A gift

Where I’m parked, I get some great sunsets.

The caravan is facing in a sort of westerly direction which means that the sunrise comes up from behind. That also means that the morning sun shines through my bedroom window. As it’s relatively quiet here in the late evening and early morning, I have taken to leaving my curtains open. The only reason I have curtains at all is for whenever I am parked where there are people. In wintertime I usually get up in the morning around 9 - 10am, in Spring and Autumn, 7 - 8am and in the Summer, around 5 - 6am. The time that I go to bed generally has little effect on what time I get up. One advantage of leaving the curtains open is that I am often awoken by the Sun. This week, I have been awoken by the heat!

As is often the case, the Universe provides. The spot I chose to park in has turned out to be perfect. I have a tree canopy right where I’m parked, which means that I have shade most of the day when the Sun is at it’s hottest. Therefore, I am able to work on my caravan all day long in relative comfort. I’m getting a warm morning and then as the Sun starts to really heat up, it becomes shaded by the canopy just before 10am. I then get a warm evening when the Sun reappears from behind the canopy sometime after 5pm. Interestingly, I also know when it’s midday, as the Sun shines through the canopy at that point.

So I have been up and gathering firewood at 6am in blazing heat. It’s been a while since it has been so hot so early in the day. Glorious.

I have met some lovely people since the beginning of Spring. They generally live nearby and walk past me on their way to the large recreational field I’m parked alongside or heading to one of the nearby footpaths. They often stop for a quick chat and comment on the progress of the ongoing work on the caravan. Among others, there’s a lovely couple in their seventies who are always holding hands, a nurse and a trainee teacher and her partner, who’s always smiling and polite. Also, there is a bloke who always asks after my wellbeing. One day, he mentioned a local charity who deliver food parcels. He told me that he had told them of me and gave me their telephone number saying that they had asked me to call them. I did. I spoke to Dom, the man who established the charity, Dom’s Food Mission (www.domsfoodmission.com). A most amazing man. He had started on his own hassling food stores for their ‘sell-by’ food that was being thrown out. His determination has come to the point that he now has a crew of volunteers and a small fleet of small vans who deliver all over the Hastings area to the vulnerable and homeless and now collects from every food store and supermarket in the area. It’s an incredible story.

After a bit of a chat, Dom told me that I would receive a food parcel on the Monday. And wow, what a parcel it was! All good quality food and even chocolate and a bunch of flowers!