For a truly special 5th of November, get on up to Lochhouses Farm near Edinburgh and stay in one of the fabulous safari tents while you watch the fireworks and sizzle the sausages. It might not be the weather for a dip in the sea, but a wintry beach walk with a roaring fire to come back to will have to do.

Miss Mary, the Great Date Guide blogger and all round dating expert, tried out Swallowtail Hill farm. Here's a brief snippet ...

"Heading out of London on a Friday night, not knowing where I was going, the car laden with clothing and paraphernalia to cover all eventualities… I was feeling surprisingly relaxed! Normally a bit of a control freak; there was actually something very calming about NOT being in charge. Brownie points to the Other Half already.

Designated map reader, I knew where we going geographically but I still had no idea what our ultimate destination was. We finally “arrived” at 10pm, when we drove down a dead-end road in the middle of nowhere, parked the car and were greeted by a lady with a torch and a wheelbarrow. A usual Friday night then?"

Read the rest and find out how it went ...

Dick goes for a novel method of rolling pastry

Blackberries, just ripe, are lining the hedgerows, and it's the perfect time of year to head out with a basket, pick a few handfuls, and use them to transform an apple crumble into a beautiful seasonal pudding. If you've been following the exciting events of Celebrity Masterchef you'll know that Dick Strawbridge narrowly missed out on first place, despite finishing with a sublime-looking rhubarb and ginger crumble tart, another twist on the classic favourite. Have a go at something really special with Dick's recipe, courtesy of BBC food. Congratulations to Lisa Faulkner who scooped the title – clearly, laying into a pig's head in the name of charcuterie deserves admiration. Still, gastronomic adventures with Dick are in high demand at Newhouse Farm near Fowey in Cornwall, home of the Eco Gypsy Caravan. There are currently places available so if you're heading south later this year, don't miss the opportunity to benefit from his expertise.

You can find details of Dick's courses here on the Eco Gypsy Caravan page, under 'Things to Do' and at his site, www.practicalselfsufficiency.com. You may have caught a glimpse in the Saturday Times magazine [subscription required] of Dick and James Strawbridge's new book, Practical Self-Sufficiency: The Complete Guide to Sustainable Living. Guests staying in the Eco Gypsy Caravan could always take a signed copy home to increase their self-sufficiency by applying those all-important changes to everyday life. Actions can be as small as drawing your curtains at dusk, closing the fridge while you ponder what to make for dinner, and turning lights off when you leave a room – or if you're really keen, learn how to make your own biodiesel on another of the courses at Newhouse Farm. The book's also available to order here so you don't have to go all the way to Fowey – though if you found yourself sitting on the step of the caravan enjoying some evening sun and watching the free range chickens scratch happily beneath the willows, we're sure you wouldn't regret it if you did...

Recent guests at the Bouncers Farm Gypsy Camp enjoy a Mini beast safari with a local guide, and a little relaxation in the hastily adapted easy chair. Why not come along and go hunting in the woods for all sorts of tiny creatures? Learn to tell your toads from your frogs and which ones you can eat! (clue: not many)

Bouncers Farm in Metro journeys' Best New Places to Sleep.

Meet James' latest creation - The Ark. You've got the same clever use of space and the beautiful natural shape of the wood, but this time a curved canvas roof that arches up to give the whole thing its gothic feel. Next year, the plan is to have The Ark as its own separate space, but while James is setting up the new site, it's available go with The Wagon to form an eight person camp down by the lake.

The Ark is an additional £75 a night and, for now, can only be let as part of a booking at The Wagon

We're delighted to announce our latest and possibly most eclectic space to date: a cosy cabin on a working organic farm. But that's not all – come and let your creativity flow in a musical, artistic, and thoroughly imaginative atmosphere. Take in a concert in the performance space, record an album in the studio, or simply pluck a guitar string or two on the verandah as you survey the calm of an evening in rural Worcestershire.

The Hatch is open.

While away your afternoon kneading your own pizza dough ready for your evening meal care of the Puckshipton clay pizza oven.

If you fancy going truly rustic during your stay at The Wagon, how’s about firing up the Puckshipton clay pizza oven and preparing your own woodfired pizza with your own fair hands. And nothing can be more therapeutic than kneading your own dough ready for the occasion.

We suggest getting hold of some special flour like Italian Tipo ‘00’ flour, which is finer ground than normal flour, give it a good sieve with a pinch of salt on to a clean work surface and make a well in the middle. In a jug, mix the yeast, sugar and olive oil into the water and leave for a few minutes, then pour into the well. Using a fork, bring the flour in gradually from the sides and swirl it into the liquid. Keep mixing, drawing larger amounts of flour in, and when it all starts to come together, work the rest of the flour in with your clean, flour-dusted hands. Knead until you have a smooth, springy dough.

Place the ball of dough in a large flour-dusted bowl and flour the top of it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and place on the side in The Wagon where it’s a little warmer for about an hour until the dough has doubled in size.

Now it’s time to give it a good knead, think about it like pushing the air out with your hands. If you’re not ready to eat immediately, wrap it in clingfilm and pop it into the fridge until later. Then when you’re ready, divide the dough up into as many little balls as you want pizzas and roll them into bases.

Why not ask James and Juliette whether they have any surplus vegetables from the garden that you could roast up in a small dish in the clay oven beforehand, with some cloves of garlic, olive oil, finely sliced chillis, paprika and rosemary. Throw the lot on top and finish with some mozzarella and you’ve got yourself your very own Puckshipton Pizza Special.

