One word? When seven would do…

Saturday – work for us both in the morning. Ady ended up only working for just over an hour as the heating and hot water is off in the hostel as the boiler is broken so he appeared round at the shop with Ross by 11am. I had brought Bonnie down with me and put her in the car so Ady went off to meet the boat in the hopes an animal feed delivery we are waiting on might come. It didn’t.

It was quiet at the shop but sociable. We collected the laundry, some stuff from the freezer and headed back up the hill for lunch. We had arranged to go over to Dave’s to see how he was getting on at the cabin. We helped set the fire and left Dave drilling the first hole and arranged to go back over again in the morning. Having seen Lije and Lulah’s Boxing Day bagels on facebook I had a bagel craving so made bagels for dinner which were lovely.

Sunday – I had a lie in and a shower. Ady went over to the cabin and I followed over. We got the fire in and lit and toasted it with a mug of tea and a third of a Mars bar each. We came home in theory to have lunch but shortly after we got back Steve and Trudi appeared for a cup of tea and a chat. And then Vikki appeared for the same. She came to share the news (which actually we already knew from another source) that she has given notice on her house and will be leaving at the end of Feb. Mixed emotions on that one really. Will maybe blog about it more at some point.

Scarlett and I made up a bird feeder stand that was one of her Christmas presents and set it up outside the lounge window with nuts, water, bird food and a dangling apple. It has already had a robin land on it but using it as a perch rather than to feed from.

We had been invited down to Mike & Debs for festive tea and cake, as had Vikki and Big Dave so we walked down with Vikki. We had a nice couple of hours there – they are lovely folk and their home is very cosy. We left and walked back with Big Dave and had  a late dinner.

Today I did a couple of hours digging on the house plot, followed by an hour chopping wood. Ady did some collecting wood (which I then chopped). We all met up for lunch which Big Dave joined us for. Ady and Scarlett made up her metal detector and spent some time trying that out. The kids and I walked down to the village on a fools errand as I wanted to check the venison freezer in the hall but I couldn’t find the keys at home and assumed they must be in the car in the village. They were not so we walked home again and after looking everywhere I could think of I found them in my jeans pocket. The jeans I was wearing and had been wearing all day so had had the keys on me down at the village anyway. Grr.

Several episodes of HIMYM – we are on the final series and tomorrow will start the final disc. I *think* I have guessed how it may end.

Christmas Eve – we promised the kids we would not do anything other than festive stuff. Ady did head down to the castle to collect a load of washing we had done the day before and stuck in the tumble drier but he was back with that before the rest of us were up.  Scarlett had wanted to make Christmas crackers in the style of the famous The Good Life Christmas episode so had been gathering empty loo roll middles and oddments of festive wrapping paper. Abby had given the kids a bagful of card making tat when she left back in the summer which also included some Christmas stickers and crappy bling too. So all of that came out and we all made two crackers each. Maisie rang in the middle of the cracker making so Scarlett went off to talk to her for a bit which always makes me grin – pre teen gossiping on the phone 🙂

We had to make the whole thing including hat, joke / motto and gift. We had newspaper (which is actually a fairly precious resource here on Rum given no one gets newspapers so we rely on folk bringing them or leaving them behind when they visit) and so using Ady as the biggest head in the house as a template we made various crown style paper hats. Davies won at this by cutting out a picture of Ed Milliband as the tallest front pointy bit of the crown. Next we did gifts. Ady gathered both his from the ManDrawer – I am not even sure what he put together as I think he pulled and won both of his on Christmas Day so they got returned there but I have a feeling at least one of them was tie-it related. I made a cellophane fortune telling fish cut from packaging from one of the packs of festive bling stickers from Abby (the sort of thing The Jules used to make cards from back in the day – old time MPers will know *just* what I mean) with a marker pen eye drawn on and a note saying ‘fortune telling fish. It’s magic and real and definitely not made from a bit of cellophane. Head curls – you are happy, tail curls – you are sad, fish dances – you are drunk, fish does not move – blame yourself and definitely not the quality fortune telling fish’. My other gift was an empty dental floss box covered in nasty bling stickers with a festive poem tucked inside wishing Christmas blessings and shit. Quality. My jokes were ‘what did the snowman say to the aggressive carrot? Get out of my face’ and ‘what do you call a man with wrapping paper on his head? Russell’ Winning 🙂 On Christmas Day I pulled and won Davies’ cracker which contained two croc jibbitz of spiderman which had been part of some random tat attached to something out of date Jinty had palmed off on the kids earlier in the year.  He included a note saying ‘OMG it’s only Spiderman!’

We decorated the Christmas cake, as usual I had left it til the last day in order to have as long as possible to tip copious amounts of alcohol over it prior to icing so the marzipan did not hold the icing and chunks of it kept slipping. That has happened for so many years it would now not be a traditional Goddard Christmas cake were there not at least two places where you can see the cake, so hurrah for sticking with tradition 😉 The kids made a marzipan snowman each to stick on top and then we bedecked it with stupid amounts of edible glitter. Hurrah for festive excesses!

