One word? When seven would do…

Friday – In the morning we iced cupcakes, Scarlett is now chief cupcake maker I think, she is way better than me. I fixed the new tap on a water butt and did a bit of weeding in the walled garden before we had lunch. We went to the village to meet the boat, sent petrol off, collected a few parcels (including a delivery of shampoo and conditioner from Holland & Barrett that I was utterly convinced had gone astray). We collected some stuff from the freezer, picked up the clean laundry, dropped the baking off at the Barbecue hut ready for the people coming on the passenger boat and then came home. I hung the washing out and was about to head off to do more weeding when a journalist I’d been exchanging emails with arrived for a chat. She had been trying to sell a story about us to various magazines and newspapers but not managed it. She came along to meet us and take a few photos anyway and is planning to carry on trying to sell the idea of a story. I suspect we might be over exposed already to be honest, but good luck to her! I made pizza dough and then Ady and I headed down to the shop for a couple of Friday night beers.

It was quite nice down there with a few folk out and some regular visitors over . We’d watched the first couple of episodes of Supernatural the night before and so watched the second couple finishing off the disc with dinner.

Saturday – I love my Saturday mornings and this was a good one. Graham Norton, some crochet, my cat, baking. I made four sorts of pies: venison, chicken & mushroom, cheese & onion and a mix of veggies suitable for vegans, with all the various cooking this meant every saucepan and frying pan being used, every bowl as I made pastry, cookie dough and Scarlett made cupcakes. It was fun though.

In the afternoon once everything was cooled, wrapped up and labelled I transferred all of the jam which was in the back of the Rangerover into a huge plastic clip box and burnt all the cardboard boxes then Ady and I took the Rangerover down the hill, tidied out the Pajero and put the jams in there for storage. Ady did a lovely curry for dinner.

Today – after realising late yesterday that there was an order for a loaf of bread today too I made the dough last night and baked the loaf this morning while Scarlett iced the cakes. During this activity the customers actually appeared to pay for it all and arranged for us to drop everything off at the hut for them as they were heading to Kilmory. We packed some food and flasks, headed to the village to drop off their delivery, put some extra pies I’d baked in the freezer, collect yesterdays post and then off to Kilmory ourselves to have our lunch in the deer hide. We saw a little bit of parallel walking, chatted to Ali, heard lots of roaring stags and a tiny bit of harem swapping but it was pretty quiet compared to previous years.

Back at home we cut in half a roll of shading cloth which was 2m wide to make double the length at 1m wide. We used one half to reinforce the sheep pen. Ad stapled it to the posts which I pinned it down with home made staples cut from tension wire. Fingers crossed it stops the sheep escaping.

Yesterday – Ady spent most of the day cutting vast swathes of the croft with the SNH machine. I walked down to the village in the morning, bought some bits from the post office and picked brambles. In the afternoon I made jam including the 300th full size jar (and the 140th mini jar) which brings me to done with jam making for this year I think. I had about 5kg of brambles from last year in the freezer this year which got added to the tally so any more we pick in the next week or so will be frozen for next year. Scarlett and I watched some animal documentaries and a couple of episodes of Junior Bake off.

Today – In the morning Ady and I walked down to the village, put a wash on, picked some brambles, collected yesterdays post, got some stuff from the freezer and put some stuff in there. We came home for lunch and then Ady went out to rake up all the cut stuff from yesterday while I did baking. Scarlett helped me and we made 2 loaves, 8 rolls, chocolate chip cookies, ginger cookies, cup cakes – chocolate, chocolate orange, lemon, and ginger. We had no eggs so found an egg less recipe. The oven thermostat has broken so it only has one heat now – super hot! which as we mostly bake bread is not too much of a problem but does mean we can only cook things like cakes at the very bottom and therefore everything takes ages. I finished the rainbow bag and made a start on a glasses / phone case.

Ady and I spent some time talking about future plans. Not really ready to share them just yet but good to feel we have a proper plan again. I’d been feeling a bit drift-y.

Yesterday morning I picked some brambles while Ady did stuff with pig fencing and then we went down to the pier. I dropped Ady at Deb’s to start helping load up their removal van and headed to the pier to collect a few deliveries before going back to help too. We got it all loaded pretty quickly – Fliss, Clare and Dan were there helping too. We picked a few more brambles and then came home. I made jam and made dinner and we watched Everest on dvd.

Today – I woke to a reply to an email I had sent which has irritated me all day. I am currently not replying but have ranted all over the island with friends about it. I’ve settled instead for mentally composing a reply rather than actually typing it out and sending it.

