Travelling for pleasure

Thursday, 8 December 2011

Hibernation

Jeez, it's been a while but that's mainly because I've been doing this (which I must also confess to sort of abandoning, but will pick up on again very soon) and letting Helga get a bit of R&R over the winter months. I did recently buy her two lovely new (well, second hand) dalahasts though so she mustn't grumble at the lack of attention.

Sunday, 16 October 2011

Cake

Cake. That is all.

Made by a very clever friend of Mama Robinson here in all her glory is a cake version of Helga. She tasted delicious. A very wonderful 30th birthday cake indeed.

papergirls and paperboys

Another lovely day out for Helga which we've been miserably slow posting about was back at the end of August when she helped the Project Club with their Paper Girl Newcastle event.

Paper Girl, for those not in the know, is a truly lovely little little art give-away. In the style of American paper-boys, rolled up pieces of art (submitted for free by artists and designers) are distributed, by bicycle to passers-by across the city. Our job, alongside the very nice folks from The TeaShed, was to help feed and water the hungry cyclists mid way through their mission.

The Newcastle version, which started with complimentary breakfasts at The Settle Down Cafe and finished with bike decorating at Hey, Baby Chief Panda, was organised by the rather wonderful Carlos Rosati of The Cloud Commission and has been very nicely documented over several blog posts, including those by our lovely chum Victoria McParlin (lady illustrator extraordinaire) and the dapper chaps at Novel Magazine, who have put together this wonderful video.

continental style

Jeeez, it's been a while. It's mid October and there's still no blog posts about all the lovely things Helga got up to this summer. Where has all that time gone!? Rather than type a ramble of where we went*, what we did** and what saw*** here are a few photos from the trip. Enjoy x

* the sleepy little town of Verchoque in Nord-Pas de Calais, Metz, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Bruxelles and Brugge.
**stayed a week with J's family in a big old farmhouse and properly chilled out. Spent the following week bombing around Europe with Helga.
*** Some amazing countryside, architecture and caravans - and pretty much all of it by bike.

Friday, 24 June 2011

Helga goes to Kielder

Our pitch: Woodland 41

Last weekend we took Helga to Kielder for a few days. We knew the weather forecast was for rain, lots of it, but we weren't perturbed. We knew we'd be mainly in the caravan finishing off a few things here and there, sewing curtains, painting the bathroom, etc, so we went expecting rain and expecting to be indoors *most* of the time. What we weren't expecting, were thousands and thousands of midges.

We'd read in the Caravan Club book (yep, we're now officially members) to be prepared for midges during the summer but we really weren't prepared for the masses that greeted us on arrival nor the hundreds that managed to creep through closed windows - it was like something from a Hitchcock film. But we survived, thanks to Jungle Formula (and Jonathon's foresight to bring it).

Saturday the rain cleared a little and we spent the day wandering around the lake and seeking out some of the art work. Kielder has an amazing art and architecture programme, including work by James Turrell, sixteen*(makers) and Simparch. My favourite piece is Freya's Cabin by Studio Weave. The story of Freya and Robin is really lovely and I left feeling inspired to do some illustrations based around their tale.

Midges aside, we had a really lovely, relaxing time at Kielder and I would definitely recommend a visit, the landscape is beautiful, the staff are super friendly, there's loads to do and there's a a cute little pub:)on site. Only, if you're camping, we'd suggest you arrive at Kielder before 6pm and to stay in your caravan until mid morning. Oh, and arm your self with some formula...