Ady marinated the chicken for curry that evening, Big Dave came over having cut his hand and had a bad day. Scarlett administered first aid in the shape of alcohol wipes and plasters and he rather solemnly asked if he could have dinner with us. We fed the animals and headed down to the shop in various combinations. Mulled wine and mince pies and bog myrtle whisky or vodka selections were on offer. It was a great evening with all of Rum’s finest folk out laughing and chatting and being festive. We came home, Ady cooked, we watched a film and the kids finally went to bed around midnight, Ady and I followed having watched midnight Mass from Arundel Cathedral and put out the presents around 1am

Christmas morning started a mere 5 hours later when the kids did their very best being quiet opening their stockings in Scarlett’s bedroom. Except of course we live in a caravan where not only are the walls paper thin I have ripped thinner paper by accident and also Scarlett does not really have a quiet setting. So we dozed while they did that and then they came in at the agreed 7am timeslot. Ady got the fire lit and the kettle on, I put my contact lenses in and mostly made groaning noises and the kids opened their presents. Despite all best intentions  we still had fairly large piles under the tree. Scarlett had some playmobil, some loom bands and several books on loom banding, a bird feeder to out outside her bedroom window, some fairy lights for her room, a metal detcector, a candle mold, some spirograph. Davies had loads of books, some lego, a couple of DS games, a megaphone, a speaker pillow. They both had loads of chocoalates, biscuits, sweets, small numbers of stocking filling tat, glow in the dark stars, a decent laser pen (green, very awesome, they reach the tops of the mountains!). Everyone got new knives (essential Rum kit). Ady got a new hat, new wind up radio, biscuits, chocolate. I got perfume and a couple of River Cottage books. I also got a secret santa from online friends of a lovely snuggly purple scarf and a load of chocolate.

We had breakfast of sausage, bacon and eggs, I made some bucks fizz and then Dave came over with gifts. He’d got Ady and I a bottle each of drink we like and the kids a game of name that tune with kazoos, Scarlett a 3d puzzle and Davies a paper airplane kit. We gave him some jam, some pickled onions and a Christmas jumper with the Saltire on it. He stayed for a cup of tea and glass of fizz and then we arranged to see him later at the shop. Ady brought up the turkey and got that sorted while I peeled veg and made an apple turnover for the kids pudding for later. We had originally all been planning to walk down to the shop but the kids elected to stay home and play DS games instead. We all went outside and took some festive photos then Ady and I walked down to the shop.

It was nice to be there with Rum folk, we had a couple of beers and then walked home again to get dinner sorted. I rang my parents and we all chatted to them until my Mum cried and had to stop talking to us 🙁 Later Julie so we all chatted to all of them too. Love speakerphone for that 🙂

We had dinner which was delicious, did crackers and then played the kazoo game from Dave. He left us around 9pm so we watched a HIMYM before packing everyone off to bed.

Boxing Day

A later start for most, although I was up around 930am. Ady went off to chop some tree down. I had a cup of tea and very much enjoyed the silence of a house all alone (kids were still asleep). Then Ady came back in for a cup of tea and some Christmas cake. I chopped the wood he had brought up, we gathered leftover food and all headed down to the hall where a leftovers feast had been planned.

We had taken down all the lounge curtains and pelmets and cleaned the windows so took all the curtains down to the laundry to wash and dry, went along to the pier to put rubbish in the skip and collect some parcels that were in the boatshed for us.

The bring and share leftovers feast was a little bit of a wash out. Trudi was there. as was Big Dave, Kirsty. Jinty and their Dad. And us. We had hoped for more people and rather more food. And games. But never mind. We went, we ate, we chatted and then as it was all fizzling out we headed for home again. Big Dave walked up with us and then went back to his cabin. Ady and I fed the pigs and then we watched Good Life Christmas special, ate lots of chocolate and drank tea.

This evening we ate loads of festive food, watched several episodes of HIMYM and most of us were in bed early.

Back to work for Ady and I in the morning.

Oops, didn’t realise I’d missed so many days.

Which of course means I can’t recall everything in detail, ah well.

Ady and I both worked Saturday morning, we met the ferry which was delayed but did come in. Big Dave came off, so we took his stuff along and then walked down to the village later and met up with him. He and I stopped for a beer at the shop; Ady brought the post back home.

Sunday morning Ady went off to skin and process a couple of deer for Fliss with Bad Neil. A bit of a cheeky favour to ask really but Ady loves to help… I spent the morning baking and made mince pies, what was supposed to be an apple and cinnamon roll but opened up in the oven so became a solstice strudel instead, and some bread and rolls. Big Dave came over for lunch, Ady finally got back and in the afternoon we had planned to have a walk and all gather ever green stuff and a fallen log but it tipped with rain all day long so in the end only Ady and I went out gathering while the kids kept the fire going. We made a yule log with a fallen branch, decorated with holly and pine and cones and Ady drilled some nails in to mount candles. We talked about what the winter solstice means, how it has long been celebrated and then we lit a candle each and talked about what we are grateful to nature for.

We had a nice dinner and watched Fred Claus which is one of my favourite festive films.

Monday the kids had showers and hairbrush for Scarlett, Davies and Ady went wood gathering and Davies has his first go at the chainsaw. I started making a stocking for Scarlett the same as the one I crocheted for Davies last year. Dave came over for lunch. The kids and I went down for the kids Christmas party, Ady fed the animals and followed on, getting changed on the way to become santa. Lots of silly games and fun, presents for all the kids on island (all five of them!! ;)). Then to the shop as it was festive food chilled delivery day so Christmas food shop ahoy! We got all the nice cheeses, crackers, pate, Baileys cream etc. We stayed for a couple of beers and it was a nice atmosphere at the shop, all very festive.