We went to the SNH office to collect a cutter – a sort of overgrown lawnmower type machine which cuts through the reeds and rushes on the croft and we have on loan for a couple of weeks. We stayed awhile chatting with Lesley, David and Ross and then headed back to the croft. I picked brambles as I went so got left behind Ady walking at the fast pace of the self propelled machine. I also got caught chatting to Fliss along the way and then some  visitors who had seen the TV show last year and wanted to chat so I was quite a long way behind him. We had lunch and while I had intentions of getting back out and picking some more I never made it as it was wild and windy with showers for the rest of the day, so I crocheted and listened to the radio instead. Ady has cut vast swathes of the croft with the machine and it looks amazing. The plan is to cut quite a bit and then let the sheep and geese graze it so that it comes back as grass. The cut stuff will be used as a mulch for the raised beds over winter.

I had worked myself up and was not actually hungry by the time I made dinner so I didn’t really eat but I will enjoy my stir fry for lunch tomorrow and fully intend much bramble picking then.

The winds were pretty wild on Thursday and Friday nights. Autumn is definitely here.

Friday we did get a boat, despite us all speculating we might not. We went to wave Mike off – he gave us a card with some lovely things written inside, amusingly much of it similar to what I had written in his. We will not miss him as such and I think it is for his own best interests that he has moved on but it’s sad to see yet another person come – filled with hope, energy and optimism for their life on Rum – and go, not having made quite what they planned of their time here. What a very strange place to be this is…

Most of our deliveries came – mostly amazon, mostly non exciting stuff to be honest –  sack of rice, two boxes of noddles, two sacks of flour, kilos and kilos of sugar, instant coffee, bulk orders of teabags, oatcakes and corncakes, tins of yeast, a sack of cat food, stock cubes, 5 litres of olive oil, 5 litres of washing up liquid, 48 rolls of loo roll. A sort of months worth of boring supermarket shopping really I suppose. Essential and rather life changing if it is not here but not worthy of excited unpacking. My jam jars came though which while also not exciting was pleasing! We loaded it all from the Jeep into the Rangerover and managed to drive all the way up the croft which was fab as it was a very full car loads worth.

An afternoon of jam making followed. About 80 jars worth if I recall correctly, having taken all of the previously picked stash from the freezer. Pizza for dinner.

Saturday morning I was working at post office and Ady at the hostel. I did my shift which mostly entailed chatting to Jed, walked around to meet Ady and picked some brambles along the way. Home for a late lunch and some more jam making for me in  the afternoon. It was community bring and share meal with a Mexican theme. Davies and Scarlett are at various stages of a cold and don’t like Mexican food anyway so we had already decided the day before they wouldn’t come down and I had made extra pizzas for them to reheat. Ady and I went down and it was a nice evening although we finished pretty early and were home by 11pm.

I think if we don’t have music at these events they always seem to fizzle out quite early.

Today – it’s been very showery with some really heavy rain at times. I did an hour or so bramble picking around the croft in the morning and later this afternoon Ady, Scarlett and I walked down to the village and picked some more. I made jam (another 30 jars) when we got home and Ady cooked a lovely roast dinner.

 

 

Yesterday – the boat was cancelled although actually the morning was quite fine and I latterly regretted not having got outside while it was ok but instead I started a new bag and did some online stuff. I made wraps for lunch and we watched some stuff online. It was quite a lazy day really. In the afternoon we listened to loads of Desert Island discs and sat infront of the fire.

At 6 ish we all headed down to the village to pop to the shop before going along to Bayview for Mike’s leaving party. It was not terribly well attended but those who were there had a nice enough time. I got to do singing which always makes for a good evening in my view 🙂 The kids left around 930pm and got a lift part of the way with Fliss, we left around 11 and were home around 113opm.

Today the weather was nice this morning so after Popmaster and a failed attempt at a seeded loaf I went and picked brambles for a couple of hours while Ady did some stuff with the electric pig fence. I picked loads in and around the croft – fingers crossed my jam jars arrive tomorrow as I have a real stash of brambles to make jam with and want to get that done. We had lunch and then Ady and I went down to the pier to meet the boat, putting a load of washing on en route. Some of our expected stuff came off the boat but not all. I did manage a chat with Lesley who came down and and Fliss and we picked up a gas bottle as they arrived on the boat. We came back, reloaded all the stuff into the Rangerover and drove back to the croft. We unloaded everything, put an empty gas bottle into the car to take back down and had a cup of tea before heading back down again to return the car. We walked into the village to check for post, put the washing into the tumble drier and grab some bits from the shop.

We fed the pigs when we got back and it started to rain just as we came in and hasn’t stopped yet – definitely the best of the weather enjoyed today!

I rang my parents. We had a mishmash of dinner tonight – there is another Great Potato Crisis of 2016 with none to be had at the shop so Ady dug out a packet of Smash for Scarlett and we found some frozen roast potatoes at the shop for the rest of us. Ady made cauliflower cheese for the other three and I made steak pie for everyone. We watched Bill which arrived in the post and was pretty good. We’ve been really enjoying series 1 and 2 of Yonderland from Lovefilm – if you’ve not seen it already I highly recommend. It’s written and stars lots of the Horrible Histories cast and this film, Bill also stars many of the same actors and tells the story of Shakespeare. Very good.

