Written for Cumbria Life.

John:

I know they say, as you get older the years go faster, but where did the summer go? Yes it was amazing but boy did it go fast. Our visitors often ask me when is there a quite time on the farm. My answer is, never. There’s always a long list of jobs needing attention on top of the seasonal work. As farms get bigger and staff are less abundant, it’s no wonder we never catch up, despite all the modern equipment and innovations. 

One job I really enjoy though, is repairing the stonewalls. It’s a skill once mastered you never forget, and the more you practice the faster the wall goes back up. It must be the epitome of green building. Using the materials to hand plus your skill and knowledge from a jumbled heap of stone emerges a solid long lasting structure. It not only provides a permanent barrier but also shelter and a home to many species of flora and fauna. 

Over the years I’ve walled all over Cumbria and North Lancashire using everything from the tiny shards of limestone around Silverdale and Sizergh to the massive water rounded boulders of Wasdale. All use different techniques and skills. On our farm, most of the walls are a mix of slate and field stones. It’s hard to imagine that some will have stood for many centuries. There’s something very rewarding and also therapeutic in repairing a wall. It’s like being fully immersed in ancient history. The clothing is different but the location, materials and skills are exactly the same.

That’s the thing with farming – you manage the land for a short time in the great scheme of things, protecting the legacy and hard work of those which went before you and putting in place things that will hopefully benefit those that follow you. The walls and fields will still be here long after I’ve gone leaving a legacy to the future generations. 

Like the clothing, the livestock have also changed. If you look at old photos, the breeds are still the same but they have changed slightly in appearance. This is probably where farmers get the most pride out of all their hard work, breeding animals they feel are the best they can produce. All the shows through the summer lead to the culmination of the autumn sales when the animals bred in the hills are sold to farmers in the lowlands or to fellow breeders looking to buy in fresh bloodlines. It can be exiting and demoralising in equal measure. So many things can affect the trade. Your champion tup that has cleaned up at the shows can suddenly go lame. You may get drawn first in the sale and the buyers haven’t got warmed up yet to start spending or you could be last and everyone has got what they want and gone home. It’s always a stressful time and always will be as the farm’s financial stability can be thrown out of kilter by a poor sale. The drought in the south this year could  have  an effect on the sales of breeding sheep as many head down the road to populate the farms and estates. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they have some much need rain and return up here to buy. I will let you know next time.

Maria:

I’ve have just spent a lovely weekend with Amira, founder of Wanderlust Women, an organisation she set up to encourage Muslim women to adventure in nature. She came to stay on our farm for a few days with two friends, who also work with her.

On Saturday morning we left the farm at three thirty in the morning and drove to Coniston where we walked up the Old Man to a beautiful spot where we could watch the sunrise. In the heat wave we’ve been experiencing, it was wonderful to be out in the dark, cool air and slowly watch the landscape emerge. The women did their morning prayers, watched by curious Swaledales and the air began to warm.

I do so little walking in the Lakes. Partly because I feel guilty doing anything unrelated to work and partly because I have a terrible sense of direction, so a solo, impromptu walk feels completely out of the question. When I lived in London I walked and cycled everywhere and swam in the local lido at least three times a week. But these spaces are contained and organised and felt safe to me.

But of course I see the potential benefits of walking in nature, with a sense of freedom and that’s something that Amira is keen to share with women, many of whom have never been for a walk in the countryside in their lives. 

The health benefits are obvious but it’s the support of other women that is a lifeline for many choosing to do an activity that is fully for themselves and for pleasure and not for work or the family. Aysha told me she hid the fact that she had started hiking from her family for a long time. When she finally told her parents, and note Aysha is a thirty-something professional, her mother said, “What kind of woman goes hiking?” 

When something as seemingly simple and wholesome as going for a walk is considered threatening, you realise that not everyone has the privilege of feeling the lakes and fells are for them. 

It’s not really to do with the religion. My father is from Pakistan too but is Christian, not Muslim, and the culture is the same. I felt really quite liberated and understood spending time with Amira, Amina and Aysha. We had a picnic by Coniston Water one evening and went for a swim. Since then, I’ve bought a wetsuit, changing robe, all the gear and have gone every day and feel so much better for it. I moved to the Lake District twelve years ago and it’s taken this long to plan and look forward to a morning swim in the lake. Something just for me.

