We have lived at The Lint Mill since October 1st 2009. We have been learning to live sustainably, to learn from our land and to listen to the wisdom that sits in this place, our home, our landscape.
Nine years ago, almost to the day, I spent dawn until dusk outside in the land at The Lint Mill undertaking a ‘solo’, a practice I had learned as part of my work with an organisation called Natural Change. This time alone, outside of my usual routine, yielded some insights that have returned to me […]
A guest blog by Anneke Scott a leading international exponent of the many number of instruments that make up the family of horns. In 2019 the UK charity Help Musicians launched its latest scheme designed to help and support musicians, a new fund called the Transmission Fund. The Transmission Fund offers grants for emerging and […]
Scrambled Eggs with Scottish Smoked Salmon has been a breakfast menu favourite with The Lint Mill guests since opening in 2012. I review our menu annually and check that our suppliers are still meeting the high ethical and organic standards that we set for ourselves. In recent years there has been a crisis in the […]
Many years ago, when I first began teaching, my best friend Jill and I would relax by painting. The early days of teaching seemed particularly stressful, so Jill would set up a still life arrangement and we would spend a few hours together painting what was before us. I remember how the hours would pass […]
We are really delighted to be making our own Organic Goat’s Milk Soap. It is made from fresh, raw, organic goats’ milk from our two lovely Golden Guernsey Goats, Eva and Strega who Colin hand milks every morning. We are lucky to have a neighbour Niki who is a soap maker (she used to trade […]
We have worked for two years to become a certified organic smallholding with the Soil Association. Long before embarking on this process we employed organic principles on our land, before that a no pesticide and no chemical fertiliser approach to our city centre allotment and before that buying organic food whenever we could. It’s always […]
The initial instinct that propelled us to move to the country was, like many others who take up smallholding, and as clichéd as it sounds, a search for the ‘good life’. As time has gone on (nearly a decade) we have become much clearer and more politicised about what we are doing here. We know […]
“For anyone considering a smallholding or simply for anyone who is interested in animals, food and the countryside, this course hits the spot!” Niki, course participant from Cheshire. Colin and Deborah moved from Glasgow to The Lint Mill in 2009 in search of a life that offered more simplicity, self-sufficiency and a deeper connection to the […]
Over the summer I reconnected with a former student, Penny after over 20 years! Penny is the creative mind behind Parentshaped – the outdoor loving, multi-award winning uk family life and travel blog and it’s proved an interesting time to find each other again as she and her family made their own move to the […]
When I was a child, autumn half term was called ‘Blackberry Week’, or often by my Nana ‘Tattie Week’, harking back to Octobers when the hedgerows were full of brambles and the potato harvest was to be gathered in. One of my earliest memories of ‘foraging’ was when I was about six years old and […]