Big Dave came back with us for dinner, we had a couple of bottles of fizz and it was all very fun and festive.

Today Ady killed and plucked and gutted the Christmas turkey, I did some last bits of wrapping and finished Scarlett’s stocking. We walked down to put a load of laundry on and get stuff out of the freezer for tomorrow’s dinner. Then it was nativity time. Davies was Child 3, I was Mary, Ady was the headmaster, Scarlett maintained her refusing to join in stance but did video most of it, sadly none of my parts! We exchanged secret santa gifts – Ady got beer, Scarlett got a clay duck. Davies’ did not been done (grr!) so I got him some chocolate from the shop quickly but he was a little upset, particularly as he’d put a lot of effort into his…hmmm secret santa often seems to go wrong for him. I did really well and got one of Deb’s keepsake cocoons, and a new years blessing – will photo the cocoon in daylight, it’s gorgeous 🙂 There was talk of carols but Davies was keen to come home so we headed back. Bonus early so we decided to catch up on the film we missed yesterday and so had a nativity-fest with Nativity and then Nativity 2 with pizza for dinner.

Planning a nothing very much at all day tomorrow, cake icing and decorating, maybe some Christmas cracker making, a bit of festive TV on iplayer and then mulled wine and mince pies at the shop in the evening.

I remember last year (and probably the year before too) the ‘last boat’ panic that sets in on the islands. As the inevitable December weather disrupts things people get all stressy about getting off Rum for Christmas if that is what they are planning and start obsessively checking the weather and predicting cancelled ferries. We should have three more to come; Saturday. Monday and Tuesday. Our usual Thursday ferry won’t come on Christmas day but a special all around all the isles boat runs on Boxing Day instead.

This slight hysteria means that people are already heading off, the first lot left today and I reckon if we get a Saturday boat the other folk planning to be off for Christmas will probably leave then ‘just in case’.

Our festive veg came today – sprouts, chestnuts, sack of tatties along with usual fruit and veg so we’re fine for food. I am hoping the planned chilled food order comes on Monday as that will bring nice cheeses but if it doesn’t, well it won’t ruin Christmas 😉 Obviously we already have the turkey sorted 😉 I think there are one or two last presents which have not arrived yet  but they can always have an IOU wrapped up instead and be a late gift awaiting ferry arrival, I think every Christmas and birthday so far has had at least one instance of that!

This morning we walked down to the shop, bought a few bits, headed to the ferry, the log burner for Big Dave came off – not sure if I blogged already but he has swapped us the big fire that Gav bought for the cabin (much, much too big but will be perfect for the cob house), plus the sink and hob that Gav bought and Dave won’t use, altogether well over £2K worth, for a new log burner like ours which is far more suitable for the cabin. It was an epic saga to find one and get it here which took us countless phone calls and emails and cost over £200 but is still a very good deal for us. So relieved it is finally here safely.

Back to the village, walked around to the freezer and then back to see if post had been done, it had not so we came home for lunch. After lunch it was looking bright if cold so the kids and I grabbed bags and headed down to the village again to collect the post and the veg while Ady chopped more firewood. Unfortunately it did not stay bright and dry and started raining, increasingly heavily as we walked down so we all got wet! Between us we managed all the veg except the sack of potatoes which we left in the car although it was very heavy even between three of us. Made me think about living back in Sompting and how we’d never dream of walking to the supermarket a mile away to buy a weeks worth of fruit and veg and then carry it all home again… should have taken the wheelbarrow really but it’s so hard to push over the really bumpy bit of the track and up the really muddy bit of the croft hill.

Once home again kids got into pjs, I had a shower, we got all the veg put away and I showed the kids a clever pom pom making trick using a fork I’d seen on facebook yesterday. We’d picked up some dvds, audio books and books from the library not having realised that Highland Council must have sent new stock over sometime recently and so raided it earlier. I read a chapter on platypus to Scarlett from an Attenborough book and then we all watched Mr Ben with increasing levels of hilarity. Such a charming reminder of my own childhood 🙂

Along with the veg had been 2kg of pickling onions so I made bread dough and then spent an hour topping, tailing and peeling them to soak in brine overnight ready for pickling tomorrow. Ady made dinner – delicious lasagne. Tonights festive film was How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

I’ve had  a lovely day today, a real return to the run up to Christmasses past just being in the same space as the kids while they got on with their stuff and I got on with mine. I do miss that easy companionship with them sometimes as we are all off doing our own thing.

I made pastry for mince pies and gingerbread dough and Scarlett and I attempted some brazil nut brittle but I took my eye off the sugar and it caught so it looks gorgeous but tasted too burnt to eat. Barbara pig will enjoy it nonetheless so it won’t go to waste! Scarlett found some boiled sweets to crush up so we made stained glass window biscuits and loads of stars to stack up for Christmas trees and we listened to lots of festive tunes too – the news on the radio was too sad today 🙁 Head firmly in sand.

Ady was off with the chainsaw stocking up our firewood reserves, I probably should have been helping really as tomorrow’s weather is forecast to be horrid so will be another indoors day but never mind.

Ady came in for lunch, we watched the second Vicar of Dibley on our Christmas special dvd but it was a comic special one about Live Aid and G8 summit so was more preachy and worthy than funny. Hmmm, not at all easy to avoid the world troubles today really!

