We go to a wonderful gig and Bailey gets an (almost) clean bill of health

We had such a perfect time at our friends, Andy and Barbara's, house

Autumn colours 

yesterday evening where they hosted a house concert for Austin singer-songwriter Danny Schmidt in their pretty white marquee in the garden. Despite heavy rain threatening to flood us all out it was a magical evening. We discovered Danny's music when we all took a trip to Texas for Dave's sixtieth birthday and have been fans ever since. Regular blog readers will know I name-drop him every once in a while and I do hope that you've all got your copies of Owls?! Danny was accompanied by Carrie Elkin who is also a singer-songwriter herself but was mostly singing beautifully sympathetic harmonies yesterday. It was wonderful to be able to spend a couple of hours both before and after the music chatting and catching up with all the news. Danny and Carrie were fresh from recording a Bob Harris interview where they had gotten to meet Eddie Kramer. Dave was impressed and I think I managed to successfully hide my ignorance! Danny has nearly finished his European tour now - last date is the Glasgow Americana Festival - but Carrie will be straight back, this time touring with Sam Baker, as of the 21st October. We'll have caught our ferry to France before they get to the UK (d'oh!). However, Dutch and English folks should check for nearby dates on Sam and Carrie's Tour Schedule.

So after what turned out to be a super-late night we all had early starts this morning, ours being caused by the arrival of Melvin from Caravan And Trailer Services who visited to give Bailey a checkup. Considering the mileage we have done over the past year we thought this would be prudent, but could have done without being evicted for three hours after too little sleep! We took a walk into Hailsham, admiring the gorgeous autumnal colours on the way. I needed to collect an Amazon parcel from the Post Office which contained two Finum Brewing Baskets. I saw these recommended on Twitter as a more convenient way to brew real coffee that using my cafetiere. It's nearly twenty-five years old anyway and starting to let though more grounds than it keeps out. The baskets are already much easier to store and I will let you know how well they make coffee.

We whiled away a very pleasant half hour in an elegant new coffee shop

On the Cuckoo Trail 

called The Snug. It's at the top end of Hailsham High Street opposite the Raj Dutt. Good coffee, excellent lemon muffin and I love the red and black decor. Well worth a visit, especially as they've not quite been open a month. The Snug was already pretty busy which is a good sign. Another great little shop I discovered when hunting out weaving supplies is The Pumpkin Patch which is in St Mary's Walk. I didn't know Hailsham even had a proper haberdasher's but there it was. There's a superb range of fabrics too.

And the good news on our return was that Bailey doesn't need any major work and the only real issue is that the tyres are now five years old and so should be replaced soon. This was news to us - especially as the caravan itself is only four years old! - but apparently the tyres are date-stamped. I had a google and Caravan Club advice is that the maximum amount of time they should be kept in use in seven years. However getting them changed after five years is strongly advised as the tyre walls can begin to deteriorate quite quickly even though the tyres may still look to be in good condition. So that's more expense then. (Commission from affiliate link purchases in this post will be put towards the Tyre Fund!)