I have created this blog to share my interest in all forms of stitching, quilting, sewing, knitting, medieval re-enactment and costume making – particularly my love of historical embroidery. I also love travelling,especially when it also involves any of my other interests.
The world of heritage and history is full of dilemmas. What should be displayed, how should stories be told, and how do we deal with the past that doesn’t fit current sensibilities?
I have been to many museums that have tried to address these things, the Pitt-Rivers in Oxford being a particularly good example. Often they will adopt the approach of explaining why these things were popular or acceptable at the time.
Whilst we were in Salamanca we came across a small museum that presented us with small dilemma. The museum was dedicated to bull fighting. Always a contentious subject, but a very large part of Spanish culture. Should we go?
In the end we did, I knew that it would be full of the most amazing embroidery, and I am not of the opinion that things should be ignored because they are difficult. I would never go and watch a bull fight, but was interested to know more.
The displays of matador costumes were stunning. Spain does embroidery and gold work for costumes, such as the Moors and Christians, and the Semana Santa festivals, to such a high standard.
It is particularly impressive as these costumes would be seen from a distance, rather than close up. The level of detail is amazing.
It was also notable that most of them were really small. There were costumes dating back to the 1940s, and they reminded me a lot of the stature of horse racing jockeys.
It was a very unique experience. As with visiting historic houses and their stags, the mounted bull heads were sad to see, but the overall interpretation was very good.
It did address some of the contention around bull fights, and was very interesting in terms of learning more about the history, and the particular role of bull fighting in Salamanca.
We also visited a nearby palace owned by the Dukes of Alba. As palaces go it was very much a liveable family home, the sort of place you could imagine, or dream about being in. It had beautiful views over the city from the living quarters as well, and a lovely bell tower.
There was also the most gorgeous tiled bathroom, complete with fully tiled toilet!
Salamanca is definitely one of my favourite cities. It has such a quiet charm, with so much to see. I know there are many other stunning Spanish cities to visit, but this one comes highly recommended.
Mum and I will hopefully be doing another city break in December, all will be revealed nearer the time, as this is somewhere we have tried to go before, and failed!
I am now safely installed at my new site for the 2026 season at Glencoe. Have had a fantastic few days working with my new team, and am really looking forward to the campsite opening next week.
I have lots to share about my Scottish adventures so far, but this is a little taste of where I will be spending the summer.
Here is Lotte the caravan in her new home, and this is the view from the campsite. It has been beautiful weather so we having been having lunch on this bench.
You can understand why I am so happy, given that mountains are my favourite things!
As you may remember if you have been following this blog for a while, last year I started using static caravan sites as part of my travel accommodation.
Much as I love travelling in Katy, and using aires, there is joy in staying in one place for a while, especially if it has lots of room, central heating and a shower!
After Tarland I made my way down the coast, stopping at a few of the aires I have mentioned previously, and my first rest stop was in Northumberland, at the Haven Haggerston Castle site.
The weather wasn’t brilliant, and as I have visited the area a lot recently, I didn’t do much except some short walks around the site. They have a beautiful lake, with lots of geese and swans, and it was lovely to just watch them, and listen to them visit the caravans looking for food.
From there I made my way to Huddersfield, for a weekend with friends, we have been meeting up regularly for the past few years, and although this was a smaller one than previous years, it was lovely to catch up with friends I have known for 42 years.
It was also a reminder of how beautiful my adopted county is, even though I love visiting other parts of the UK and the world, Yorkshire has a very special place in my heart.
When my children were little we had some excellent holidays to Scarborough and Filey, and Ellen and I have visited Whitby a few times for steampunk events. However I have never really explored the coast in between the resorts.
Haven have a lot of sites in this area, so I booked two of them, Blue Dolphin, near Filey, and Thornwick Bay, at Flamborough. I was keen to do some walking along the coast, and also to go to Flamborough Head, which I remember visiting briefly many years ago.
The other thing I love about staying in statics is the really good kitchens so I can do lots of nice cooking!
I was really lucky with the weather both weeks, and had some excellent walks along the Cleveland Way, which runs right past the Blue Dolphin site.
I had just been reading another book on one of my favourite subjects, mapping. This one is about the first geological map of the UK, and it was brilliant to be there looking at the same cliffs that the man who created the map, William Smith did, on his travels in the 1800s.
His work was partly practical, as he worked as a surveyor for canals, another of my great interests, but also links to fossils and ideas about the history of evolution. An interesting time to have lived.
The author of the book, Simon Winchester, is one of my favourite non- fiction authors, and I have read a few of his works.
Thornwick Bay was a beautiful site, gorgeous caravan with a very cosy lounge, complete with fire, and direct access to the amazing coastline here.
