It's Beginning to Look a lot like Spring!

In the UK here we have a whole mixture of weather conditions with some parts still swamped with snow and others are having the delight of seeing crocuses, daffodils and snowdrops peeping up through the hard ground. Where I live it is still cold but often clear and bright and things are taking a very optimistic turn for the better. Of course in terms of camping it is still far to cold to be able to enjoy it in this country if you are in a tent, but caravaners could have a reasonable time if they stuck to the warmer southern areas.

So how was your Christmas? Are you already sick of the amount of Easter eggs there are in the shops. Were you among the people who booked their summer sun holidays on Boxing day eager to get planning and have something to look forward to? We are hoping to camp in Sweden to visit friends as our main holiday this year, but also have several trips to the Netherlands planned and at least one week camping somewhere in the UK. We are not sure if it will be London again for the whole week, or if we will take the kids there for a long weekend and go up to Norfolk for the week together when the nippers are away doing other things.

We did find a wonderful campsite near London in a place called Bexley Heath last year and we know that we want to go there again. Keep an eye on this blog for a review and for information about the Camping and Caravanning Club that we became members of. It was this membership that gave us access to this wonderful site, so we will definitely be renewing the membership on a yearly basis.

As for now, in this cold and chilly time of the year it is a really good time to go over all your kit and check that it is all okay, again I will do a checklist about that in a future post, this is more in the nature of a welcome to 2013's camping news.

I have some exciting things planned for this site this year, the introduction of a newsletter being one, lots more product reviews, campsite reviews and competitions and things so do sign up to the email list, or the feed for more information.

Readers of Lenses at Squidoo may have already seen their camp host posting a couple of lenses there including one about camping and I will be putting up a link page for all my lenses for if you are interested in a minute. This will be updated every time I have a new lens, it is another exciting project that I am enjoying. Since last I spoke I have published 2 e-books on Amazon and have another that is nearly finished. I just want to get a good collection of well written active lenses on Squidoo before finishing that book and working on other in the series and a new series that is in the pipeline.


So without further ado I will wish you all a very peaceful and prosperous New Year and look forward to chatting to you all as the year progresses!

Bright Blessings, Nici xxx

Review of the Week - The Pop Up Gazebo

Now if you take your family camping space can be somewhat at a premium and often you need to take extra smaller tents to fulfil other functions, such as the obvious toilet tent (who likes slogging across a Camp site in the middle of the night to use the loo after all?). Another important consideration is where are you going to eat? A lot of the larger house type tent offer a central room that is spacious enough to put a table and chairs in and have a little kitchen area as well, but sometimes I think it is nice to keep that area as a living space and make a separate dining space outside. After all you have come camping to make the most of the fresh air and outdoor living, so why spend the whole time inside. This is where the Pop up Gazebo comes in!

We'll Weather the Weather... or Talking About Tents!

Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be  cold, or weather the weather be hot.
We'll weather the weather, whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!

This old English poem will be familiar to many of a certain age and will certainly apply to the lives of many who are keen campers. But in order to "weather the weather.." their are a great many things to know about to survive while Camping in the Great British countryside. And it is not only weather you need to think about when you come to consider buying your first tent, unless you wish to be quickly contemplating your second tent of course!

Camping in Days Gone By

What is it that you think of when you remember camping as a child?
Were you scared of the dark and the sounds that you could hear, so different from those your familiar home made?
Do you remember being soaked to the skin, having no dignity as you stomp around in jeans, wellies and bright yellow plastic ponchos?
Or was camping one of the really good things you remember about your childhood, waking up to the sound of Green Woodpeckers in nearby trees and the smell of the traditional camp site breakfast wafting through the air?
As a child I went camping very regularly and it is one of the most incredible memories of my youth. I was one of a big family at the time as my parents fostered 5 other children and also had myself and two of my sisters.

Review of the Week - Whiz Freedom

Now this little gadget is something every girl who intends to go camping, hiking or fishing (or indeed any outdoor pursuits)should keep in their backpack. I will absolutely be investing in a couple for myself and Serph for when we go on our camping trips and I am gobsmacked that I have not discovered them sooner.
Finally a level of equality between guys and girls when it comes to answering the call of nature in the middle of nature.
For as long as I can tell, ladies have been bemoaning the lack of toilet facilities, deep in the wilds of nature, particularly when their masculine other halves have been relieving themselves up trees, down rabbit holes (alas poor bunny), or just generally any where the urge takes them.
To add insult to injury they have also been laughing themselves to tears at our attempts to balance whilst squatting, holding our clothes out of the way, holding the toilet roll and trying to avoid anyone seeing us in our state of great indignity.

Welcome

Hi and welcome to Crystal's Camping Guide.

I am Crystal and I will be your guide through many different aspects of camping throughout the year.

I am talking here about camping in tents, not caravans or motor homes, you lucky people with them probably already have all the equipment you need and will know all there is to know about that kind of camping (actually truth to tell I am clueless about that kind of camping myself!).