One word? When seven would do…

And a rather special one for us four really. Our first ever just the four of us – we’ve always either gone to my parents (stressy) or played host to my parents (not as stressy but still far from cosy and relaxing). My parents are rubbish at Christmas, always have been, it brings out the absolute worst in both of them as individuals and as a couple. After our new Christmas eve tradition of bacon sandwiches at midnight we finally got to bed around 2am. Both Ady and I then coughed for about an hour and then the kids started waking up every half an hour and calling to ask whether it was time to get up yet – we’d said 7am. Eventually it was 7am so they came into our room to open their stockings. They both had bulging stockings containing the usual chocolate coins, fortune telling fish, slinky, novelty rubbers, glitter pens, little magic trick, some glow in the dark stars for bedroom ceilings, lego minifigs for Davies and little playmobile animals for Scarlett.

Into the lounge at about 8am, cinnamon rolls in the oven and then present opening. Davies had a tablet and a lego house, Scarlett had a playmobile farm. They both had various books, craft kits, socks, art stuff.

Ady had gotten lots of chocolate, a book , a dvd and a soldering iron. I got a voucher from Vikki for baths (more than one use, call ahead to ensure oodles of hot water, soothing music and candles supplied!), the box set of River Cottage books
(set from Book People at a quarter of this price!), a new dressing gown and as the amber I had ordered for my birthday had arrived and the present Ady and the kids had ordered me for Christmas had not they swapped them over and I got my amber for Christmas and hopefully the other (surprise) thing will arrive in time for my birthday.

All in all a very good haul but not too much new stuff to find homes for and nothing that will not be useful or ornamental. Well maybe the fortune telling fish are just for amusement… 😉

Ady got the turkey on, I opened the fizz to make bucks fizz, Davies got making lego houses and Scarlett and I ate twiglets and made her playmobile farm. We listened to the radio and rang my parents for a chat mid morning. It was all very lovely. The static is a cramped living space, totally unsuitable for this climate and going mouldy around us BUT it is home, it’s cosy and warm and the space with the kitchen and lounge all together makes for a very sociable area to all be in doing our own thing but together. A bit like a centerparcs chalet!

We had lunch at about 2pm and watched Outnumbered on iplayer and then spent the afternoon doing more of the same. Ady and I went out to feed the animals and I had romantic notions of walking around the croft a bit surveying our land in a festive fashion but quickly gave up on that idea when I realised how bloody cold it was out there! Instead I shoved food at everyone and dashed back inside quick to warm up again! We had a lovely tea of cheese, crackers, olives and other nice snacky stuff and got the kids to bed in time for Ady and I to watch the Royal Family. After that we were both so knackered we went off to bed too. A very lovely first Rum Christmas 🙂

We’d planned a cooked breakfast for Boxing Day followed by a trip to either Harris or Kilmory with a picnic, we often used to go to the beach on Boxing Day back in Sussex and a bit of fresh air and exercise is always good after the excesses of the day before. This year we’re all feeling the sloth of crap food and too much indoor time all the more for it being not our usual state of being any more! Trouble is we got up far too late to get going so it was nearly midday before we finished eating our fry up and then Vikki appeared with a dvd to lend me (Its a Wonderful Life, I’d never seen it, she insisted I had to!). So in the end we took our rubbish and recycling down to the pier, nipped in to the workshop to swap over leisure batteries on charge and had a walk along to the otter hide beach past the pier instead. We paced out one of the blackhouses and realised it was pretty much the same size as the static.

We collected a bit of wood along the way too and although it was not the long beach walk we’d been planning it was nice.

The moon was up when we got back to the car, very beautiful

Back to the croft to feed the animals. We had dinner of turkey curry (we’re loving having leftovers, it’s the first time ever for us as in years gone by if we’ve hosted we’ve had so many people the meat has all gone or we’ve been to Mums so don’t get any leftovers. We bought a huge bird which will do four full dinners by the end) and watched Miranda before the kids went to bed.

