One word? When seven would do…

Because I know at least one person will be waiting 😉

Yesterday was a leisurely morning with much tea and chatting. I commented to Jan that I love how our different friends all help us meet different needs and provide help and assistance and resources in their own unique ways. Within minutes of arriving at J&J’s we were furnished with a heap of books – Katie Morag (we knew we were remiss in not having read them, now having read a couple we need to get our own copies :)), a book written by a man who grew up on Rum which Ady was devouring (and it takes a lot for him to read a book!) and various others about island life, crofting and other relevant subject matter. Also a list of suggested authors and the promise of the Monty Halls Applecross burnt to something by the weekend 🙂 🙂

So while the kids did various playing in various combinations – Scarlett and Megan formed a fairly new alliance, I’m not at all sure they’d really made it to each other’s radars before now but they totally bonded over guinea pigs, hamsters, cats, dogs and leaping about on hay stacks! It was really nice to witness, as was the Jasper and Davies pairing, I love seeing kids become children from toddlers, like butterflies emerging :).

After lunch (a lunch of many toasties, reminds me of that joke about the rabbit who visited a pub every day for weeks having a different toasted sandwich every time, ever more outlandish fillings until one day he just stopped coming. Weeks later someone asked after him and was told he’d passed away from mixinghistoasties :lol:) we donned coats and wellies and headed off for a walk. It’s lovely landscape, rather similar to Rum except the bit of the view which has the sea in it from the croftland has Holmfirth in it from J&J’s 🙂 Afterwards we all helped move a pile of hay from one place to another and then left the children in charge of flattening it into a smaller pile.

Later the kids watched a film (Parenttrap, the Hayley Mills one, not Lyndsey Lohan) which they all seemed to enjoy. After dinner we listened in to the oem for the day from the book they are reading for Lent. Jan read the poem twice, then the text explaining it and then poem again. Scarlett asked a couple of questions and Davies had a few more today in the car. Lent is something we have talked about before, probably every year when we have pancakes on Shrove Tuesday but it’s been really interesting this year to be around for both Babs and J&J marking it in their own ways and discussions surrounding it. Ady and I were talking about the various customs and rituals we have seen in various homes over the last year – hosts who have said grace before meals, a couple blessed their meals, Julie & Chris have a few minutes after dinner each evening where they go around the table and mention one or two things they have been blessed with today and note them down. I guess our good, bad, learnt today was a similar sort of idea – we really must start that up again :).

Jan and I enjoyed lots of chatting time and stayed up way later than is sensible for people getting up at 6am to drive to Scotland the next morning. And I had a bath 🙂
It was a really lovely interlude with all at J&J’s – the kids found some new connections, I got to cuddle Stripey for ages and I love the landscape, house and mostly the company there 🙂

This morning we did our best to creep out quietly having got up at 6am. I couldn’t find any contact lenses so blundered about in glasses making a flask of tea, we all thought Davies was in the car and then realised he wasn’t, only to find him sitting quietly on the stairs waiting for us when we’d all come down a different staircase, then Ady dropped the bag of rolls he’d just filled all over the driveway so they were inedible 🙁

We got away before 7am though and aside from traffic on the M62 and M60 around Manchester slowing us down a little we had a really good run. We breakfasted and lunched in the car and got all the way to Inverness by 2pm without stopping once. The car was desperate for petrol and Tarly and I were desperate for wees so Tesco was for once a very welcome sight. I don’t think I’ve ever run the car quite that low and I often play petrol chicken. Tarly and I grabbed some fruit from Tescos too which we’d all been craving. Then the last 20 miles past Inverness to Macleods Caravans .

Our plan today was to actually have a look inside a few to compare sizes, widths, ages, prices etc as we did when buying a campervan and to ask a load of questions about delivery, siting etc. Ady and the kids can go back again on Friday or Saturday to follow up while I’m on my course but we thought it was sensible for me to be around to ask some questions too :). We looked at a £3k 10ft static – about 20 years old, tired and a bit tatty, the Willow of statics I guess :). Then a 10ft for £6, only 10 years old and with a far more modern and clean feel, the bedrooms had a better layout and the living space was bigger. Finally a 12ft, the same price at £6k because it was not as nice inside as the narrower one but so much more spacious. I think on the basis it will be our home for a year or more and we will be investing in it really as it will be longer term used for WWOOFers, friends or even holiday letting so it is worth stretching the budget a little for it.

There is some debate as to whether the ferry will allow a 12ft or not so that will be our decider (getting a charter across or using the freight) long with various other factors. Tomorrow we’ll look at all that and start working out the finer details of sewerage, energy and water. What’s great is having lived in Willow for all that time we know we can cope without all those things for a period of time and the static will still feel spacious plus we will have a home again 🙂 🙂 The kids really liked them and are excited to be getting so much closer to it all happening. It’s fab to be able to start imagining ourselves living and cooking and being in a static now we’ve been inside some, tomorrow we’ll get to walk the land and picture one of those statics installed there :).

From there it was back to Inverness to find the Travelodge. It’s set back off the road so shouldn’t be too noisy and our room is nice and cool rather than the oven we had at the PremierInn at Fort William a couple of weeks ago. We had tea / coffee and just got our heads together a bit before heading back out for food. We’ve not been as organised as I would have liked really regarding feeding ourselves on our limited budget – some crockery and cutlery would have been wise, as would some cunning plans for food like slow cookers! We managed though, gathering loads of reduced to clear stuff from Tescos including pastries for breakfast to eat in the car tomorrow, bread rolls to keep us going for the next couple of days, cheese, crackers, rice cakes etc as staples, some cheap scotch eggs and sausage rolls, a jar of olives and two rotisserie chickens reduced right down in price. Ady blagged a couple of plates from the receptionist at the Travelodge and we had carpet picnic dinner with a lot of tomorrow’s feeding sorted too, we used our last Tesco vouchers that have come all around the UK with us and only forked out £4 in cash :). Tomorrow we’d be going past 2 Co-Ops and a Morrisons so hopefully we can pick up more bargains for food then. We got some Tescos own pot noodle / pasta just add boiling water too to try.

Baths all round and the kids are fast asleep and judging by the yawning and early alarm set again for tomorrow I suspect we’ll not be far behind.