It’s blowing a hooley out there tonight, rain lashing at the windows and supposed to pretty much carry on this way until about Wednesday next week. Autumn has definitely arrived.

which may or may not be the correct line to that poem and I cannot be bothered to go check. I think Tuesday’s child is either fair of face or full of grace actually and it is Thursday’s child who works hard for a living but never mind…

Ady was off at the crack of dawn feeding the animals and heading down to the village to saddle up ponies and go ghillieing. I was woken by him heading off but read my book in bed for an hour or so. It’s quite a good read, one of those spanning generations type books. I seem to keep ending up with harrowing reads as amazon suggests things based on previous reads and either goes down the very frothy chick lit or the thriller type books, neither of which are actually my favourite reads but are always at 99p which is definitely my favourite price.

There was a mountain of washing up – I had cooked potato gratin, pork chops, four types of vegetables and a creamy whisky sauce for dinner last night which was delicious but involved using every pan and dish in the house so dealing with that took nearly an hour. Plus we are out of washing up liquid (arrives on Friday’s boat fingers crossed, Mum & Dad being here meant certain things ran out quicker than usual, loo roll and washing up liquid being cases in point) so I was using handwash which is an almost but not quite acceptable substitute, particularly on a greasy or stuck up task like this was. I couldn’t even listen to the radio as it was Popmaster.

I drank my tea, finished the silver and grey bag, played with Bonnie and stroked Kira and then headed down the hill to do a castle tour and pick some brambles along the way. Two of the three sheep were out of their pen, still on the croft and only close by their pen grazing. I debated trying to get them back in but decided they were unlikely to roam much and I would be better doing it with help when I got back. I picked brambles for an hour which is always excellent head space and makes me think of all sorts of things as I let my mind wander. I had just one taker for the castle tour, a nice bloke who has been to Rum – and on the tour – before so he didn’t really need the full spiel. That worked well as we just wandered around the castle chatting and with me pointing out my favourite things and him asking questions. He was so interested that I took him behind the scenes and showed him part of the old hotel and hostel too. He loved it and gave me a tenner tip when I’d finished! 🙂 Result!

I dropped the brambles I’d picked off at the freezer and came home. Davies and Scarlett helped me herd the sheep back in their pen, I fixed the gap and Scarlett made me some late lunch of soup and bread. We chatted for a while and then Scarlett fed the birds while I fed and watered the pigs and I walked back down to the village for a few bits of shopping. There was only Jinty, Trudi and Jed at the shop so I stopped for a beer with them which was nice, before coming back home.

I got dinner on and had a shower while the kids got stuff ready for the generator and put it on. Poor Ady didn’t get home til 8pm, out for over 12 hours. He will sleep very well tonight. We had dinner, watched some HIMYM and I think everyone, except Davies, will be asleep early.

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.

Hmmm, where to start?

 

A visit from my parents. This brings every emotion going really. Guilt at not being there where they are most of the time. Relief, at not being where they are. Nostalgia for times gone by, whimsy for things which might have been. Rage at my mother for oh, so many things, acceptance, again mostly directed towards my mother. Frustration – albeit a mostly vicarious emotion at them for not appreciating what they have, for not making proper choices while they still had time. A bit of rage, for the injustice – mostly now on Scarlett’s behalf as Davies is once again feted as king of the world while she is sidelined so blatantly. Tenderness for them with their faults and foibles and failings and for being merely human, no more, no less. For being the people who made me and therefore all of us, for what they have given and continue to give.

 

Wish she’d listened to me and bought more fruit and vegetables with them though…

 

Davies was 16. This feels huge, so huge I have not yet properly digested it. I have written over on the other blog. I intend writing more.

Ady and I celebrated 17 years as Mr and Mrs. The world around us feels filled with many less compatible life partners. I am unsure as to whether to feel smug, fortunate or an uncomfortable combination.

News of another couple I didn’t really know but was aware of parting. This both rocks and steadies my world.

Our new car arrived. Everything crossed this car will take me and the kids all the way south next month having taken all four of us further north and west the week previously, pushing the geographical boundaries of the UK ever further. It will offer freedom, a taste of the mainland and a further step back towards our old lives. Is this the first step back? The first step towards moderation? I don’t know.

Not Back to School and the start of the final school year for Davies’ peers has niggled at me in some unspoken way I am unable to articulate. My Mum asked me this week what I would have changed about Davies and Scarlett’s education if I’d known then what I know now. My reply was instant and without consideration. Having pondered further since it remains the same.

