A Yorkshire Campfire

I love a good campfire, we often go camping and nothing beats staring into the flames after a long and tiring day. But my favorite campfire memory is not from one of our camping trips, but it is from when we lived in Yorkshire, England.

For this we have to go back to the start of the pandemic. In 2020 my partner and I were having a long distance relationship, travelling between the UK and the Netherlands. When it became clear that Covid was pretty serious and that borders might close I took an impulsive decision to hop on the last ferry leaving to the UK, I didn't want to be in two seperate countries. Matt worked and lived in rural Yorkshire at the time and I joined him in the little cottage he lived in. When the world went in lockdown we found ourselves in a tiny village, in a cute cottage, surrounded by sheep and their lambs. To be honest, it was perhaps the most idyllic place to be in lockdown in. We spent a lot of time walking in the fields and sitting in the field behind the cottage.

Living next to all these cute lambs was a real bonus to living in Yorkshire

We even had the luck of living close to a local brewery, who because of the pandemic had a surplus of ale. They sold us a keg of ale for 20 pounds and we spend most evenings in the field sipping on ale at a campfire. Nothing like a good campfire to make you forget that the world has turned upside down. It was one of those evenings that we made the memorable campfire you see in the picture. It was already May, so two months into the lockdown when we had an ale, sat down at the fire and decided what to do from here. Though Yorkshire was super idyllic, it was also super remote and so impossible for me to find work as a history teacher. Matt had just been laid off in the pandemic, so we were kind of drifting. It was there, staring into the campfire on a glorious Yorkshire evening that we decided to head back to the Netherlands and that we would go back together. No more long distance for us!

A glorious last evening together in Yorkshire before heading to the Netherlands!

I will always look back on our time in Yorkshire with fond memories, and of that campfire where we decided to give life together a go. And here we are, 3 years down the line and still happy together! All photos are my own.