picked up a Plum Cake, a local favourite, which is like a sultana bread, very nice. Further on I there are a number of fields planted with linseed and they are a mass of blue at the moment, had a play with the camera!

Steve bought a wet stone so that Ian could sharpen the knives, seems to end up doing this as we are on the road! Today he also sharpened Steve’s hedge clippers and gave the bamboo hedges a good prune. I got the Roundup going and sprayed the little weeds on the grave driveway. So good to be out doing some chores and feeling useful.

We bought a barbecue at Camper UK and what a honey, so compact yet perfect for the two of us and it runs on small gas cylinders. It is a Cadac Safari Chef 2 and has had great reviews, tonight we tried it out to cook our hamburger patties and it goes like a dream, and very easy to clean. Sure we will be getting a lot of use out of it.

Tomorrow we are going to  Newark-on-Trent, a town about 90 minutes drive from here where there is a very big Camper sales centre, and they sell Rapido vans. We are hoping to find out how we can get an Owners Guide in English. The town is on the Trent river with an old castle on the riverside, looking forward to a look around.

A great little barbecue, worked brilliantly.

Ian's hedge cutting job

"Dreaming"