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Stuck In The Mud, But Looking Ahead - Karen's Corner - 22.02.26


If January ran ahead of us, then February has felt like wading through mud ... literally.


Here at Fossoway Stables, February is a month of endurance and patience and standing still while preparing to move. The days are beginning to stretch, thankfully, but not quite enough and the temperature hints at rising, but it hasn’t quite committed.


We are waiting ... for the grass to grow, for the ground to firm up and for the moment when proactive jobs replace reactive ones. Right now, though, we feel a little stuck. We're excited about the prospect of a new growing year and new projects of course, but we're unable to truly get going. There’s a peculiar frustration in seeing everything that could be done and knowing that, for now, the land has other ideas.


February is also the month when the animals’ feed bill peaks ... their fields are stripped bare of any goodness and the winter has well and truly having taken its share. There’s something about this time of year that feels like the final stretch of a long climb and I alway have to remind myself ... one foot in front of the other.


In the stillness, though, there is planning. I’ve been revisiting ideas that began life last year - Club Fossoway and a relaunch of our Fossoway at Home range and I'm looking for windows in the calendar where they can have their moment in the spotlight. I’ve been mapping out ad strategies for our Veg Boxes, sketching out events and kids’ clubs programmes, and trying to lay solid foundations before the real growing season arrives.


On the home front, we’re also looking ahead to phase two of the building works, alongside plans for John’s new studio and an office space for Everything & Nothing, 2026 is shaping up to be another year of building, literally and metaphorically, and I’m very aware that once we start actioning it all, things will feel fast and possibly overwhelming. So February, in all its muddy messiness, is my chance to get ahead just a little ... to tidy the metaphorical desk before the papers start flying or something.


John, of course, doesn’t really do stillness at this time of year - ot's defintely his most busy time from a touring point of view. He began with Celtic Connections in Glasgow, recording a live episode of 'The Fiddle Line' with fiddle legend Aly Bain at Glasgow City Halls, then joining 'Transatlantic Sessions' for two sell-out nights at the Royal Concert Hall followed by jumping on the tour bus for a week of concerts at some of the most beautiful venues in the country. He's now a few days into a six-week UK tour with Mike McGoldrick and John Doyle and now that the Scottish leg is done, the reality of him being away for a big chunk of time is starting to land.


There are lots of perks to loving a musician, not least getting to visit beautiful places on tour, and I’ve got a few wee trips planned to meet him over the coming months, but there’s always that moment at the door when he leaves that feels a little bit sad.


Closer to home, Cora has chosen her Nat 5 subjects, which feels like a milestone I wasn’t quite ready for. After a really positive parents’ evening though, I’m reassured that she’s got her head screwed on and a bright path ahead. It’s strange watching them step steadily towards independence while you’re still doing their washing and attempting, not always successfully, to keep their rooms in some sort of order.


February half term has come and gone, and while I know plenty of frazzled mums who count the days, I genuinely love having them home. Term time is so packed with homework and clubs and rushing about that it’s nice to have slower mornings and longer evenings, even if a fair chunk of it is spent with doors shut and music playing from behind them.


So yes, February has been mud and endurance but it’s also been a about preparation. None of it looks dramatic from the outside but it all matters when the season shifts.


Spring will come, the grass will grow and the lists will shorten (or at least change shape!) but for now, we wait, and plan, and endure.


Until next month,


Karen xx


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