After lunch Ady popped back out to finish up for an hour or so while Scarlett gathered decorations, I covered some cardboard in tin foil to make mini cake boards and mixed up some green icing and then we all made a gingerbread tree each by stacking up stars, lobbing icing at them and covering in sugary stuff. Ady went totally overboard with everything from icing to glitter spray to sticking a candle in the top, Davies seemed to mostly be eating the decorations, I tried to be arty but failed – hey gingerbread and icing is not my art media of choice and Scarlett was precise and took forever but outputted by fair the best finished tree. It was lots of fun 🙂

We watched something about BBC in the 80s on catch up and then I cooked dinner. Stir fry with more of our own pork 🙂 Self sufficiency never tasted so good!

Couple of episodes of HIMYM and then Santa Clause 2 as advent movie. Everyone, even Ady is struggling to get up in the morning, it is still not fully light even at 9am although sunset is a tiny smidge later every day now.

This morning we went down to the post office to get Ady’s faulty spade sent back. This has been slightly epic in that a spade from Amazon didn’t last very long at all so I emailed them and they sent out a replacement but asked for the faulty one to be sent back. Which is not as straightforward as it may sound… the replacement was delayed, which meant we had no packaging to send back the faulty one, when it finally did come the link to the return label had expired. Then boats were cancelled. It may have been easier just to pay for a new spade really… anyway, it has finally gone off Rum.

We had a couple of other things to do in the village, nip in to Sean and Ali’s to put the dead jack snipe in their freezer as Sean is sending it to the British Museum, collect food from our freezer for dinner, buy some milk, that sort of thing 😉

Back home we got changed into working clothes and then gathered all relevant tools for putting in apple trees; mattock and spade for breaking ground and digging holes, stakes to support trees, string to tie stakes to trees, knife to cut string to tie stakes to trees, sledgehammer and post banger for choices in ways to bang in stakes to tie to trees, compost to add to the soil put back in the holes, actual trees. First though Ady fixed up the stakes which support the netting and keep it taut while I did some work ‘sewing’ up’ some of the wind blown netting joins. I need to get some decent rope / twine for such tasks. We dug in the first four trees and then broke for lunch.

After lunch Ady and I went off to meet the boat – we were hoping the logburner for Dave’s cabin would come but in the event it didn’t and the boat was really delayed so we wasted well over an hour on that 🙁 We parked the car back in the village as the rat had not been in overnight so clearly lives up near us rather than in the car. Derek gave us post – not much but did include a couple of copies of the latest Scottish Islands Explorer which I have an article in so that was nice.

Back home we had all but lost the light so Ady went to feed the animals and gather more string while I dug in another two trees, then he came and dug the holes for the last two while I tied them all to stakes. We got more firewood in and then the kids had showers so I was on hairbrushing duty. We watched Nigella Christmas while doing that – I may be alone in my love for upper class women and their Christmas ego shows but I love her and Kirstie no matter what anyone else says! 😉

Ady cooked – our own sausages, we’re getting through them very fast. We watched one episode of HIMYM and then several Christmas special dvds = Dibley, Madagascar and Ice Age, which are never as satisfyingly festive as an actual film I don’t think.

Tomorrow we have wet or dry weather options of houseplot digging or festive baking. Either will be enjoyable 🙂

We had a boat on Friday to cover the cancelled one and most of the Christmas post we were waiting on turned up on it. Friday seems so long ago I can’t remember what else we did. Oh, I made a candle with Scarlett for her secret santa gift to Jinty. Davies finished his picture for his too so they are all done. We took a load of laundry down too and washed it then put it in the tumble drier and left it to do it’s thing.

Saturday morning Ady and I both worked – he was working for the reserve rather than the castle loading 40 deer onto a trailer from the larder and then meeting the boat to load them onto the game dealer van which came off. The Calmac was waiting for them as it was just one boat so it was quite stressy apparently – it was Manager Mike, Ady, Lesley and Ross but I heard Ady was the one doing pretty much all the lifting. Lesley and Ross are tiny and Mike is not a strong bloke, Ady is very strong, my own Geoff Capes!

I was at the shop, it was busy-ish but plenty of time to drink tea and chat to folk. I went along to meet Ady from work and he made me a cup of tea while he had a shower to wash off deer blood! Mairi had come off the boat but gone to have a cup of tea and chat with Deb while Ady and I finished work so she walked along to the hostel to meet us after 1 and we all came up to the croft together.

Ady did various bits and pieces outside in the afternoon after lunch. I made bread dough, pizza dough and chatted with Mairi. It was fab to have her here, we get on so well and she is lovely company. She was quite happy to slum it and sleep on the sofa in the lounge which worked well. She had been up since 4am to leave home to get to Mallaig so we only stayed up til midnight but managed to sink 4 bottles of fizz between us. Mairi only drinks fizz 🙂

Sunday we had a selection of pastries and croissants for breakfast that Mairi had brought with her, then Davies and Ady went to chop a christmas tree while Mairi, Scarlett and I went out with secateurs and collected holly, larch branches with wee cones and cotoneaster branches with red berries on them and met Ady and Davies at Dave’s cabin. We had a plan to install and decorate a Christmas tree for him as a surprise. It was crazily windy and frequently hailing but Mairi insisted we sat on camping chairs on the decking and made decorations which we felt Kirstie Allsopp would have been proud of 😆 Meanwhile Ady was determined to create a cross shaped stand for the tree ‘just like the one Mickey Mouse make in Disney Christmas cartoons’. It was generally hilarious and quite giddy all round. The tree was massively too tall and having nailed the stand on and manhandled it into the cabin we realised it didn’t have room to stand up so had to chop about 18 inches off it. More hilarity! We found two old water bottles over there and some tealights so Scarlett and I showed Mairi how to make the plastic bottle icicles which may have added burning plastic fumes to the mix :). Once finally the correct height we decorated the tree and it looks beautiful. Mairi is convinced Dave will put it out in the porch once he arrives but he will certainly be touched and we had several hours of much entertainment over there.

