Last time I sent a dispatch from a bed not my own was to tell you about our tent in the garden adventure. Our trip to Australia in March/April also involved sleeping in spare rooms and on aeroplanes, but there are no photos of those shenanigans. Back in the UK, the glorious month of May was bookended by long weekends - and here’s where we slept for those.
Suffolk
Two Southdown lambs. Look at those teddy bear faces and wooly socks!
We spent the first long weekend in Suffolk with a couple of lovely friends. We booked a holiday cottage that turned out to be on a rare breeds farm in the middle of the countryside. It was fairly close to the minster where we wild camped last July, so we went on a couple of walks in that direction. As well as walking, we spent the weekend lazing in the sunshine eating and drinking, exploring the cute church nearby and playing board games. On the way home, we dropped in to the local May Day Fair, where I picked up a good supply of jams, chutneys and marmalades.
A church in the middle of nowhere. We learnt about Champing here - stay tuned for adventures on that front!
 A male linnet, IDed by notso at bus-stop birding. |  A chook and a lamb. Too cute. |
The rapeseed (canola) was in full bloom, and our walks took us through huge fields of it.
 This looks like the kind of sheep my parents used to keep. |  Two hares, just before they loped away down the path ahead. |
The ruined walls of the minster, where we slept out last summer.
 A rooster on the fence. This was the view from our patio. |  A goat sitting on a thing. As goats do. |
Storybook thatched house. This is not where we stayed, by the way!
Year of Sleeping Variously: holiday cottage edition
Our bed for the night, and the next night, and the next one. I love long weekends.
- Bed (5/5) - It was certainly more comfortable than (a) a tent (b) an aeroplane or (c) our own bed.
- Room (4/5) - A decent size with plenty of storage. And it had an ensuite bathroom. With a bath!
- View (3/5) - Not so much from our room, but the view from the living area was lovely - a little garden and some fields with turkeys, sheep and chooks.
- Facilities (4/5) - Would be a 5, but the water temperature in the shower and bath was . . . temperamental.
- Location (4/5) - Perfect for what we wanted . . . but minus a point because it took us about 7 hours to get there from Brighton on Friday night. Is it unfair to dock a point for the M25 when the M25 is at least one county away? Probably.
- People (5/5) - As I said, lovely friends. Would friend again.
- Food (4/5) - It was all self-catering and I cooked some tasty vegan food. The welcome pack also included eggs from their free range chooks, a sponge cake and a bottle of wine. Score!
- Value (4/5) - Four people, three nights, £360 (I think). Very reasonable.
- Uniqueness (3/5) - It's a farm building converted into a holiday cottage - nothing too out of the ordinary for the UK. But then, you don't usually get to see Southdown Sheep and rare turkeys from your window . . .
- That indefinable something (2/5) - A holiday after our holiday to Australia, far from anything resembling hustle and bustle, sleepy countryside . . . so relaxing.
Holiday cottage verdict: 76%
East Sussex
In case you want to visit us and stay nearby in a campsite, this one's pretty nice!
We hadn’t been camping in a tent in a campsite for almost two years! Last year, we spent all our nights out under the tarp and/or in our bivvy bags. So on the last long weekend in May we pootled off to a local campsite for a low-key adventure. Our aim: do nothing except read, eat and sleep. Mission accomplished! It was good to get our tent out after a long hiatus and it was quite relaxing to be in a legitimate campsite, with no worries about getting sprung or told to move along.
One of the little animal signs dotted around the reception area.
 Stroopwafels are important camping material. |  Not, perhaps, the best veggie burger I've made. |
The magic starts as soon as you turn down the lane to the campsite.
Year of Sleeping Variously: tent in a campsite edition
Home for the night! It was lovely to lie under the awning and read into the evening.
- Bed (2/5) - Somehow less comfortable than the tent in Australia - but not by much.
- Room (3/5) - This is our old Aspect 2.5 tent, which is a decent 2 person tent. It has a couple of storage pockets and plenty of headroom. This time for the first time we used walking poles to make a verandah at the front - bonus space!
- View (2/5) - We put our backs to the campsite, so our view was mostly a fence and some woods. Nice.
- Facilities (3/5) - We only used the water, loos (showered at home) and washing up area. But they had a laundry, showers, recycling point, tiny kiosk - all the things you need at a campsite, really.
- Location (4/5) - All of ten minutes from our door, in a secluded, wooded valley. The magic starts with the sign at the front and the drive down the tree-lined track. It feels a bit like entering another world.
- People (3/5) - The campsite wasn't boisterous in the evening and although there were a lot of kids we were awake before the morning noise began. We were amused by snatches of overheard conversations, too!
- Food (2/5) - Look, I forgot the oil, so we kind of had to steam our burgers for dinner. They turned out OK, but it wasn't exactly gourmet. Food situation somewhat redeemed by stroopwafels.
- Value (4/5) - Not the cheapest campsite around here, but it's nice enough to be good value.
- Uniqueness (3/5) - I really liked all the handpainted signs and little cut-out woodland animals everywhere. Cute!
- That indefinable something (2/5) - Lying under our verandah reading our books, listening to the wind sigh through the leaves overhead was delightful. And the extremely loud dawn chorus in the valley was . . . well, it was not nothing.
Tent in a campsite verdict: 56%
Now, onwards into summer! There are plans afoot for a couple of fun holidays - short breaks, multi-day walks and possibly (I hope!) some kayaking. Also throughout June, I'll be taking part in #30DaysWild - I did it last year too. This year is extra-special for me, because I did the illustrations on the Random Acts of Wildness cards that people have received as part of their pack. Maybe I'll post about that, as well.
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