RABBIT PIES AND ROUNDERS

SUNSHINE, SHOUTS AND STILLNESS

Mary and I both gave huge sighs last night as we enjoyed a glass of wine after an amazing roast of local belly pork. The first really busy week of the season is complete and we have just a handful of tents decorating the site, looking lost in the huge space.

A week of (mostly) glorious sunshine and endless phone calls, with “Sorry no - we’ve been full for weeks...” imprinted on our brains. The Bradbury family returned (see last time’s blog) and our girls gorged themselves on Claire’s famous toasted marshmallows. Now it seems like somebody turned off a light – suddenly the constant shrieks and shouts of excited little voices have all disappeared back to school. We are left with calmness, broken only by the sound of the birds, the cows and the lambs.

Our four lambs have proven a huge hit with the children. Countless little faces have lit-up as they got “up close and personal” with the soft fleeces, often for the first time. The lambs seem to love it too, all the attention and definitely the extra food! They have grown so quickly it’s hard to imagine they were such scraggy balls of skin and bone only a couple of months ago. But now they are bigger and braver they are harder to contain. They seem less concerned by the electric fence and “The sheep are out again” is a phrase being heard too often. Time to think of a new plan!

Our chickens are also becoming mini-celebrities. They wander from their Egloo hut to the campsite and spend their days pecking for worms and out manoeuvring the children’s attempts to stoke them. The eggs taste superb too! Superb taste was also on offer here last week in the form of the Brown Cow Organics produce. Judith brought a selection of their goodies down to the campsite, fresh from winning the “Best Yoghurt” award at the Royal Bath & West Show. She seemed surprised to have won – we weren’t surprised at all. Brown Cow will be back in the main summer season.

So now we have 2 quiet weeks before the start of the Glastonbury Festival rush, which gives us a brief chance to complete the tiling of the showers. As soon as the last campers pulled out of the site yesterday (on the back of an AA truck, but that’s another story) I got to work with a crowbar, hammer and saw. The creative part I’ll leave to the experts, but wrecking-out is such fun! One of the boards was signed by the original builder – “D.Carter, Pilton, 1977” -that’s hardly historic, but ready for an overhaul sure enough.

Then there’s the important technical challenge of making sure our camping dads (and mums too!) don’t miss out on the World Cup from next weekend onwards. “Chicken Shed TV” will feature every kick of the England games on a big projection screen – just bring your own chairs, cans and some hankies for the penalty shoot out!

Best wishes,

Duncan

Spring In Our Steps

Just 2 weeks in to the 2010 season and already the weather has been playing tricks. We opened at Easter to a fanfare of howling winds and torrential rain, more akin to November than the first flourish of spring. Our numbers were down on last year’s glorious Easter, but a few hardy souls made the best of it. First campers of the year were Jason and Claire Bradbury and their 3 boys, Greenacres regulars. According to our girls Claire is an awesome marshmallow toaster, but soggy marshmallows are no joke and so the Bradburys reluctantly decided to cut short their stay. At least we had some great feedback about our new showers – Jason reckoned they were the only thing that kept him warm! We look forward to welcoming them back next month.

Almost as soon as the Bradbury family returned to Surrey the sun started to shine… and shine… and carry on shining! Glorious Spring days appeared from nowhere. The campsite instantly looks like a different place as grey gives way to lush green and new life blossoms everywhere. Our garden birds are busy nesting and emptying the feeders as quick as we can fill them. The Sparrow Hawk that paid us a visit before Christmas has been a regular sight, harrying smaller birds on the field next to the campsite. Wild rabbits are everywhere, eating and digging-up our freshly mown grass. Holes and more holes – they dig them and I fill them – a constant maintenance chore. One unfortunate little bunny caused quite a stir the other day. It was obviously unwell and ignored the tractor mower getting very close. As I approached I noticed it was blind, which it ably demonstrated by leaping up and charging straight into the side of the tractor! It hopped off no worse for its ordeal and entertained the children for a while, but I suspect a buzzard or a fox would soon be less kind. That’s nature’s way.

It’s been a busy time on our neighbours’ farm too, with several calves being born, including a healthy pair of twins the other day. The main event was the arrival of a new, pedigree Hereford Bull. Nick is hoping he will have a fruitful future at Barrow Farm, but he won’t be introduced to any of the “ladies” for a few days yet. Meanwhile the lambs are feeding well and growing equally well. They now drink cows’ milk and took their first steps into the paddock at the farm last Sunday. Lambs have a habit of suddenly skipping and bouncing up high for no reason, which is really funny to watch. The paddock is protected by an electric fence to keep lambs and predators on opposite sides, but the lambs needed to learn what an electric fence is and what it does. It was a case of being cruel to be kind, watching and wincing as, one by one, they got too close, then CRACK!! the fence did its job and a poor little lamb learned its lesson. If all goes well we will be moving our lambs to Greenacres later in the week. Oh and the girls have decided we’re now having 3, not 2, and they now have names like Sophie, Larry and Speckles. The discussions in September/October may not be quite so easy as I thought…

Of course the most important sign that Spring has arrived is the return of the swallows. It hasn’t happened yet. Just like our campers they turn up each year around Easter, live on the campsite through the warmer months and stay until September, before spending the winter in Africa I’m told. In 2009 they appeared on 14^th April, so I’m keen to see how much later they’ll come back this year. I’m watching the skies each day for any signs – heck I just realised how sad that reads – I must have lived near Glastonbury too long!