Enjoy!

What you would need for the base…

• 1kg strong white bread flour or Tipo ‘00’ flour

• 1 level tablespoon fine sea salt

• 2 x 7g sachets of dried yeast

• 1 tablespoon golden caster sugar

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 650ml lukewarm water

Glamp up a van and park it in a meadow and you've got a romantic mini-break on wheels

Compromise, as everyone knows, is the key to a harmonious relationship, especially on holiday – and so God invented glamping. OK, so a horsebox sounds about as glamorous as a portaloo, and, unless you are a pony-mad eight-year-old, the proposition of camping in one isn't likely to get a girl's heart cantering. But, park the horsebox in a flower-filled meadow, kit it out like a Toast photoshoot and give it a cute name – and you've got a retro-romantic-mini-break-on-wheels. After a few seasons on the festival circuit, the Lovestruck's rock'n'roll days are behind it as its creators have a new baby, so it has been put out to grass by a pond at Swallowtail Hill Farm, near Rye in East Sussex.

Farmers Sarah and Chris Broadbent, custodians of the Lovestruck, couldn't have been more welcoming; they escorted us with great cheerfulness over their fields, our luggage in a wheelbarrow, especially as we had arrived – like inconsiderate city folk – at gone midnight and they had to get up in a few hours to feed the animals. Guided by the light of a torch and thousands of stars, we were definitely on our own (sleeping in a field a few feet from lots of strangers has always seemed to me to be just one of the dafter contradictions of camping).

I have distinctly unfond memories of caravanning (we didn't camp: the very word makes my mum pull her something-mouldy-at-the-back-of–the-fridge face). On one particularly doomed holiday, my dad packed the car to go home more times than you might have said we had hot dinners during our stay, had my mum not pulled the knobs off the hob on first use; every time you tried to use anything, a lump of 1970s plastic would come off in your hand. Happily, I can report there is nothing as unlovely as laminate in the Lovestruck – even the curtain rails are made from bits of driftwood. (Yup, curtains. Pretty gingham ones. In a horsebox.) By candlelight it was as cosy as a horsebox can be and we were snug as bugs – which I was trying NOT to think about, given our proximity to the pond – in the little bed above the driver's cabin.

One bonus of arriving in the middle of the night is the surprise of finding yourself somewhere absolutely lovely in the morning. We were woken by the croaking of frogs and sunshine streaming through the horses' little windows. The temptation to ramp up the Rosy Lee in the decor has been wisely resisted – a couple of stained-glass windows just the right side of kitsch. The bench in the "living area" can be used as a second bed, but – as the name suggests – the Lovestruck is meant for two: kids could sleep there, but they'd have to be old enough for the pond not to be a worry.

The right side of kitsch

Our welcome pack contained all the essentials for a goodlifer's breakfast: all organic, natch. The eggs – from the farm hens – deserve a special mention: the yolks as bright and yellow as the buttercups all around us. There's a state-of-the art tripod burner (made somewhere like Norway, where they know about these things) and an armoury of long-handled implements for the boy scout in your life, there's everything the fussiest glamper could demand: a wood-burning outdoor shower (it takes 45 minutes to heat up – but, hey, what's the rush?); organic products; and compost loo cabins with chirpy (and possibly unnecessary) instructions. There are two other yurts in an adjoining field, so at most you might have to share with a couple of families.

Finally, after cooking and washing – it's amazing how long these things can take – we were ready to explore this corner of East Sussex. Our day took us from the picturesque cobbled lanes of Rye, with its historic church, and maze of antique and tea shops and the sea-mist-shrouded expanse of Camber Sands, as crowded as a Victorian seaside postcard (except with a whole load more flesh on show), its endless skies dotted with colourful kites to the eerily beautiful isolation of Dungeness, its horizon surreally punctured by two nuclear power stations and two lighthouses. Rye - the inspiration for E F Benson's fictional town of Trilling - has attracted an impressive list of literary luminaries, while the bleak beauty of the Romney marshes continues to draw artists. We made a pilgrimage to Lamb House, home to Henry James for a period (familiar to readers of Colm Toibin's elegant Booker-shortlisted The Master), followed by a visit to filmmaker Derek Jarman's much-photographed Prospect Cottage, with its strangely pretty shingle garden, in Dungeness and a quirky studio displaying local artists' work.

Despite tempting restaurant recommendations, journalistic duty – and the glorious weather – dictated a barbecue (Sarah had delivered a carnivorous feast). By chance, one of the neighbouring farms was holding a charity party, so, as we dined under the stars, we were treated to what felt like a private son et luminaire – fireworks and cover versions with a backing chorus from the frogs in the pond beside us. Who'd have thought a weekend in a horsebox could be so romantic.

Visitors can try their hand at various activities from tractor-driving to archery, but the next day we lazed about like happy cows in our meadow. We were rewarded by another aerial display, this time by the two resident swallows and their young, swooping and twisting as if they were staging a recreation of the Battle of Britain, the 70th anniversary of which was being commemorated a few miles along the coastline at Folkestone.

Before we – reluctantly – left, I had a peak inside the luxury yurts. They have beds – made out of driftwood, naturally. Beds. In tents. I might even be persuaded to try canvas next time. Amen to glamping.