Lazy Heart Livestock

Horseshoe Set

Its a tradition in our family that we go camping in the first week of July. You will need to know that we are a large family. I was one of nine children and we have all married (sometimes more than once) and we all have children and some of those now have children too and it is great to have three generations of one family all enjoying themselves in this lovely part of the World . So when I say the family goes camping I mean about 40 strong most years and we come from all over Britain and Canada and as many of us as possible always make the effort. We have a special arrangement with a campsite called White Mark which is near Watlington, just off the M40 at Junction 6 and deep in the Chilterns. This is red kite country and these lovely birds can be seen flying in the updrafts over the Chilterns.

The owner of the site sets aside a field for the family invasion every year. Its not that we are disruptive, but 40 odd people inevitably make a bit of noise and need a lot of space, so we have a large field to ourselves set away from the other fields and under the steep side of the hill behind the camping site. We spend our days wandering through the villages and the hills, looking at the orchids that bloom on the chalk hills and in the evening we bar-b-queue and tell a lot of jokes. In some one of the villages there is a pub called the Plough Inn that till a few years ago, still served real ale from a pitcher that the landlady brought up from the cellar. Great beer but sadly the brewery modernised it. We have seen glow worms most years in these fields and the bats that fly across the hills here are not your common or garden pipistrels, these are big bats, probably horseshoe bats.

The site has all the facilities you could want: toilets, showers, wash facilities, an on-site shop and facilities for motor homes: electric and water hook ups, hard pitches etc. This is a well provisioned, clean and thoughtful site, set in a beautiful position on a hill overlooking the River Thames valley. A site we would highly recommend to any campers.

More info: http://www.stayinbritain.co.uk/

Tony Lucas. Operations Director http://www.stayinbritain.co.uk
Telephone 020 8123 7342

Can anyone tell me where to buy traditional Christmas Pudding charms.?

When my mother was a child they had a set of silver charms which they put in the Christmas pudding – a button, boot, horseshoe .. about 8 of them.

Are you in the US or the UK? In the US, the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores carries an extensive line of silver charms. You can get just about anything, and they are usually 50 to 99 cents.

They are in the beading/jewelry-making dept.

Horse shoe wine rack, Wrought Iron Jig Set, bending tools