JOURNAL #1 – NEW BEGINNINGS
The last year has marked quite a few new beginnings for us. We made the move from Bath back into the countryside by moving to Chew Valley, are refurbishing an old coach house, have planted an orchard and established our company, Muddy Meadow. Ahead of us are endless possibilities and new things to learn and focus on.
Chew Valley is a picturesque part of Somerset just outside of Bath and Bristol. The area is spoilt with two gorgeous lakes, lots of village pubs and plenty of walks which give us lots of chances to get outdoors. The whole notion of living with the seasons seems so much more logical now we’re spending our days moving seamlessly between inside and out. We are loving exploring our area and being able to have lots of mini adventures. As the seasons have moved from Summer to Autumn, our days out have changed from walks ending at a pub garden to those where you can slowly start to see more of the view opening up as the leaves start to turn and drop. Misty mornings give way to sunshine that is still warm enough to sit outside with a coffee.
We’re now living in an old coach house on a property that has links back to the 14th Century which for a New Zealander is hard to grasp. NZ’s oldest European property is Mission House in Kerikeri which was built in the early 19th century. The house has been lovingly cared for since it was first extensively renovated but now needs refurbishing and making back into a family home to cater for lots of people and dogs, as we become a destination for family and friends on their weekends away.
Muddy Meadow developed out of growing up in being constantly outdoors and just getting on with it. Like the UK, the weather is very changeable, definitely four seasons in one day. We used to go camping a lot, exploring the area by finding new beaches or walking the bush tracks. Staying with my grandmother always included a mini adventure which involved packing up a picnic and sharing with us a place she loved. A lot of time was spent climbing Auckland’s volcanoes finding old Maori and European sites. With our own family we’ve continued the tradition of having day trips and weekends away in the countryside to share our love for the outdoors. So it seemed a natural step to use this as a basis for a business. I’m also lucky that running your own business is very common in my family so have lots of good role models.
My background is not in design and manufacturing, so it has been a very steep learning curve. I’m more comfortable designing business processes and managing change for corporates. Fortunately one of the family is an expert graphic designer so once I worked out how to write a design brief (turns out you have to be very specific, vague suggestions like ‘a countryside icon’ is too broad) the actual branding design could be expertly put together. It was my son’s photo of the pond next to the meadow that gave us the idea of incorporating a duck.
Designing the products has been fun to unleash some creativity by taking a concept like a warm t-shirt that lets you keep your arms free and working out how that would actually be made. We trialled lots of different fleece weights and fits to get a garment that was comfortable, easy to work in as well as get on and off. Plus had some extra technical benefits like being able to wick away sweat and being water repellent. Then added in some extra styling and have a product we’re proud of.
We made a decision early on to manufacture as much as possible in Britain as we wanted support the excellent heritage of manufacturing. For a new business in this market it’s also made it easier to develop a relationship with companies who can help with learning a whole new set of processes and terminology.
So next steps are to continue to enjoy posting on social media and engaging with everyone and relishing the changes as we move from Autumn into Winter.