Leather & Sage in Winter || Christmas Orders 2025
The nights are drawing in ever faster; frost stretches its long fingers to touch the morning dew and a ghost-mist shrouds Caer Caradoc’s crest at day’s first light. The rolling hills and wild woodland of the Welsh and English borderlands are preparing for winter…
We’ve had a busy few weeks at Leather & Sage crafting orders, designing custom journals, and attending magical events across both Wales and England. We also moved house (which was - as ever - absolute mayhem), leaving the centre of Ludlow for a wee home sitting upon the border of Herefordshire and Shropshire. It’s only a few minutes down the road but we now wake up to some of the most enchanting, wild, and ancient countryside to be found in Britain on our doorstep. I truly believe that the British wilds - from the sea-ravaged isles of the Outer Hebrides to the dense and diverse woodland of Mortimer Forest - are some of the finest and most ethereal in the world, and I feel lucky to be witnessing the shifts between seasons in, what I believe to be, one of the most beautiful regions of Britain.
One gothic local discovery on a gloomy autumnal afternoon inspired a plot twist in one of our Folktales for the Brave: the church and arches in Shobden. Built in the 1100s, the Norman structure replaced a timber Anglo-Saxon church with one hewn from stone and built by a knight. In 1756, the church’s interior arches, and their mysterious carvings, were removed and placed atop a tree-lined hill a few hundred feet away. There, they frame the woodland that stretches beyond and the doorways bear all manner of mystical symbolism - including an Ouroboros.
Now is the time we make our shift to Leather & Sage’s winter calendar, and we are appearing at a selection of incredible festive events across the borderlands this year:
As always, our website is open for orders - every journal is crafted by hand, and usually to order, so we expect to have a 7 day lead time. To ensure you receive your journal in good time for Christmas, please place your order by Friday 12th December.
If you want to discuss creating something personalised for that special someone this Yule, just drop me an email to get started.
Finally, you may have seen that our Wayfinder journals were selected as a featured find this Autumn by The Artisan Founder. The lovely editor in chief, Lindsey, then asked me to pen a feature on the background of our business. You can give it a read here (I may have mentioned several of our most heart-warming customer stories in there, too...)
That's all for now but do reach out if you have any questions, queries, musings or stories - you can use the contact form on our website or drop us an email anytime.
Oh, and for those wondering what happens if you should pass the threshold of the Shobden Arches... Well, you'd have to get past their guardian first.
Stay warm,
Caitlin (& our very own Shuck, Kenna)