The forecast was bad.  Rain was promised.

And, sometimes, needs must when the rain demands.

But was there any reason for this?

That’s odd Turk.  Can’t actually see any clouds!@!  or rain for that matter.

You spend all year designing something, you make the prototype, you put it up again, you tweak the design, you get it made and hire it out three or four times.  But every time you go to take a photo, what happens?

It rains, it’s dark, the sun goes in, you can’t see because of things in the way.

All very frustrating.  Until eventually along comes a day when it all goes right!

Well, yesterday was just such a day.

It was the worst site we’ve had in two or three years – bumps everywhere and a two way slope, on an open field.  Nothing fitted, the angles were wrong, and the forecast was abominable. It was hopeless. So we went to the pub.  Only to be served by an incompetent barman who sprayed us with cider!

But n day two our luck changed. The sun came out, the yurts settled, the covers fitted and a gentle breeze floated up the valley. It couldnt have been easier.

So, up with the flags and… voila… The Mongolian Arcade at last.

I do hope the boys like it back in Ulaan Baatar…

It was a bit like that with our Square Gers. We thought it would be nice to re-cover our open sided canopies in something a little more in keeping with the rest of the yurts.

‘Oh really?’ they said.

They were not amused. But they did it for us nonetheless.

Then, last weekend, up they went at a wedding we did for Ali and Michael…

We sent them a couple of pictures afterwards and then waited for a message back.

It’s a bit like waiting for pictures to come back from developers (if you’re old enough to remember that!)

‘Yes,’ they said.

‘Not bad’ they said. ’Not bad at all’

Wow… Praise indeed!

So where are our witty little posts, and the new pictures of our great events?

Well, the answer is we’ve been building our new holiday park in Gloucester.  All that an keeping up with all the yurt events.

This week we finished the chicken coop n Gloucester, did a 50th birthday in an ancient monument in Cambridge, a fabulous wedding in King Lynn, a romantic hideaway for a 40th birthday in Sussex and a Union headquarters week long workshop event in Oxfordshire.

So why aren’t we posting much?  I think you already know the answer.  tha and the fact that our lovely camera has been in for repairs for two months!!

What!

Normal service will be resumed soon!

So, here he is, the Mightey Mikey O’brien who runs south coast canvas company Rifa Designs.

Not only does Mikey look after all our repairs but in the last few months he has gradually been converting the yurts to take windows and accommodate our new super-easy rigging system.

It’s taken a lot of head scratching and some seriously hard work on Mikey’s  part but it’s getting there!!

Phew.

When every other self respecting marquee company has shut up shop and gone off to India for a couple of months, there we were slogging around on top of a hill in the heart of Oxfordshire in a force 8 gale trying to keep this lot down…

Anyway, once it was up it all worked swimmingly and was the perfect opportunity to try our two new contrasting yurt interiors.

Inspired by the Monsoon catalogue shoot we did earlier in the year, they are a blend of soft rich velvets with an oriental twist that complements the heritage of Mongolia and the influence of it’s nearest neighbour.

It wasn’t the best day for a photo shoot (!!!) but they still looked fab.

After a year of planning and lots of chatting, a ton of keyboard bashing and endless deliberations over fonts and logos and colours and pictures and … well I’m sure you can imagine – here it is…

the second of our huge leaps for this sesason.

The new, inspired, all-improved-easy to-navigate-full-of-pictures – and a few speellign mistakes – Simply Yurts Website!!  (more trumpets).

It’s our third rebuild in as many years but it shows how far and fast Simply Yurts is moving on.  We’ve poured blood and sweat into this - actally quite a lot that because most of the work was done in the heat of summer by the Fabulous Lads from Limongrafica in Southern Spain –  and we’re really pleased with the result.

Actually, No.  Stronger than that. We love it!

But who are we? What do we know? (as they keep telling us)  why don’t you tell us what you think – we’d love to hear from you so please feel free to comment below and the best comment will get a really nice little set of  Simply Yurts postcards with our compliments. They’re also fab by the way…

nother man we met at the designer show – Paul Antonio – Scribe!

What a great title!  heaving with the weight of time and responsibility carried by his predecessors down through the ages.

Nice bloke too!!  and he very kindly did this card for us!

Lovely!

Yes,  we liked that.  It felt just right.  The Kasbah effect.  All it needed to complete the picture were some fab buddha bar tunes.

Oh and then these three little monkeys turned up… they were great and Rock the Kasbah they certainly did.  Much to our amusement!