One Cat Farm Glamping site, Wales - A review

If big skies and a sense of freedom are what you are looking for in a family getaway, then perhaps you've forgotten how good a camping holiday can be? Did I really just write that? Don't be ridiculous, all too often camping with small kids equates to disaster - but GLamping on the other hand...

Life As It Is was invited to One Cat Farm in West Wales over Easter, and my goodness, what a surprisingly rejuvenating break it was. I fell in love with the great outdoors all over again. Of course it helped that the weather was good and the family that run One Cat Farm are super lovely, but who on earth could fail to embrace the fresh air and starry skies that this quiet valley setting offers?

Fundamentals of family life... - A poem

...Staring up I don’t recall skies quite like this since the Australian Outback. My God, the stars look in touching distance. And underneath the starlit skies, I’m reminded how magical life can be.  

When all around us is a conveyor belt of madness most of the time, it’s too easy to forget. Yet here I am, stripped bare of everything technological and left only with the warming campfire in front of me. It is long awaited bliss. 

The girls are nearby, sound asleep inside their comfy beds within the cosy den. A grass-roofed eco wood hut that equates to the best nights sleep possible. It is quiet and warm thanks to the insulation. 

I’m in a hidden Welsh Valley approximately three miles from the colourful Georgian coastal town of Aberareron. I’ve been transported back to the fundamentals of life spent together as a family. 

And it is all really rather welcome.

15/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

I asked the girls to draw something to do with One Cat Farm that they loved (where we've just been on hols). They both drew the den. And who could blame them? I loved it too.

Unplugging to reconnect with a basic love of life

I think there is something truly wonderful about your mobile phone going on the blink the same day that you leave for a holiday.  Maybe that’s just me? Yet as I’m headed westbound out of Paddington on a train to Bristol Parkway, I’m feeling like my holiday has already begun. You see, I no longer have the annoyance of work buzzing in my handbag. No, now it’s just me alone, sat smug having survived the platform scrum.

Actually, I’m doubly smug, for I’m doing this first leg of the journey alone. Darling other half is currently somewhere along the M4 corridor with the chaos that is our 7 and 4 YO girls in tow. See what I mean about feeling my hols has well and truly begun?

I’m not going to need the phone where are headed. One Cat Farm promises to have no WiFi and thank heavens for that. This holiday is all about being in close proximity with the family in idyllic Welsh countryside, staring at the stars. It’s about unplugging oneself from the technological madness that most of us inhabit each and every day, and reconnecting with a basic love of life.

Can’t wait to see how it goes…

A natural born camper?

Turns out I'm not a natural born camper. I much prefer the five-star treatment. Here, let me put you in the picture: me and camping

Then of course, last summer I went on a trip that was officially labelled GLamping but was horrified to realise there was no ground coffee available. I would usually have taken a cafetiere with me in these circumstances, but had been thinking glamorous camping would equate to strong coffee on tap, along with a ready made bed to get into. What a fool I was - no I didn't take bedding either.

So yes, camping is my idea of hell. But now that LIFE AS IT IS has been offered a GLamping review opportunity, and now that the kids are older... (7 & 4), now that there is heating on offer... and proper beds... and now that I've long since given up my coffee addiction... okay then, I'll give it a go. Who couldn't resist the lure of - and I quote - snuggling up in your very own den in a hidden valley - along with views like this...

One Cat Farm in Wales here we come.