I brought handwork on holiday with me.
Of course.
About 75 hexies. I have all blue & white and some pale pink scraps with me.
But it’s only enough to keep my hands busy while my ears listen to a talking book or two. Trouble is, I’m now so fast at making hexies that I have a rather large pile made for the few hours I’ve worked on it. I have no idea what these hexies and the other scraps I brought with me will evolve into. Time will tell.
We’re having a wonderfully lazy time. In earlier times, I used to pack activities into our trips to Cairns, mainly revolving around food: the tracking down, smelling, sampling, tasting, enjoying and taking home of. These days, I’m someone limited in how much luscious cheese, hand-made chocolate, artisan coffee blends and succulent tropical fruit I can actually safely consume. I choose my meals…. sensibly although not boringly (see below!). It’s not quite as much fun, and importantly, the absence of gastro-touring leaves us free to do, well, nothing very much, and do it lavishly!
‘Fishy benny’: eggs benedict with smoked salmon and sautéd mushrooms on rocket and rye, topped with a lemony hollandaise
Before lunch today, we indulged today in a spot of bogus caravan-shopping. There’s one big caravan yard in Cairns and about half a million RV, camper van and camper-trailer yards, but none of the latter are of interest to us. We took Mouse and toured the caravan yard, went into every caravan (not Mouse, he inspected the outsides) and assessed it. All very slick and shiny, but just not, well, comfortable. The kitchens had large shiny appliances and sleek surfaces, but almost nowhere to do any work. Perhaps they don’t expect people to actually prepare meals, just heat up ready meals or reheat a pizza. They certainly don’t expect people to have books, or sewing machines, or sports equipment or a large collection of spices, or even, heaven forbid, a dog. There are buttons and switches and fold out this and drop down that, but the furnishings are nasty, there’s nowhere to hang a large fluffy towel or two, and heaven forbid you should have a coffee machine. So until we win the lottery and can have our ideal caravan built to our specification, we’ll stick to Miz Lizzie, who can comfortably and neatly accommodate everything we want to bring and use.
Mouse has written about his expedition out to dinner with us last night. I have discovered that if I reblog his posts here and then want to update the original, the updates don’t carry over. If anyone can point out how to do that, I’d be grateful. In the meantime, you’ll find it here if you’re interested.
‘Raunchy huevos’: omelette with chilli,spicy beans, avocado, roasted chorizo, roasted tomato and sour cream, with tortilla chips on the side.
And now I feel a large snooze coming on. Lunch was pretty delicious, and I shall join the Husband and the dog in our small but comfy and air-conditioned home away from home.
Tomorrow we have a small road trip planned. I’ll tell you all about it then.
talltalesfromchiconia 
Your lunches are never ever boring… there’s all the glamour in it with the required calorie count which is very important for your sugar levels.
I have been to see many many fancyshamancy caravans over the years but always come back to renovating our commuter bus …. Ive got the plan all set out in my head and have a fair few ‘Pins’ also to show the husband what I want.
Miss Lizzie is the BEST… in my book… as I’ve sat inside and comfortably sewn in it 😍
For me it’s nice to have a few modcons but it has to be ‘u’…. U can make a home with anything and it’s the people (human or otherwise)who make it a home 🏠
If I could stretch Miz Lizzie out another metre and a half, she’d be unbeatable. That’d allow us to add a wet bathroom and a replacement table now that Mouse occupies the original banquette seating. If we ever struck it rich and had a new van built to our specifications, it’d be laid out exactly like her… maybe with slightly wider bunks!
Nothing better than a home away from home. The van is inside now and J is looking at removing the engine to start working on it. I will get our carpenter to do the inside for us as it will be less stress on J… hopefully next year we will see progress & as there’s no travel interstate in the near future it’s a good start & we will be ready when we can travel 🧳
Oh, now THAT’S exciting! And as you have the plan of the interior clear in your mind, it should be easy to work with a carpenter. One bit of learning I’d offer: storage space under the bed is most easily accessed by drawers. If you have to haul up the mattress and lift a hatch, you won’t do it much and the space will be wasted.
Our problems the wheel arch inside
Making it two long seats over the arch which then converts into a bed at night… so can open as we need … our space is limited as it’s smaller than a regular caravan … but I’m good with working with confined spaces
We have the same deal in the caravan. On one side it’s enclosed by my bunk and the bit beside it contains the deep cycle battery. On the other side, it is surrounded by shallow drawers and shoe lockers, which is a good use of the space. The other thing I used to do in my VW Kombi is sling a stretchy cargo net across the ceiling to stuff things into to get them out of the way. I know you’ll work it out!
