Tales from a down-shifted family
- Making the most of modest means
I do enjoy camping. Yes, it’s a bit of a pfaff; everything is a bit of a compromise, nothing is quite perfect, it can be cold, uncomfortable and a bit of a chore. But all of that is kind of fun. Maybe it’s the primal accomplishment of surviving less than ideal conditions that satisfies the...
Read more »You’d be forgiven for thinking that after a day away racing in the Fishguard Bay Ocean Race I’d be happy to have a slow start the next day. Try telling by body that. Instead it was up at 5am and raring to go. I didn’t want to leave too early for North Wales though. I...
Read more »Typical hey? It’d been months and months, possibly more than a year since I’d had even the slightest sniffle, but I woke up on Friday feeling a little Bleurgh! I had a sore throat and just felt a little weak, nothing too bad but not ideal the day before the first event of the year....
Read more »After a 21 mile paddle in the morning it was time for some recovery in the form of gardening. The garden itself is in recovery mode as well having been battered by the winds of Storm Hannah. The trees took the brunt of it with all of their fresh spring growth ripped from their branches...
Read more »What better way to start the week than a nice little swim in the sea. First time this year without my extremities covered in neoprene so it was a little chilly despite being in the balmy waters of Borth. It was a little choppy too as Jo, Sara, Nick and myself set off to the...
Read more »Another bank holiday, weekend, but this one was a little chilly. There were lots of jobs to do as well, both in the house, the garden and cleaning the van. Saturday was therefore spent washing, waxing, tidying, cleaning, mowing and weeding. Things did look a little better once some of it it was done. Riding...
Read more »With the first race of the quadrathlon season coming up in a couple of weeks and having just written a ‘why surf ski‘ blog post I thought it was time to answer the ‘Why Quadrathlon’ question with a similar article. Especially seeing as most people don’t know what a quadrathlon is. So, here goes. What...
Read more »Whenever I tell anyone that I’ve been surf-skiing they always look at me a little blankly and don’t know what it is. People I would expect to know don’t seem to know what a surf ski is either. To make matters worse, even once I’ve explained to them what the ski itself is like and...
Read more »A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly. This a proverbial bee-keepers’ saying, from the mid 17th century meaning that the later in the year it is, the less time there will be for bees to collect pollen...
Read more »
