Back in mid-July I took our Bell Tent and Canvas Malu Awning to Stoneywish Nature Reserve in Ditchling for Max’s birthday picnic, the same time I bumped into my first pop-up campsite. We went back yesterday to meet some friends who were camping there. They had originally planned to stay at Forgewood Campsite in...
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Following on from my stepbrother’s how to build a swimming pond guide, I thought I upload a series of photos of Me and my Bell Tent to FlickR. They’ve mostly been taken by Alice Barker on a recent camping trip to Stubcroft Farm, and include a sequence of me putting up my 5 metre...
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As Dr Terry Young from the Department of Geography & Anthropology at California State Polytechnic University explained to me recently, camping is a pilgrimage to the sacred center (nature) “out there” and a common aspect of pilgrimage is a reduction, or even a disappearance, of the social distinctions of everyday life as the pilgrims...
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I hope weather improves for our camping trip this weekend because it’s been a bit windy here in Brighton, and our B&Q Round Parasol hasn’t made it through the night. Shame really as I had been using it for shade while working in the garden on the laptop. Guess now that we have our...
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I’m flattered that Emma Bradshaw has been in touch to suggest we upload our photos to the camping under canvas FlickR Group. I have to say that I’m not sure that my efforts on the point-and-click setting on my Panasonic Lumix are actually worthy of being included in such inspiring company, but it’s very...
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Nice thing about this blog is I’m finding out something new every day, which is great because as far as tents go my experience has been a bit limited. I can remember the Vango Force 10 we used on Duke Of Edinburgh Award type expeditions we used to get sent on in the Scottish...
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I headed over to the Cleveland Arms to meet our ‘advisory board’ who were as ever brimming with advice. Not sure I can remember it all now, but do remember a discussion about Outwell Tents and the pros and cons of polycotton over polyester. I also remember two people raving about their HotSpot Notebook...
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I don’t know if it’s being unfaithful, but as much as I love my new Bell Tent, I’ve always fancied a vintage trailer from the US. They’re probably totally impractical for the roads here, and not sure our new Grand Scenic could tow one and that’s if we even had someone to park it....
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I’ve just been checking out a fab photostream of vintage literature on camping, caravans and suchlike that Ivan found on FlickR. I love the 1939 John Smith’s Camping Catalogue one, it’s even got a picture of a Bell Tent just like mine in it. Wonder if they used to add bunting to them back...
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One of the reasons I decided on a Bell Tent was that I liked the way they could be decorated, so that you can customise/personalise them in a way that doesn’t seem to make sense with a tunnel tent. Sure you can get groovy patterned tents from Eurohike and even designers like Zandra Rhodes,...
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