Tuesday 27 January 2015

The Open Road.



Look what I discovered yesterday, just a few hundred metres from our house!

I can't tell you how I felt when I spotted it. My dream was being acted-out by some lucky devil who had taken matters into his own hands, and just got on with it.

A wagon like this has everything one needs. A bed, a table, and a small stove. And just like with my friends who came to stay all those years ago, this wagon had two hens, a dog, and an old nag.

Keeping things to 'essentials' only, is essential in a Gypsy Caravan. A saw, a washing line, a bottle opener, and a good supply of buckets is important, but other than that; not much else.

I've mentioned previously my thoughts on seeing a wisp of blue smoke coming from a tiny cottage chimney, you can just imagine my thoughts on seeing this. 

YES, I AM EXTREMELY JEALOUS.




37 comments:

  1. Very romantic, but would you realy go and live now in a small wagon?

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    Replies
    1. Maybe not permanently, but I'd love to have one parked in our field that I could retreat to on occasions.

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    2. One parked in your field should not be too difficult and libby said below - maybe they would like to sell.

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    3. It is a beautiful picture anyway.

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  2. Have you spoken to the person? maybe they are at the end of their travelling road and would sell it to you...

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  3. Goodness - what a sight to stumble upon. And what a coincidence after your recent post. It does look a rather nice way to spend your life - footloose and fancy free so to speak.

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  4. Over here there'd be in groups and a sign would say "puppies for sale on it"! Or they do normally. I can imagine that they'd have their same spots they go back to year after year where they know they'd receive less hassle.
    It would be amazing to look around one that is in use rather than one someone has staged in a museum.

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  5. A saw, a clothes line and buckets, what about the Opinel?

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  6. I remember Gypsies calling at the little farm where I was a child in the 1950s, but they drove flatbed trucks and just wanted to sell the wooden lawn chairs they made. How I wished they traveled in wagons and camped in our fields. There is an encouraging sense of Romance in the photo you posted, Cro. I wish the U.S. had not motorized everything here so soon.

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    1. There's a huge difference between 'travellers' and pukka Gypsies.

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  7. Don't you recognise the colour scheme? That's the DHL Parcel Express van for Angola...

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  8. we regularly get travellers with bow tops, camping near the river here in Glastonbury. Interestingly the police don't seem to move them on, as usually happens. I must say tho, they don't leave any mess and rubbish behind.

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    1. I can picture them now. I bet they're nice people too.

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  9. My mother, and her friend Pud Cumpsty, owned a very similar wagon when they were youngish. It was parked up by Offa's Dyke near Oswestry, and they used to spend weekends there in Summer.

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  10. I have seen the occasional real gypsy around here, on the side of the road. Really nice people. We tend to get a lot of travellers closer to home though, and hostile thoughts come to mind when I see them.

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  11. I could live in that gypsy wagon, I think I would quite enjoy it without a care in the world and you could do the cooking.

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  12. Do you remember that Gypsy caravan that used to turn up in Farnham every year and park on the by-pass green? The woman would always walk about 6 feet behind the man, and the man would regularly turn around and threaten to hit her - a bit like 'La Strada'.

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    Replies
    1. I have a photo of myself with them.

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    2. The photo shows just me him and the wagon. He made the photographer PAY.

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  13. The wife has been saying we should move into a travel trailer to simplify our lives. This way is even better--no gasoline (and no truck) necessary.

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    1. Best keep the house though.... a life on the road may not be to your liking.

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  14. "I'm a free born man of the travelling people, no fixed abode...."

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  15. The universe is speaking to you Cro. It's up to you to answer.

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  16. I can understand your hesitation on visiting the wagon, but don't you wish you could have found out a little about this traveler.

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    1. I had just returned from my baker with 2 large loaves, I did think of offering one to them, but there was no-one about... still in bed I think.

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  17. A few years ago we had this fellow come through Maine on his way back down form Newfoundland with a mule drawn gypsy wagon.
    http://www.riverearth.com/the-general-store

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    1. Interesting, but no caravan. Where did he sleep?

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    2. He did have a wagon not unlike the one in your photo, at least when I saw him pass through our town. If you page through that link there are a number of trips he has done with different wagons.

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  18. Feel a bit the same Cro although I suspect that after a short time loneliness would get to me. I do like the companyof my friends.

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  19. Wow! I'd like to do this, except on days like this, when we're having a blizzard. Then, I'm glad for a stationary house.

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  20. How wonderful. I wonder what tales the occupant has to tell. I do hope he/she takes up your kind offer of bread.

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  21. Do you remember the poem "I wish I lived in a caravan, with a horse to ride like a pedlar man, where he comes from nobody knows and .... (can't remember the rest)
    I wouldn't mind being called Pud Cumpsty either!

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    Replies
    1. I met her when she was quite elderly (here in France). She was wonderful, but no longer liked to be called 'Pud'. I can't remember her other name.

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