Having met and married in London, whilst working as barristers, we shared a yearning to “get away from it all”. In 2012 we sold up, left city life, and found ourselves in the gloriously rural mid-Devon countryside. Since then we have been nurturing our idyllic smallholding and caring for our rare-breed sheep, pigs, free-range chickens, ducks and the large vegetable garden.

Our interest in the provenance of our food sits alongside our understanding of the value of sustainable materials – particularly the wool produced by our sheep. Over the years we have been using this remarkable material to produce different unique and hand-made offerings, including throws, scarves and most recently cat blankets.

We have developed and converted a detached 18th century thatched barn into an elegant and stylish self-contained annex – where we host our guests on our ‘retreat’ weekends. Each retreat offers an escape from the everyday, allowing guests to revel in the tranquillity and beauty of this part of England.

We have both written for various magazines, including Country Smallholding, Devon Life and even Your Cat and Your Dog Magazines. Away from the smallholding, Holly has re-trained, and works part-time as a relationship counsellor and therapist, and Andrei has used his legal career to support a new role lecturing and teaching professionals how to give evidence in court.