March 2025

Spring has arrived and we are getting the campsite ready to open for our fifteenth year! I can’t quite believe it is that long ago since we welcomed our first campers. At that time the washrooms weren’t built, so for the first year our visitors used Kingfisher Cabin for the loo and shower. The washroom building was in place for year two, and Kingfisher Cabin, which had lain empty for a few years, was made ready for guests. Several of our early visitors have returned year after year and we now count them as friends – we just have the best job in the world!

Back to Spring – isn’t it joyful to hear the birds singing? I watched a robin collecting dog hair from the veranda yesterday. He certainly had plenty to choose from with it being moulting time for our Shoto dog! But lovely to know some of that soft hair was going to line a little nest. I love the thought that Spring is the annual transition from survival to glory; it is so appropriate on a beautiful sunny day like today. I whinge about the rain, the fog and the grey days but I must admit I do cherish the changing of the seasons.

So what’s new this year? Well, the fridge freezer in the Elephant Shed had seen better days so we have replaced it with a larger fridge. No freezer I’m afraid but since it was mostly used to store freezer blocks (which were often forgotten!) we decided the extra fridge space would be more useful. I hope that won’t inconvenience anyone, but if it is a problem just have a word with me; we can usually find a solution. The other new addition is a fenced area at the front of Hawthorn Cabin. I promised that in my last newsletter, and Larry loves a project, so it is done. The addition of a gate and further fencing for Cherry Tree Cabin too means that all three cabins should now be Houdini-pooch proof!

Sadly I have to report that our little flock of ducks is no more. In spite of the electric fence I’m afraid they all fell prey to the local foxes. We had reared them from tiny so they didn’t have a duck Mum to teach them about predators. I know foxes have to eat and I know it’s the circle of life, but I wish they could have eaten someone else’s ducks. To try and find a positive, I suppose they were a bit quacky, and no doubt they made a very nourishing meal; not much consolation though is it? Anyway the result is that we have a duck house and a duck platform on the pond, but no ducks!

Prices: In spite of the fact that, in common with everyone else, many of our costs have risen again this year, we have decided to keep basic prices the same at £28 per night for a pitch. The only change to this is an extra £3 per night charge for a third person sharing a tent. We don’t allow more than three per tent so I hope this won’t be a hardship to anyone. The only other change is that Hawthorn Cabin is now £85 per night, up by £5. Cherry Tree Cabin and Kingfisher Cabin stay the same at £75 and £90, and logs and charcoal prices remain the same too.

I know many of our guests enjoy walking and visiting nature reserves, so it’s great news that Suffolk Wildlife Trust are establishing a new reserve nearby at Martlesham Wilds. Meanwhile, Trimley Marshes, also a Suffolk Wildlife Trust reserve, near Felixstowe, has a good walking route too. And if you are interested in walking or cycling generally we thoroughly recommend that you download the Discover Sufflok app. It is a really useful app with a great deal of information. We don’t have wifi on site but if you need it – as with most things – please just ask me! Otherwise you will find lots of maps and local knowledge in the Information Hut. There are so many lovely places to visit in the area – Larry and I really should get out more!

We open for the first May bank holiday on Friday May 2nd 2025, so there’s a lot of mowing, scrubbing, shop-stocking and spring cleaning going on in preparation just now. A quick reminder that we have availability calendars on the website so you can choose your dates then send us an online Booking Enquiry. We are so looking forward to seeing the camp fires, smelling the barbecues, catching up with friends and welcoming everyone again this year – sunshine not guaranteed but we’ll do our best!

Jen

September 2024

Well that was Summer – where has the year gone? Last week it was balmy evenings, sitting out on the veranda with a glass of something and this week it’s jeans and jumpers and Larry itching to light the wood burner! This is when campfires really come into their own…

Thanks to the wet miserable weather our season started very quietly and didn’t really get going until late July. However in August we were blessed with a warm dry month, so our campers unpacked the tents from their Winter storage and made the most of the sunshine. It’s been lovely to see old friends and catch up on their news, as well as meeting such a great bunch of new campers who will hopefully return to us in the future. I’ve said before that we only have nice people here and every year you prove me right!

