Erm… Wednesday would have been Crafternoon. Ady and I walked down to the village in the morning to get stuff out for dinner and collect post. We bumped into Mike and Ali so stopped to chat. Ali invited us up for a cup of tea but we were keen to get back. On the way back we bumped into Stevie and Trudi but still just about made it back for Popmaster and then planted out artichokes. Ali gave me another bag in the afternoon dug up from her garden so we still have more to plant, planning to put them in a different spot and try and have two artichoke patches for pig feed. We did a little bit more in the shed before I went off to Crafternoon and then Ady went across to help Dave and Faye put roof panels up in the cabin.
Thursday – We helped Dave and Faye a bit more in the morning, then went to meet the boat as we had diesel coming off. Dave and Faye wanted a lift to the second boat. The Rangerover had conked out with a load of firewood in the back so Dave came to have a look at that with us and decreed it ‘fooked’ 🙁 Water in the engine. It will need draining and refilling, which is rather beyond us but we will have  a try. The four of us tried to get it out of the way as it was at the croft gate. First Ady, Dave and Faye pushed while I steered but we got it stuck in one of the big dips (which is mostly a puddle when the river is running high and floods) on the path. We tried and tried and had almost given up when I suggested that as I was stronger and heavier than Faye maybe she should steer and I should help push. It almost killed the three of us – Ady and Dave made some very odd noises and went funny colours but we did it. I walked up to the car with them and collected all the amazon stuff which had arrived, Ady took them to the pier to see them off then back to the hostel to do a couple of hours cleaning. He collected the veg on the way back.
Friday Ady spent most of the day working on the path up the croft hill, gathering wheelbarrow loads of gravel from the river and tipping it into the mud to make a track. It is so, so much better. Pathbuilding is one of the tasks on our volunteer list for this year, we’re planning a footpath at least all the way up to the caravan and maybe even a rough track to get a car up. If we had that we could probably get all the way up to the caravan all year round. We are looking at another 4×4 with better tyres and keep seeing bargains on ebay that we can’t get here… Ady has a monster truck yen I think. I spent most of the day doing shed stuff and chopping firewood. Ali, Trudi and Eve walked round in the afternoon so I chatted to them for a while. I came in for a shower and to make nan bread dough and then we all went down to the hall for Curry Night. It had gotten later than I’d planned so curry was more like 730 than the aimed for 630 but a fab time was had by all. We had almost 100% turn out of those on the island with just Stevie not coming along. We stayed out til crazy late and I felt rather the worse for wear on Saturday morning….
Saturday – I was up and about though, although not terribly constructive. I read in bed for a while, did some crochet and then walked down to meet Ady from work as I realised I still had the freezer key in my coat pocket. We chatted to loads of people outside the hostel, then more at the shop before finally getting home for a late lunch. Later we walked back down and Scarlett came with us to check for post and gather dairy produce from the shop that we’d somehow neglected to purchase earlier. An early dinner and an early night all round.
Sunday – Ady was doing wood working stuff with Mike in the morning. I made two types of soup (leek and potato and curried parsnip), bread rolls and peanut butter cookies and Scarlett made shortbread bears. I chopped some more firewood and then Ady came home so we all had lunch. After lunch the kids went off for a walk while Ady and I gathered stuff from the car and he showed me what he and Mike had been doing in the woods, chopping down, splitting and debarking wood for fences and stuff. He is really enjoying learning stuff from Mike, it’s a good Sunday morning regular slot :).
Home for roast dinner and a round of blokus or two.
Monday – It’s rained and rained and rained all day. After Popmaster we walked down to the village in waterproofs to fax a butchers order, put in our veg order, get stuff from the freezer and buy milk. We stopped for a cup of tea with Jinty and I agreed to do a weeks worth of Post Office shifts from Saturday as she is heading off island for a few days. Back home in the rain, baked some rolls with dough I made yesterday to go with some of the soup – so glad I’d made the double batches, I should do a soup day more often!
An afternoon of internet for Davies, animal documentaries for Scarlett (and me), crochet for me and tidying the kitchen cupboards for Ady, all happily coexisting in the same space doing our own things. Dinner of our own pork chops and potato gratin (thank you Jinty for free out of date cream!).