A bit of a lie in this morning which was nice, novelty of my own bed won’t get the chance to wear off before I’m off sleeping in a Premier Inn!
The weather for tomorrow has died down so I cancelled the room for tonight and let the kids sleep in. At 11ish Ady and I woke them and then headed down to the village for some bramble picking and to collect the birds that arrived from Muck for us last night and Dave & Sylvia took in for us. We checked the car for post and annoyingly the big amazon parcel which I reported missing on Friday and have a replacement on the way for was in there, opened but repaired and with a letter from Royal Mail to say it had been intercepted and searched for dangerous goods, found to be safe so sent on it’s way. It contained cooking oil. cashew nuts, gravy and a six pack of squeezy marmite… This is the third time our deliveries have been checked, last time it was shampoo and conditioner (in 5l containers), so I guess anything heavy and clearly liquid is open to being seized and inspected. Amazon have already sent the replacements having told me to refuse delivery if the original turns up so it can be returned to them. Clearly I can’t refuse delivery as it just comes on the ferry, Calmac won’t refuse delivery on our behalf (can you imagine me trying to give them tracking numbers to do that when they are accepting freight, post and deliveries for 200 plus islanders?!) and last time I had a delivery arrive late which had already been replaced I got in touch to explain and they told me to send it back. I explained that would be challenging to do – too large for post office, no courier will collect from here – and said I was happy to pay for it as I would use the duplicate order. They said the billing department would be in touch to arrange payment and they never did… cashew nuts all round then!
Anyway… we caught up with a couple of people in the village then picked some brambles around the larder. Not that many so we have frozen them to make jam with when I get back. Ady says he will try and do some picking while we’re away but I suspect he won’t find much time for that. Then to Dave & Sylvia’s. I had ordered a brace each of duck, partridge and pheasant from Toby on Muck and they had arrived on last night’s boat so Dave had taken them for us and bunged them in his fridge. We stopped for a cup of tea and a chat and Dave gave us a big bag of prawns too, which Davies and Ady had as a starter for dinner tonight.
Home for lunch and an impromptu decision to drive across to Kilmory and watch the deer rut. We made flasks and took sweets, got in the car and drove across. It was a really smooth drive, less than 20 minutes thanks to the super smooth new track 🙂 We parked up and walked down to the hide, got comfy and watched. Ali soon came across to tell us who was who and then left us as she was meeting the camera men from Autumnwatch who are here filming this week. Not sure when it’s going out. Shortly afterwards there was a fight, with antler clashing and everything, the first we’ve ever seen 🙂 Very exciting! Later there was a second one. By far the best deer stuff we’ve seen. We might even go back over next Sunday if the weather is nice but this was awesome.
We stayed for a good couple of hours then drove back home, fed the animals and I had a cup of tea on the sporran and rang my parents who had arrived home safely. Ady got dinner on. Tonight was a double parter of Doctor Who – the last in the David Tenant series so Scarlett is pleased as Matt Smith is her favourite. I think I only watched one or two of the Matt Smith ones when they were on TV.
Tomorrow is packing and then heading off for me and the kids. Best go and make the most of that bed…