And such lovely reviews we’ve received, it really is heartwarming. I must admit I buy quite a lot of everyday things online these days, with the delivery followed by the obligatory review request asking me to ‘share my thoughts’ about a recent purchase. What did I think about the rubber door stop? – well it was rubber and it kept the door open – what’s to say?! So because I get fed up with so many of these requests I am loathe to ask for reviews for the campsite. However they are so helpful and we really value the fact that our guests take the time to report on the site. We are truly grateful to all of you who write a review, they are very important to us and we do note and act upon any comments that are made about changes or improvements that might be mentioned.

We are now starting to make a list of jobs and maintenance needed for the Winter months. Top of the list is to make the cabin courtyards safe for those canine Houdinis … well as far as possible. The odd wee one may still slip through but we’ll do our best to make sure the fences and boundaries are improved so you‘ll know your dog is safe and not going to squeeze through that gap to go exploring! That means Hawthorn is going to get a fence and a courtyard too

We’ve had lots of great reports about the wildlife our guests have seen this year. The one I particularly liked was from the hammock camper who discovered he’d chosen a tree where two tawny owlets were branching. They kept him awake most of the night protesting that they were absolutely starving and needed a little something right now!

We were a bit upset at not having seen the kingfisher for quite a while – but he’s back! Probably an otter eating most of the fish in the pond had an effect, but the few that were left have multiplied again so it’s worth kingfisher returning. Just a flash of brilliant blue and orange can really lift the spirits. Just this morning I noticed a few scrapes in the wood so the badgers – who mostly keep away when there are people around – are obviously scouting out the area again.

You may have seen on our Facebook page that we were rearing ten ducklings. They have been so entertaining to watch – they’re such busybodies! They are now fairly well grown up so we will soon be introducing them to their new home on the campsite pond, with fingers firmly crossed that they decide to stay there and make it their permanent home.

We are waiting just a few more days till the pond resident baby moorhens are a bit bigger. Mother Moorhen is very protective of her chicks and can be quite aggressive, so we don’t want our little duck family to be chased away as soon as they move in!

If you have stayed with us here on the campsite you will probably be aware that Larry is a collector of Things … adding to the wrecking ball, the French wine barrel, the elephants of course and the glass marbles that were destined to make fighter jet wings, he now has two large old iron company signs. He’s had them sandblasted so they’re now nicely rusted … and will be erecting them somewhere yet to be decided, but no doubt you’ll come across them if you visit us again. It’s fortunate that we have the campsite to site them on – I think he’s making quite sure that we can never move!

I can’t decide whether I really like Autumn, but we can have some beautiful days, so I’ll make the most of them when they occur. I read a book recently which talked about Autumn being the start of rest and relaxation time for trees. That’s pretty much what we try and provide for you on the campsite, so it’s a nice thought that the trees can now do the same isn’t it?!

We are open until the end of October so perhaps we will see you again this year. A quick reminder that we have availability calendars on the website so you can choose your dates then send us an online Booking Enquiry. If we don’t see you again this year, thank you to all of you who have come to relax with us and I hope you will come back and do it all over again next year

Jen

April 2024

The swallows are back! It’s such a treat to have them nest in the barn each year – but how do they always find their way back to the quiet little corner of Suffolk where they were hatched? One of nature’s little miracles I think.

There has been quite a bit of activity on the pond too. We had more visits from the otter, which is a mixed blessing as he’s eaten all the fish!

Mrs Mallard chose the duck house on the pond to hatch ten ducklings which was a lovely sight for a while, but unfortunately she took them on walkabouts a bit too often and the word went round with the local buzzards… there are ducklings no more.

However another duck (or is it the same one, it’s a bit of a cliché to say they all look the same isn’t it?!) is sitting on eggs in a low fork of one of the trees surrounding the pond. She is so well camouflaged that it was pure chance that I noticed her at all. Better luck with these little ones I hope. I’m expecting to see moorhen chicks any day too, little black fluffy golf balls with ridiculously long legs!

