Welcome to Sage + Siren, I'm Nicola!
From corporate dayjob to part time shepherd
In 2019 I was working in Manchester (UK) as a Business Advisor. A woman called Joy Marsden headed up a public speaking organisation. My husband and I heard her talk at an event. She was fab, memorable and, like her name, full of joy! That day she hadn’t been feeling well. A few months later, she died.
I read the news of her death one weekend. It was a kick in the seat of my pants. The following week, I resigned from my job. I had no idea what I was going to do, I just knew that life was short, and there had to be something more.
Within the month, I’d left. I started dabbling with the idea of life at a gentler pace. New website, new logo, new chapter.
I’m a big believer in pivotal moments, those instances that change your life. If my Mum hadn’t died in October 2013, I might not be living in Derbyshire now. If my husband hadn’t lost his sight in 2008, we would never have met. From these experiences that you wish hadn’t happened, something good emerges.
Here we are now living in the Derbyshire Dales, just a stone’s throw from the Peak District. I’d told myself many times, when I retire, I’ll move to Derbyshire. I didn’t have to wait that long. Circumstances conspired to get us here sooner.
In 2020, we moved to a small village on the outskirts of Ashbourne. Me, my husband Chris, his Guide Dog Bamber.
I still had no plan or any idea how things would pan out.
Then I sold our dining table. Another pivotal moment.
It led to Chris speaking at a Farmers’ Group, meeting Phil the Farmer (then Chairman of the Farmers’ Group), seeing my first lambing live at his farm, persuading him to let us have a smallholding on his land, and purchasing nine hens.
I started tagging along when Phil moved sheep, sold sheep, or fed sheep. By January when lambing started again, I’d already been involved with weighing, dosing and shearing sheep. I took on the morning and evening feedarounds in the sheep shed.
I delivered my first lamb, was adopted by a ewe called Dot Dot, and cared for a poorly ewe who I named Dolly.
Sheep were never part of my plan. I always thought I loved cows the best!
So far this year, I’ve delivered 8 lambs and assisted other births. I’ve pretty much managed the shed unsupervised and only called on Phil a few times.
I bottle fed Muffin in my potting shed until he was ready to go back to the farm.
I turned 60 in 2024. For me, it was just another birthday like every other. But something changed - a biological process kicked in. My word of the year for 2024 was spot on: alchemy. Transformations were happening!
I regrouped on Substack as Sage + Siren. I wanted to write about this post-menopausal secret that I’d discovered. A now or never philosophy, an urgency to make those dreams happen instead of dancing around the handbags.
Everyone talks about the hot flushes but never about this rebirth that I was experiencing.
I did find others. And not just women. Author, Amor Towles, spoke about the shift that happened for him when he hit 60 - he called it now or never too. I’ve heard Jamie Lee Curtis speak of how now or never impacted her. There are writers here on Substack exploring the same theme.
Sage + Siren is where I share my story and invite others to tell theirs on my podcast.
If you find yourself at this particular intersection in your life, I hope that you can be part of the conversation.
Thanks for sharing this new chapter with me.
Nicola
A big thank you for joining me here. Many new subscribers have arrived recently from
, kindly recommended by . I’ve been thrilled to see all the new subscriber emails arriving in my Inbox - thank you so much.I connected with Stacy after reading this:
