Three nights down, three hundred and sixty two to go!

Nights two and three in Willow have been smooth, warm and comfortable. It is way cosier than a tent and whilst there is no denying it is compact living in the extreme we are already starting to get a feel for the rhythm of what life might be like. We have shed yet more stuff and the van almost feels spacious as a result. On our first night we realised two pillows each was unneccessary and went down to one each, decided our 'just-in-case' fleece blanket and spare sleeping bag' suuplies were excessive and took them out. On day two I went through my massive heap of clothes I had been unable to get my head around paring down while still in the house and halved it, meaning the clothes cupboard is now much more tidy and organised and has space for waterproofs too. This morning we decided the metal ladder was not worth it's weight and trip hazard status and that made it into my car too. The kids are able to scramble up and down into the bunk without it, it is unwieldy and we are just bound to hit either a window or a child with it as we attempt to shove it in places to get it out of the way. Having my car with us for the first few days has been fantastic and meant we were able to bring along the few things we *thought* we might need (a fold up camping stool for each of us has been promoted back into the van and as we have four legs for the table meaning it can be used outside we now have seating for outside the van sorted for the evenings when we might want to cook and eat in the open air) as well as stow away things we have already decided we don't need after all.

We had a taste of WWOOFing staying with our friends the last couple of nights and did our best to repay their hospitality by helping move stuff around the farm, assist with some lifting of pallets to help build a pig ark and did the cooking last night. We had two lovely evenings of chatting, sharing a bottle of wine and talking about big dreams and philosophising. Ady and I had a walk into the town to buy dinner ingredients and I am loving watching him start to relax and feel the pressures of that constant feeling of 'should be doing..' hanging over his head. It's a promising start.

We have had a minor wobble in that our tenants were due to move into the house yesterday but I had a phonecall to say one of them had gone to a funeral and so they had not been able to go and sign paperwork, collect keys and hand over the rent. They are now due to move in on Monday. I am very hopeful that this will go smoothly, but rather holding my breath at it not happening quite as per my schedule.

Tonight we are at my parents, my car has been eased into a locked garage where it will sit until we come home and need it again. We've all had baths and Star has spent an hour dozing on the sofa (she has had some very late nights). We now have a week of campsite with hook-up ahead of us to really get used to sleeping, cooking and living in the van before heading to our first WWOOF hosts in just over a week.


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