Brrrrrr

Snow, ice, frost, windchill, the Farm sits at about 300m above sea level so it's always colder and windier up here. Mind you the farmhouse and accommodation are nestled in a natural hollow around the pond. Putting the farm buildings in these slight depressions does take the sting out of the wind, Swallet Farm near the Castle of Comfort is just the same. People have always adapted to their natural surroundings and built their settlements to take advantage of these things; high on a hill for protection, next to rivers for power and food. 

Following on from that principle we try and use the natural setting of the farm to our advantage in other ways. Sustainable living you might call it. Grazing the limestone grasslands, taking the wood from our land to renovate the barns and fuel our heating system, vegetable from our garden that's in a sheltered quarry behind the barn. Wool from our sheep insulates the place and pro

vides clothes. It's not normal to have standing water in ponds on Mendip, the porous limestone means it sinks away quickly, but we've created a series of ponds known as a Wetland Ecosystem Treatment to clean our waste water. It's definitely not natural to have tankers coming up to take your waste water away.

It is however natural to have some parties in our barns, we've lit up the trees in our hollow  to create the right atmosphere. What do you think?

The Mendip Mind, keeping warm by the fire!