On Saturday night after I’d blogged I had a facebook chat with Fliss telling me about a fight that had kicked off down at the hall. All hearsay but the gist of it is that James (seasonal castle staff, someone I have never liked for an indefinable reason despite all his best efforts to ingratiate himself with us) had been goading Chainsaw Dave to the point of lumping him one. There is a funny vibe on the island just now – we seem to all be struggling to get through these last few dark weeks of winter before everything wakes up for spring again. It’s times like these I am glad we are up on our hill away from it all and able to dip in and out to the bits of island life we want to be involved in and stay well out of the bits we don’t. It’s pretty well documented anecdotally and otherwise that small island communities struggle in the winter time – fighting, drink, drugs, relationships all seem to be a bit of a catalyst for issues and this is certainly not somewhere I’d want to be single or if we collectively or individually had any serious issues or dependancies. A cracked marriage or tendancy towards needing a crutch would be thrown into sharp relief here.
Neil on Eigg was telling me about how by February all the islanders there loath each other and are desperate for some tourists to dilute the personalities a bit, come October they are all sick of the sight of strangers and incomers and keen for everyone to bugger off and leave them all alone to their island. I’ve now seen both sides of that here and totally get it. From our point of view we are simply sucking out the good bits and casting aside the rest and will remain aloof from getting involved in any of the spats in the village. We won’t take sides and are simply not involved enough with anyone to get personally involved. Its a big family here and as such people get pissed off and squabble when times are tough.
The weather continues to be wild and windy and last night our bedroom roof leaked. Not sure if it is condensation or rain getting in and the roof does leak in a couple of random locations depending on wind direction but this was the seam above Ady’s side of the bed so he spend the night being dripped on which does nothing for a restful nights sleep for him really 🙁 We are on the home strait with this winter but it does feel rather like a last hurrah of testing for us just now.
Yesterday we didn’t do much really – Ady and I popped round to see Lesley about venison stuff and then called in to see Fliss and Sandy briefly before coming home for roast dinner and a film. Today the boat was cancelled and we moved a freezer with Neil ready to fill with venison tomorrow, called in to the shop to catch up with people, came home for lunch and then nipped back down to fetch stuff from our freezer and put a wash on at the castle. Tomorrow we’re butchering venison in the morning and then fully expecting the boat to be cancelled again. I think the winds are due to blow away by Thursday so we’re expecting little sleep til then…