I am just a humble herder, living in service to my caprine queens and benevolent sheep and the land that holds me. I am a third generation smallholder, raised with my hands in the soil, my bare feet in the mud and my bum on a bareback, piebald pony. I once trained to be a herbalist, and then a women’s health and nutrition coach, but the hustle of the wellness sphere wasn’t the life for me. My place is in the fields and fens, the woods, wide open hills and wild places, barefoot and breathing hircine sweat and honeysuckle and bathing in the rain. My husband and I have been small-scale sufficiency farming together now for nearly fifteen years, raising animals and growing medicinal herbs and food gardens.
I write stories of life and death on the land. On connecting with the source of our sustenance, what it is to be human in coherence with the land and nature. On raising sheep and goats for food and fibre, growing food and medicine, living in accordance with the seasons and cycles of the land. I have lived for the last two years spanning two wild winters and two sweltering summers in a power-less, plumbing-less shepherd’s hut on a rugged, wet and exposed hill in the wild southwest of Ireland, learning from the land, learning to accept what is and trust in the turning of the seasons, re-learning what it is to be human. I tan animal skins with the bark of the willows that grow from this land and it is messy, bloody, raw and real. And I am here for it all. My animals are the soul and sustenance of my farm. I write on all of it—please know that I do not tiptoe around the harder aspects of raising animals for food and the inescapable necessity of death in the order of life.
My words are my art. I write what’s in me to be written and I hope it lands in the hands and hearts of those it speaks to the most. Sometimes I might rant political, and sometimes I may wax poetic on the meaning of it all. Always from my heart, imperfect, whole and human.
At least fortnightly posts are free to all. Paid subscriptions support my livelihood and keep me writing and sharing regularly for which I am grateful and beholden. Paid subscribers get a bit extra, including behind-the-scenes life on our little mountain farm in the wild hills of southwest Ireland; occasional seasonal, herbal and nose-to-tail recipes; and access to all weekly posts and archived essays.
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