Back to our croft for a late lunch and then Mairi and I walked down to the shop to buy supplies – another six bottles of fizz which were not all supposed to be for drinking – one is my Christmas present from Mairi which she insisted on replacing and one was her present to Dave which she has left me money to replace too! Ady cooked a lovely roast pork dinner, we had a very funny napkin folding contest. On the way home Mairi and I had rescued an injured jack snipe which had been ringed so the kids noted the ring number down and I emailed Sean who told us he had ringed it back in 2012 and then caught it again in 2013 here and that if it could fly we should release it as they feed at night. So after dinner, about 10pm, several bottles of fizz down we all put on coats and went outside to release the jack snipe. It didn’t fly so after a chance to escape we decided it was more likely to get eaten by a rat if left outside so put it back in a cage in the horsebox and then stood for another 20 minutes or so watching the meteor shower which was just fab.

Back indoors Davies spent nearly an hour talking to me about conspiracy theories which he has been researching on the internet and is fascinated by, while Scarlett and Mairi did somehing together on Mairi’s ipad and looked at old photos. The kids finally went off to bed, so did Ady and then Mairi and I stayed up til 3am chatting.

Today I have been a bit broken 😉 Mairi and I walked over to the cabin to collect some bits, then sat and chatted on the sporran. We showed her the house site and then had one last cup of tea while she packed up her stuff. The kids were outside hunting for ice so we collected them, swung by the hall to get Mairi some venison, our freezer to give her a joint of pork and then off to the pier where the boat was already in having not been to Muck today. We waved Mairi off, welcomed back Fliss and Joss, waved off also Deb, Sean, Ali & Eve and Bad Neil who were all leaving today. We called in at the shop to work out veg orders for the next couple of weeks and buy a few bits, carried the shopping up to the fork as we have had a rat in the jeep so want to leave it parked in the village to see whether the rat lives in the car all the time or just comes in and out and lives nearby where we usually park it. Ady loaded the Rangerover up with a load of wood while I walked back down to collect post and something from our freezer for dinner, then I got back just as he had finished loading up.

Back at the croft I went up, brought in firewood and had a shower, while Ady finished emptying the load of wood and fed the animals then we watched Home Alone and Home Alone 2 which were the 2 films we didn’t watch this weekend as Mairi was here. Perfect hangover cure with popcorn 🙂 I cooked dinner of bacon and cheese pasta bake and garlic bread, more comfort food and had a very small hair of the dog glass of wine with my dinner, which restored me sufficiently to watch Scrooged which was tonights film.

And now off to bed where I imagine I will sleep very well indeed!

No ferry again today. It was pretty blowy first thing and we’ve had loads more hail, thunder and lightning all day but the wind calmed down by this afternoon sufficiently to release the wind turbine.

Post Office was semi-busy. Trudi, Steve, Bad Neil, Fliss, Norman, Derek and Vikki all came in – various stopping for cups of tea, Bad Neil stayed all morning and had four cups! Various topics of conversation at various points with various people as diverse as weather bombs, hail and ice, infrasound and whether there is a bigger reason for dogs going mental at thunder and lightning and where in the UK various people’s spiritual homes were rather than where they are actually from – Neil is clearly a Yorkshireman at heart, he was talking today about wanting to keep ferrets!

Ady came to meet me from work having chopped down a Christmas tree for Mel & Em so we walked along to the hostel to deliver that. Rum gossip in overdrive just now as Claire and Cosmic Mike have fallen out and Cosmic and Steve are swapping house so that Trudi & Steve can move in together. Steve is officially gay but Trudi keeps telling everyone they are a couple while Steve keeps telling everyone he has made it clear that he is not up for a relationship with her on account of being gay. Much speculation on just what the sleeping arrangements might be 🙂 Ah Rum gossip!

Back home for lunch, some festive cooking show (think it was Heston today, we’ve been watching River Cottage and various others, it’s not Christmas without them according to Ady) and then Ady did some fire maintenance while the kids and I had a big tidy up in the lounge. It probably looks no different to the casual observer but I know it is less cluttered! It may be a bit like when Joyce came to visit all those years ago and in preparation I went through my make up bag and threw out all the dried up mascaras! 😆

I finished my secret santa gift of a crocheted purse and sewed a button on, finished a scarf which has been on the needles for weeks and weeks and sorted wool for something else to be working on then put all the rest away under the sofa.

Tomorrow is putting in the apple trees day, hopefully some more house site digging and fingers crossed we have a rescheduled ferry too which might bring vegetables and other supplies.

About to head off to bed, still pretty noisy but it was a shit nights sleep last night and I am Mrs Post in the morning so hoping to do some sleeping.

I think the worst is over. I will tentatively say that although it has been crazy windy it has not felt that bad, certainly not in the league of some of the storms we had last year. The clock is down and the walls are shaking though, so there is every chance that I am getting more blase about it rather than it being tame.

