Cottage in the Highlands

‘What’s this?’, I hear you ask. ‘Why are you starting your blog with a picture of a colander full of greens, on top of a dishevelled garden chair?’

Because it sums up what we are about. Grow Your Own, Make Do and Mend, DIY. We are homesteaders. Smallholders. Permaculturists. Home brewers. All at 57 degrees north, in Easter Ross in the Highlands of Scotland, on 3/4 acre of garden, on the edge of a quiet village, near the sea.

We are Marie and Seamus. We have been drifting towards the slow life for some time now, but life changed quite dramatically for us over the past 18 months, when Marie became unwell and had to give up work. It has really focused our minds on what is important, and that is resoundingly Us, Home, our Pets. Home is a very happy place, full of colour, laughter and whimsy, where we don’t take ourselves too seriously.

We share our cottage with 4 cats and 2 dogs, and the garden with a rabbit and 3 chickens. We spend rather too much time making up songs about them. 3 of the cats are tiger-and-whites: Penny, Nigel and Xoron; 1 of them, Grabthar, is a tortie. Archie is a bearded collie, and Lulu is a Dalmatian. George is a lop-eared gingerish bunny. Harriet is a white chicken, Herodotus is black, and Hoarce is black with flecks of gray. They all contribute to our cottage economy: the chickens and George provide fertiliser and eat leftovers; the girls’ eggs are a welcome addition to our larder; the cats are good mousers (and ratters). Archie and Lulu are excellent companions, and take their roles as security officer (Archie) and chief snozzler (Lulu) very seriously. They also enjoy eating the vegetables we grow – broccoli is their favourite.

So welcome – we hope you’ll stick around. Every day is bunting day here!