We’re so gorgeous 😉 yes that is a mattress and pillows you see in the background, pillows have to come into the lounge every day to dry out, mattresses about once a week. It is really quite grim dealing with such levels of damp and condensation and is a constant battle to not just have everything covered in mould. We have whole cupboards that are unusable and when we are already so pushed for storage space this makes life even tougher. We are trying very hard to ensure it does not have impacts on our health and it will truly definitely be our only winter in the static as it would be foolish beyond even our standards to attempt a second one. 12 weeks to go…. la la la la la!

Ady and I watched Doctor Who but I fell asleep on the sofa halfway through.

Today we did indeed get to Kilmory. It was bitterly cold and rained and snowed the whole time so we were waterproofed up. We took a flask of tea and a hipflask of brandy, chocolate and cookies having decided a full picnic was probably not feasible. It was a nice couple of hours though. The drive to Kilmory is a 4wd vehicle only one, a very rough track so you are forced to go at about 10 mph. It reminds me of driving around in Willow through the highlands, the scenery is so gorgeous, constantly looking out for deer and eagles but this time I get to constantly remind myself we actually live here, this is our island :). Martyn who works at Kilmory is off island so no people were around but there were loads of deer and ponies on the beach. Really funny to see the footprints of ponies, deer and seabirds all over the sand. The deer ran off when we came but the ponies came closer to say hello. I am not that keen on the ponies so was happy to march on with Bonnie who is also not keen on them!

We walked along the beach, the kids played chicken with the waves, we had our tea and chocolate, lost feeling in our fingers and took some pictures which may have been the death of my camera 🙁

Then we came home. It had briefly been snowing right on the beach and as we drove home we realised that hefty dumps of snow had fallen on all the peaks and down lower that we’ve so far seen snow. The peaks behind the croft are now snowcapped which we have not seen before, if it gets much lower we’ll have snow on the croft 🙂 It is supposed to be fairly rough weather for the next few days and has been raining and hailing all night so I suspect we’ll wake to further snow capped peaks tomorrow.

Back at home we had cheese and crackers and Davies and I watched Doctor Who. We’ve done a task list for the next three months having started to feel we were losing sight of what to get on with next so that feels very efficient. We had cold turkey and jacket potatoes for dinner, tomorrow will be the last day of the turkey and I am planning a pie I think.

Ady has The Cough of Doom, mine has all but gone.

and not a chance of children asleep for hours yet…everything is wrapped and ready to bring out as soon as they fall asleep, Christmas cake is iced, cinnamon roll mix is made, Christmas Eve pyjamas have been opened and donned. Having mislaid the Night Before Christmas book I’ve read the rewrite I did last night instead.

This morning I finished off a crochet stocking for Davies. It took longer than expected but he is really pleased with it and it can come out for years to come. Vikki had brought up Christmas presents for us in envelopes on Sunday and said to the kids they could open theirs today if they wanted so once they were dressed they did and it was the first clue in a treasure hunt. Although it was raining it seemed like a really good idea to get them outside so they put coats and wellies on and headed off in the direction of Primrose falls coming back a few minutes later with a jam jar full of lollies and another clue. This time they were directed to a holly bush in the larch trees on the west side of the croft where they found chocolate coins and the next clue taking them down to the bridge. That one had reindeer antler boppers and a clue to the woodland on the east side of the croft (known locally as the Gruffalo woods) where the last clue was along with chocolate stars. This time to the Millionth Tree where it all ended with more sweeties. Such a brilliant present, it took the kids a good couple of hours and was perfect for getting them outside running around today even if all the good work was undone with the resulting sugar rush from all the sweets and chocolate! I’m really touched at how much work and thought Vikki put into it and very curious to open my envelope tomorrow from her!

Ady was doing lots of outside-y tasks so the kids came in and got changed into dry clothes then they had some lunch while Bonnie and I went to meet the ferry. I had rubbish and recycling to take down to the pier and we needed to pass our bank details on to Fencing Ben so he can pay us for the work we did so I had to go down there even though we were not expecting anything off the boat except post. It was a small delivery so I helped unload that and then went to the hall to get the mulled wine on. The post did arrive – about 15 Christmas cards including from various friends, neighbours in Sussex (I had posted a big pile of cards to one of the neighbours for all of them and they had all sent one back), a long letter enclosed with a card from Frazer and Kat and cards for the kids from my parents and granny too. Also the last present for Ady which I had thought might not get here in time, so everything arrived :).

