MAKING HOUSE

A friend visited me for lunch yesterday and ended up staying overnight. She arrived in her camper van as I was the first stop on her adventure out.
So yesterday afternoon we went for an explore round the lanes into the hills. She'd never been to this part of the world before and like everyone else who comes here was made speechless at the beauty of the place.
Whilst she was admiring the views I was lost in my little world of her cozy home.
I just loved that behind our two seats was a sofa that became a bed, a sink,fridge and cooker unit that was opposite her shower and toilet. And all just tall enough for us to stand up in.

I have always loved making house, whether making home made dens out of old sheets when I was a child in my bedroom. Which when done would then have the contents put in order, a place for the bed, a place for my teddies and a place for my imaginary cooking stuff, it was all sorted out so neatly and compartmentalised. To sorting out things on boating holidays or caravans as a young woman. I adored reading books by Enid Blyton as a child when the heroes of the stories all set up home whether in a trees or a gypsy caravan.

To me the idea of having little cupboards with just the right amount of china,pots and pans is a joy. Having supplies in the fridge and water to boil the kettle is just bliss. To have a miniature home with everything one needs for an adventure is so enticing. To have had as one holiday as a child a bed in a cupboard (in a caravan)was absolute heaven.

I have only once been on a holiday in a Winnebago. The boys were 6 and 18 months old and it was the last week of our summer spent in San Fransisco. Kit and his dad went off to pick up our holiday transport whilst I sorted out food and clothes for us all.
When this machine turned up I couldn't believe it.
Opening the side door there was a table and two bench seats in front of me.To the one side was the galley with shower opposite. A door opened into the double bedroom with windows on either side. I was in heaven unpacking everything.
Fortunately as Alex was so young and still in a travel cot, there was no argument about which bed Kit was getting, he had the bed high above the driving cab.
Kit and I loved it, the neat hidey holes to store our belongings, the shelves to put teddies and books around his high up bed. My tiny wardrobe to store my clothes.

I never realised that Kit has my love of making house until he left to go to uni.
The first day we got there I left him surrounded by his belongings, and when I went back two weeks later his room and been turned into a cozy and safe home. He'd bought, pictures and rugs to cover the walls and furniture. He'd arranged the furniture so as to make the most of the space. In fact he did this in all three rooms he spent time in at Cambridge. Which probably goes someway to explain why all his friends he made there congregated in his room as the hub of their world. And why he now lives in London with two of them and is still the person who makes house around them!

So now I want a camper van!! but as that's not going to happen maybe I just need to spend some time doing a bit of re- organising here which will make me enjoy this house again, at least till I get to start anew in another place.

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If you look carefully at the pic at the top you might spot the heron standing next to the tree, seen when walking on Wednesday