No idea what happened on Friday – it wasn’t a boat day, we would have eaten pizza, other than that anything could have happened. Well not anything, obviously there was no alien invasion, zombie apocalypse, no extreme weather or other such memorable events, so quite probably some indoors stuff like crochet.
On Saturday I know we went down to the village in the afternoon to take a couple of the ailing Muscovy ducks down to Lesley. They have just been dying almost daily. I think we took five adults and 11 ducklings from Muck so 16 birds in all. We lost a couple of ducklings just after we let them out of their pens so re-penned them, a couple of the adults died when Jen was croftsitting and then they have just been struggling ever since. I think they just can’t cope with the mud and wet on the croft despite us offering houses and plenty of food. We have one left who seems to be coping and has got in with the other ducks but two of the others were looking really sad so we boxed them up and took them down to the village to live in Neil and Lesley’s garden where there is more grass and less mud. So far they are doing OK.
We also put on the jacket potatoes for later in the village hall and *thought* we’d put on the heating and hot water although it turned out later than we hadn’t and Trudi managed to sort that out later in the evening as it needed resetting.
We came home to feed animals and get changed and then went down for the community meal. The theme was American Diner which was fairly loosely interpreted by everyone I think but we managed a really good collective effort between us – there was sticky pork and loaded cheese and bacon potato skins from us, spaghetti and meal balls from Fliss, bagels, cream cheese and a collection of pretend cold meats (as in quorn versions) from Trudi, nachos from Young David, onion rings and chicken bites from Lesley & Bad Neil then to follow we had some crumble, some cookies and some cookie dough. A decent turn out of about 14 of us too including a couple of volunteers who are here just now. It was one of the rowdier nights with lots of drinking, laughing, silliness and sore heads the following day. I fell over several times on the way home and was in a high state of hysteria when we finally got back to the caravan a few hours after the kids 🙂
I need a night like that here once a month or so, I find it really affirming to have fun and remember what I love about living in a community. It’s obviously very drink fuelled fun but it is also about a shared space, about in jokes and knowing each other so very well, laughter, the post mortem-ing the next time we see each other. It’s about bringing food and sharing and eating together, it’s about the working the table and everyone ending up chatting to all sorts of people as we all sit down in different places and move around over the course of an evening.
Sunday – a necessary quiet day. None of us were up very early and I was feeling particularly delicate. We did get out and do some tree planting in the afternoon though, a small start but a start nonetheless.
It was a freezing cold evening / night and the gas valve / pipe froze which meant the hob and the hot water weren’t working. Ady managed a tepid water bottle rather than a hot one for me but I was asleep pretty early regardless…
Monday – the most gorgeous morning probably ever seen here. Ady was off to work at the hostel and he woke me up leaving to feed the animals. I looked out of the window and without contact lenses it looked amazing in the sunrise. Later after I’d put my eyes in it was still fantastic as the sun was higher and catching all the ice but not melted it yet. I walked down to the post office to send a parcel and get some shopping, finish tidying the hall up from Saturday night and take some photos along the way. I had a chat with Ady and then came home. He was pretty late home so by the time we’d had lunch there was not a lot of daylight left. We went out and relagged the gas bottle, valve and pipes, ensured the water pipes were all covered, put extra straw in the animal houses and chopped up more firewood before it got too dark though. I rang my parents from the Baltic bedroom.
I made dinner and we watched Sherlock.
Today – Ady went off to work again this morning. I made a tam o shanter for a midge for Trudi who is giving it as a leaving gift to a volunteer / visitor who has been here a couple of months, made the mincemeat and cranberry sauce for Christmas, made bread dough and made a start on a blanket for Scarlett. Ady came home with the Co Op which had been delivered, we had lunch and then he went back outside while I watched nature programmes with Scarlett and brushed her hair after she had a shower. We all watched Planet Earth 2 once Ady had come back in. We watched the last Sherlock – we’ve been rewatching the whole thing in preparation for the new episode due in January. Some of them Ady and I have seen three times now, some just twice and this last episode was only our second watching. They really are very good. Hopefully the next Supernatural will arrive (we’re on season 2) from LoveFilm tomorrow and we only have a few days before Christmas film watching begins 🙂