Erm… Can’t recall at all the first couple of days but on Good Friday 3rd it was a mad busy Calmac for the first day of the summer timetable. 2pm arrival, it’s always late on the summer Friday boat and this was no exception. There were a fair few of us gathered at the pier waiting for people – and when the ramp came down everyone drew in a breath as there were about 100 people getting off! The most people we have seen in months and months! You forget just how few of us are here for most of the time.
Off came Lesley & Ross who had been off island along with their mum, younger brother and nephew. Off came friends to stay with Sorcha (Fliss’ daughter) who’s 18th birthday it was that very day, off came the band playing a ceilidh that night, a bunkhouse full of guests, a load more for the hostel, the first walkers and campers laden with tents, off came Big Dave and his new girlfriend (not at that point actually his girlfriend yet…) and off came my parents.
There was also a stack of stuff, deliveries for the shop, a load of stuff my parents had loaded on, our animal feed delivery and more. We had driven to the pier in both vehicles so as to let Big Dave drive one with him, Faye (new GF) and everyone’s stuff while we loaded the Jeep up with all of us. We followed him along, and just about managed to get everything up in one trip. We got Mum & Dad unpacked and settled in and then BD and Faye came over for hot cross buns. We had all been debating the ceilidh but the weather was changeable, Mum & Dad were tired from the 2 days travelling and Ady and I were working in the morning. In the end after much discussion we didn’t go down and it turned out neither did BD and Faye.
Saturday morning the weather continued to be poor so Mum & Dad did not have their planned walk down to the village to meet me from work. Instead I had a very quiet morning with Ross & Lesley’s brother reporting on some of the goings on from the night before, Trudi who was on clear up the hall duty, Norman who had not been out, BD and Faye. I walked along to meet Ady and we were home for late lunch. BD and Faye took the Rangerover to Kilmory and arranged to come and call for us for an evening beer.
We all went down for a drink and it was a nice evening with only a few folk out and guitars brought out for some singing. Home for a curry.
Easter Sunday – the kids had chocolate eggs aplenty and then eventually we headed over to the cabin for a late shared breakfast. We all sat on the decking for hours in the sunshine just chatting and soaking up the sun while drinking lots of tea. It was lovely 🙂 We arranged to meet for a beer at the shop before roast pork for dinner back at ours. It was a fab hour or so at the shop in the late afternoon sunshine and everyone was in a great mood. Mum & Dad chatted to Norman for ages and Dad bought him a beer, everyone was on good form. We wandered back to the croft and finished off dinner which I had put on low.
BD and Faye joined us which had seemed like a great idea until I’d realised we didn’t actually have 8 plates or sets of cutlery so hastily Ady fetched some from the horsebox. Dinner was lovely, much fizz was consumed and BD and Faye were by now obviously a couple.
Monday – All the days are merging together but this was the day BD and Faye headed off so Ady and I took them to the pier to wave them off. Ooh it was also the day that Ady fed the animals over at Harris and took Mum and I along for the ride. It was bumpy and I was feeling a little overserved on fizz from the night before but the views were worth it and Mum loved visiting as they have only been to Kilmory previously.
Tuesday – Ady and I worked on  building a new birdhouse, Mum walked lots, Dad ‘helped’ with the birdhouse. It was nice having them here all the time the weather was so lovely and we could all get on with our own stuff outside.
Wednesday – Ady and I both worked in the morning – Ady in the hostel, me doing my first castle tour of the season with Nicola. We had been anticipating up to 60 but in the end it was just 5. Mel was happy for us to still do the tour together and it worked really well. Before the tour we did some sucking flood water out of the castle tower and had a good old chinwag about stuff generally too. Â The tour was fun, I do like chatting to tourist and these were a really nice group.
Back home to the croft for lunch and Mum and Dad had decided they would leave that day – the weather was looking iffy for later in the week. We had lunch and then headed down to the pier to wave them off. Â As always it’s good to see them, it’s good to wave them goodbye. We had more than the usual share of drama with them this time and indeed their drama continued with all sorts of shenanigans on their way home but I am utterly exhausted by their behaviour and really disinclined to share it all here. Suffice to say some things never change with them and the issues which have mellowed with age have been exacerbated by their growing years in others. Argh!