I had a drink with Jinty, Ross, Neil and his (newly arrived) brother and then joined the few people in the hall. We’d been told most people went down on Christmas Eve for mince pies and mulled wine but actually it was just Ali & Sean, Vikki and David & Lynda with assorted visiting parents and children. It was nice though but it wrapped up just before 5 and after discussion about staying on to see who came down for a drink at the shop after 5pm when Jinty opened again we decided to come home and get settled in for the night.

We had venison for dinner, watched the Snowman and dog and packed the kids off to bed although at 11 they were both still awake.

A lie in this morning followed by a rather doomed attempt on my behalf to make pancakes for brunch. Frankly using the word brunch is almost always likely to end in tears, strops and slammed cupboard doors. It means you have missed breakfast due to sleeping or tardiness and are too hungry to wait for lunch. It does not mean croissant crumbs on painted red lips, freshly squeezed orange juice from a shiny silver kitchen gadget or crisp white bedsheets strewn with Sunday papers. That’s only in books.

Other than using the last of the milk and three of the remaining four eggs and failing to get it all to combine so the first pancake was more like bad scrambled egg and ended up in the pig slop bucket and the second one looking like it might go the same way so me swearing and backing away from the hob telling Ady he better take over it was all very successful.

Davies lego advent calendar got kicked again for the 400th time since 1st December. I am struggling with the clutter in the van that the log burner and Christmas means. My bookcase has been butchered and is now propped up with various things on top of it and a huge pile of books stacked infront of it. The tree is where Bonnies crate usually goes, half a sofa is taken up with advent calendars, the kitchen worktop is home to a tower of plastic boxes containing mincemeat, Christmas cake, ginger star biscuits. Various things are draped around the bookcase and crate drying. Oh it will feel HUGE again when everything gets taken down in a week or so 🙂 I consoled Davies by suggesting the flat green lego base get brought in and the advent scene being fixed to that. Three years of use means the playmobile and lego advent calendars are pretty tatty and we’ve nowhere really to store them so we’ve said the kids can have them to play with now as I suspect next year would be the last they’d want them anyway based on other kids attitude to advent calendars as they get older.

Somehow it was 2pm by then. After a morning of lots of wind and rain it had cleared up a bit so we all went for a walk down to the village. We put a battery on charge, called on Mad Ben the Fencing to report the lashing rods done and tell him how much he owed us and then home again collecting firewood as we went. Not long after we got in and had settled down with cups of tea and the start of a crocheted Christmas stocking for Davies Vikki appeared with Christmas presents for us. She stayed for a cup of tea and cookies and then went home.

We tried and failed to watch Mr Stink as the internet was too slow for streaming and kept buffering – we’ll try again in the morning. I cooked – a cold busting stirfry with garlic, chilli and ginger for clearing sinuses and passages! We watched a dvd of Scrooge instead and I did some more crochet. It definitely feels very hibernate-y when it is dark at 4pm – 7 hours after dark really does feel like bed time even when it is only 11!

this looking after myself with my cold business didn’t it…

This morning Ady went off to meet the boat (we were expecting diesel and needed to send off some venison) and then hook up with Sandy to do some wood collecting. I went off to do some more fencing. The pigs tail things are called lashing rods and I’m pretty darn good at them now having done a full fields worth of them top and bottom. My watch battery has died so I only know what time it is by my phone which was in my jeans pocket underneath my oilskins. I thought it was about 1230pm but it was actually 2pm when I got home. I had been expecting Ady to appear really so called in the house to shed oilskins and went off to find him. The kids were very busy tidying rooms in preparation of new stuff arriving and wanting a sleepover on Christmas Eve. It had rained on and off all morning so I was runny of nose and a bit soggy round the edges but made the foolish decision not to put my waterproofs back on as it had stopped raining.

