Country Living in Southern Africa

Meet Maddie from the Midlands.

This one is for the Instagrammers, Maddie started following me on Instagram and that is how I got introduced to this lovely little person.

Where do you live?

I am fortunate enough to live on a large commercial potato farm based in the KZN Midlands underneath the Drakensberg mountains. I live with housemate 1 and housemate 2 and their 3 dogs in a lovely farm cottage around 45min outside of Howick. Luckily I can work from home as a graphic designer/social media marketer as we have good internet and a spare room that housemate 1 and I share as an office.

 Tell us a bit about yourself? Your life story, how did you end up where you are now? 

Born and built in Cape Town, I worked in the corporate world for around 5 years until I turned 25 and my health took a nasty turn from the stress and busyness of city life. I knew I needed to get out and one weekend after visiting housemate 1 up on the farm she mentioned they had a spare room and even though I knew nothing about country life, the peace and tranquillity was just what I needed so I accepted her offer and packed my bags.

 It’s the dream life, isn’t it? Working from home on a beautiful farm in a stunning part of South Africa. What more could you want!

What is your favourite part of working and living in the Midlands? 

I have been up here for around 2 months now and loving every minute of it. I have fully immersed myself in farm life and cannot wait for planting season to start so I can learn to drive a tractor. The best part for me is the sense of community in the farming industry, our neighbours are not separated by high walls and electric fences and everyone is willing to lend a hand. The drive to town is a bit of a mission but the views and ever-changing landscape make it so worth it. Being able to wake up and sit on the porch with a cup of tea, fish eagles in the background and the mountains in front of me is probably why I don’t see myself ever moving back to the city.

What does a typical day in your life look like?

I wake up at around 5:30 with housemate 2 and we have a cup of coffee and chat. I then either do some yoga, take the dogs for a walk or go for a horse-ride. Either way, I try and be in front of my laptop by 8am. Then work until lunchtime and we all have lunch out on the porch for an hour. After that, I either go out with housemate 2 and help around the farm checking on the lands or cattle or stay with housemate 1 and potter around in the garden or with the chickens. We make dinner at around 6ish when housemate 2 comes in and then normally it’s Netflix and bed by 8:30. The fresh air buggers you out!

Any interesting story you would like to share?

As I am a small person I love to support the small local businesses in the area. All my skincare products, fresh produce, gifts for friends, baked goods etc come from locally and ethically sourced businesses. And I can promise you the best thing you can do is know where each and every product you consume, use or wear comes from and what is in it. It’s actually scary when you start looking at exactly what we use in everyday life…

I am hoping that through my Instagram page more people can become aware of the amount of locally produced products that are affordable and sustainable as well as good for your body and the environment. And of course, follow my journey as I learn all about this farming thing.

 I am still working on implementing this way of thinking in my everyday life as it is not something you can change overnight but starting with small things here and there to make our lives on the farm that much more sustainable.

Maddie also likes people to think out of the ‘blocks’…

Thank you for this opportunity to share my story on such a positive platform and through this I am hoping more people can “think outside the blocks” and enjoy life for what it is! The country life is definitely the best life…

If you would like to follow Maddie, you can follow her on Instagram @Midlands.maddie

Maddie’s page is run by a lady called Chelsea Patterson you can follow her on Instagram at @chels.patterson