And I have a few quilts that can go in there too 🤩…. Not to say I’ll have a fair few more made by the time the van is actually ready 😍
Make a couple of Quillows: quilts that fold up on themselves and tuck into a large pocket on the back to form a pillow or cushion. There are instructions all over the internet.
A caravan, like your main home, is a very personal thing. Looking is great because it gives ideas but if Miss Lizzie works then it would have to be something really special to tempt you to change her. And, let’s face it, not many people take their sewing machine on holiday or want to cook whilst away so your requirements are somewhat unusual!
We both feel exactly that way, and that we already have the best possible setup, but sometimes we like to go and look at new ‘vans to get ideas or to see what’s now available. Plus, of course, it lets us play “When we win the Lottery….”
Now I want to see the post that shows me Miss Lizzie? I assume there is one…
As for food stuffs, I’m with you on that – still working on what food disagrees with my digestive system and why. My food stream has got rather narrow, and as soon as I see something like above, I know I will have to shift 1/2 it off the plate…
This is the original post (https://talltalesfromchiconia.wordpress.com/2017/02/13/miz-lizzie) from when we first bought her. She’s changed a fair bit since then, with new curtains and upholstery, cushions and quilts. The table has come out and her banquette seats are now Mouse’s bed. She’s homey, comfortable, and best of all, has a decent sized kitchen. It’s been 4 years of sheer fun.
thanks Kate, read and viewed – nice little “play house” as you aptly called it…and obviously with your personal touches, it’s all of you 🙂
She does look a lot better inside now, with the departure of the frankly disgusting (stiff with dirt) blue curtains and the disappearance of the pinky-purple upholstery!
A lazy holiday sounds perfect to me and I just know we’ll see those lovely hexies again sometime in the future.
I’m pretty sure you will! I have soooo many blue and white scraps that a quilt to use some of them up seemed like an excellent plan, and the dusty slightly peachy pale pink I chose to go with (also scraps) is not too unbearably girly, especially as an accent.
There’s a comfort to looking over other caravans for sale only to affirm Miz Lizzie is still for you. Sort of reminds me of the way I think to myself, hmmmmm, when observing other people’s marriages. Interesting features, I think to myself, but I’ll stick with the one I’ve got.
You are so right! I’m sure other models have pros and cons, but the one I have has the perfect combination of features. Oh, and the caravan, too!
Your lunches look perfectly mmmmmmm 😍
On occasion we similarly amuse ourselves by tyrekicking brand new shiny latest caravans… but the plasticky interior odour emitted by some of them is so nasty we make a hasty exit.
I just can’t stand the nasty nylon and vinyl upholstery and the plethora of shiny black glass. It’s actually very nice to walk into something that costs such an obscene amount of money and think “No, you’ve got nothing I want here”…
Terry is thinking it just MIGHT be time to stop farming and maybe get a camper and do little trips away. Hummmm I wonder.
Can I just say… DO IT.
During farming season he thinks it when spring comes he is anxious to get back ‘out there’
Well, during winter, you could head for a bit of sunshine? We go south in the summer, to cooler climates, and north in the winter for a bit of extra sunshine and warmth. It’s not a lot of difference, but just enough to be a nice change.
A slight change is always refreshing.
Sometimes it’s nice to just relax on holiday. You have such a nice caravan — and good company. 🙂
I agree! I always look forward to our trips away. There’s still all the usual stuff to do: cooking, cleaning and laundry, but somehow I don’t mind, and of course, it’s much smaller to keep tidy!
Now I feel very hungry, time to cook dinner me thinks.
My food reporting must come at a rather strange time for you, given the time difference!
You can either have too little ot too much craft on holiday. Just enjoy. The
I brought a project that’s at a cruisey stage. I can do as much or as little as I want and there’s no pressure. It’s perfect!
I agree with you on the new campers. Sometimes better isn’t. It is fun to look and then appreciate what you have all the more. I always take too much with me when I go anywhere to keep myself busy. The idea of smelling and tasting new things is what traveling is all about. I’m ready to do some too. But I’m still behind here.
The pleasure of coming home is greatly increased when it comes timely. Sometimes you’re still having too much fun and you don’t want to, sometimes, you’re over the travelling earlier and you’re dying to get back. This time, it was just right.