What a wet Winter it has been! But it does mean the grass is lovely and green and the trees have certainly had a good watering. The wood is coming into leaf and will soon provide a full canopy for our woodland pitches. A couple of the dead trees have been felled in the wood, so there’s a bit more space for tents.

Activity on the campsite is in full swing now preparing for the season. Barbecues and fire bowls are being cleaned ready for the burgers and campfires, and the glamping cabins scrubbed and spruced ready for our first guests! A quick reminder that we have availability calendars on the website so you can choose your dates then send us an online Booking Enquiry.

We now have radios in the washrooms, so you can have music while you wash 🙂 They won’t be on all the time but sometimes it’s nice to have a little quiet background music, isn’t it? We chose radios rather than piped music so anyone who really doesn’t like it can just turn it off…!

One of our neighbours has very kindly listed some local walks in the surrounding countryside. Jo has provided lots of detail making them perfect for either a short stroll (perhaps ending up at the local pub) or for longer hikes for seasoned walkers and energetic dogs! And did you know we had a nature reserve in Newbourne?

Larry has created a little sheltered space in the open woodshed with a picnic table where you can sit under cover looking out over the valley. We are so looking forward to seeing guests using the campsite again – it’s lovely to have a rest in the Winter but that’s enough now! Roll on those peaceful Summer evenings…

Meanwhile, don’t forget that you can keep up with our news, more or less as it happens, on our Facebook page. You’ll find plenty of pictures and videos, late availability news and some reviews too.

Jen

December 2022

Normally I only manage one newsletter in a year but I am so excited about recent developments here that I want to tell you!

Birds … until five minutes ago my big bird news was Big Bird, but a beautiful kestrel has just perched on the railings right in front of my office window and we spent a couple of glorious minutes just staring at each other – wow! I’ve seen him around quite a bit lately, but never this close.

We are very lucky to have the company of our toddler great grand-daughter for a couple of hours most days, and she loves to go with Larry for a trip to the woods in the buggy. A magnificent buzzard has claimed his territory in the wood, and he is often there when Larry and Winnie visit. He drops from tree to tree – showing off to Winnie I like to think – impressing with his enormous 4 foot wingspan. He’s a real live Big Bird! We had rather too many pigeons in the wood this Summer, but going by the piles of feathers we are regularly seeing on the ground now, I think Big Bird is sorting the problem! Nature is working as it should, but given that pigeons breed all year round I’m sure the numbers will balance out.

Did you see the photo of the new roof top panels on our Facebook page? Darren from Vomax has recently installed solar thermal heating in the boiler house at the campsite, which he promises will be an enormous help towards heating the hot water for the showers and taps next year. We are so impressed with the set up – shiny new tank and so many dials, gauges and pipes, even without any sunshine or hot water it’s fabulous! I shall be tempted to do guided tours of the boiler house next season just to show it off! So, that means we don’t need to increase the pitch price next year as I feared, as our electricity bill should be much more sensible. Cherry Tree and Kingfisher will be just £5 per night more, and Hawthorn will remain the same. Goodness knows everything has become so much more expensive lately, we really don’t want to make life any more difficult for our guests and visitors.

In the last newsletter I mentioned that the pine trees had really suffered this year, several gave up the struggle to survive and others were obviously stressed. Many of them have had to come down and although we were dreading losing them we really rather like the new look with more space. The main wood is fine still, but there is now plenty of space for a couple of pitches where the pine trees were, and I have a feeling it will become a popular spot. It’s obviously a bit muddy at the moment but by the time we open again next year the grass will have grown and I think you’ll like it. Not quite sure where the new spot for the charcoal burner will be yet, Larry is on the lookout for another site for it.

