Who needs to be in Southern Europe to get the sunshine…. its scorching over here – couldn’t ask for more, although a bit disappointed that they are already talking about a hosepipe ban after the winter the UK has had …. but what can we do?

After leaving the farm we spent a night at Rookesbury Park Campsite (£22.50) which is just north of Portsmouth before taking Hattie down to Southdowns Motorhomes early Monday morning where she was booked in for a bit of TLC…. it was always going to be an expensive visit.

Hattie stayed at Southdowns all week as there was a fair amount of work to do….. a couple of extra sockets, a fitted bike rack in the garage, new oven hinges, connecting to the France freesat box and enough Solar panels to be seen from space.

Its great, although I appreciate that we are having a particularly good June but Hattie has been fully charged by breakfast…… even with a lot of football watching!  The only issue we have found is that whilst putting the television back together we think that they didn’t quite connect one of the cables properly so currently the UK TV stations only show martians….. a bit of an issue with Red I think!  They’ll get it sorted but we need to head back for them to do it so our green faced friends will be around for the rest of the World Cup at least!

Back in Hattie and at the farm we have new calves in the field …. well, when I say new they are probably about 6 months old but very cute and inquisitive!

We have been enjoying the sunshine and even had Jonah, Karen and the kids out for a picnic…. not often that you see them outside the M25!!

As the weather has been so good we have been making the best use of the BBQ… I think we managed 6 over 8 days …. not bad… nice spicy Chicken, burgers and Lamb chops at my brothers on Sunday, Prawns and Chorizo on Monday, Smoky Beetroot Burgers on Tuesday,  Steak and Chicken on Wednesday, Chicken and Halloumi at Jools and Clares on Friday and Sausages and Chicken with Mike, Jo and Ella at ours on Sunday …..a good mix… although it makes us out to be meat lovers, most were accompanied with a good varied selection of salads!

So a few recipes that I haven’t published before….. Mackeral Pate, Mixed Bean Salad, Lentil and Goats Cheese Salad, Smokey Black Bean Beet Burgers – really moist and nutty, Chocolate Beetroot Cake and Nutella Ice Cream……so easy and so very yummm!

I did also try my hand at a bit of Strawberry Ice Cream yesterday but I think it needs another try as it wasn’t quite strawberry enough …. so watch this space!

This is now going to sound really sad…..we have a new addition to the motorhome – don’t laugh – its a twin tub washing machine ….. and its great!!! We had been talking about it for a while and now we have an inverter (and now a socket in the garage) we thought why not.  We have only used it a couple of times for clothes (not bedsheets) so far but it has a great little spin, although you do have to hold it down for the first ten seconds so it doesn’t work its way around the garage and you can wash and spin in under 15 minutes.  Yep, sad… I am sure the novelty will wear off soon!

Leaving the farm again on Thursday we headed down to Bath to catch up with friends and take in some of the beautiful rolling hills that surround it. Although we used to stay at the CL when we could, the entrance is a little too complicated for Hattie – lots of low hanging trees and a very steep slope – so we headed back to the Bath Marina Campsite which although a bit bigger than we would normally opt for, suits the purpose and worked perfectly for entertaining and also getting to friends to be entertained!  We had also forgotten that it is just around the corner from the Electric Bear Micro-Brewery so Keith decided to buy a few to sample whilst we were in the vicinity…

Waking to what can only be the warmest day yet this morning, I went for a run along the old railway path whilst Keith got some HIIT training in before we set off up the M5 to a little place just North of Doncaster where Hattie is having her next round of work …. air suspension and hydraulic levelling jacks.  We are staying overnight in the van tonight and then leaving her for a few nights to have the work done whilst we head into an Airbnb in York.