Closing the Year

and a few posts from the past year

Dec 22, 2024

This time last year we were facing into our second winter in a makeshift shepherd’s hut/caravan on the open hill. We barely had room to squeeze the two of us onto fold-up, plastic garden chairs by the woodstove in our draughty, humble little hut, so we booked an AirB&B in the hills nearby to have our son and his girlfriend come to stay and spend Christmas with family. I cooked a full turkey Christmas dinner with all the trimmings in a strange kitchen and we all sat around a strange table awkwardly making merry without making any mess. It was nice, but uncomfortable. We made a pact then, himself and I, when we got back to our grubby little hut on the hill, that the next time it’s our turn to do the family Christmas (two years from then, a year from now), it will be in our own home, that I’ll be cooking our own home-raised turkey or goose in my own comfortable, familiar kitchen, where I can make all the mess I like. That we will have a home for my son to come home to. We were living in limbo this time last year, with an offer accepted on the homestead we would come to make our home in, but no certainty.

Oh, what a year it’s been! From living the wild life out on the land, truly living the seasons and every turn in the weather on the open hill, to an old, stone homestead, sheltered and green, a dream that after thirteen agonising moons of holding faith, learning to trust in the outcome and accept whatever is, was given to us by a lightning strike. An act of God, a blessing, luck. Whatever you want to call it, here we are, closing the year in a sanctuary of stone under the watch of the ash tree, tucked into a dip in the hills not too far from our farm, in a place we can call home. Now I’ve got a year to raise the turkey and build a kitchen.

I’m ready for the winter break in our home this year. I’m ready to curl up fireside with a tipple of something warm and finally relax and celebrate. Just the two of us. A couple of weeks to stay still, to settle in and spend the winter break making home.

I leave you for a couple of weeks with a selection of my most popular posts from the past year that I think give a pretty good idea of what you’ll get from subscribing, for anyone new here, and I’ll be back with new stories in the new year. Thank you for reading along with me as these stories unfold. And my deepest gratitude to the small but growing percentage of you who see fit to dig into your purses and throw a few notes to this humble busker. It truly makes my heart smile to know that these stories strike a chord with you, and keeps me beholden to writing them. Enjoy the break, if you get one, whatever way you celebrate.

On origins, and using the whole animal.