This weeks weather has been the perfect addition to the celebratory mood of the end of my third academic year here in Cheltenham. I wasted no time in getting out of this little town for a weeks as a result of cabin fever that has been hanging over me recently. It was a place just inside the Welsh border called Racquety farm.

Camping is one of mine and Mr G’s favourite thing to do, we consider ourselves level 3 campers, not perfect, but sure as hell on the way to be. My favourite thing is the cooking outside, even though he did almost all of it this time. I was too busy with work the previous week to arrange food plans, but managed to make a couple of loves of bread for our lunches and his mom’s recipe of “cheese dreams,” in no way was this a healthy breakfast, but cheese dreams was no understatement, combine melted cheese with fried bread and you’re there. What more could you want?

And we totally needed all that fat to keep us going through the busy day ahead. Yeah right.

I ended up with a little sunburn, but mostly just a hint of a tan.

So here’s my week in the sun.

Meet Guinness, he immediately greeted us by snapping at Mr G’s heels then rolling over begging us to rub his tummy. I’ve never wanted to take a dog home more than him. Adorable.

Our first meal on the Rocket Stove, Mr G built this stove out of two cans and it’s awesome, saves us using a gas burner and uses very little wood. If you want to know more, just ask or follow this http://wildstoves.co.uk/rocket-stoves/

We both went for a walk to get into the local town, it’s about a ten minute walk from the campsite but we went the Bear Grylls route and ended up in a lot of dead ends, but it really doesn’t matter when you get to see colours like this that I don’t see at home.

Mr G taught me how to skim stones on the river, I thought I would get better. I didn’t. We saw this sheep’s ribcage just beforehand, I still have a childlike excitement towards finds like this (I was totally going to be an archaeologist in my younger years)

This is the view from the bridge on the way back from the town of Hay-on-Wye. The town is very french in style, quite hilly, full of twists and turns, old book shops and cafe’s, it was very pretty.

I was assigned to Chipati maker while Mr G made the main meal, dough making in the sun, no cares at all.

We made a fire every night, it got progressively better and a little scary when we thought it was getting out of hand and was going to wake the neighbours, the roar of it was that loud. We stayed up until it was just a pile of glowing embers.

We came home and the Sun was still shining, I found my dry flat flowers that I collect in a bible, I don’t know why, I’ve always done it. I loved the way they looked with a light behind them.

I ended the week with a close friend’s BBQ, it was a great day, and it’s so awesome seeing kids playing in the water and going on adventures.

I was in such a hazy mood after, the sun had got to my head a little but also relaxed from the food and a gin or two, the light in my room  was just right to let me fall asleep.