In 2018 I was living on the south coast of England and working as a Costume Designer on a Sky series called Fortitude. We were based in Bristol for interiors and shooting exteriors in the phenomenally beautiful landscape of Svalbard- the most Northernly inhabited place on the planet, AKA the Arctic Desert. It was simply the most awesome of all the locations I have been lucky enough to visit and the experience shifted my perspective on life (and work).

Arriving back home I started to make plans…

My beloved husband died in 2015 and the home we had shared with our now adult children felt too sad on my own, and so I looked around, eventually coming across Kames Farm —the place where he and I would surely have retired together.

By the end of the year, joined bravely by my twin sister from Shetland, I made the trip up to my native Scotland and I settled into Argyll. Here together we faced the extreme learning curve of running a smallholding with the rescued animals we inherited- horses, goats and alpacas, a large garden and 35acres of field, hill and shore.

It has taken a few years, with many anecdotes surely, but without hesitation I can say the rewards are sweet.

Very early-on it was decided the farm should be run along organic principals, and with the current positioning of the climate this has been the guiding  force for our plans —from management of the soil, composting, animal care, human-wellbeing, planting of hedgerows, trees and managing our water sources. Everything is aimed at making our home sustainable for the future and of course, for future generations.

Winter feed, fencing, building maintenance, veterinary bills and general day-to-day living expenses carry sufficient costs, but with a little bit of effort and imagination our resources were too good to miss.

Our goats are of the angora variety —sweet natured, photogenic and curly-haired. After a few bad haircuts we have learned to successfully clip them ourselves to put their lovely fleece to good use. We now produce our own yarn and have recently collaborated with a specialist mill to weave the fibre into a small number of very soft, warm and beautiful blankets.

Our alpaca yarn is made from the fleece of Scottish animals which we mix with the small amount of appropriate fleece from our own elderly residents.

Our linen homeware came out of a genuine need for useful —and beautiful–  homeware and satisfies my need to sew. Every item is made at the kitchen table as the order comes in, with the added bonus that I have the recipient’s name in my head while I sew…

The candles are hand-rolled by our friends from Honey Flame candles and are simply a product which brings light to our darker moments…

The goat’s milk soap is made locally by the goat owner…..

And the Glerups? In Svalbard you are required to remove your shoes on entering a property- a hangover from the days of mining when householders didn’t want coal-dust in the home —and so a useful pair of wool shoes does the trick… its as though Svalbard was telling us something…