The End Of The Beginning

Me in April 2013

I think it's time to lay this blog to rest. It's had a good innings, over four years and 161 posts. One post every week except over the winters when I was living down in Dorset (and updating my mattswanindorset blog instead). It has traced my journey from arriving on my patch of land knowing nobody in April 2013, all the way through to today, in my fourth season as a vegetable grower and producer. The photos tell the story probably better than the words.


The reason for the shocking news of this blog's imminent demise? Well, mainly because the name is no longer true. I'm not living off-grid any more, I'm living in a house. And this week it's a different house. We have moved, my partner and I, from the small terraced house in the village of Cwm Llinau to a big square stone house in the centre of Machynlleth.


No we haven't won the lottery, it isn't the entire house we're living in but a one-bed portion of it known as The Annexe. The rest of it is owned and lived in by our landlords, a lovely couple we know well.

Somehow we managed to squeeze the tall fridge-freezer sideways into my Suzuki Jimny, with the washing machine hauled up onto the trailer behind. It took several trips with two cars to transport everything from one abode to the other, eight miles apart, and we were predictably exhausted afterwards.

The polytunnel as it is now - courgettes on the right, tomatoes on the left

Nevertheless we then made an insane one-night trip all the way down to Pilsdon, 200 miles south, to attend a memorial service for Craig who passed away recently. We both knew him from our times at Pilsdon Community and wanted to be part of the ceremony, Anna playing the violin that he had given her. His ashes were buried just outside the church, along with an unusual objet d'art that he had created himself - two violin necks joined together with an oversized screw and restrung.


Don't worry, or maybe you should - this won't be my last blogpost. I'll be starting a new blog soon enough unless I get enough good reasons not to sent my way. Just got to think of a decent name for it.... 

Thanks for reading and for all of you who have sent me your thoughts and questions! It has been a fantastic experience to learn how to live off-grid in a tiny caravan in a muddy field and scratch a living out of the earth and I have learned an awful lot. May the learning and the seeking continue. 

Me in 2017