We have plenty of plans to keep us occupied this Winter – painting the washrooms being one of them. It’s not easy to get going on that when it’s so cold, but we’ll take a heater and a radio down with us – warmth and music make it a different job don’t they? Then we have Jonno booked in for a bit of Kingfisher work – new lights and a bedroom makeover. Thankfully the pond is now back to normal, from being the lowest I have ever seen it I suspect it might soon overflow if it keeps raining like this!

So it just remains for me to send you best wishes for Christmas and the New Year. We are so looking forward to the next season, to meeting our friends again and to welcoming new visitors. We open again on Friday 28th April – we’re almost at the longest day and it’s downhill from then on (in a good way!) Do come and see us in 2023, the Winter’s rather boring here without you! 😊

Jen

September 2022

What lovely people we have met this year, and what a fabulous summer! Once I had resigned myself to the fact that it just isn’t going to rain in the near future, and that will mean consequences, I decided to enjoy the sunshine and make the most of it. I’ve loved the little things the summer weather brings – just knowing that I can leave the garden chair cushions out overnight or arrange a picnic for next week safe in the knowledge that it will be dry and warm – like the summers we remember from our childhood. Summers probably weren’t warm and sunny for weeks on end but we do tend to remember them that way don’t we?

The consequences for us on the campsite are mainly the trees. It already looks like autumn on the floor of the main wood with many of the trees dropping their leaves early, and it is distressing to see that a number of the pine trees just aren’t going to make it and will have to come down this winter. Then there’s the pond – in forty years I have never seen it so low. We haven’t discovered any shopping trollies but we were able to recover a wooden table that was blown into the water from the sit out a few years ago! It came into view a couple of weeks ago and is now drying out. Apart from being a bit muddy it is still in good condition and will soon resume its place on the sit out! The ducks deserted us this year but the faithful moorhens continued to entertain us with their gorgeous chicks – like fluffy black golf balls with very long legs!

A number of our campers and visitors bring their dogs with them. One-dog families have now often become two-dog families so we have had to relax the ‘only four dogs on site’ rule. People do sometimes forget to tell us that they will be bringing their furry friends and we end up with more dogs than we were expecting. So this is a plea to any of you who are reading this and intending to bring your dog(s) to camp with us. Please do not bring them if they tend to bark at unfamiliar situations or at people walking past – even tiny dogs can have a very loud yap! You may well be used to them barking, or even find it endearing – however other campers don’t, so please leave them at home. We are now allowing two (no bigger than medium sized) dogs per pitch but it is important that you ask me when you book if it is OK for them to accompany you as we will have to restrict numbers. Quiet, well behaved dogs will always be welcome, just not their noisy cousins! We really do not like having to make rules so please help us by policing your own dog’s behaviour.

We have had a lovely couple of days this week watching two pigeons on the campsite. They were first seen greedily devouring the berries of an elderberry tree, then pecking away at the fermenting fallen plums from a nearby tree. There is no mistaking a drunken pigeon! They wobble around, flap about, fall over and end up lying on their side on the ground! They must suffer from almighty hangovers…

Prices! Unfortunately we cannot ignore the subject, everyone is affected and that of course includes us and the campsite. One of our main on-site expenses is electricity – mainly for hot water. It has always been our policy to provide unlimited hot water for showers and wash-up 24 hours a day. As I’m sure you can imagine that has never been cheap, but in the future the cost threatens to be extortionate. We are absolutely against money-in-the-slot-showers, so what to do? A solar thermal panel (if we can get anyone to fit one, no luck so far!) would supplement the cost to a certain extent, but apart from that we can only ask for people to be sparing with the hot water they use. I do know of campsite owners who are seriously considering closing because they will not be able to absorb the high electricity costs, which is a great shame but it is a fact of life we are all going to have to come to terms with. Cabin prices will rise a little but we really will do everything we can to avoid increasing pitch prices for next year, however it’s not something we can guarantee.

Enough of that! Are you a summer person or a winter person? Or perhaps something in between – spring or autumn? Just as we are supposedly larks or owls, I’m told we are summer or winter people. I have concluded this year that I find life so much easier in the summer – I hope you have enjoyed it too 🙂

Jen