The Rabbit and The Horse

31/05/2026

It’s Sunday already how did that happen??

Here’s a weekly round up of our very busy week…

Bank holiday Monday we had a hot busy day to start the week with, a couple of extra hands on campsite to take down the weekends adult campsite set up for Skyhook Adventure and start setting up our second site between Corfe Castle and Wareham on the tranquil spot of Knoll Farm.
With the weather still hot hot hot we had taken the tents and mini marquee down and started to ferry loads of equipment up to Knoll farm by the afternoon.

With busy roads, road works just near the Knoll farm turning and half term chaos we continued throughout the week ferrying equipment and building up the campsite whilst having to keep an eye on our main campsite which had the nicest group of Gold D of E resi kids we’ve ever had onsite for the week.

Italian lesson Tuesday morning saw an interesting text on subject close to my heart; horses and an article about The Italian cowboys in Maremma. The Butteri - Tuscan cowboys, are now a big draw for me on our next trip to Italy and will be on the tick list of places to visit when we leave for our travels in October. That said we continue to plod on slowly improving our Italian at our lessons, little by little. Just half way through our short six week course but it’s been ever so useful so far.

By Thursday we managed to pretty much finish all the big jobs in Knoll farm and an act of kindness saw us rewarded with some tasty milkshakes from the lovely cafe next to us at Knoll farm. The Kitchen at Hartland a lovely dog friendly cafe with homemade food, which will be a new lunch stop for us.

Friday Darren headed off for a weekend with two of his school friends to celebrate their 50th birthdays this year which turned out to be a bigger group than just the three of them. A trip down memory lane weekend while I stayed in sunny Dorset and finished off Knoll Farm and sorted bits out on Purbeck Valley Farm with our team. A solo lasagne and a well earned cider was my idea of a perfect chilled Friday night.

Saturday Darren continued his trip down memory lane, walking along the water he once played in and visiting old lived in places and of course his folks.
I myself was booked in to help at a wedding with the lovely Flames and Feast crew at a private house venue. The weather was stunning and venue perfect for the happy couple being on family land. We had a good group with good chat and plenty of laughs so the time went quick. Finishing at 00:30, on our way out I checked in with the Mother of the bride who thanked us for all our hard work and said the food was delicious, which is always great to hear. Another great experience and some networking along the way 😉

And so that leads me into today, Sunday…I woke up to an offer of more work from a contact we had made the first year of this life style who was at a food festival in Norfolk we went to, then the following year we bumped into them in Swanage at a charity event for Willdoes. Unfortunately on this occasion we are locked into to a busy week on camp but could definitely have potential for future work, which is very exciting.
I definitely get a buzz from the hospitality side of this lifestyle, working on the campsite, at functions and at festivals…there could be future opportunities for us for sure but for the rest of Sunday I have a morning of housework (van housework),Italian homework ready for Tuesdays lesson and then it’ll be time to get ready for coasteering this afternoon, to help Darcey and Issac out being guinea pigs for their leader assessment. Just as the weather starts to change 🙄 🌬️💨🍃

Oh and as for Darren he is on his long drive back from Suffolk. Hoping to get back before I go out for the afternoon l.

Let’s see what the next week holds in store for us 😎

24/05/2026

Yesterday I was slightly hanging from the night before which was good fun so well worth a little hangover the next day. We had a slow start to our weekend off with bacon, eggs and mushrooms for breakfast and done our weekly Italian homework for our course.

We both had a lovely catch up with our friend lovely
Laura in the sun before riding into Swanage for a well earned ice cream, Turkish delight for me as always. We checked out the Pirate festival where I saw a cool sign I’d love to put in the entrance of our garden to ward off unwanted staff interruption in our time off! 🤣 We walked all the way along the promenade to North Beach to check out the work Darren and Oscar had completed when they were there for the day a few weeks ago only to bump into half The Hurst school group that are staying onsite and some Land & Wave instructors keeping the kids entertained. We also bumped into Jen and family have a day in the beach.

A walk back up to the bar for a beer over looking the sea then we walked back into Swanage to have an early fish and chips dinner sat over looking the bay with our legs dangling over the rock pool where all the crabbing action happens.

We then cycled home a different way ending up on the ridge looking down on our beautiful campsite. And that was me knackered for the day with Darren managing to stay up and watch a late boxing match, I was a KO by 7pm 🤣
A perfect easy sunny Saturday off work together.
Darren Garnett

22/05/2026

Started the week waking up with the lurgy..

Darren had his turn of being poorly a good few weeks ago now and I managed to swerve what he caught but after the first week of children onsite I was unable to avoid the lurgy that was going around. It hasn’t stopped me though I have soldiered on and managed to get amongst all that needed doing this week.

