Sunday – I lie in bed texting with Clare in Mallaig – making the most of the extra hour to read, lie in but also the best place for signal to text. While we were chatting and planning dinner Calmac announced the boat would not be running after all – very sad all round 🙁
I’m not entirely sure what we did with the day after that. I know I went down to the freezer to get some haggis out for dinner and picked some brambles along the way, probably turned them into jam. I think we may have watched a film or something in the afternoon.
Monday – Ady was working at the hostel so the kids and I walked down to collect the car then drove along to meet Clare and co. The big Calmac (Loch Nevis) was still not running but they had sent the Orion instead. It took ages to come in and we were all down at the pier speculating that it wasn’t coming but finally it came into view. It had been a rough crossing but it bought Clare, James & Elinor. Also on board were Rum residents Ali, Eve, Mike & Debs and a visiting family (Mum, Dad, son, daughter & son’s girlfriend). I took Clare and all the kids along to the bunkhouse, stopping along the way to offer to take some of the other family’s stuff for them. I had also picked up the post so went to run that along to the village and dropped the car back with Ady who had almost finished working and arranged to come and join us at the bunkhouse when he was done.
Ady took the car back up to the croft, let Bonnie out for a bit, collected various bits and pieces, fed the animals and then came back down. Clare and I walked along to the shop for supplies and then she cooked dinner for us all. A late night… We made friends with the family who were lovely and the only other bunkhouse resident, a Polish guy who was here to do some walking and explore more of Scotland as he is wanting to move to the Highlands.
Tuesday – Pig Day – we had discussed the pig killing the night before and James had been keen to come and watch but we waited for them and they didn’t arrive so we did it. It turned out they had gotten lost, James had fallen over and hurt himself and then it was lunchtime so they had turned back. Ady and I skinned and butchered the pig, then I weighed it, labelled it and bagged it up while Ady cleaned the area down. The kids had lunch and headed down to the bunkhouse to find James & Elinor. Ady slow roasted a joint on the barbecue to take down for dinner, I went down to find Clare and Ady joined us. Another late one.
Wednesday – I think I did some shed painting in the morning. Everyone came up for lunch. The kids headed off after lunch for general adventuring, Ady stayed to feed animals and Clare and I went bramble picking. I was on dinner duty that night but everyone helped at the last minute as the oven was not working so the meatballs needed to be cooked on the hob top and the pasta did it’s usual trick of failing to cook when everything else was ready. Was delicious for all the team effortness though. Our last night, not quite so late as the previous ones but still the next morning by the time we got home. I’d had a lovely afternoon chatting to Clare about all sorts of things though, none Rum related which was so lovely.
Thursday – Ady was working and I had promised Clare & Co and the nice family in the bunkhouse a castle tour in the morning, so the kids collected them all and we spent an hour or so walking round the castle, including all the secret not on the tour bits too. Nice to be able to offer that 🙂 There was all sorts of nonsense with the boats – the Nevis was supposed to be back but it left Mallaig, had problems and turned back and they sent the Orion out instead. When we got to the pier ready to say our goodbyes the Nevis was on the horizon too and all the people who had been trapped on Rum with vehicles were waiting to get on it. In the end both boats arrived at the same time. We waved everyone off – Clare, James & Elinor, plus Billy the roofer who is off now til next year and Kate & Ian – summertime residents who have gone back to Wales for the winter. Rum is starting to empty.
Home for very early nights all round.
Friday – more shed painting, inside and out. Pizza for dinner and Doctor Who. I let the kids have a lie in to try and catch up on all the late nights.
Saturday – Post office for me in the morning and hostel for Ady. A weird feeling down in the village. I was feeling sad about Clare going and the lack of sensible conversation and company on the island and feeling very anti social. A family vote had decided we would not go to either the craft stuff at the school in the afternoon or the dressing up drunken stuff at the shop in the evening. I think it was the right decision based on reports of both although I suspect it would have made us unpopular. Ah well. Instead I did some shed painting and Scarlett helped me then we all watched some Halloweeny films for the evening, staying up past midnight again.
Sunday – I left the children to it and spent the whole day outside shed painting. Ady did some loo maintenance in the morning and then after lunch he came and put all the various hardware on the shed door so it now closes and locks. Next job is a bike store so they can come out, something done to the shed floor inside and then we can start turning it into a shop with displays and decoration. No real rush for that, it will be a nice outdoors job as and when the weather allows through the winter though. I did a half hour bramble picking at the very end of the afternoon and felt so good for having been outside all day.
Monday – today. With the shed more or less done and Ady off working for SNH for a couple of hours I decided to do one last big bramble pick so went all around the village to all the best spots and got nearly 5kg. Now gone past my target of 200 jars, run out of sugar and almost out of jars so feel it’s been a good productive year on that. There was some confusion with Ady’s hours so when I finally got home I flicked the internet on to check the details and found an email to say the ducklings were coming today! So Scarlett and I set off back down the hill to try and find them. We met Ady and Dave at the fork with the ducks – Ady just coming home, Dave bringing them to us. Thanked Dave and Ady and I carried the case between us back to the croft. They are in the fruit cage just now until they settle but they are gorgeous – five muscovy ducklings, 12 weeks old and very pretty. I think we have 3 boys and 2 girls.
Back in the house I made lots of jam – 37 jars I think, plus pasta bake for the kids dinner and potatoes to go with some game pies we’d defrosted for our dinner. Trying to clear out the freezer to make room for more pork!