Saturday We seemed to spent a lot of time backing and fowarding to the village. We met the boat and called in to the workshop to drop off a battery and collect stuff from the freezer, then again to collect some more stuff. The woodburner is leaking a little which was originally rain but we suspect now is condensation which may need addressing. Ady is on the case.
It was Rachel’s birthday and cake and singing was planned for 6pm. We had all intended to go but we are poor due to all the purchasing of logburners and waterproofs and Scarlett’s birthday plus all going out after dark feels like a big production (hell, it is a big production with torches and hikes up muddy hills and stuff) so in the end I went down on my own and Ady and the kids stayed home and sorted dinner. I’d made Rach a scarf and Davies had done her a lovely card, but of which were very appreciated. I stopped for a glass of fizz and singing and had a chat with Fliss, then walked home for dinner.
I decided it was close enough to Christmas to start watching festive films so we watched Nativity on Lovefilm instant which I don’t think I’ve ever seen all the way through despite having caught bits of it when it’s been on TV. It was pretty good actually, we all enjoyed it.
Sunday A trip down to the village to collect stuff from the workshop and drop off some post. Jinty and Leslie were at the shop so I stopped to chat to them for a while. I like them both lots but have not really gotten to know either of them very well so it was nice to stand for a natter for a while. Back at home I went off to collect wood – I’ve been making faggots, little bundles of twigs for firelighting so was very happily collecting bits to make them with Bonnie ‘helping’ in that way that a stick loving puppy can only assist when you are trying to put sticks in piles and sacks and she would rather run off with them 😆
Vikki and Rachel wandered up as they were out for a walk and we are often a good destination for not very strenuous walkers so they called in for a cup of tea on the sporran. Then we got dinner on. Davies and Scarlett both did lots of needle felting Christmas decorations to sell at the fayre at the weekend. We watched the second Attenborough thing on iplayer – cannot believe how old he is having checked online. Scarlett took a deep breath at one point and said ‘maybe one day I’ll have seen as many things as him’. She definitely has wildlife TV presenter high on her dream job list or at the very least someone who gets paid to go and see as many creatures as she can. I suspect the actual being on TV is pretty incidental to her, especially if she’d have to brush her hair!
Today – We went down to the castle as I was hoping to catch Fliss and also wanted to check what time some training I was doing this evening was happening. We’d missed Fliss but did have a cup of tea with Vikki and a quick chat with Neil to make arrangements for tomorrow. We came home for lunch and then Davies did the washing and drying up, Ady went to deal with the toilets and Scarlett, Bonnie and I went wood collecting. Back home for a cup of tea and then Ady and I went down to collect equipment for tomorrow and load it into our car ready for the morning. I stayed down at the village for my training and Ady came home to get dinner on. I chatted to Norman and he bought me a beer, then I went in the hall to help the trainer set up. It was business plan development training for the IRCT directors but I was along as a Rum Enterprise director. I didn’t get a lot out of it to be honest as it’s stuff I’ve covered before in various jobs or learnt about when we wrote our croft business plan but it’s always good to get free training even if you only take a very small amount of new knowledge away from it.
We finished that slightly ahead of schedule so I was home earlier than I’d expected which was nice as tomorrow is an early start – 7am at the venison larder, which is an hour earlier than I am even normally out of bed let alone up and working! It will still be dark and everything. The children will be left in bed with breakfast laid out and will go and feed animals once it is daylight and we’ll be home for lunch.