I finished painting Dave’s cabin bathroom – second coat of gloss on the walls where the shower is going and a second coat of marine floor paint on the floor of the bathroom. It looks good. Fingers crossed it all dries before he is over next weekend – it is *really* cold in there and the first coat on the floor stayed tacky for ages. Other than that dash along the top trail to the cabin I have been in all day and not really very productive either. I had sort of plans to make gingerbread and help Scarlett with her secret santa for Jinty but didn’t manage either. I did make most of a crochet bag for my secret santa though so not entirely pointless. I also made lunch and dinner and bread and watched Kirstie’s Handmade Christmas.

And drank tea, 🙂

It’s actually been quite a nice hanging out in the static listening to music, watching festive stuff type of day. Davies made a couple of Christmas cards, Scarlett made a fimo decoration to top her candle. Vikki appeared late afternoon and stayed for a couple of hours. We watched Arthur Christmas as our advent DVD. It’s been nice. Very touched by how many people messages, text, rang, emailed etc to check on us – Rum folk and general friends, Made us feel most loved 🙂

Arctic weather bomb! I *love* the sound of that, even more exciting than last years polar vortex.

The wind came in around 3am – I was aware of it and only slept fitfully from then. Up for work this morning and it was oranges (full on oil skin waterproofs) down to the village to do post office. As predicted with the exception of a couple of people using the banking side of the post office to take cash out it was very quiet. Bad Neil came in for a cup of tea, Fliss came in for a cup of tea and Norman came in for his four beers (yes, really four tins of beer between 10am and midday – ah Rum!).  There was due to be a nativity rehearsal this evening but I had already sent our excuses if the predicted weather came in.

I got home and Ady had made the bread dough into loaves so lunch was ready. The kids were watching Simpsons on dvd so Ady and I chatted over lunch and then as it was not too dreadful outside we went out to secure the salamis in the polytunnel with some better string and hanging arrangements, chop a bit more wood and feed the animals. It was borderline wild out there but still good to be outside. Pretty cold though, part of me is not desperate for the winkle sacks to arrive 😉

Back indoors before dark and we finally watched last weeks Apprentice. I did some work on the Rumble newsletter while Ady cooked dinner (our) sausages and chips. We watched some HIMYM and then tonights festive film was Elf. It is gusts of wind just now, so nothing at all and then you hear it rolling towards the caravan and then smacking into the side. The clock is down, we’ve done as much prep as we can so all that remains is waiting it out and hoping nothing dreadful happens. Weather bomb…. see you on the other side!

It would not get Dolly singing really would it? But it was a pretty full on 2 hours shift this morning. No boat on Saturday, a promised rescheduled boat yesterday not happening and close proximity to Christmas with threats of no more boats for the rest of this week meant *everyone* was wanting to post their parcels and Christmas cards today. A real run on festive stamps and much weighing, printing labels and asking whether there were dodgy contraband contents in the parcels.

The morning started quite quietly with five of us stood around drinking tea / coffee – Steve, Trudi, Ross, Bad Neil and I, but it got busier as we went and there was never really a lull til home time. Jinty rang to say she won’t be back til probably Saturday so am I ok to do tomorrow and Thursday? I am. More cash for Christmas and I suspect they will be quieter shifts as everyone has already done their mad sending stuff off today.

I walked home and Ady had been busy digging a ditch around the back of the fruit cage. We have decided not to plant the new apple trees out until after the forecast storms this week. I know they will have to put up with 80mph winds but they can wait in the polytunnel a while longer before they do. We had lunch – no bread so it was mince pies all round 🙂 The kids went and fetched their bikes which had been up at the fork in the road under a tarp but have now been brought in to the polytunnel  to keep them dry and safe as cycling opportunities are about to dry up for  a few weeks I suspect. Then Ady and I went to meet the boat, taking rubbish and empty petrol cans with us. We took the rangerover to the jeep (the rangerover is used on the really off road track and across the river as it is higher and has better off road tyres, the jeep is used for driving on the better roads around the village as it is a nicer car, lower to the ground and also runs on diesel rather than petrol so loads more miles to the gallon) and then the jeep to the pier. The boat had not been to Muck so had sat at Rum for over an hour sticking to timetabled departure. Our animal feed delivery had come, along with various parcels. Bad Neil was on boat duty so we waited for him to finish and gave him a lift back to the village, collected some bits from the freezer, got the post from Derek and then came home.

We transfered the animal feed into the rangerover and then brought that across the river to the croft as it was just about low enough to cross at the ford. Then I left Ady to empty the car while I went across to the cabin and did a coat of paint on the wall in the shower room. Back home just before dark, we watched some River Cottage Christmas, I made wraps for dinner, bread dough and then cooked tacos, fajitas and nachos. We watched a couple of HIMYM and then tonights Christmas film which was a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie.

Work again in the morning and then possibly not a lot in the afternoon as we may need to stay indoors and hold the caravan roof down!

Saturday – Scarlett’s birthday 🙂 Up not too early at about 730am for present opening. It was  a really dark drizzly morning that didn’t actually get properly light until about 930am so it felt earlier though.  Scarlett was thrilled with all her pressies and set about setting her hudl2 up and then connecting with Davies and fully exploring that. We left them to it and Ady and I spent a while looking at old flickr photos of her through the years. Awwww.

