Bales and Berries: A Season of Preparation
This month’s blether is all about the cycle of the farm and naturally, wool…
Ross driving the Massey Ferguson tractor bailing grass for Winter silage July 2025, Hawick Scottish Borders.
August on the farm is a month of quiet momentum.
The fields are full, not with action, but with the evidence of it. Rows of baled silage now sit waiting, ready to feed the animals through the winter. It’s a task that marks time in a way only farming does: you work now, steadily and sometimes invisibly — chippy teas in the fields, working by bright lights into the night against the whispering of rainfall — all for a need that hasn’t yet arrived.
Much of my life moves in this rhythm, the slow, steady arc of preparation. Of course, there’s a lot of chaos and the odd unplanned endeavour. I didn’t know I’d be renovating my en-suite thanks to a leaking tap & broken shower screen, as well as trying to get the steelwork painted for our new shed!
Preparation is key!
Bales of grass, ready for collection to be wrapped and stacked. These will feed the animals over the wintering months when the grass is poor quality to help the animals thrive.
While the work in the fields winds down for a moment, another kind of work carries on in my hands: Designing. Thinking. Testing yarns. Knitting. In many ways, what I do with wool echoes what we do on the land — tending, preparing, and providing. It’s not so different, really; The care you put in now will shape the comfort you can offer later. We don’t know what kind of winter we’re in for, one can only live by the motto,
“fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”
As someone who lives between these two worlds, the pasture and the pattern, I’ve come to see them not as separate entities but as deeply intertwined. Both are part of my life’s work: honouring the raw material, respecting the seasons, and creating with true intention.
Seasons of change.
This time of year always feels like the turning of a page. The days are still warm, but already there’s a whisper of what’s coming — the cooler air, the shift in light, the return of wool against your skin not quite the chunky knits just yet but layering in the warmth.
And as the season begins to lean into autumn, so too does my work — quietly, steadily, with newness brewing and beginning to take shape. Rapidly.
More on my exciting news soon. If you’re detail orientated you might pick up on whats to come…
In the meantime, I’m currently wearing a few hats: Mum. Wife. Designer. Shepherdess. etc.
But that’s nothing new. We’re preparing for our show season and are in the midst of selecting our ewes and lambs for showing. Our tups — which will be sold under the Woodburnhaugh prefix at the mart in October — are still enjoying their grass for a few weeks yet, before tup sale preparations begin next month. I can’t wait to share more behind the scenes on this topic in due course.
I’m also looking forward to stepping away from the studio for a moment later this month to join the panel for MAAi Meets’ 1st Birthday Celebration: a gathering of creative minds, marketing genius and no faff business growth stories. Somehow I’ve landed a spot as a panellist, who’d have thought. If you’re local or fancy tuning in, you can find the event details here. I’d love to see a few familiar faces there.
Time off, you must be joking!
I had thought I’d try to take some time off during August — maybe even grant myself the whole month off with the boys. The reality is, that just isn’t possible right now, I also feel that we’re in such a fortunate position being self employed; we do get a lot of time with the boys and they’re absolutely at their most happiest, when we’re doing tractor jobs and sheep. Silly really to think about a holiday or ‘time off’. I’m booked in for some quality family time in September though, fair warning, post show and pre tup sale of course. (I’ll pop up a reminder). Right now we’re pushing on with the shed renovation and making plans for a new studio space. Our engineer has cut all the steel beams over the last few months, and those have now been welded. Neil’s been hard at it, after working a full day, painting the beams and readying for installation. That’s not to mention the nights we’ve spent obsessing over how many litres to order and the colour. Of course, it’s red, always on brand. The next step after painting is the groundworks: cement mixing and filling. The list feels never-ending.
But it’s all good. It means we’re growing and improving as we go. Hopefully, (optimistically speaking with the weather on our side) the shed beams will go up by the end of the month, before our annual agricultural show. Currently as I write Neil’s outside laying the foundations under the watchful eye of Syd, and my Dad Derek, both with ample experience in this department. Inside Papa ‘Fix it’ is on the said bathroom renovations because if you’ve kept up with my socials, you’ll see I’ve been a busy women painting and cleaning in preparations for the new en-suite bathroom!
It’s all so exciting!
There’s much to be done once the beams are in place. But for now this is where we are and I’m so proud of how far we’ve come since excavating the space back in May. Not forgetting the additional jobs we’ve encountered along the way.
You may remember seeing us excavating the site on reels over on instagram and the giant tree stumps we pulled out. It’s unbelievable really but it’s testament to the thought that much work is done in silence during the process of preparing and planning.
keep up to date in real time over on my socials here
Show Time!
Last year’s show still makes me smile. It was completely unexpected, but I came home with 3 trophies!! One for cut flowers, and pot plants. But most memorably, the fleece trophy for pure wool knitting. That one meant a lot. It felt like a small but meaningful nod to the work I do every day: growing, making, and keeping these old skills alive.
I also enter a few other classes—preserves, pot plants, and whatever else I’ve managed to pull together by deadline day. Truth be told I was scrambling to find my entries and only managed to get them out in time with thanks to Granny Marie. I was a little hectic trying to wrestle two hyenas and make sure all our sheep were present and correct in time for judging.
There’s a bit of a friendly rivalry between my granny and me. She’s held the record for the most points across these classes for years—and rightly so. But lately, I’ve started to see my name appearing on a few red tickets just above hers year on year. So I’m quietly learning from the best. I’ve never quite managed to beat her in the baking section or the jams… but there’s time yet. The boys and I picked some delicious strawberries again this year, so watch out, Marie Berry!
Thank you for being part of this journey, I hope you follow along to see if I can in fact beat my granny in the Jams and Jelly section, or if I can hold onto my trophies for another year and win a few tickets with our flock next month.
When you choose any wool product from Loops of Colour, you’re not just buying any old wool hat — you’re joining a circle of care, craft, and sustainability whole heartedly.
With love and loops,
