Another week nearly passed…
Estelle managed to get on the ferry despite nearly missing it on Wednesday. She was lovely but her timekeeping made even Rum time look punctual! She left a really touching comment in the visitor book, bless her.
Davies and Scarlett were up early to come to the ferry with us on Wednesday as their friend Katriona was visiting for a few days with her parents. Always a really easy friend for Davies and Scarlett they were utterly delighted to see her, she was as charming as ever and it was so nice to have her around.
Thursday was the only decent day of weather and we went out on the Sheerwater, Katriona and her Mum coming along too. We saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins which was just fabulous, always forget how big they are compared to the more usual common short beaked dolphins we generally see in the waters around Rum. I love dolphins, they always seem to bring such joy, with everyone exclaiming and smiling like loons whenever they frolick around the boat.
I really nursed my cold and have seen it off with no lasting effects. Vicks on feet then socks to bed each night is my secret weapon, along with plenty to eat, plenty to drink and plenty of rest. The rain helped as I didn’t feel remotely obliged to do anything…
Orville the brown duck (second generation Rum) hatched her clutch of eggs. She was sitting on 10 and had hatched 8 which we decided was enough to move her with. We did move the other two eggs but she abandoned them – you never know if they may have been on the verge of hatching or not but we’d rather lose two potential ducklings than 8 already hatched ones. We could crack open the eggs to see what was happening inside and have done so before – interesting but rather macabre and often stinky! We caught her and the ducklings and moved her to a pen, ringed some more chicks and released another mother.
Friday was From The Sea theme community bring and share meal and was a real success. Sean and Ali came bringing loads of great food contributions including sea trout, potatoes, meringues and baklava, there were three risottos / stir fries with fish, two types of bread from me (one shaped like a turtle) and a splendid and delicious fish pie from Ady. I’d made a silly playlist and we had a really good turn out – another £100 raised for the hall too. Just as the evening was looking like it might start to wind up – Davies and Scarlett had seen Katriona back to the campsite and headed for home, some folk came ashore wanting to know if anyone was up for joining in with music if they brought their instruments along. We said yes so they rowed back to their yacht and came back with guitars and bagpipes. So midnight saw me sitting on the floor outside the shop dueting with some random bloke and his guitar to Ed Sheeran songs, then listening to bagpipes while we all swigged from a giant bottle of prosecco. Fun! An excellent night, got home just before 3am!
Saturday was a quiet one! Lesley, Baby Dougal, Lesley’s Mum Carol, brother Gordon and his son Cameron all came up in the afternoon to see all the ducklings and chicks and Katriona came up to hang out with Davies and Scarlett but it was all very chilled and low key in deference to our late night.
Yesterday was more of the same. Davies has the cold so didn’t really get up til about 4pm, Ady and I took advantage of a short break in the solid rain to walk down to the village and collect the post, I picked some raspberries for dessert and Ady cooked a delicious roast beef dinner.
Today I went with Fliss over to Harris to collect her car which had broken down. She drove one of her cars back and I drove the other. It was a really eerie drive through the very low mist on the narrow track with waterfalls and burns rushing past. Beautiful but strange to see so little when it is usually such a panoramic view driving from there. I stopped for a cup of tea and she gave me a lift to the ferry. She was collecting guests so I started to walk back with Neil who was also walking, his car having run out of fuel. Claire gave us a lift part way and we were chatting outside the hostel when Steve and Jed came along so we all chatted for a while before I collected some stuff from the freezer and came home.
We watched most of Martian this afternoon, while I crocheted but then Bob the pig got out so Ady went to sort that out, I got dinner sorted and then went back to the village for a meeting and stopped for a beer as the sun was now shining.