Hello from a field

/ embraceyourinnergoat / 2 Comments

Camping season has begun!!We are currently enjoying coffee & cake by a fire to take off the chill in the air.

The we managed to get the tent up before the rain, and it stopped to enable us to go for a walk & cook dinner on the fire last night. However everything is muddy! Good job we packed our wellies!!

It wasn’t too cold overnight…especially if you have double thermals on, carpets & down sleeping bags.

Last time we camped at Pit Hill we brought the spaceship & camped light using Betty’s boot as our kitchen. This time we brought Alice & camped in style!

More about who Alice is another time…

R & L

Where have the goats been?

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That’s a good question… and sadly the answer isn’t camping! We both enjoyed holidays recently and both enjoyed walks – one in the Braid Hills outside Edinburgh and the other in La Caleta National Park, Tenerife. We’ll leave you to guess which picture is which!!

One of us even came across some other goats on our travels!!

These ones were outside the Johnsons Mill in Hawick. They are Cashmere goats – the long hair on their chests is what gets spun into yarn to make jumpers. We were treated to a tour of the knitting factory and it was fascinating to see the machines and people who turn the wool into (very expensive!) jumpers, scarves and socks!

The camping season hopefully starts again soon – we started planning last night! A lot of campsites seem to not be opening until Easter or even May, but hopefully we can have a trip in March. Any recommendations of all year round campsites welcome (use the comments or contact us).

R & L

Happy Pancake Day!

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I’ve made lots of things in a field…but oddly not normal pancakes. Banana pancakes, yes…but not the normal sort you have on pancake day.

I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’m not currently standing in a field in the dark cooking tonight’s treats…I’m not even in the garden, but I did take the opportunity to practise the quantities ready for my next outdoor culinary opportunity!

Camping Pancakes (serves 2)

Mix together:

2 dessertspoonfuls dried milk powder

4 heaped dessertspoonfuls plain flour

1 egg

2 cups water

Heat oil in a frying pan. Pour in some batter. When one side is golden brown flip & cook the other.

Serve with white sugar & lemon juice (from a bottle) or syrup or chocolate spread…or whatever you have to hand in your camp kitchen.

Remember you always need more oil & a hotter pan than you think you do!!

My batter was lumpy, but this made nice thick pancakes so I couldn’t tell once they were cooked!

Enjoy!

L

Tuna pasta

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Even when I’m not camping I often use my camping recipes as they are super reliable – if you can cook it in a field, it ought to turn out ok in a domestic kitchen!

I also like to practise recipes that I think might make good additions to my caming recipe book. This week I discovered this very simple meal:

Tuna Pasta (serves 3)

3 cups pasta

1 tin mushroom soup (400g)

1 tin tuna (145g)

1 tin sweetcorn (200g)

Put pasta in pan with soup. Refill soup tin with water and also add this to pan.

Boil until pasta soft.

Stir in drained tuna and drained sweetcorn and warm through.

Super simple! This was the first time I’d tried it. Another time I might experiment with adding a tin of sliced mushrooms too as it might add a nice variety of textures.

If you’d like to read about our camping food suggestions, check out this section of the website Campsite Cooking.

L

Merry Christmas!

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We always like to share good camping gift ideas. Here’s a gift I received this Christmas…

Curious looking, huh?!

What essential camping item could they be?!!

Invertible, unbreakable wine glasses! We enjoy a glass of red by the campfire, so these will definitely in handy.

Prior to then, I plan to try out the goat themed festive drink in them later!!

Happy Christmas to all our followers!

L

Walking and talking

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Walking and talking – two things which very good for your mental health as well as your physical health. I’m not the only one who believes this – and this weekend I joined up with a group of people who walk every week with the specific aim of connecting people, combating loneliness and helping people improve their mental health as well as their physical health.

The organisers of Walk and Talk saw how much communities suffered during the pandemic. They saw how isolated some people became and were inspired to do something about it. The idea is very simple, every Saturday at 10.30 you can turn up and there will be someone else to walk with. There is no need to book, there is no charge and both buggies and pets are welcome!

I chose to try out the group which meets at Morden Hall Park and found a very friendly group of people from all different backgrounds and life situations enjoying spending time together in the outdoors. Not only do they walk together but those who want to stayed on and had a coffee together in the National Trust cafe!

Unknown to me I was especially lucky to choose this particular Saturday because they had a local history expert leading the walk. As well as telling us stories about Morden Hall’s history, she pointed out some hidden features and had brought old photographs to help us picture what it would have been like.

At the moment they have five groups, but they are aspiring to set up more. Check out their website for more details.

L

An intentional detour!

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As you will know, we are currently walking the Greensands Way. We’d only walked two sections and got as far as Thursley when we got confused – the Greensands Way appeared to go both west and east! As far as we can work out, there is an additional ‘spur’ of the path to Farnham, whilst the official route continues east.

Not wanting to miss out on anything, and curious to walk on Thursley Common which we had heard about but never visited, we thought we’d first walk this spur before continuing with the main path.

Turns out Thursley and Hankley Commons are both interesting environments to explore – read about our walk here.

R & L

Guest goat interview – Great Glen Walk

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From time to time we like to hear about how some of our friends have embraced their inner goat.

Where have you been walking recently?

The Great Glen Way from Fort William to Inverness 

How long is that path?

In theory it’s 75 miles but there are places where you can take either a higher or lower level walk and on occasions I detoured to get a better view from up a nearby hill so I took some 80 miles  

How many days did you split it over?

The walk took a full week but there’s also a lot of travelling to get to the start and back home!

What did you do for accomodation?

The accommodation was a real highlight of the trip – a large, old barge. Each morning after breakfast the boat and 7 walkers departed and met up again early afternoon. There was a crew of 4 – Captain, Guide, Cook and a man who did all the other jobs necessary on a barge. 

What is the scenery like?

Stunning scenery especially the 25 miles or so along Loch Ness made all the better given the wonderful weather and absence of midges  

What was your highlight from the walk?

Most of the other walkers were very fit and wanted to walk fast. A couple struggled a bit with this so spent a couple of days on the barge. The result was that I spent most of the walk alone with the professional Guide who was a great guy full of stories about his experiences guiding in the Alps and who was very knowledgeable about the countryside we were passing through.

Any lowlights?!

There were no real problems on the trip but it’s worth bearing in mind that you are likely to be in close company for a week with a group of people you’ve never met before.  You just have to hope you all get on well together!

Would you recommend this walk to others?  If so, any tips or things you’d do differently?

This is a great way to walk if you don’t want to carry your stuff around with you or worry about accommodation and where to eat each evening. The bedrooms were en suite with a wonderful, powerful shower and the food was excellent.