It only stopped until I got to the bottom of the croft and then started again with a vengence meaning I was soaked within about five minutes. I should have double backed and got changed really but I didn’t. I then walked around a bit looking for Ady and Sandy before spotting our car outside Jinty’s. Bonnie was in the car, as was our turkey (taken out to defrost) but no Ady. It was raining heavily by then and nearly half an hour walk back to the croft so I decided to sit in the car for a while and see if the rain stopped. I’d only been there about ten minutes when Sandy pulled up with Ady. They were chopping the wood up smaller with the chainsaw at Sandy’s and I stood there shivering until Sandy sent me indoors to see Fliss for a cup of tea.

After a bit Ady and Sandy came in and we left. Back home to feed animals and then I went back down again to collect the veg box. I ended up staying for three drinks as Fliss came along and it was a nice evening with a few people out. When I got home Ady had tidied up, got the fire lit and the dinner on so it was lovely to come home to. Damp bedroom aside the static is lovely and cosy now. We watched Outnumbered and had dinner and it was bedtime for the kids.

Tomorrow we need to catch up with Fencer Ben to get paid and collect some venison from the freezer for Mondays dinner, I want to ice the Christmas cake and make some mince pies and I have some last few bits to wrap up but we are looking forward to lie-ins, pancakes for breakfast and the woodburner lit all day.

But I just wanted to be sure the world wasn’t going to end so I thought I’d see the day out…

The cold is ebbing and flowing really, I feel just fine now but I’m sitting on the sofa with a dog at my feet, the log burner chucking out heat, candles lit and a glass of amaretto beside me so I’d have to be pretty ill to feel anything other than fine really.

Ady went off this morning to do some fencing with Mad Fencing Ben while I stayed home to take the phonecall for my interview for the school job. The call came just as I finished ordering a card from moonpig for Mum & Dad so I took that, was offered the job and then listened to Popmaster with the kids.

I left them and went to find Ady and help him with the fencing. The job is putting on the twirly pigs tails things that secure the line of fencing wire to the fencing mesh and is very fiddly. We both have very sore fingers now. But will be another £50 or so better off by the end of tomorrow for doing it 🙂 It was nice to be outside in the fresh air too. We got to 1pm and Ady went home to have a shower and gather the children while I headed down to the hall to start mulling wine and give the hall a bit of a tidy up ready for the kids party.

8 of the 9 children on island came along – Joss and Elena both 3 (on the same day bizarrely), Eve – 4, Scarlett -10, Davies and Cara 12, Nell 13 and Sorcha 15. Baby Andrew didn’t come along, not sure why. Fliss had organised games and music and prizes so she did all that, everyone had brought food to share and we had two sets of visiting grandparents along too so it was a nice full crowd. Santa (Ranger Mike) appeared at 4pm loaded up with a sack containing carefully selected presents (Ali ordered books for all having asked what everyone would like, I asked for the Deadly 60 annual for Scarlett and the latest Andy Stanton for Davies so they went down very well :)). And a good time was had by all.

We came home, watched Sister Act which we’ve been trying to persuade Scarlett is a good film for about a week. Had pizza and now the world has not ended I am starting to slump a lot so am off to bed.

Yesterday was another productive day – packing up venison in the morning, wood collecting in the afternoon and a quick call in to Fliss & Sandy’s to meet Sandy’s parents who were over for a couple of days and Sandy particularly wanted to introduce us to.

In the evening I started to feel my throat thickening and snot gathering and by the time we’d eaten dinner and watched a film I was fairly sure a cold was on it’s way. For once I went with sensible and took myself to bed before midnight. The cold that became a chest infection back in the summer really scared me and given the levels of damp in our bedroom I am desperate for it not to turn into something more sinister this time so will be looking after myself much better to try and see it off as a simple cold.

