It wasn’t supposed to look like this.

A life less ordinary

I’ve never been particularly good at following the conventional route through life. I’ve always had ideas, ambitions, a love of beautiful things and an unfortunate tendency to believe that if I put my mind to something, I can probably find a way to do it.

Sometimes that’s worked out brilliantly. Other times, well, there’s probably a book in it. Actually, there is. I wrote one.

I’ve always been a free spirit. Even as a youngster, I knew I wanted to do things my own way. Not because I was rebellious for the sake of it, but because I was curious. There were so many things I wanted to try, places I wanted to see and possibilities I wanted to explore that the idea of spending my entire life doing one thing never particularly appealed.

Conventional education wasn’t for me, and becoming a mother at sixteen meant learning quite early that life doesn’t always come with the resources, opportunities or helpful instructions you might have hoped for.

But I had determination, imagination and a willingness to work bloody hard.

At twenty-seven, I got my first smallholding and embraced country life. It was the beginning of a wonderful love affair with the countryside, animals, gardens and the enormous satisfaction of creating a home and a life with my own hands.

And somewhere along the way, I discovered that I loved building businesses almost as much as I loved living in the countryside.

A lifetime of ideas, adventures and having a go

My business adventures began with selling on eBay, and from there things became considerably more interesting.

Over the years I’ve had shops, tearooms, restaurants and a boutique B&B. I published a magazine that I later sold, and even drove across Europe to Poland delivering orders for one of my businesses.

I’ve tried things, learned things, made mistakes, changed direction and occasionally wondered what on earth possessed me to think something was a good idea in the first place. But I’ve never regretted being curious.

I’ve always loved creating things. Not just businesses, but a whole way of living. A home that felt special. A life filled with animals, countryside, family, good food, flowers, Christmas magic and the everyday pleasures that make all the hard work worthwhile.

I’ve also learned that you don’t always need a fortune to make something wonderful happen.

One Christmas, when money was particularly tight, I went out picking sloe berries and sold them to pay for Christmas and dinner for the whole family. It turned out to be the last Christmas dinner we would all share together, and it’s a memory I’ll always treasure.

Sometimes the smallest, simplest things become the most precious.

The Woman That Farms

Farming became a huge part of my life. There were animals, land, muddy boots, endless responsibilities, extraordinary experiences and plenty of occasions when I wondered whether I’d taken complete leave of my senses.

It wasn’t always easy, and it certainly wasn’t glamorous every minute of the day. But I loved it.

For a long time, I shared those adventures through The Woman That Farms. I even wrote a book, Difficult Doesn’t Mean Impossible, about the extraordinary things that can happen when you refuse to accept that something can’t be done.

And I believed every word of it. I still do.