A lovely evening all to ourselves. 🙂
Thursday – we had a skype call arranged with the producer and director of this Ben Fogle show at 11am. After various internet and tech related messing about we finally had audio and visual contact and had a very long chat with Kate who is lovely. Ady took a phone call in the middle of the skype chat which had him looking rather shocked but we carried on and made some good arrangements for their visit next week. Once we had said goodbye Ady shared with us the news that Norman had been found dead in his house. We were all pretty shocked, although he was not well and had a very poor lifestyle in terms of self care. We had lunch but none of us were really hungry and all felt rather shell shocked. Ady had the doctor and I had semi-organised a meeting with Steve the development officer so I walked down with him. The mood in the village was very strange with lots of residents sat around looking shocked. Lots of cuddling, some tears and inevitably a fair bit of drinking too – island life…. The doctor who had been coming on a routine visit for appointments was taken to Norm’s house to do the death certificate (which he was happy to do, citing no suspicious circumstances and diagnosing a fatal heart attack). The wheels of the after life procedures were all set in motion in official channels, meanwhile islanders started working out the more pressing logistics such as who would take Norman’s dog and thinking about the people we needed to inform from here. Norm has a brother down in Newcastle who the police would inform as next of kin and were very clear they needed to be the ones to do that rather than anyone from here ringing. Until we had heard that had been done we were all a little cautious about spreading the news too far but there are lots of ex residents, regular visitors, friends of Rum and others in the wider local community who knew Norman well so that grapevine started to hum with the news.
Ady saw the doctor and then we came home. Steve followed us up the hill and came in for a cup of tea and chat with me. After some debate Ady and I decided we should all go down for a beer and gathering at the shop which felt fairly inevitable. We were glad we did as when we arrived at the shop there was only Ross, Jinty (the two people who found Norm) and a WPC at the shop, everyone else had gone to the pier as the police boat had brought the funeral directors across to take the body away. Everyone had gathered at the pier, with cans of T (Norm’s drink of choice) to wave him off. We got a lift with Jinty and went to join them. It was very surreal. We went back to the shop, as did lots of others to have a few more drinks and talk about the days events. Sylvia who had a real love hate relationship with Norman either best friends or fallen out with each other in spectacular fashion decided to send a packet of tarragon up attached to a rocket as that had been Norman’s least favourite herb. We stayed until about 10pm and then came home for a stupidly late dinner.
Friday – we were supposed to have a volunteer arriving but she never came off the boat. I have heard from her tonight that she had last minute plan changes and had not got my email address with her to let me know. As it goes it was a bit of a relief really as it’s been an odd few days. We helped Jinty with her delivery which was HUGE, waited for the post and then came home.
I rang my parents for the proper catch up on their epic adventures home and while on the phone to them saw two of our cockerels fighting. They were really going for it and I latterly wished I had tried to break them up as the following morning they were both covered in blood. One was clearly the victor though and the other one knows it, running from him when he comes near which is good as they can just fight to the death with neither giving in. Scarlett found the loser and caged him over night with food and water and he seems ok, just way down the pecking order.
Saturday – work in the morning for us both. Odd to not have Norman in, he was my most regular post office customer. I can’t quite believe he’s dead and I’ll never see him again with his various affectations…
We were home for lunch earlier than usual as Ady had finished earlier. We started watching Hell and High Water, a Ben Fogle documentary so that the kids at least know who he is.  It’s actually pretty good and we’ve all gotten quite into it. Claire came up for a chat and cup of tea. Ady did some work on  the chicken house and I cleaned out the wardrobes in our bedroom, de-moulded them, gathered all of the clothes which stank and put all the stuff which was ok back in again tidily.  Curry for dinner.
Today – I hung all the nasty smelly stuff out on the line to air / rinse. I then took all the netting off the herb spiral and weeded that and the bed which had borage and nasturtian in ready for this year. Ady did more work on the chicken house putting perches and nesting boxes. It was intermittent hail and sunshine so we kept ducking back in and out of the caravan. Finally we called lunch at about 1ish. Just as we sat down and started getting into the Hell & High Water dvd again Bonnie barked and there were Beppie and David. An Australian couple who have been reading the blog for about 2 years, travel a lot and decided to come to Rum to meet us. They have donated to our Masterplan fund and wanted the croft tour. They spent the afternoon with us chatting, drinking tea, had the grand tour of the croft and met the animals, Beppie got bitten by  a goose and they took loads of photos. Always lovely to meet with someone like that, coupled with a bit odd that they know so much about you while you know very little about them. They are just here overnight and seem lovely people though.
It did rather take up all our afternoon though. When they left I got dinner on, Â Ady did some more chicken house stuff and then we fed the pigs together before coming in for the evening. I want to create a mini greenhouse so I can at least get a few seedlings started off so we have been debating ideas for that and think we have a plan to have a go with tomorrow. I also want to put a geodesic dome somewhere on the croft in lieu of the ill fated polytunnel, maybe something to do while Ben is here filming…
And that’s me – all caught up, yay!