Freshwinds

Last week we took our first holiday together as a family of three! We took a short 3 night camping trip not too far from home, and it was blissful.

A lovely little much needed break away from our everyday life and routines. Also a way of celebrating 5 years since Vince and I had our first date!

We found a small, quiet campsite on a working farm only 15 minutes by car from our house. I love that we live in a fairly busy town full of life and character and history and yet we only have to travel a few minutes out of it to find ourselves surrounded by the beautiful countryside that is the High Weald where there is barely a building in sight, save a few farm houses!

We spent almost the whole time on the farm as it encompassed so much land that we could walk for hours and not leave it’s boundaries… although we were walking at the pace of a 20 month old toddler most of the time which admittedly is quite slow going!

By the farm house is a gorgeous little garden full of veggies, flowers, herbs and animals for anyone visiting to stroll around and enjoy. So we did! We visited this little patch once or twice a day and it was almost always deserted and tranquil and oh so beautiful. I wish it were my back garden so so much! It felt pretty much like someone had sneaked a look inside my head at how my dream garden might look and created it!

There is even a ‘cob’ building under construction! I’ve been fascinated with cob as a building material recently so I was amazed to just come across it in use.

As it is a working farm there are plenty of animals roaming about that kept Emma fully entertained. The most dominating presence was the herd of cows and it’s very loud bull, that occupied the field adjacent to our camp. There was a public footpath up to the farm house that cut straight through this field which allowed us to get up close and personal with the animals. Although at times it felt a little too close for comfort!

Despite spending hours with Emma and the cows I completely failed to get any photos of them :/ But I did snap some other creatures that milled about 🙂

Emma also made friends with the children in the camp nearest us and on returning from our walks we were met by a chorus of “Emma! Emma!” which was just lovely! Although we need to work on our little ladies boundaries as she will just wander in to anyone’s tent who seems friendly, which can be a little awkward for us when retrieving her!!

In some ways I think my favourite part of the whole trip was after putting Emma to bed in the evening, spending an hour with Vince sat by the camp fire in the quiet dark with marshmallows and a cup of tea, listening to the sound of owls, foxes, rustling undergrowth and of course the Bull next door!

It really was a wonderful few days and we shall most definitely be going back as soon as possible!