Not sure it’s relief but certainly an exhaling.
It’s been gloriously sunny all day. Midges are gone (although the wasps are out for their last hurrah) and there is a satisfying chill in the air.
Our oven appears to be broken. It seems to be the thermocouple / thermostat. I think it is within our scope of DIY to fix but may or may not prove expensive. At the moment it all works but runs at just the one level of heat – pretty darn hot. Not the end of the world but sufficient to have Ady pleased to have something to fret over.
This morning we walked down to the post office as I had a box of jams to post, a crochet bag to post, birthday cards for Jack and Maisie to post, Lovefilm to return and some SNH employee surveys to send back. Hurrah for the jam and bag sales, had no idea we would actually be able to sell stuff mail order, makes something of a mockery of us feeling it is our remote location which serves us well in sales… I had an email ordering 5 loaves of bread, 4 pies and a couple of jars of jam for next week too.
We bumped into Clare and Dan on the way to the post office who confirmed the rumours we had already heard circulating that they are leaving Rum. This is Big News – another two people leaving joining the two who announced they were leaving a couple of weeks ago and the one who already left. That puts us at under 20 adults now. Interesting times…
We had a chat in the sunshine sitting on the bench in the village with Clare and Dan and were joined by Neil and baby Dougal. Then we left to go and have a training session in using a super mower type machine that SNH are happy to loan us for cutting grass and rushes on the croft. It will be amazing and means we can actually start to clear some of the wilder parts of the croft. A funny old mix of progression and positives tinged with an odd feeling of something unexplainable when folk announce they are leaving.
Home for lunch – bread I had baked before we went and chicken soup from yesterdays roast which Ady had left simmering with Scarlett watching over. A nice lunch 🙂 Then Davies stayed behind while the other three of us headed to the village for bramble picking. Ady drove us to the pier and he spent some time taking a thermocouple off an old cooker down there (it is not compatible with ours) while Scarlett and I walked back to the village picking as we went. Debs caught us as we walked past her house and she joined me walking to the campsite and picking there which is where Ady caught up with us. Scarlett had made her way to the village. We put a good 5kg or more of brambles into the freezer for when the jars arrive.
Tomorrow Ady is ghillying while I intend picking more brambles and have agreed to do the castle tour should anyone arrive to attend. I am hoping no one does and I can just pick more brambles in the forecast sunshine.
The first stags are roaring.