I slept okay but woke at 7am which is really early for me, but clearly my body only needs a certain number of hours sleep and is used to waking up after them. It was still pitch dark so I snuggled up in bed and read. Ady got up and made me a cup of tea and got the fire lit so by the time I did get up it was lovely and warm in the lounge. I had a steamy shower which helped to clear my head and then rang my Dad as I had a favour to ask and some news an old friend of his had emailed me to pass on. That was nice – I do miss my Dad.

Ady and I went to meet the boat – we had CoOp food shop coming off (six boxes – lots of twiglets and festive fayre!), the winkle money arriving (£715 hurrah! So over £1200 for all the winkling in the end, well worth it), empty petrol cans to go off. Neil said he’d been contacted by one of our venison customers to ask if we could send her meat off today so Ady went back to the second boat to send it off. Loads of islanders left today for Christmas; Claire, Steve, Lesley, Paul, Marcel, Mark, Doug (both Mark and Doug left for good, they have been seasonal ghillies), Coryla. Sandy’s parents went and Sean’s parents arrived. Vikki has her parents coming on Saturday, Neil’s family arrive on Monday as do Jinty’s Dad and sister. The school boat brought the three girls home for Christmas so a rather different feel to the island just now.

Two more boats before Christmas left but if they both get cancelled it doesn’t matter now to us. Tomorrow I have my phone interview in the morning, Ady is doing some fencing work for Mad Ben the Fencer (he reckons 4 hours at £10 an hour) and then it’s the kids Christmas party. Weekend spent wood collecting and then we’re there.

A day of great efficiency. After sending off most stuff yesterday in the post (secret santa for an email group I’m on, all the Christmas cards we’re sending (not many, if you get one then consider yourself very special indeed!), a crocheted hat for Robin) the remainder went today (some Christmas decorations I’d sold to someone who reads the blog, cards I didn’t have addresses for but had tracked down since yesterday). As did the winkles. Animal feed arrived today. The kids have a DS game each still to come, Ady has a photomug, I think both of the presents Ady ordered for me are still to come, other than that everything is here and wrapped. Photobook for Mum and Dad has been despatched and the tablet we got for Davies has been fully charged and I’ve set him up an email address and some apps and shortcuts already on there for him.

We booked the holiday cottage for Monday – Thursday at £50 a night, cheaper than the travelinn AND we get 3 bedrooms, a bath, kitchen, TV with sky, washing machine and of course things like electricity! We debated doing five nights rather than just three but decided it would be too long to kennel Bonnie at the vets (she is being spayed), too long to leave the croft and ask for favours to feed the pigs and birds, more expense in hiring the car and the cottage and actually what we’ll save in not having those 2 extra nights will pay for the big food shop we’ll do. So our plan is a day trip to Inverness to do a big clothes shop, a day in Fort William to do food shops, three nights of lazing in the bath and watching TV and then home again. I think 3 nights will be enough! Also booked the car hire and Bonnie into the vets so all of that is now sorted and organised 🙂 We should get the rest of the winkle money on Thursday so we’ll know how much we have for our shopping trips.

Still to do is some baking of mince pies for us, the Christmas cake to marzipan and ice (but I have the marzipan and icing sugar), some bits for the kids Christmas party on Friday which I’ll do with the kids on Thursday. I have a phone interview for the school job on Friday morning. Tomorrow we’re packing up venison for a few orders we’ve had on and off island and there will be more wood collecting. We were planning this week to be pretty quiet and restful, somehow it doesn’t seem to be panning out that way…

Winkling got finished. I gave myself a shake after my tough day and was fine for the last couple of days. We’re sending off nearly 43 stone tomorrow. Not sure what the price will be but we’ll definitely clear over £1000 for our winkling altogether which will pay for our off island jaunt next month. The plan for next year will be to pay for something amazing – it’s a good cash in hand bonus for this time of year. We have venison money to come too so all is well financially which is an odd position to be in!

