We’re Jane and David. We moved to our upland smallholding just outside Moffat in 1992, accompanied by two young children, far too many boxes of stuff and some fairly optimistic ideas about the good life.
We’ve spent the years since trying to become native to this place. Progress has been—well, let’s just say it’s been uneven.
Moffat Untamed is about that process, and about dùthchas: the deep relationship between people, land, nature and culture that develops through living in—and taking responsibility for—a place. Dùthchas isn’t ours by inheritance, and we don’t claim it as such. But it has given us a way to think about what we are trying to learn here: that living on land isn’t simply a matter of owning it. It means belonging to it—and accepting that it has claims on you too.
Moffat Untamed records some of what the land is teaching us: the wildlife that lives on it and passes through, the woodland returning to the hillsides, the things we grow and gather, the sometimes unexpected harvests, and the plans that occasionally turn out as intended.
Jane does the writing. David does the heavy lifting.
You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook at @moffatuntamed.