We had her choice of birthday lunch – cheeses (she likes proper blue cheese, mature cheese, stinky cheese), pickled onions, olives, twiglets. Then we headed down to the hall for Christmas Fayre. It initally looked as though it was not really going to happen with Mel & Em there but looking about to leave and Fliss darting about still getting things together. But we pulled it together and it was all good. I made a vat of mulled wine, Em nipped home and got some mince pies, Debs turned up with loads of cakes, there were four entries to the mince pie contest and we got Jinty’s dad to be the judge. People came along and brought birthday presents for Scarlett, Claire, Fliss, Davies, Scarlett, Debs and I all put stuff out for sale and all sold stuff. We put Christmas music on, Ady bought in the tree, he and Fliss secured it, Fliss brought fairy lights and the bag of Christmas baubles that is always kicking around the hall was found and the kids all lobbed them at the tree.

We did Tarly’s birthday cake candles, singing etc and it was all very lovely. The kids all played together and it was a nice atmosphere. Lesley is hoping she is pregnant but is not sharing it widely (as in at all other than me I think) so she stretched her glass of mulled wine which I diluted for her and then Ady made her a cup of tea.

Back to feed the animals and get birthday dinner sorted – Scarlett had requested gammon and potato gratin so we had our first taste of the gammon I wet cured from our pigs and it was delicious. I am very excited about doing more adventurous things in the future but this is a fab start to our own meat.

We watched Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmas and it ended up being a late night, candles at both ends and in the middle!

This morning Ady worked at the hostel just for 2 hours. Our promised boat as yesterdays was cancelled also got cancelled -fingers crossed for tomorrow. I had a nice lie in and read my book in bed as it was very cold and hailstorming. I stayed there til Ady got home and stoked the fire up, then had a shower and got up once it was warmer!

The kids had a lazy morning playing on tablets – plenty of power thanks to wind turbine spinning round. After lunch they both had showers, I cut Davies’ hair, brushed Scarlett’s hair, fed the animals with Ady so I had at least left the caravan once. The kids and I did some plastic bottle and candle craft making icicles to hang on the tree thanks to LovelyEm’s lovely mum’s blog idea. Then finally we decorated the tree. It looks lovely although I would like a few more decorations on it so we may make some biscuits tomorrow and I might knit or crochet a few more bits. Also might send the kids out foraging for natural decorations when the weather is better,

Ady cooked dinner – roast pork (yes I know, pig produce tastic!) and it was divine, best pork so far I think. Nightmare Before Christmas as festive film which I think we might bump for next year. I like the idea of more cheesy festive films with small children being cute and a bit of old fashioned magic. I suspect I may be officially middle aged and nostalgic 😉

will blog today when it has all happened!

Yesterday was a typical day before a birthday day (Alison – remember when we stayed up til crazy morning o’clock every single time before a kids party and then staggered through them all glazed eyed and manic?!) where I had left some things to the last minute because they needed to be and others because I was just slack!

Mucho baking – mince pies for the Christmas fayre tomorrow, more mincemeat because that was the last jar from last year, birthday cakes – tiffin for up here for us four and an eggless chocolate orange cake to take down to the hall to share.

We went down to the woods to chop down a tree for the hall – Scarlett did it this time and did an amazing job of hitting it with the axe and pushing it over.  Ady took it up to the car ready to bring down to the hall while the kids and I went back to the static to get lunch sorted.

Lots of Christmas songs all day, feeling very festive.

I walked down with Ady to the car to collect our newly arrived mattock just before it got dark as I was feeling a bit caravan-bound and it had stopped raining / sleeting / hailing / snowing briefly. We fed the animals and then came in for the night. I then had to sew a toy hamster which had arrived in kit form a couple of weeks ago but I’d not found time alone to make. I shut myself in the bedroom with it but it was getting dark and it was baltic in there so after about an hour I couldn’t actually feel my fingers any more so I brought it into the lounge and did it covertly. I took way longer than I expected but does look very much like Humphrey (while still alive!) which is what Scarlett wanted.

Christmas dvds were Simpsons Christmas specials and Merry Christmas Mr Bean, I think I prefer actual festive films to the TV specials, next year we’ll get more films I think.

Pizza for dinner, kids to bed, I wrapped Scarlett’s presents – a Hudl2, case for it, playmobil swan, the cuddly Humphrey, a mini whiteboard and some stamps for her stamp collection. wrote a birthday message on the whiteboard wall in the bathroom and was just about in bed for 151am which is when she was born.

Oops, mistakenly posted this on wondering wanderers – hope no one saw it!!