In other news we had the Christmas party to exchange secret santa gifts. It all started a bit rubbish with no one really there and not much festive feeling but people arrived, bearing wrapped gifts, we made paper chains and blew up balloons and brought in Christmas tree trimmings and suddenly it was all beginning to look a lot like Christmas :). I love it here for that. We had a lovely few hours, wine was mulled (I am the Rum queen of mulled wine although Jinty puts Buckfast in hers and it is classed as Mullered wine which is different). We left around 530pm and came home for dinner.

I think we have most of the Christmas presents here now, nothing important is outstanding anyway. I’ve done the big wrapping session and we have one last food shop to order in from the Co Op and then we’re done, It’s been pretty low stress all told.

I really struggled with the cold today while winkling. It was raining when we arrived and it was horrid, cold, sleety rain that dripped down my hood and onto my nose and surface water was sitting on the sand which meant every time I knelt down I got very wet knees. I put udder cream on my hands to protect them but it had been in the car overnight so was really cold and I think just sealed the cold in rather than protecting them from it. And my feet were cold today too. So cold really… normally I battle through just fine but today I just wussed out and it meant I was nowhere near as quick at picking as usual. Still half a bag though, so even £60 at last weeks prices, hopefully more if the price goes up, but £15 an hour at worst which is more than I think I ever earnt at work.

What I should have done was go and work next to Ady earlier as we would have buoyed each other up I think. With under an hour to go I did just that and he commented on how cold it was too and then drew my attention to the peaks which were totally snowy – on ground just slightly higher the rain had fallen as snow. That made me feel a bit less wussy. I’ll be better tomorrow (and wear more layers).

We went into Fliss and Sandy’s for a cup of tea and also had a bowl of soup too. Sandy had been out picking today too so was also cold and wet. Davies and Scarlett had very sensibly stayed home due to the rain so we then went home to catch up with them. Our post had been delivered and bunged in our car which contained a large amount of various Christmas presents – I think most things are here now.

I had a shower and sat infront of the log burner and slowly defrosted. I went down to the shop to pay for this weeks veg box which we’d collected on the way past earlier. Fliss was there so I stayed for a beer and a chat and felt fine while I was there – I was chatting with Fliss, Ross, Jinty and Ali and it was really nice. But the walk home again finished me off and I could have easily curled up and gone to sleep rather than eating dinner. We watched Cool Runnings and everyone but me is now in bed, and I’m about to head that way myself.

A lovely week so far. I really enjoy the winkle picking, especially when it is dry like this week has been so far. Bitterly cold of course but cold always seems to equal beautiful here – hoar frost making everything all crystally and sparkly, clear skies meaning loads of stars, sunny skies and gorgeous watercolurs smudged across.

We’ve done well with our winkles so far – I reckon we have five bags of approx five stone each so far. Based on last times price that is 25 stone which is over 3 hundredweight at £120 a bag and word is it will be £150 a hundredweight this time. So nearly £500 already in our first three days. We’ll only get another three in as we’re doing the Christmas Party on Sunday. We might get an hour or so on Monday afternoon and then we’ll get them off on Tuesday. It should definitely pay for our short off island break in January which we need to get booked tomorrow. Hurrah 🙂

In other news finances are generally looking healthier for next year. It’s pretty certain I will get the school job so that will bring in cash (and mean I start paying NatIns again which is good, I have no idea whether there will be any sort of pension scheme by the time I retire but I’d like to be paying in something anyway), Ady is now cleaning the loos at the hall for £10 a week which covers the cost of our petrol and diesel more or less and we’re hoping to buy the shed which Ben the fencer is working out of at the moment. He has kitted it out with a double bed on a sort of mezzanine and a wood burner so it will make perfect quirky accommodation for WWOOFers and as a little holiday let. What with that and the tipi we’ll get up and any tents we can start collecting we have the start of our campsite / eco / off grid breaks ready to launch for next year. Small steps but definitely in the right direction :).

