Some Things Are Meant To Be
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 country about three months ago. Inspired by Penny’s blog about all that moving to the country entailed, I thought I should write about finding The Lint Mill.
Today is the 8th anniversary of moving into The Lint Mill and what an amazing journey it has been. Looking back over the blogs I have written, it’s clear that we have been on a very steep learning curve about managing the land, animal husbandry and becoming as self-sufficient as possible. However, I don’t think I’ve ever written about how we found ourselves here in the first place.
Two important narratives led to our move to the country…
My narrative began when I went for a riding lesson in 2005 to Tannoch Stables. This is how it went…
For want of a riding lesson I bought a car…
Buying a car led to loaning a horse…
Loaning a horse led to buying a horse…
Buying a horse led to changing my car…
Changing my car led to buying a trailer…
Buying a trailer led to getting out and about…
Getting out and about led to buying a new house!
Colin’s narrative began in 2006 after finally acquiring his allotment at Kelvinside Allotments in Glasgow after nearly ten years on the waiting list! He had a half plot and spent every weekend cultivating the neglected plot into a very productive one, full of raised beds, compost bins and a barbeque area! In his second year he won ‘half plot of the year’ and then he joined the Allotment Committee.
Meanwhile, our beautiful top floor flat in Hyndland was becoming more and more ‘countrified’! We had a wood burning stove, an Aga, and two lovely dogs. Most of our holidays were spent in cottages in remote parts of Scotland and I spent my weekends at the stables while Colin was at the allotment. Eventually we realised that our lives were moving in a particular direction and that perhaps it was time to enable all the things we loved to do to happen in one geographical location. We sensed that our days in the wonderful city of Glasgow, which we had so enjoyed for over a decade were coming to an end. Slowly and quite casually at first, I began to search the internet for homes in the country.
My search criteria were very specific: a nice house, no less than 5 acres, no more than 15 acres, stables, a riding arena, good countryside for walking the dogs, and hacking out with my horse, all within a 30 mile radius of Glasgow. Needless to say not many properties emerged. After a few months a lovely property that fitted all the criteria came up in my search, it was called The Lint Mill. We called the agent who told us that is was sold subject to completion, so sadly we thought no more about it.
Almost a year passed and Colin and I had only been to see two properties that might have fitted the bill but one was situated on a busy road and one had a very noisy motocross track behind it. Amazingly, The Lint Mill came back up in my search so I asked Colin to call the agent again. The earlier sale had fallen through so it was back on the market. We arranged a viewing.
It was a beautiful June day in 2009 when we went to view The Lint Mill. We knew almost immediately that this was our ideal home. Tucked away down a farm track, in a lovely riverside location, the whitewashed cottage was idyllic. The interior was a little unprepossessing but eminently liveable in and the land was gorgeous, well maintained, bounded by a river with wide, open skies. We were very honest with the vendor when we said that our flat was not even on the market but as we lived in Glasgow’s desirable West End, we did not envisage having any problems selling it. I can still remember our journey home in the Land Rover…we were both rather silent, not daring to admit that this may be it, our dream home!
Everything moved pretty quickly and very smoothly after that. We put the flat on the market and had over 40 viewings in less than three weeks and had 11 offers on closing date! We knew it was meant to be!
We moved into The Lint Mill on 1 October 2009 and have loved every bit of our time here ever since.
