Newtons Nature Diary

Self-Build inspiration

2011-05-11T14:16:00.001+01:00

Self-Build

This wonderful conversion inspired me to convert our Berlingo.

First Trip away

2011-05-11T13:41:00.003+01:00

So the time came for us to have our first trip away. We bought a special tent that fits snug to the car. The added benefit is that we could leave the tent as it can be free standing adn drive off in the car. Even better than a Campervan!! The tent is obtainable from http://www.caranex.co.uk/

So here is the finished product in use

The only drawback was that our first night of camping was the first night of rain for a couple of months! There was thunder and lightning and torrential rain. As a test you couldn't have got more extreme. The tent held up to the conditiond and we stayed warm and dry. The bed was snug and very comfortable. Though the rain was lound on the roof, Rog still managed to sleep right through the storm.

Preparation for 2011

2011-05-11T11:52:00.012+01:00

As Scruffy has been re-homed and we still have the Berlingo, I thought it could be good to see how easy it is to "convert" the car to sleep in.

We love camping but find that comfortable sleeping is an issue. So I researched the internet and came across this wonderful idea: http://youtu.be/Oyffv623TDA and the practical "How to" at http://smallmotorhome.co.uk/self-build.html.

Over the Easter Holidays, I get an extra 2 days at the University, I went about creating my own bed base. My materials cost about £70.00 and I had it completed in two days.

Here is the finished product, designed in three sections, the section nearest the rear door is deeper than those in the instructions as I wanted to leave this one in the car when the seats are returned to their normal position.

It fits nicely across the width of the car - 4ft.

Built on legs so that we can store items underneath and designed with moddile legs to help support our combined weight!

And here is a view from the side. Now we are looking forward to trying it out.

Orangetip Butterfly and a pair of Shieldbugs

2009-04-26T20:04:00.005+01:00

On Saturday we went out to the woods at college to identify the plants that were out. We found an Orange Tip Butterfly who let us really close to take pictures of him. Isn't he amazing! Just look at those eyes. He was sitting on some beautiful bluebells.

We also saw a pair of Shieldbugs - I just need to work out what these are now!

First timer

2009-04-24T13:13:00.001+01:00

This is my inaugurational post, I have read many from across the USA and am inspired to set up my own one now.

Hopefully it will become the place where my husband, R, and I write up our experiences of our experiences with nature.

We both love walking, photography and surveying; our major areas of interest are fungi and botany, but anything that walks, crawls or slides around is also noted and photographed.