The Soul Shack

04/05/2026

Just some ramblings from my rambling today...
The last photo is the oak looking much greener than the ash, anyone else thinking the same where they are?
"Oak before the Ash, we're in for a splash, Ash before the Oak, we're in for a soak" - we'll see how the year unfurls 🌿 Happy May 💚

14/04/2026

25/03/2026

Some news and thoughts...

In a hazelnut shell:
✨️ my online shop is taking a hiatus for a while
🌿 price increase from April (I'm booked up til the middle of the month and those will be honoured at the old price) I've also introduced longer treatments, hooray!
✨️ I have nearly finished my womb massage case studies and booked onto lymphatic draining training so they will be launching at some point this year
🌿 thanks for being here... I'm not great at social media. In truth, I'd rather know my stitchwort from my wood anemone than know what my 'reach' is. But I'm glad you're here and hanging out in these little sqaures and interested in whatever is happening and coming next. Diolch 💚

07/03/2026

Tired and happy face after another full clinic day - being more or less in one place has done my gammy shoulder the world of good and I'm fully booked until 4th April, hooray!

Everyone today was SO lovely, and someone asked me if I like my job....
I've been doing this for 7 and a half years and I still love it so much, the feeling of melting muscles as they slowly unravel, sometimes after years of holding... the twitches and blips, felt or seen, as they let go a bit... the dance, constant interplay between nervous system and muscle unknowing, fascia going all buttery....
I'm not for everyone, massage is as individual as you are, but I love what I do and the lovely things folks have said today just reinforce that. Diolch, diolch, diolch 💚

05/03/2026

Delicious pregnancy massage... ft. Big Bertha ✨️
Big Bertha is a marvel, she's held many a pregnant belly (including mine, whilst pregnant with the behemoth that was Goblin 2) and has been created to support you in all the right places while you lie on your tummy, which is ideal for optimal foetal positioning... she takes the weight off while I do my thing with Matrescence essential oil blend, soothing away the achey bits and creating a bit of space as your body adapts and grows and works its magic

14/02/2026

Not even slightly massage related... in praise of knitting.
I've always struggled with feeling unproductive... and I started more ambitious (more than scarves) knitting in lockdown, I was very pregnant (G2 was a lockdown baby), couldn't waddle far and knitting meant I could bounce on my birth ball, feel productive and, crucially, not get bored (all a wasted endeavour eventually as she had other plans, but my intentions were good).
I can now knit without looking or concentrating overmuch, I sometimes knit in total silence, it has become my form of meditation for a monkey mind that doesn't easily still.

Knitted using natural, undyed Shetland yarn on 5 teeny tiny needles, these little gloves brought me so much joy to make. Possibly my favourite ever.

08/02/2026

✨️ How it's going... ✨️

The Soul Shack is my second baby, she came into the world when my first Goblin Child was 5 months old. I had an amazing clinic space 5 minutes from my house and would scuttle home to feed him between clients while my dad looked after him.

Then Covid, then mobile working for the last 5 years... and The Shack has been the most perfect baby. She chugs along beautifully, I am busier than I ever imagined with most of my bookings being word of mouth, now. But I think there is the problem. As the least troublesome of my babies, I have allowed her to just coast. And my body is gently telling me that it isn't sustainable to be lugging a 20 kilo couch around for 4 clients a day. And my mind is telling me that I need to be more boundaried, more set in my working days and give myself full days off. And I need to find and practice my 'no, thank you'.

And so the way I work will be changing. As I emerge from my winter fug, I will be looking at and redefining how I work and where I work... and this means the end of mobile working (with some exceptional exceptions). From March I will be working out of 2 days a week. I'll also be introducing longer treatments and, over time, bringing back things that I can't do mobile, like hot stones and holistic facials.
So it isn't all bad. But it is different. Because I love what I do more than I imagined. Because there is so much satisfaction to be had in watching muscles hold and jump then sigh and let go.

The last 7 years have seen office workers, social workers, plumbers, joiners, tree surgeons, retirees, teachers and teaching assistants, farmers, civil servants, project managers, batista, yoga teachers among so many others... here's to another 7.

15/01/2026

Somewhere, in the busyness of the end of the year, the carols and concerts and markets and massages and all those things, I forgot to come up for air a bit. We're 2 weeks into January and, between my beloved Shack and the goblin children, I've sort of lost sight of things, and I am not sure what, yet.

I just know that everything feels out of focus and hazy, somehow. And I only realised this because I've hurt myself and now I *have* to slow down because I can't wrestle the couch in and out of the car.

Interestingly, I'm finding it more difficult to reply to work messages, engage.... so I think what I'm saying is that the Shack and I are Wintering. We're going to be taking it really easy for the rest of January and probably some of February, because my body and brain and nervous system are telling me to.

And who knows what the spring will hold?

23/12/2025

Huge thanks for the past year... it's been incredible. SO many massages, so much learning, festivals, markets, forays into fleece... and me and the Shack (and Goblin 1) all finishing a 7 year cycle, starting a new one. We are so different now to when this started, interested to see where the next 7 take us. With so much love and thanks ✨️

21/12/2025

If you're ever lucky enough to stumble across the sorts of folk who will meet you at the bottom of a small hill in the fog and walk up in the mizzle to wait for the sun to rise, dogs, kids, porridge pot & all, if that is what you're into, hold onto them with both hands. Sit around the fire with them as people have done for centuries through the passage of time, celebrate with them, make smoky breakfast while the children go rogue in the trees. Talk about everything and nothing. Sing. Eat. Drink. Celebrate each other, the big, small, good, less good...

We made it through the longest night and, even though it was too foggy to really see it, the sun rose again. Have yourselves a merry little whatever you celebrate, however you celebrate it 💚

13/12/2025

✨️THANK YOUI!✨️
I sold out of arthritis balm, Root Down, All Bunged Up....what a day - it was so busy, so many new and returning customers.... and mega mega thanks to sister and stallholder buddy of dreams, for being up for the whole shebang once again and being wonderfully cheerful, aided by all the mulled things.
Diolch, diolch, diolch