Issue #27 - A Vanniversary Story with a Northern Twist
Celebrating two years of the Starwagon, some small adventures, and snow in summer.
This weekend marked the two year anniversary of owning our van, the Starwagon! And yes, we are calling it a vanniversary. Many of you will remember that this is not our first van, and that our previous one, a 1996 L400 Mitsubishi Delica, sadly met an untimely and grizzly end shortly after we finished converting it to a micro camper and rebuilding the engine. We were unreasonably attached to that chunk of metal and plastic. For what it represented, and for the many happy memories we made in a short space of time, camping, travelling and even the build process itself.
When we started looking for a new van, and found this one, another Delica but an older L300 which we had always coveted, we couldn’t believe our luck. We have written about the pleasing story of going to the Lake District from Sussex by train to collect the van before, of making an adventure out of it and of meeting the owners; retired ecologists who shared our love of wild places and things. You can read the whole thing in the archives of our old blog if you like.
What we didn’t know then was that the story would take an unexpected twist. Six months later we moved up to the Lake District, on the edge of the western fells, by the coast, literally 10 minutes drive away from the exact place that we bought the van.
It’s funny how things work out, isn’t it? We had never been to this part of Cumbria before. In truth, I don’t think we even knew Cumbria had a coast until the train line hugged the western shores on our way north. We certainly wouldn’t have guessed that this would be the place that we would call home after 11 years of living in the woods. Nor that when we drove the Starwagon away, we’d soon be driving it back to where it came from.
We are suckers for a good story. I think that’s why we love this old van so much, and why we loved the other one too. We pay little regard to the accumulation of material wealth, and strive for simplicity (which is surprisingly complex) but of the things we do have, we prefer those with meaning, favour old over new and will take something with a good story over the latest shiny tech trinket any day.
To mark the occasion, we camped in the van (or on top of it more accurately) at a campsite down the road on Sunday, despite it being a school night, and toasted to all the places our strange little van has taken us and to the journey that led us here, right where we picked up our Starwagon two years ago.
If you’re interested, you can read more about our van in this interview we did for The Field Mag a while back.
Nature Happenings
A weekly look at something neat that’s happening in nature right now.
This week’s Nature Happenings features something I am almost sure you will have seen but maybe not noticed over the last week or so. Goat willow (Salix caprea) has flowered and is now spreading seed far and wide by way of the wind. Stop for a moment almost anywhere you are walking, be it town, park or countryside, and there seems to be willow seed on the breeze. Tiny, woolly tufts of white, floating by in their hundreds, sometimes so numerous that you’d be forgiven for briefly wondering how it could be snowing on a sunny May afternoon.
Willows have male and female flowers on separate trees (they are dioecious, if you want to know the fancy word that humans use to describe such a phenomenon) and it’s only the female catkins that are broadcasting seeds across the land, the male pollen bearing catkins having done their part a few weeks ago. Willows seem to have a bad reputation and are generally scrubbed from the landscape in favour of more utilitarian species. But they are hugely valuable to wilder members of the community, being second only to oak trees in the number of species they support. Humans too have turned to willows in simpler times, for cordage and for medicine. The leaves and bark contain salicin which is said to help with pain relief and manage fevers. People would chew the inner bark to help with toothache (it’s thought that deer might do this too).
It’s actually mind boggling to think about just how many seeds are sent forth from willows every year, compared to how many new trees actually take root. During a bumper year, willows can coat the ground, trees and cobwebs in a thick downy covering of seeds. We once came across such a site in a Sussex woodland and for a moment, we were perplexed. What was this white veil covering the woodland floor? Spider webs? A fungus? But no. It was willow seeds, millions upon millions of them, a spectacular sight indeed.
Let us know if you spot any summer snow!
Weekend Updates
It was a pretty full weekend, starting early on Saturday morning with a hike up to Whin Rigg (535m) in the glorious, warm sunshine. It’s quite an easy walk, not too steep but fairly long approaching from the Eskdale side. We’re not really into peak bagging, but this was Benji’s fourth Wainright. The views from the top are magnificent, and if you’re feeling brave, peering over the edge straight down the gullies of the scree slopes to the lake below is a mildly terrifying but fun experience. The cotton grass is in flower. Fluffy, pure white tufts bobbed gently in the white, like balls of cotton wool or rabbit’s tails on poised on slender stalks. With not much else in the way of flora and fauna on these overgrazed fells, we were glad to have the cotton grass as company on the higher slopes. It reminds us fondly of Scandinavian adventures.
We also went for a long canoe paddle on Coniston water early Sunday morning. We had hoped that by getting up early we would have it all to ourselves, but we failed to anticipate the surprisingly large number of people who had camped overnight. ‘tis the start of the beginning of the busy season here in the Lakes; time to retreat to lesser known spots in search of solitude and slow adventures.
Well, we hope you’re enjoying the glorious weather and revelling in the sheer exuberance that is nature in late spring!
With warm wishes,
Andrew, Emma and Benji
Such a great story! 🚙