New year's eve bivvying - proud aunty picture

[Cyclingrelf]

My 7 year old niece normally lives in Cambodia, but she and her family were visiting us this Christmas and my niece came out bivvying with me to see the new year in. Temperatures were a little different to Cambodia, with ice forming on some of the puddles overnight (Cambodia doesn't usually get below 18 degrees celsius at night). Also, the heavy and persistent Cornish rain meant all the wood was sodden. Standing dead wood can be wrung out like a sponge at the moment, so we stacked wood by the fire to dry it out.

Lighting the fire in the first place was quite a mission. I lit some charcotton with a spark, but then had to keep the tinder (some thistle down, dry grass and birch bark I had stored from a previous trip) smoldering long enough to dry out the small twigs and then heat them up enough to catch, and so on until we got some proper logs burning. This took patience and a lot of gentle blowing, with my niece asking questions such as "does hair burn?"!! The morning fire was lit from a smoldering fire dog still going from the night's conflagration.

My niece was undeterred and wanted to camp out again this evening.
I'm very proud of her

Here she is with Snowflake, her toy rabbit, waiting for the kettle to boil for breakfast. And before anyone comments, the hat may have comic effect, but it's very warm...

 

[Toddy]

Excellent Happy looking kid too I love that kettle

You're bit of the world might be wet right now, but it's a blooming sight warmer than mine by the looks of it
I was in three layers of wool just to go for a walk today.

cheers,
M

 

[Shewie]

Brilliant post, great to hear she survived the night okay.

My 10 year old nephew is itching to come out with me but his mum won't have any of it yet, shame really.

 

[Cyclingrelf]

My niece is generally very optimistic and enthusiastic, so a pleasure to be with.

The kettle came from Coventry indoor market a few years ago. It has seen good service - used to be shiny metallic.

MUCH warmer than your part of the world Toddy - only rarely frosts and has snow laying on the ground for about 1 week each year, sometimes not at all. However, Cornwall has a fine tradition of extreme winds. Those beech trees on the photo above are 30 years old (they were planted when we first moved to the farm). The ones on the photo were sheltered by the ones further to the West. My mother planted a larger woodland 3 years ago, which is now referred to as the "Knee-high wild woods"!

Shewie, if you like, you can show mom the photo of my 7 year old niece and see if that changes her mind? That's a shame if your nephew can't go out camping What if you started with a tent then try bivvying on a later occasion?

 

[Landy_Dom]

Love it!!!

My kids have been bivvying with me since they were about 6 and they love it

Great life skills coping with that

all the best

Dom.

 

[Cyclingrelf]

Good to hear it! I'd like to take my nephew (4) too, but he's scared of the dark atm, so I'll wait a bit for that.