Flamborough Head was also amazing, not least because there were so many seals there. It was a sunny day when I visited, and there must have been about 50 of them, just rolling around in the waves, playing, or sunning themselves.
This means that in 2025 I was lucky enough to see Welsh, Scottish, and English seals!
I have had a busy few weeks since my return to the UK, and some technology issues, hence less posts than I had planned. My laptop has died, the replacement I ordered didn’t work, so I am down to just my phone. I am on the road again as well, making my way up to Scotland, and am currently in another lovely static near Moffat.
Not much is planned for this week, apart from a couple of walks as next week will be busy, so lots of crafting and working on my crochet skills.
Hope you are all having a good time, the year is flying by, can’t believe it is the first of March already, and I am back in Scotland excited for another fantastic summer. Even if at the moment it is raining very hard! At least Katy is getting a good wash 🙂
Take care, thanks for visiting and hope to be back here again soon.
For those of you who watched British TV in the UK in the 1980s, you may remember a series called Hi De Hi, set in a holiday camp.
Friends joked when I started my new job as a Site Assistant that maybe I would need a xylophone to make my announcements, reminiscent of the lovely Gladys, played by Ruth Madoc. You can actually still watch the series on UK TV Gold, and I remember it with great affection.
Although there are a few similarities between my new role, and what the staff at Maplin’s Holiday Camps did, most of it was very different, so I thought I would share a little bit more about the role. I know a few people who follow my blog also travel, and it’s a popular second career choice for nomads.
I have already told you a bit about the site in a previous post, so this one will focus more on the actual job.
After my recruitment day in early December I found out at the end of that week that I had been successful, and had got through to the recruitment pool. I was lucky enough to find out just before Christmas that I had got a contract, but that can vary, as the club have a large amount of work to do sorting out staffing.
There are currently 85 UK sites, and over 400 staff, and as staff move sites at least every 3 years, that is a lot of organisation. Once I was sorted then there is a process of liaising with HR, ordering uniform, and getting contacted by your area manager and site manager.
Top tip, don’t do what I did and order large sizes for your uniform. They are very generous and I looked like a kid whose Mum had bought it to last the whole 5 years of secondary school!
The support from company is excellent, from the initial recruitment day, to the end of this year’s contract I felt really happy, knowing what was happening and what I had to do. I have mentioned the training before, there are a few online modules that you do in the first couple of weeks, things like Health and Safety, Equality and Diversity, and retail training.
The rest is hands on, and covers things like the cleaning procedures, how to use all the equipment, and how to greet and pitch campers. This is specific to each site and camper of course, but there are some basic things that are common to all sites, such as the gap that needs to be left between tents, and caravans, for fire safety.
On our site, in common with many others, we had gravel pitches, which were clearly marked, as well as grass ones as in the photo below. It was important that you were clear with people where to pitch, so you didn’t end up having to tell them to move later, especially once they’d pegged their awnings in!
You have a 12 week probation period, with reviews at 4, 8 and the end of the probation. They gave me a chance to get some feedback, set targets and give you a really clear idea of how you are doing. With only three of us on site, and due to days off, usually only two on duty any day, you get involved in everything really quickly.
The working day depended on what shift I was on, I had the same ones each week, which did surprise me, as I thought they might vary. I worked 10 until 7, Mon, Tues and Thurs, and 8 until 5, Weds and Friday, with Sat and Sun off. There is also an hour break for lunch halfway through the shift.
Mornings on late shifts always started with a quick catch up with my colleagues, usually sorting out what we would be doing, depending on the weather, and how many campers were expected that afternoon.
Campers leave by 12, and start to arrive from 1pm, so we could schedule grounds tasks for late morning, and the afternoon, in-between arrivals.
My first task on lates would be to do the cleaning, which was my choice. I really enjoy cleaning, so volunteered to do it Mon to Fri. Cleaning is always done between 10.30 and 12, so I would start at 10.15 with brushing up around the shower and toilet block, and sorting my equipment.
At my site I had 5 showers, 8 toilets, a urinal and 9 sinks to clean across the male, female and accessible facilities. I estimated that by the end of the 4 month contract I had cleaned the toilets about 750 times! This was the very last one of all of those.
After cleaning there would be check out admin, checking the pitches, then on to afternoon tasks. Mostly this was grounds work, mowing, weeding, and lots of general tidying up. What was particularly nice was seeing the later blooms, such as these daisies and Jerusalem Artichokes that we had decided not to get rid of the earlier weeding.
