Ooops.
Monday – I was working Post Office in the morning. In the afternoon Steve came up for a cup of tea and chat.
Tuesday – Ali and I did Steve’s review in the morning at her house. That went well, can’t recall the afternoon.
Wednesday – we cut it fine heading to the pier to meet Kirsty and James and then the car wouldn’t start. Ady doubled back to get the Rangerover while the kids and I dashed along flagging down Fliss along the way for a lift to the boat. It was a chaotic busy boat with various people coming off including The Barts so I got hijacked by various people before managing to say hello to them. We shoved their stuff in Bad Neil’s car and started to walk back towards the village meeting Ady along the way in the Rangerover. The kids had already set off walking. They dropped me in the village as I had a board meeting and they headed up to the croft.
The meeting was fine, lots to get through but all done and then I walked back up to the croft. We went to the shop for a beer or two that evening which was nice.
Thursday -Sheerwater boat trip. The weather was pretty pants but we went anyway. Poor Scarlett was seasick but I think the rest of us mostly enjoyed the rollercoaster-esqueness of it, despite not seeing anything of interest really. A late evening seeing in James’ birthday.
Friday – James’ 40th 🙂 We listened to Popmaster and then packed up the Jeep with all 8 of us, Bonnie and a rucksack and headed over to Harris. The poor car was very overloaded but managed it. Thanks to the rain the previous day our usual route of leaping across the river at a lowish point just before it hits the beach was not possible (first time we’ve ever not been able to cross there) so we followed it back inland to the bridge to cross there. Everyone gathered driftwood for the fire and we cooked sausages and marshmallows over it, toasted James with a beer and enjoyed the fact it was not raining even if it was not exactly sunny either.  I popped to the shop in the evening, Ady cooked a lovely curry. There was cake and singing and a quiz which the kids won.
Saturday – Ady and I worked in the morning. I managed to lock myself out of the post office system by putting in the wrong password 3 times so it was more of a coffee shop than a post office 😉 Jinty came along and reset it for me in the end and Ady had finished early so had also come along for a coffee – all very sociable 🙂 Back home for lunch of leftover pizza, curry and beans on toast depending on who had what leftover from previous dinners. It continued to rain all afternoon meaning we stayed inside before heading down to the boat early evening. Davies and Scarlett had already gotten wet once that day so they stayed behind at home to keep dry and manage the wind turbine. A fairly early night for all of us – a much later on for The Barts who drove all the way home.
Sunday – Ady and I had arranged to see Fliss for a cup of tea and Ian to look at some drainage pipe so we decided to do that and headed down to the village. We met Sean’s Mum and Eve so walked with them for a while, then Bad Neil off to feed the sheep so we went with him and leant on the croft gate looking at his flock and chatting about sheep, lambing and crofting, then went to see Ian and looked at his shed and drainage before going round to Fliss’ for a cup of tea and chat. All very sociable 🙂 Home for a late lunch and then Ady made roast dinner and I made apple pie.
Monday – Ady and I were working at the hostel in the morning – when we got home the kids had just got out of bed – a mad weekend finally caught up with them! I had some emails to reply to, Ady made a duck hut for the captured duck with ducklings. I went down to the shop for a few bits and to catch up with Bad Neil and Lesley about venison stuff. Back home I rang my parents for an overdue catch up chat.
Tuesday – Scarlett and I made cookies, after Popmaster I went outside with Ady and we chatted about various things, measured the drainage pipe area on the cob project, took the old eggs out of the duck pen and generally debated life, the universe and everything. In for lunch and then he went back out to strim the pig fence line and measure up for wire for training the raspberries and currants. Davies skyped with friends and made an animation on his tablet, I sent some photos across to Kate the TV producer for our back story and then Scarlett and I did a load of batch cooking with 3kg of venison mince. Under my guidance Scarlett made one portion of shepherds pie base, two batches of bolognaise with chorizo, a cheese sauce and then two massive lasagnes – one for tonight and one to freeze. She made garlic bread and dough for  a loaf and made meat balls for Davies. It was excellent to spend time with her, I’ve felt very Davies and Scarlett deficient of late somehow.