A small school of 22 arrived Monday which after a few Michelle like tweaks of beautifying their camp was ready for them before they arrived.
Tuesday we had three more schools arriving so the team together were on our tents and getting those camps ready but the weather was against us.
High winds and shattered showers made it a challenge but we smashed as usual by the end of our working day.

Tuesday morning we went off to our second Italian lesson where we sat a part to challenge ourselves to talk to different class mates. We were visited at the bay by a couple of seals which was a nice surprise for us attending the class as we could see them still from the class room window. We both enjoyed the lesson taking away a little more new understanding of the Italian language. A quick lunch and then it was back to work for the afternoon. The campsite now busy with excited children and us having to work around them on the field. It was nice to see teachers who return each year with their new students, I had a couple of hugs off two familiar faces that seemed pleased to see we had returned for another year managing the campsite.

Wednesday we had to head over to Knoll Farm which will be our second campsite to set up and run this year, instead of the one in Portland. We were meeting our colleague Phil to discuss and plan the set up which we commence from the coming Monday.
James and Charlie (our farmer friends) joined us as they know the land best to offer some great advice as to where to situate certain aspects.
Back at Purbeck valley farm we had another set up to start over the other side of the stream in Linda’s private campers field.
With a mess tent up and the grass trimmed we started to get tents over for our SkyHook set up. Skyhook offer adult weekend stay kayak experiences and with us being soo close to the Jurassic coast it’s a popular destination for adventurers. We had 20 adults to set up our beautiful bell tents for with beds and some little camping luxuries.

Thursday we managed to get 14 bell tents up and dress them ready for our guests arriving this morning. The sun had finally arrived and we worked away enjoying the weather just the two of us putting up tents together.

Today (Friday) we have a fair bit more work to do with a big school arriving at lunchtime for a weekend stay on our main site. So once the schools who leave today have vacated their tents a quick clean up and reset operation is needed. In two of our camps. We also have a third camp that needs setting up for our D of E gold residential as those guests are arriving Monday so we want to ahead of the game.
A few final Michelle tweaks on the Skyhook camp and we’re be all ready for the weekend.

We don’t get bank holidays off but we are off as of Friday 4.30pm until Monday 8.30am so we will be enjoying as much as we can of the weekend, starting with a Land and Wave beach and barbecue evening after work today. Have a great bank holiday weekend whatever you are up to ☀️

21/05/2026

Camp 5 for SkyHook weekend coming along nicely…definitely be ready for our arrivals for the weekend and what a weekend for an adventure on the water.
Book your own SkyHook weekend to paddle along the Jurassic coast and stay in one of beautiful bell tents, put up and prepared for our guest with love 💙 www.skyhookadventure.com
Land & Wave Ltd

15/05/2026

Who has the FriYay feeling? 🙋🏻‍♂️

This week has been a tougher week, with our first two school groups arriving Tuesday and then Wednesday. We were ready for them but not for the weather.

The winds have been strong and relentless, even nearly having a mini marquee take flight as the teachers had left the door open and it was like a sail in a gust of wind at sea. Luckily Darren had spotted it and we jumped quick into action with a few instructors to help us, we prevented full on flight and any damage occurring.

Yesterday setting up our fourth campsite ready for next week we literally had four seasons in the space of a couple of hours…High winds died down to make way for rain then sun then hail stones like I’d never seen before, back to sunshine then more rain.
We got all the tents up in the end though, even if it did take longer than anticipated.

Tuesday morning we had our first Italian lesson which was good fun and with a nice group of people it seems. The teacher Amanda is enthusiastic and very good, reminds me of a boiling pot version of a few of the important ‘Donne’ in our lives from our Italian adventures. ❤️We felt a little out of our depth in some aspects as we are reading authentic Italian text in lessons but Amanda was very reassuring and encouraging with the belief we would get loads out of the weekly interactions in Italian. We both took away our own little gem of learning from the lesson so it is definitely worth it and the view from the classroom is pretty cool too. You can almost imagine you are on the Amalfi coast when the sun is shining over Swanage bay. ‘Bella Vista’ indeed!!

With not much planned this weekend except for a Park Run and Darren working on Sunday with Dan to finish the workshop project, we look forward to our weekend off and hope for some more consistent sunny weather so we can ad hoc some adventure in this beautiful place we have four and a bit more months left in.

15/05/2026

Anyone Land & Wave Ltd seen these little cuties yet?

Darren Garnett we’re going for a walk to see these at the weekend. Might even stop at The Square and Compass for a pasty and a pint if you’re good 🤣

There’s been some good news about the endangered puffin colony at Dancing Ledge on the Purbeck Coast in Dorset, after all six remaining puffins returned for the summer

Please follow the link for the full story

https://www.swanage.news/all-six-purbeck-puffins-return-to-dancing-ledge-after-fears-of-losses/