Major changes.....

Inside Eva the Eriba...(small space living)

A couple of weeks have passed since my last blog post.....
 During that time a lot has changed.

 Over the winter my big complaint has been that due to the weather I have been restricted to the van and not been able to get out much on the bike or even a decent walk.
 Now we have Covid 19 and all the restrictions that that has placed on us all. About 10 days ago due to my age and my medical condition I was advised to stay at home for the next 12 weeks and not go out.
 Since then restrictions for everyone have been introduced and the country is in effect in lockdown.

 Originally there was some confusion about all caravan parks and campsites having to close down.
 Our caravan park is part residential and after a few days some official clarity on the subject of closure was released that stated for those like us whose prime residence was their motorhome or caravan ( full-timers) they would be allowed to stay on sites.

 We have now resigned ourselves to the possibility of being here right round to next spring.
 If the situation is over by the summer then that will be a plus but if it isn't over by then at least we will be prepared for the long haul anyway......

 According to Anne who has had to go out a couple of times for food shopping the police have been stopping people in nearby Yelverton checking people's movements and turning people back if it is felt that their reasons for being out are not deemed essential....

  For our exercise there is a 40 minute circular walk that we can do that follows a country lane and on which we have not met anyone at all. I also have my bike fixed on a turbo which I use with online training programmes ( see the image below).

So currently we are ticking along ok... Not really what we had planned for this year but that is the same for everyone in the UK and most of the world right now....

Highlight of the week??

Well the weather has still continued to be all over the place with more rain and even more wind... 
I decided that I wasn't going to ride the bike on one good day only to be followed by a further 7/10 days of bad weather when it's impossible to ride.
 Once I start riding I want to be able to work on my cycling fitness every other day or as close to it as possible although I had hoped that by the time we had entered the month of March the weather would have started to be a bit kinder than it actually is...

 Still when I do start to get on the bike again regularly I know that I will be able to get back to fitness quite quickly as I have never had a problem in the past and this year I have been working hard at losing weight.
 Every winter I put on weight and then spend the spring and summer cycling it off.

 This year I have made drastic changes to my diet and by doing so I have been losing 2 lbs a week consistently since the beginning of the year. By the time that we move on from this site in mid April after Easter I will have reached my target weight.
 Getting back on the bike then will mean that I won't be dragging around a lot of excess weight.
 That is the plan anyway......

Not a lot has been happening around the site ...... All is quiet on the western front as can be seen  in the photo's of the site below.....

Highlight of the week? Well it could have been emptying the toilet cassette ha ..ha..

Full time touring is not all about freedom....fun and excitement as a lot of people will try and kid you... a lot of it can be pretty mundane and with the kind of weather that we have experienced this past winter it's been more about battening down the hatches keeping warm and considering identifying as a hedgehog so that we can go into some form of hibernation lol........

Possible highlight of the week??

Putting everything on hold.....

Three storms in as many weeks has meant putting everything on hold.... 
This time last year we had a really bright spell with warm and sunny weather allowing me to sit out in the sun with a coffee and cake. 
This year has been the complete opposite. 

My thoughts are with all those that have suffered flooding. It really must be awful to have your home and possessions destroyed. 
For us it wouldn't be so bad... 
If we suffered flooding it would be relatively easy for us to replace the van and as we have already downsized and stripped back all our possessions anyway, what we do have would be easy for us to gather together and head off to the nearest Premier Inn or similar... That of course is one of the benefits of a mobile lifestyle...

As I write this the rain has started yet again although luckily the gale force winds of this latest storm 'Jorge' appear to have moved on away from us. 

Normally at this time of year I would be starting to prepare the van for the touring season ahead.... getting all those little jobs done that we need some settled weather in order to complete.. 

Things such as cleaning and polishing the van....sorting out all the summer kit... checking the awning... replacing items that have worn out etc. 
At the moment I have no idea when I will make a start on these tasks although the one thing we do have in our favour is the fact that we are staying on our winter pitch for an additional three weeks in order to avoid the inflated prices of club sites over the Easter holidays.

 It seemed to make sense to hang on here and start touring again when Easter was over... It will save us money but more importantly it will give us some extra time to prepare as due to the weather everything seems to be delayed anyway. .

A couple of weeks ago I bought myself another camera but due to the terrible weather, until a few days ago I hadn't been able to get out and try it ..... 

For this blog most of the images I use are direct from my mobile phone camera with the occasional shot  that I might have taken with my small Sony RX100 111. 
That is a brilliant little camera that can produce very high quality images which is great for such a small, convenient carry everywhere camera...
 The new camera I purchased was an upgrade to the Fuji XE-1 that I have been using for a few years now for my more serious images which are mostly in monochrome.

 I love the retro feel of the Fuji X series cameras and I find that the controls are more intuitive than a lot of other modern cameras including my little Sony...
 It probably says a lot about my old school way of thinking when it comes to camera design in this digital age ... 

Anyway a couple of days ago we had a very cold but almost dry day so I was able at last to get out and try out my new photographic acquisition...... 
The moor is very very wet and walking on it is a bit like walking on a wet sponge but I headed up to the old Harrowbeer airfield which is a short walk from our campsite and for an hour or two I was able to play around with the new camera. 
I took a number of shots in and around The Rock which is a rocky outcrop on the edge of the moor...
 I have posted an image of The Rock below but that photo was taken with my mobile phone camera. I took it when I was setting up the shots with the new camera as I wanted to quickly check the composition of the images I was proposing to shoot... 
 To the left side of the image you can see a couple of walkers sheltering from the bitter wind that was blowing that day...

Eventually you will be able to see the results with the new camera as they filter through to my monochrome photo blog 'Aura of Past Shadows'.
 Currently I am posting images on that blog from my back catalogue of files... If you are interested in taking a look there is a link in the sidebar on this blog.