Life on the farm at Whistlebare is never the same from day to day and so in an attempt to explain what it’s like here on a small family farm in Northumberland UK, and also to create a sort of online diary we’re going to start a new blog series, which we’ve called Chronicles of a Creative Life.

This first instalment is a tale of woe, and kale and piglets…..

Once upon a time Alice went to the farmers auction and came home with five little piglets. They were very small indeed and extremely difficult to photograph because they never kept still, and they lived in the shed on the farm driveway and were fed leftover milk from the goats and other tasty treats until one day they were big enough to be allowed out into the fields.

Meanwhile out in the orchard there were some very exciting developments. Firstly there was careful construction of some wooden raised beds by one of the junior goat slaves.

Then tiny vegetable and salad seedlings were planted out, and carefully tended. After several weeks they were big enough to start picking and delicious salads and tasty pans of kale were served from the farmhouse kitchen. We had visions of a summer of plenty, and meals so fresh and healthy that any cake baking would surely be balanced out.

But then the piglets got out of their field and into the orchard….

and so the naughty piglets were captured and in disgrace they were put in one of the stables, but something tells me they’ve got a taste for kale and they’re planning their escape…..

to be continued.