Lovely Spring day so off to the van

 It's going to be a nice sunny day, so we've decided to go to the caravan again and get all the last remaining jobs done, ready for us to go and stay on Friday.  So we'll be cleaning, making the beds up, putting away the bags of toiletries and dry food goods we'll be taking over.  Husband also has to put away all the tools he's got in his bedroom, which he's been using as an indoor shed since we opened up the van the week before last.  So when we go on Friday, we'll just have our clothes and the fresh food to put away, and then it'll be straight into relaxation mode for a couple of days - we're really looking forward to that.

There's a really nice independent family owned garden centre near the van park, they grow most of their plants themselves rather than buying them in, and they're cheaper than the big nationals.  So we'll go and have a quick look in there whilst we're at the van today.  And on the way home we'll call into Aldi to get a couple of fresh food bits I forgot when we went shopping last week.

I'm almost scared to say it, but the car has been performing very well the past couple of weeks, it's still got a problem for which husband is awaiting the part from Italy (the wrong part was sent before), it should arrive this week.  The car hasn't gone into limp mode at all recently, we still don't know why it kept happening, but it would be nice to think it was just a temporary thing that has since somehow fixed itself.  When the mobile mechanic comes to fit the part, he'll also do another full diagnostic and see if he can work out what the limp mode thing was.  Another good thing is that husband says this car has much better fuel economy than our last one, despite this car being bigger and older.  I know nothing about these things, but husband is pleased with it.  And of course we were able to transport everything we needed the car for - taking away all the many bits of the old built in sofa in 2 trips, taking over the new furniture, removing the old metal framed bed and transporting the new divan one.  We wouldn't have been able to do any of that in the previous little Fiat, we'd have had to hire a man & van a couple of times, which would have cost us £100s.  I still don't like the car, but would be happy to keep it if it's fixed and continues to work well, my dislike is only based on the car's ugliness and is not relevant at all really.  It's a functional vehicle, not a pretty one.  Husband will be chatting to the mechanic about it, to see if he thinks it's worth keeping or getting rid.  The mechanic comes highly recommended (he's a good friend of a good friend) and is totally trustworthy.

We spent time this weekend working out exactly what we want to grow in the way of veg, both here at home and at the van - salady things at the van.  Whatever we grow here at home has to be low maintenance, seeing as we won't be here every day.  Our (loose) plan is to spend around 10 days or so at the van at a time, during which we'll come home perhaps 1 day to collect post and water the garden.  Then we'll come back home for a few days, I'll need to do the washing and some baking/batch cooking.  And then it'll be back to the van again.  We do have a neighbour who will water the garden for us, but he tends to be a bit hit and miss, however, we know our lovely van neighbours will definitely water our van veg, which will be in pots.  We do the same for them, although they don't grow veg, only flowers.

Thank you everyone for your comments on my last post, the Ukraine situation is having a profound effect on all of us I think.  It's certainly given me pause for thought and made me a better person.