Best wishes
Duncan

All Systems Go!

It has been a very long and very hard winter, the coldest for 31 years I’m told, but we are now just days away from opening for the 2010 camping season. March is one of our most frantic months, as we try to fix all the bust pipes, wave a paintbrush at everything that doesn’t move and a grease gun at things that do. It’s also one of the busiest times for bookings, with people eager to secure their Bank Holiday or summer pitch space.

Running the campsite this year should be easier because we have our lovely new house to live in. The new reception area allows a welcome return to selling Ice cream and cold drinks. We just need some sunshine to make that worthwhile. In London today the Metro newspaper announced this will be “Britain’s hottest summer ever” – where have we heard that before? Still, we live in hope and if they forecast the same every year, eventually they will be right. The upbeat prediction comes not from the Met office, but from a small group of forecasters in Abergavenny, so I’m knotting my handkerchief ready!

The list of jobs to be done before Easter is still worryingly long. Spring is definitely later arriving – by this time last year we had cut the grass twice – this year it has not yet started growing properly. We’ve also suffered quite a lot of frost damage to some of the young grass, with the result that we need to keep some of the re-seeded pitches vacant for a few weeks more. The swings and big slide have both seen major repair surgery and a lick of paint, ready for all the “Easter bunnies” in another week or so.

So what’s new at Greenacres in 2010? Our main investment project was completed last week when the plumbers installed a huge new Worcester boiler in the shower block. We also added thermostat-balanced showers, so hopefully there will be balmy and welcoming showers for all from now on. The ageing Vaillant water heaters have done well to last since 1976, but they’re probably out of warranty by now. The replacement promises eco-friendly A-rated efficiency and push-button control showers, so we will improve our “green score” too. Reading back through the customer reviews on UKCampsite, our showers were the one thing some people were “lukewarm” about last year (sorry, couldn’t resist), so this is positive proof that we do listen!

We’re also planning to build on a successful partnership with our friends at Brown Cow Organics that started almost by chance last summer. Judith and Jason from Brown Cow will be visiting with their mobile stall through the peak summer months as last year, but we are eager to allow off-peak visitors chance to experience the flavour of organic Somerset too. So we will be launching “Arrival Packs” for pre-order, delivered to the camp site ready for your arrival.  Last year so many people turned up at Greenacres with cars stuffed to bursting, kids squashed into tiny spaces between the sleeping bags, camping stove and tins of beans. Instead why not enjoy the luxury of a bit more space in the car and some wonderful locally-produced organic (or Fairtrade) produce can be waiting for you at the end of the journey. More details soon.

Finally there may be a couple of additions to the Greenacres family this summer. No, Mary isn’t expecting again (heart stopping thought) but we are planning to adopt a couple of orphan lambs from our neighbours at the farm. Inspired by the brilliant Lambing Live program on BBC2, our girls have been helping out bottle-feeding a dozen bleating little balls of wool and, ok I admit, daddy fell soft. In the months ahead “Mint” and “Rosemary” will educate our young ‘uns about the circle of life, but at the moment they’re certainly cute.

Best wishes
Duncan

Christmas wishes

I’m writing this a week or so before Christmas on a stunningly crisp and beautiful winter morning. At this time of year everything is frantic, as we eagerly try to cram-in parties, concerts, nativity plays and panic shopping in readiness for the big day. So a brief stroll around the camp site this morning was a refreshing reminder of what’s really important.

You might think that a camp site out of season would be a rather forlorn place. Sure enough there are the faint echoes of excited children when I walk past the Wendy houses and swings, but overall there is a stillness and calm around the place, as though this is how it’s meant to be. The rabbits, squirrels and birds simply take over at this time of year. Flocks of starlings sit most days on the field, watched by the nosy robin that “owns” Pitch 4. It’s only a couple of weeks since the last of the leaves were torn down by autumn gales, but already there are sticky buds on the Horse Chestnut trees, so children will have a plentiful supply of conkers next year too.

In the true spirit of Christmas we had two sets of unexpected visitors last week. The first was a Sparrow Hawk, who sat right beside our back window for a good 10 minutes, unnoticed by the smaller birds in the bushes nearby. We knelt motionless and spellbound, privileged to get within inches of such a majestic wild creature. Less welcome was a pack of 30 hunting hounds that charged through our garden the next day, accompanied by the shrill sound of horns, loud shouts and horse hooves. I’m pretty certain nobody had laid a scent trail right through our garden, so make up your own mind about what they were really doing. This is, after all, the countryside and I’m definitely not a killjoy, but it’s about as far away as it gets from being “natural” in my book.

Much more pleasant was our Greenacres Christmas “Do”. Mary and I decided that two was plenty for a festive celebration, and where better to enjoy it than at River Cottage? We were entertained, educated and given a winter warming feast by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his team. Thankfully roast badger wasn’t on the menu, but lavish and local wild venison was. A great night, good company, washed down by Sheppys cider and Hugh’s Stinger beer, then back to a gorgeous 4-poster at the brilliant All Hallows B&B just down the road. Camping? For one night only you can keep it!

A traditional family Christmas is planned, with Carol Services, mulled wine and an organic bronze turkey from our friends at Brown Cow Organics. I can’t wait.

To everyone who stayed with us at Greenacres Mary and I wish you the happiest Christmas and New Year and we look forward to welcoming you back in 2010.

Best wishes,

Duncan