Woodworking and Writing, Our October Round-up

I can’t believe it’s already six weeks since we got back from our motorhome tour of Brittany, time has flown. Zagan was popped back into his storage spot and flew through his MOT the other day. He’s also been treated to a new stereo and aerial (we might finally be able to Radio 2 in the UK!), a new water drain down valve (the last one sheered off) and a new steering wheel cover – he’s a lucky van.

Before his MOT we gave him a wash as he had an impressive dead bug collection on his flat front, but we’ve been unable to get the cooking fat splatters off his paintwork. If anyone has any tips or suggestions, please let us know as we love cooking al fresco when we can, but the power cable on our hot electric hot plate isn’t very long, so it’s always close to the van. We’re also trying to find a way to stop the food from spitting on him, maybe using something we already carry as a shield.

We’ve been quiet blog-wise since we got back from Brittany. Other than his MOT Zagan hasn’t turned a wheel, but we got away in the car at the start of October for a long weekend on the Norfolk/Suffolk border. After the success of throwing a pot at the Denby Pottery, for my 50th Jay bought me a spoon carving experience. He knew I’d had ‘learning to whittle wood’ on my bucket list for years but not got around to doing anything about it, so he booked us both onto a one day course with the Gosman Spoon Company.

As the Queen’s funeral had taken place on my birthday and pretty much everything was closed, we decided to have a long weekend away to belatedly celebrate and booked ourselves into a lovely AirBnB in the nearby village of Redgrave. A wander around the village on the day we arrived instantly relaxed us. It’s a small place with thatched cottages, a community shop and pub and a village green complete with duck pond and huge oak tree.

The spoon carving course was a short drive over the border into Norfolk, where we were warmly greeted by Nick and his wife Debbie at their home. There were just six of us on the course and while Nick introduced us to several different types of wood, Debbie provided us all with a welcome brew. Their classroom is in their garden, on a bed of wood shavings, surrounded by nature. Nick gave us a demonstration of what we’d be doing, and as we picked up our axes (not a power tool to be seen here) the sun burned away the clouds. I was soon peeling off the layers of clothes I’d wrapped up in as I started to transform my block of wood.

As we all axed away, our wooden blocks slowly formed spoon shapes. Nick and Debbie watched over us – gently reminding me more than once to keep my fingers away from the axe! When I was unable to work out how to hold the wood to hack off a part of it, they would step in and demonstrate, before passing the axe back once I was sure what I needed to do.

After an hour or so of axing my arms ached, but I had a piece of wood that looked a bit like a spoon that a child had drawn. It was time to switch to the knives. Nick and Debbie showed us how to use both straight and curved bladed knives and more importantly how to not cut ourselves while we shaped and smoothed off the spoon’s surfaces.

After some homemade vegetable soup rustled up by Debbie, we sat in the sunshine and chatted as we fettled out spoons. It was a perfect day. We both left with a spoon to use with our Denby bowls, but more importantly I’ll never take a hand-carved wooden spoon for granted again, having seen how much work goes into making one.

The following day we went for a morning jog together over to and around the Redgrave and Lopham Fen. It was a beautiful morning and as we ran we spotted Muntjac deer and several of the Polish Konik ponies who live wild there. Fortunately we didn’t spot any of the protected Fen Raft Spiders which, according to the information board, feed on stickleback fish.

While in this beautiful part of the world rather than head for the coast, our usual default, we decided to take a trip to Bury St Edmunds. We knew nothing about the place (as usual, we’ve never been big on research), so we decided to park for free for three hours at the Tesco and walk into the centre. Once there we were very pleasantly surprised at how much there was to see and do.

We spent a good couple of hours wandering around the ruins of the Abbey of St Edmund which was once one of the largest and grandest monasteries in England. However it was the abbey’s importance that led to its destruction. When King Henry VIII closed it in 1539 it was systematically destroyed to demonstrate the King’s power and control.

After a quick nip into the Cathedral for a look around, it was time to head back to Tesco and grab a few bits of food for dinner and chill back in our AirBnB. It was a lovely long, relaxing and educational weekend and while we missed Zagan, we did love having somewhere with a bath and a full sized oven for a change.

The bath was especially welcome as a few days before our weekend away I ran one of my favourite races – the Robin Hood Half Marathon. Jay unfortunately had to defer his place to next year as he is still having problems with his heels, but they are getting better. We’ve got our fingers crossed that they’ll be fixed soon as he ran a super speedy time at the Boston (UK) Marathon back in April which has earned him a ‘Good For Age’ place at next year’s London Marathon.

Instead of running Jay has spend a lot of time in the gym, keeping fit while his heels heal. He has also spent most of these past six weeks updating two of our books. Our Motorhome France book has had a big refresh, following our tour of Brittany earlier this year. The 2023 edition of our Motorhome Touring Handbook is published and includes lots of updates including new routes for long-term trips (as Croatia has asked to join the Schengen area next year). This is a shame for us motorhomers as Croatia was a great place to explore while waiting for your Schengen allowance to build up again. Thank goodness our books are print on demand with Amazon so we can update them regularly, as the motorhome world is always changing.

Our plans for the rest of the year see us on a few more trips without Zagan, but we’re keen to give him one last spin in 2022 even if it’s just for a few days. We’re keeping our eyes on the weather forecast and hope to get away soon. As for 2023, well other than Jay running the London Marathon in April we don’t have a clue what we’re doing. We’re back home helping to support our parents at the moment, so we’ll just have to see how things go and grab time away where we can. Thank goodness we got in our long motorhome trips when we did.

Ju x