Little Tin Houses
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JOURNAL

Comrie Croft
Comrie Croft

We had a long weekend so we headed north to one of our favourite campsites, Comrie Croft. It’s a bit of a drive, just in between the Cairngorms and Loch Lomond, but it’s really worth it. We usually get to campsites late afternoon and just spend an evening there, before driving off after breakfast, but here we woke up, and spent an entire day wandering the campsite and walking in the surrounding woods. Absolutely no driving. Honestly, i don’t think we’ve ever done that before.

We arrived quite early and there were no other campervans there so we managed to get the best spot. Tucked right away at the end of the row of pitches, with a little stream outside our side door, and the firepit and bench outside our back doors. Through winter they have a pop up airstream cafe, run by Bonnie Mountain Coffee (who also have a land rover coffee bar, legends) who supplied us with coffee and bacon sandwiches all weekend, but they also have their own farm shop selling pretty much anything you could need for camping or a good dinner (veg and fruit all grown and handpicked at the bottom of the road).

Comrie Croft is a little oasis of calm and I could happily go back and spend a whole week there. We wanted to stay an extra night but the forecast warned us of snow and ice so we decided to play it safe and head a little bit closer to home for the last night. We’re planning on spending a fortnight in Scotland in April and I think a few of those nights will have to be spent back here.

 
Amy Spires
Holy Island to St Abbs
Holy Island to St Abbs

We had originally planned a little one night trip to the lake district but after checking the weather forecast I thought it looked too windy. I can take rain, clouds, anythings. Just not wind. I have this bizarre fear that our van will tip over or my house windows will blow in or one of us will fly away into the sky, never to be seen again. I just don’t do wind.

Luckily, when you’re in a van, you can change your route very easily. We headed north up the coast instead, stopping at Holy Island for a coffee break and to stretch our legs. Sometimes I think we have more hours in the day then everybody else because in that very same afternoon we managed to drive even further north towards Canty Bay, to a little storage container cafe sat right on the cliffs, Drift cafe. Huge walls of glass let you look right out onto the sea while you sit in the warmth.

I’d found an overnight parking spot on the app Park4Night that had a lot of 5 star reviews, so we headed to St Abbs, a small fishing village on the very south eastern coast of Scotland. You can park right on the coast, looking out onto the rocks. All you need to do is pop a tenner and your reg into the box at the harbour master’s hut. Some people don’t want to pay for overnight spots at all, but for the view in the morning it was worth it, and it was totally quiet all night. Not another person in sight.

Amy Spires
Living Smaller
Living Smaller

I feel like I’ve been tricked. I thought I needed, or wanted, more space. We lived in a tiny one bedroom flat for 7 years and I dreamt about having a second bedroom, our own outside space, a bath, a bigger kitchen. And I got it. We struck gold with our house and got it for super cheap. The last year and a half we’ve worked on it solidly, stripping floors and uncovering fireplaces.

I’m starting to have some doubts…

We’ve spent a lot of time lately in our converted VW crafter van and I’ve noticed a pattern of anxiety every time we return home. The van is small, and we only take what we absolutely need. It’s a very minimalist space and way of life, but amazing being able to wake up wherever we want and have coffee with a different view every morning. All the stuff in our house feels like it’s weighing me down.

Instagram accounts of home interiors that I used to love now feel a little bizarre to me. Whole corners of rooms showcasing items that probably never get touched. I’m not judging, that’s been me down to a tee for the last decade. I have a display dustpan and brush, I’m the literal definition of what I’m starting to dislike. It’s just not making me happy anymore.

I see a lot of people selling everything they own and either moving into a van, or massively downsizing their lives and it looks like bliss. The burden of all the things, and working all the hours to pay for those things, all gone.

So, choices. We’re not sure exactly what, but something will definitely be changing this year. We’re both agreed that we don’t need all this space (I’ve been in my front garden about 3 times in nearly 2 years), and we both want to spend a lot more time travelling. We want different lives and different priorities. We want to work for money we want, not need, and we don’t want to feel tied down by things. I’m still very grateful that we’ve managed to be homeowners for so many years when so many people would love to have a house but can’t, but things change and I think it’s time for a new project, and to live a little smaller.

Amy Spires