Bloody teachers! 😉

I worked at post office this morning – a swapped shift as I am not working on Saturday as it’s Scarlett’s birthday. How did my baby get to be 12?! 😯

I had my usual trickle of folk in and Bad Neil and then later Fliss stopped for a cup of tea and chat. I do like Post Office, it’s most sociable 🙂

Derek brought along a delivery from the boat of my apple trees. I ordered and paid for them back in about August and was wondering if it would ever actually get cold enough for them to be dormant enough to send – the same happened last year with fruit trees which didn’t come til late November for the same reason. These are rather more of an investment though – £150 for the 8 of them, all heritage varieties, six eaters and two cookers, all specifically chosen for their suitability to our soil and climate from a choice of about 60 types that this little Scottish orchard had available this year. I found the contact on a Scottish permaculture mailing list. We have the fruit cage ready to go but need to dig some drainage ditches and then actually put them in properly according to instructions with mulch and stuff – too big an investment for my usual method of shove it in and cross your fingers! In theory this is our last big financial outlay on the croft until the house is built and we are definitely staying, so they are slightly symbolic trees too. Oh the stupidity of burdening a tree with any level of symbolism! :rolls:

I walked home in the rain with my trees and various bits I had bought from the shop, mostly for Scarlett’s birthday. Her birthday menu runs thus: cinnamon french toast for breakfast (always a problem as there are never eggs on the island in December, this year is no exception but I had frozen some eggs beaten with sugar during the earlier in the year egg glut so am ready this year!), cheese, crackers, olives, pickled onions etc for lunch (onions pickled again cutting it too fine really but I had been ordering pickling onions with my veg for *weeks* – next year I will try and grow some myself!), roast gammon and potato gratin for dinner (our own gammon this year – yay!). She wants a birthday cake of tiffin for up here with us and something more chocolate sponge-esque to take down to the village to share. I had various cheeses, crackers, stuff for cake making and a mini bottle of prosecco that Jinty had got in a crate of and I had earmarked as a pressie for Scarlett.

The others had been variously up to things all morning so we all caught up with each others days so far over lunch. We had then planned to plant out the trees but it began tipping down with rain and was already 230pm so we decided to unpack them and put them in the polytunnel with the roots wrapped in a wet sack to keep them hydrated and plant them out tomorrow when we have more time. Davies and Scarlett made the most of a break in the weather to walk down to the village and then I followed them an hour or so later. Ady stayed behind to feed the pigs and ensure Barbara didn’t escape – she didn’t. I met the kids and we joined in with the first run through of the school nativity and then had the monthly residents meeting. Ady put on a load of laundry, collected pig feed from the bunkhouse, put the laundry into the dryer and then came to join us.

The nativity run through was fine but I was annoyed with Deb who kept trying to coerce Scarlett into joining in and taking a part, Scarlett was very resolute and is determined that she does not want to do it so I was proud of her for sticking to her guns. Davies did well reading his parts with just the right mix of aloof cool teendom and enthusiasm for a community event ;). Deb is clearly desperate to include Davies and Scarlett more in school stuff which would be nice if it were for their benefit but is quite clearly because she prefers doing stuff with older children and feels Eve and Joss will get something out of it. I may have been ranty about this on the way home 😉

The meeting was a typical winter one, a very low turn out, not much on the agenda and no appetite for contentious stuff. Then most people left, the rest of us had jacket potatoes and then Sean the Rat did his talk which is the last of the current round of Rum lectures. He talked about his Phd which is about the Rum Rats, explaining how he has conducted his research, early findings and various science-y stuff. He is doing some discections of rats soon and Scarlett and Davies are keen to join in with that, he is also looking for help with his trapping and chipping of live rats in the next few weeks so they have volunteered to do that too. Better than nativity stuff 😉

We got home, more or less in the dry and watched Muppet Christmas Carol all snuggled under blankets. It made for a very late night, but no one has to be up in the morning. Tomorrow brings cake making, mince pie making, apple tree planting…

Sorry Helen (who commented, and anyone else who read) but yesterdays post seems to have gone! Lost in the transition period. Along with all blogpost from March this year, so I guess one more isn’t the end of the world.

I can more or less recall what it said – lots of digging! The housesite digging is going well, we have done two sides of just the edge with the third side nearly half done. The longest edge which is the curve has a full dug out trench, the north to south wall is just a small edge to mark it out. I reckon we are about a sixth of the way dug which is pretty good given it’s just the two of us.

In other news the annual Goddard advent DVD extravaganza has begun, so far we have watched Polar Express, The Snowman, Father Christmas and tonight was The Christmas Story. Today we chose our Christmas tree and Davies was the axe wielding one cutting the tree down all by himself. A real landmark moment 🙂 It will stay outside until Sunday when we will bring it in after Scarlett’s birthday.

I am sure much else has happened but I am very tired and just want to check this all works ok. Please comment if you managed to get in and read 🙂

I *think* I’m back. I appear to have lost everything between March and now but in the scheme of things that is liveable with and far preferable to losing everything which looked like it may be the case earlier in the week. Gulp.

Fortunately I have not blogged much on here this year really anyway, and have been more active on the other blog and on facebook so can probably cobble together enough to do a round up post for posterity.

So, I won’t try and catch up on 8 months of blogging but will talk about this week which has been a good one. We had a great day making sausages and salami in the hall, sausages are delicious, salami is hanging in the polytunnel and will be a wait and see deal before knowing how that pans out. I also sliced up the bacon which had been curing, rolled up the hams and gammon joints and the freezer is groaning with pig produce 🙂

Also we finally broke ground on the house plot site. Top ditch is about a third of the way dug, the curve wall is all dug and we have over half of the outline of the house. Based on that progress I reckon two weeks of digging will clear the site. We have found subsoil not too far down, there are threads of clay so far but nothing of any quantity but that is fine as we know we have clay elsewhere on the croft, it would just have been incredibly easy to be digging it out of the house plot rather than digging it elsewhere and barrowing it to the house plot. At the moment we are just spreading out the spoil but we may need a better plan than that eventually. For now though it just feels good to be finally making some practical physical progress on it and being out there doing something towards making it happen.