Taking the donkeys down from their highland summer residence to their more sheltered winter residence...just in time before Storm Ophelia hit. #countrylife #donkeys #homestead #storm

It’s now Winter. I started this in Autumn. I need to hurry up before it's Spring. Lough Mardal has been going through a costume change. The trees have shed most of their leaves. The greens have gone yellow, the yellows have gone orange and the oranges are going brown. The ground is crunchy and it’s all very lovely. We’re no longer on wildflower-watch. No more lake dips. No more picnics. No more bilberry picking. No more weeding. There are now well-trodden paths through the

We are living at Lough Mardal again after a long winter. It's lovely to be back - and be back for good. Spring is in the air, green shoots and buds are starting to appear, colour is being restored. The toddlers are enjoying outdoor life having come out of a kind of hibernation, there was rarely a day over winter they wouldn't get blown away. They were only just crawling when we left last autumn - a whole world of exploration has opened up to them now. I'm not sure I would hav

3.30am. It sounds like a Boeing 747 is taking off outside the yurt. I've never heard wind like this before. The noise is literally deafening. Gusts build and howl around us and I lie, frozen, waiting for something to give - the yurt to suddenly uproot or a tree to appear through the roof. Then it all goes eerily quiet momentarily... (and breathe)...before the next gust comes bellowing. I'm on my own with the girls tonight. Therefore 'in charge' and feeling ill equipped for th

We don't really like the term 'Glamping', I personally prefer 'Boutique Camping' (as we called it in my Electric Picnic days). Whatever term you choose we have decided to set up an eco yurt campsite. We had been pondering an alternative way to earn a crust, one which didn't involve a numbing commute or working to fund someone else's retirement. So...a small number of nicely furnished, heated yurts positioned a distance from each other for privacy, each with its own lake view,