What else? Erm another lovely surprise parcel arrived this week, this time from Julie – chocolate, hand cream and a book about smallholding. It came without a note but from the contents I guessed it was from her and when we had our weekly phonecall last night it was confirmed. She said she’d been meaning to send it for ages and got to the post office in the end ‘it’s not for Christmas, it’s a just because parcel’ she said which made me feel all gooey :). Oh that love that’s arrived in parcels this week 🙂 🙂
`
We’ve been watching more Christmas films on lovefilm instant which is always heartwarming. The log burner is going well, we collect wood for less than an hour each day from the woods just above the croft and that is keeping it going for many hours a day. The hard frosts are doing a great job of meaning we can walk up and down the croft, I’ve dug out my icewalking shoe things though because the hill next to the culvert is an icerink, I actually skated down it in my wellies tonight! The cold has been freezing our water and also played havoc with our gas the last few days. We have now lagged the valve and covered the bottles so hopefully that is now sorted. No rain is fab and the freezing conditions do make for a very gorgeous Rum but not without it’s own challenges!

More time lost unblogged… erm, weekend has been nice. Lots of outside time collecting wood (we found a place just above the croft with loads of dead trees which have plenty of branches we can pull down and are nice and dry and seasoned, and we get to carry wood downhill which is always better than uphill!). I took Tinker for a short walk yesterday but now Mike is back and looking after her so we are only on chicken and cat duty at Fliss’. Ady cooked a nice curry last night, I did a lovely roast dinner today along with some more mince pies.

Yesterday we put our tree up and considering we have no Christmas decorations with us it looks lovely. I’d bought some candy canes online, got some chocolate decorations from Jinty, swapped a few of my crocheted bits for Fliss’ crocheted bits and had dried out some orange slices on the logburner. We got some battery powered fairy lights which are working really well and then on yesterdays ferry Christmas camp arrived in a box with a whole heap of tree decorations! Our star is made of willow wound with orange garden twine and looks perfect topping the tree that is the start of our new Christmas traditions, customs and fresh start here on Rum. In the loft of Osborne Drive languishes our artifical tree and the various plastic sparkling things Ady and I had gathered over Christmasses past but we’ve not missed them at all :). I love that it has something from old friends, something from new friends, things we made ourselves and was chopped down from a spot I can see from the sofa.

Tomorrow we’re back to winkle picking. After a fair bit of stressing we got our last lot sent off and the cash sent back – we made £550 which is pretty good. We’re hoping to make at least the same again this week and maybe the week before Christmas and then that season is over. I sent off my application for the school job and we are trying to sort out the details of a mainland visit in early January. Bonnie has had a nasty skin issue on her back which we think was caused by getting and stayed wet, it seems to have dramatically improved with the woodburner which stacks up with the theory it was damp related.

I’ve pretty much done the Christmas shopping for the kids, just need to set aside some time to do a photobook for parents I think.

Hmm, I’ve not been here this week. I’m glad everyone had a good best Christmas camp ever but am feeling ever so slightly not very nice about it so on the basis its better to say nothing than say something not nice I’ll leave that there 🙁

I’ve lost track of where the days went this week – erm, plenty of wood collecting, lots of online Christmas shopping for the kids, still need to think about parents, brother and a couple of secret santas but at least have sorted Jack, Maisie and Lorna and my own kids (more or less) out. Its tough to have the pressure of no chance of last minute dashing out to stock up on a few more bits and Scarlett has one large gift whereas Davies is after nothing specific so will have actual things wrapped up for him.

Today we were Tinker, cat and chicken sitting for Fliss and Sandy who are off Christmas shopping for a long weekend so we got to sit in their house and watch telly and have a bath. Reminds us of how differently we live and how much of daily stuff is pretty tough when you sit on a real sofa and just plug things in… in many ways we are still in prolonged campervan living really which although vastly improved with the log burner is still tough with large areas of the static we can’t use (wardrobes, whole corner of the lounge, certain cupboards) due to condensation. Much though I love living a simpler life and collecting wood and water because it reminds us to be sensible about usage of resources there are still times when it all feels harder than it should. A real house is such a firm goal to have in sight but I am also very aware of how much of a journey it will be to actually get to that point and when simply doing all of those keeping things ticking over duties takes all our time I don’t feel like we are making enough headway towards getting the other things happening. It would be very easy here to run to stay still. Better time management required once we hit January.

