We have had a short but productive day.
When we woke up the sky was Lakeland-slate grey, and the rain was beating noisily down on to the trampoline outside our window.
To my secret happiness, Mark got up first, and reinstated our custom of having coffee in bed. We have been in such a hurry to get up and rush off to the camper that we have stopped doing this, having regretfully decided that it is a hedonistic waste of time.
It was a complete hedonistic waste of time and we enjoyed it very much. It was splendid to sit quietly with the dogs and drink steaming tarry black coffee and contemplate our achievements of the week and our intentions for the week to follow.
These did not really need excessive contemplation because they are much the same as the aims for last week and the week before. We want to carry on doing things to the camper van.
You will not be surprised to hear this. We have been doing things to the camper van every day for as long as we can remember now, and when we have finished there is another camper van parked right next to it, waiting for us to make a start.
I am sure this does not make for very exciting reading, but it is very happy to do. We are sustained in our efforts by a whole joyful fantasy of one day going away in our own Mr. Tumpy’s Caravan. We sat in bed and considered it with the deepest contentment this morning.
It will have electricity from Mark’s solar panels, and enough steaming hot water from its new tanks and LPG gas to mean that nobody has ever got to wait for a shower. It will have beautiful wide windows in the roof to let in much more sunshine, and a smooth hand carved draining board. It will have comfortable swivelling seats in the cab and heavy velvet curtains. It has been imagined so that everything in it is beautiful, or useful, or, preferably, both, and it will be the perfect place to sit quietly and read, or to curl up with hot chocolate after long walks, or to eat good food and watch films.
On top of this we have made it so pretty that nobody will be grumpy with us for being degenerate and scruffy any more. It is coloured in green and yellow and has pictures on it. Mark says it is perfect for stealth camping, it has a woodland side, with the flowers and the tree, and an urban side, with the little house. We will just park with the appropriate one facing outwards, and nobody will notice that we are there at all.
We had to think about it all very hard this morning because it is Saturday, and so we could not be there in person. Instead we did some ethically acceptable shopping in Booths, which is much like normal shopping, only more expensive and with a better choice of cheese.
When we got back we had to hang the washing all over the house and put the dehumidifier on, because of the rain. There are sheets and towels and aprons and socks draped about all over the place, on the bannister and the backs of the rocking chairs and on the shelves in my office. It is very wet outside, but warm and still, we left the windows open and lit the fire, because we are going to need the sheets again at bedtime.
We went to work in the end, and to our happiness the rain faded away, leaving everywhere fresh and green and damp. It is a pleasant sort of evening to be in a taxi.
The picture is the new seats going in the cab…