I love what the Wanderlust Women are doing to encourage this wholehearted joy in the landscape.

Written for Cumbria Life.

John: 

This summer our hay meadows have been brimming with flowers and grasses and for a pleasant change, the Cumbrian Weather Gods have been kind. We’ve had enough rain to make the grass grow and enough spells of sunny weather to make some excellent hay, which is now safely stored under roof ready for winter. Hay time evokes memories of hot summer days as a teenager going round the small local farms helping cart in small bales of hay into dark cobweb-filled barns. Cold black tea and orange squash, farmhouse teas when the day was over. Each farm had their own specialty: home cured ham, boiled eggs and cream trifle. We even occasionally got a mug of cider or a bottle of beer, before cycling home in the early hours. Nowadays, staff are thin on the ground and farms have had to grow in size to make ends meet so very few folk still make labour intensive small bales. The work gets done just the same, but I miss those days of working as a big team.
In between making hay we have been shearing the sheep, often early in the morning or in the evening when it’s a bit cooler. Although I still shear some of the sheep myself, I get a local young farmer, Phil to do most of the work. It really speeds things up and it’s a chance to catch up with what the younger farmers are up to – who’s getting married, who’s having a baby, who’s got some really good lambs this year etc etc. It can be quite a lonely life on a modern farm and the shearers are a reliable source of banter and laughs. They work extremely hard shearing the hot fidgety sheep. The carefully choreographed dance of human, animal and machine is quite mesmerising and very addictive once you get the hang of it. The smoother and faster you can shear the less the sheep struggles as it is never still long enough to cause bother. There are a couple of crucial positions where the sheep is almost free and a fidget then can be hard to control even for the very best shearers. For the big batches of sheep it’s a team effort. Someone has to keep the shearer’s pens full and sort the lambs from the ewes. Others have to wrap the fleeces and cram the still warm greasy wool into bags. Sorting out any fleece that has bracken, grass or muck in it to be discarded for mulching the garden. We trample the bouncy, fluffy wool down in the bags to get as much in as possible. This wool will be stored, washed, carded, spun and made into tweed or knitting wool eventually so our quality control is important. 

Maria:

It’s the time of year when all John wakes up thinking about is grass and wool and when to cut them. Today he’s busy rowing up grass for his contractor friend Charlie to come and bale. Most of the sheep have now been clipped, just a few here and there that evaded being rounded up or the fleece had no ‘rise’ so the shearer left it for another time.

I’m in front of the computer trying to make a wool plan. We have a few projects on the go. This year, we will make five new Lake District Tweeds – Borrowdale, Langdale, Wasdale, Grasmere and Hawswater. As with last year, the Lancs and Lakes Guild of Spinners, Weavers and Dyers will design the tweeds, drawing out special features of each valley. I am still to get my hands on the tweed we started last October but I’ve been promised the Coniston, Windermere, Ennerdale and Ullswater tweeds will be back from the finishers in mid-August. 

We just finished the second year of our wool event, The Farmer’s Yarns, held at The Farmer’s Arms in Lowick. We hired covered gazebos from Kendal Farmer’s Market, tables from Lowick County Show and chairs from Sparkbridge Village Hall – making use of local resources. The event was just lovely. Despite a few downpours and gusts of wind whipping up a couple of the gazebos before they were firmly strapped down, it was a brilliant day. The aim of the event is to showcase ‘Farm to Yarn’ businesses. As it is a small event, most traders were local such as Westmorland Upholstery, Oubas Knitwear, The Wool Clip and Farm Yarn UK but some travelled quite some distance. Our friend Sabrina Ross, a vet and crofter, keeps Cheviot sheep with her husband as well as her own flock of black Cheviots. She travelled all the way from the Highlands of Scotland to join us. The event is not just about selling yarn and wool products to customers, but a place for the stallholders to network and support each other. 

I was very sad to hear that Woolfest, held in Cockermouth will not be happening again. It was the first of its kind and paved the way for similar wool events, including my own. I would like to say a huge thank you to the organisers of Woolfest, the co-operative The Wool Clip, for all the work they have done to celebrate all things wool and for the support they have given me. They really are an incredible team of people.