The first task on early shift would be an 8.30 check on the facilities block, as well as a walk around the site. This gives you a chance to check on any grounds work tasks. Luckily we had great weather, apart from one big storm, but we would check for fallen branches, soggy ground etc.
Facilities were also checked at 4pm and 7.30, which also gives you a chance to wander round and chat to the campers about their day.
As well as the outdoor work I was also on Reception duty some of the time. The office and shop was open 9 till 10.30 and 4.30 till 6, so one of us would be there then. Some of this time was for general admin, like daily check ins, giving advice, extending stays, checking up coming bookings.
I also did some specific things during my time there, such as reorganise and update our walks section, and add areas to our information boards about local facilities, local events, and more about the prisoner of war camp.
We always had lots of interesting people staying on site, and it was a great privilege to be able to help people with advice about where to walk or cycle, or how to organise a distillery visit. Many of our European visitors were particularly keen to do that as the region has over 30 whisky distilleries.
Meeting and talking to the campers was definitely the highlight of the job, especially as they were all so kind about the site and complimentary about our hard work to keep it looking good. I was always especially happy when they told me how clean the showers and toilets were!
We had visitors from so many different places, lots of Dutch and German, but also Swiss, South African, American and Australian. It was brilliant seeing all the different vehicles that they arrived in, these are just a few that really stood out.
I loved the Overland truck, but think the little micro caravan, or red and white Eriba are more me!
My colleagues, Steve the manager, and Tony who was a new starter like me, were absolutely wonderful. They were so helpful, not only with work related things like when I couldn’t start the tractor, but also helping me sort things out with the caravan.
I honestly didn’t have any issues with living and working on site, one of the things that was mentioned a lot at the recruitment day. I think it helps that I have spent the last three summers living on sites, and that my colleagues are both nomads, as many of the staff are. They live in their motor homes, and love travel, so we already had lots in common.
So to conclude this very long post, loved the job, the people, the area. Never had a day when I wasn’t really excited to go to work. To be honest it didn’t really feel like work, just an excellent way to spend the summer in the company of like minded people. So, very much looking forward to starting again next year and for the new adventures I will have.
I am really pleased I took that step, and went for it, it has been amazing, and I am proud of myself for all my new skills, especially driving the tractor!
Until next time, hope you are enjoying life, see you soon and thanks for visiting.
I have so enjoyed being in this part of Scotland for the summer. I love the gentle forested hills, the sparkling rivers, and the stunning coast with its layers of misty blues.
I will find out in a few days where my contract will be for next year. Fingers crossed it is here, as there is so much more to explore, but anywhere in Scotland will be fantastic.
I have spent some more time in the local village of Aberlour recently, firstly doing the walk up to the Linn Falls. This takes you past the distillery, and you can just get a glimpse of it through the trees.
You can see one of the huge copper stills at the back of the distillery, as always the smells are amazing.
The village itself is very pretty, it is a planned development built in the 1812 by Charles Grant, and named after one of his sons.
Its full name is Charlestown of Aberlour, and there is a smaller village just up from our campsite, named Archiestown, after his other son.
As well as being the site of a great local Co-op, butchers and deli, it also gives you access to the river and the Speyside Way. There are many of these beautiful bridges over the river here.
Like many of the places round here Aberlour hosts a Highland Games, and I was lucky enough to be able to visit, as I have had weekends off.
It was amazing, all of the surrounding towns and villages support each others’ games, so there were dance, athletic competitors, and pipe bands from the local area. This meant there was a great attendance and atmosphere, and thankfully fantastic weather.
My favourite part was definitely the pipe bands, there is just something about pipes and drums that touches your soul, and the drum majors were particularly impressive.
The Highland Dancing, and ‘heavy’ competitions such as tossing weights and hammers were also wonderful to watch. I can finally say I have a seen someone toss a caber, and it is very impressive!
I have also been being creative during my time off, and have painted lots of stones to decorate the campsite. These are some of the types of campers that we have had visit this summer, and they are on display near our facilities block.
I got chance to do a little bit of caravan upgrading as well, with fablon covering the kitchen area. You can see the original surface in the second photo. I have also bought new fleeces and cushion covers for the colder evenings. It is starting to feel very autumnal here now.
Sadly my trip to Dingwall, that I wrote about last post, did not end well. It was the week of Storm Floris, and although I got there OK on the Friday, the weather was bad again on Saturday, so I decided to come home, getting a split pole in the process of taking the tent down.
I have another welfare weekend planned next weekend, at one of our coastal sites, so hopefully that will go really well, and I can share the photos of that, along with some more coastal trips in my next post.
Meanwhile I hope you are having as much fun as I am. Thanks, as always for visiting, and putting up with the less than frequent posts!
Stitches of Time 