Am bored of my own blog post now so will hit send and post something more cheery about Scarlett’s birthday instead to push this down the page.

Yesterday I was up, showered, stuff gathered and down at the shop buying mulled wine ingredients by 10am. I got into the kitchen, got the kettle on and the wine mulling and then set about getting We hhall set up before Fliss joined me. It all looked fab and by midday we had Christmas songs playing, the smell of mulled wine was wafting out of the doors and the table was groaning with our handmade stuff for sale.

We had eight entries for the mince pie competition and Ali brought along some jams to sell, Izzy brought some shortbreads but most of the stuff for sale was Fliss and I. We did really well – Davies sold a fivers worth of his cards (at 50p each), Scarlett sold one of her needle felted decorations, I sold various chocolates, decorations and a scarf but the biggest hit was the mulled wine and mince pies. We made over £100 altogether, £70 of it mine 🙂 So that was a good morning.

Mostly though it was just lovely to be doing something so festive. Sitting and chatting drinking mulled wine with friends I didn’t even know a year ago, having people exclaim over and buy some of the stuff I’d made, the moment when we realised it was snowing and the kids went dashing outside shrieking. It all felt very festive and community like. Doug the ghillie judged the mince pie competition which was a great finale of coming together from everyone with a big group of us gathered laughing and joking. It’s times like these that I know we have totally made the right move coming here, we are so at home 🙂

We packed up and I walked home with the kids and dog while Ady drove all the stuff back. Then I realised we’d not taken anything out for dinner from the freezer for Sunday so I walked back down to collect something. I did static to freezer (in the workshop right down in the village) and back up to static door again including feeding Tom and Barbara as I went past in under 30 minutes which I though was pretty darn good. I’ve just plotted it, it’s almost exactly a mile from our door to Sandy’s workshop so that’s two miles in 30 mins with a pretty steep uphill at the end :). When I had my peak flow measured by the doctor on Thursday he said mine was about the same as his which as he is a man and quite a bit taller than me is pretty good. None of that means much to me but I do feel pretty healthy and fit these days 🙂

I cooked pasta bake and we watched Outnumbered before early nights all round 🙂

Today we wanted to get various things done including collecting wood, getting the washing dried (we’d left it down at the castle in a queue for the washing machine yesterday but Rach had said she’d stick in in after hers), selecting our Christmas tree and juggling things around in the static to fit a tree in. We had pancakes for breakfast (we’re getting random duck and hen eggs every few days which is keeping us going more or less) and then I emptied a unit which houses the battery and invertor and internet stuff. We moved that into the hallway, we’re hoping to run the internet off the powerpacks rather than batteries for the next month or so as they are so much more portable to cart up and down the hill to charge up now the solar panel is not giving much charge to the battery. Bonnie’s crate has been moved into that space and we’re putting the tree infront of the door we usually block with the crate. I think it’s the best arrangement with our very limited space.

That done Ady and I headed down to the village to collect stuff from the freezer and sort out washing. Rach had kindly put it in the castle tumble drier for us (free!) so it only needed another ten minutes or so and we hung on for it. We came home and the kids came down to meet us and we went to select a Christmas tree.

It’s very lovely to choose your tree and chop it down within site of your house :). Ady and Davies took it up the hill while Scarlett and I carried on collecting firewood. Ady came back and the kids went off on a wander while Ady and I took down a dead tree I’d spotted right next to the river – perfect firewood, seasoned while still standing but dry because it’s not been on the ground rotting. We’ve already burnt most of it!

Ady took the wood up the hill while I took the car back the right side of the river (which is good because we almost didn’t bother and it’s rained for a good hour now so it would have been stuck!) I do love driving over a river and not worrying about whether the car will ever get through a MOT again! Today has been a real loving my life day 🙂

Back home to light the burner and get dinner on. I cooked, Ady sorted out the moving of the crate and tidied up. The kids washed and dried up. We ate watching Attenborough and then the kids watched something on youtube before bed. It;s been a real proper day off Sunday :).