 

Anyway, all of that. I am not sleeping well. I am desperate for our holiday in three weeks, convinced it will not run to plan. I said to Ady earlier than in a weird way I almost want it to be over and done with so that I can stop stressing about whether it will all go smoothly. Surely that defies the very definition of a holiday?

 

Don’t recall the specific days this week and not even going to try. But things that happened included:

Bramble picking – a fair bit of and the first jam making sessions of the year. A full jam stocktake of what we had left in the shed including some relabelling and pricing of some of the jars which had gotten a bit damp in the shed and had faded labels.

Firewood processing – Ady collected some wood from the castle where no one lives anymore so we’ve been chopping that up. The grenade log splitter which I properly love has disappeared so I ordered another one but in the meantime Ady finished chopping it with brute strength (and an axe 😉 )

Reading – learning about mulching and feeding plants and soil improvement – definitely my autumn project for the raised beds now we have it all caged. Feeling very positive ab0ut crops for next year.

Practical shit – I did some weeding, set up one water butt with a sack of comfrey suspended inside to make feed and organised a second larger bin with a sack of cut comfrey ready. The tap broke on that one while setting it up and it needs properly securing but we’ve made a start – a suitable small pallet appeared off the ferry yesterday to create a stand so it just needs an hour or so finishing off and then that is set up too. I cut all the grass and weeds growing under the mini greenhouses and laid down some black plastic under them to stop it all growing back.

Bag making – the purple one is almost finished and is already sold! A facebook friend (not someone I actually know in real life, she found me through my writing for Barefoot Diaries) has pre-bought it for her daughter as it’s her daughters favourite colours. I hope when my kids are grown up I am both thoughtful enough and have cash to be able to see things, think of them and buy them in such a lovely way.

Lots of online stuff – sorting car insurance, writing a couple of pieces – an autumn article for Barefoot and a piece on the heritage of Rum for Calmac’s winter on board magazine. Massive amounts of logistical stuff for organising the sheep getting here.

Ady dismantled a pig house and has spent way too much time wrangling them back in. Waddles the little pig who was not supposed to be here really had two piglets. They died, which was very sad but actually she appears to be a rubbish mother and it is a very bad time of year to try and bring on piglets anyway so despite a loss of potential livestock being sad it is also for the best. It has made her really unsettled though and Barbara has been being mean to her (presume she has a smell or coming of age type thing going on which Barbara is objecting to) so she has been getting out and Bob the boar has been getting out too. Sigh.

We set up the sheep pen with some plastic fencing and metal posts which arrived yesterday. It looks pretty good but obviously it is only when sheep are installed and stay in that you get to claim it is actually done. Today I spent 11 hours on the Calmac doing the round all the islands one way and then back the other way trip. Tedious beyond belief and pretty choppy so not very pleasant either. I am anticipating still feeling the swaying motion when I lie down to go to sleep. It was to collect the three sheep from Muck. The first call at Muck was iffy with us circling for ages before finally heading in to their harbour and so the sheep were loaded on the first boat which meant I had to stay on board for the duration. I did get to chat to loads of folk – Sue from Eigg was on when I got on, Gerry, Denise and Stuart got on at Canna, Lawrence and Toby got on at Muck and they all got off at Eigg for the AGM of the Small Isles Community Council. I headed back to Mallaig, popping down to check on the sheep every so often. More folk got on at various points in the afternoon so I chatted to them but also read my kindle and did some crochet, had some chips and spent some time outside when I started to need some fresh air. For someone who sat on a boat for hours I feel utterly exhausted!

Lots of visitors to the croft this week, which has helped with me missing mainland life a little. Not Back to School feels like a time to be with fellow HEors and a facebook message about a couple of friends being together singing made me miss those sort of get togethers. Fortunately Sarah who visited last week emailed me a picture of a traffic jam she was stuck in heading back south after their Scottish adventure which actually helped quite a bit!

 

Tuesday – I am not at all sure what happened on Tuesday during the daytime. I know we had a long Skype chat with Ranger Mike and Casey in the evening but the daytime activities totally escape me.

Wednesday – Sarah and Clive arrive, which probably means at least some of Tuesday was spent digging out camping mats, sleeping bags, cooker and kettle for them as we had them looked out and in the car ready for them. Ady and I met the boat – we had several deliveries including CoOp food and our new strimmer, so Ady took our stuff and their stuff along to the campsite while I walked along with Sarah and Clive and their dog Rusty. We got them settled and left them putting up their tent as we drove back along and came home. We had lunch, set up the strimmer and did some strimming, Davies and Scarlett went to check for post. Sarah and Clive came up for a cup of tea and chat and then headed back down to walk Rusty having arranged to come back up for dinner later. I finally finished off the strawberry bed and then got dinner sorted.

Sarah and Clive came up and it was a really late, whisky fuelled night ending after 2am!

Thursday – Sheerwater boat trip. We packed up lunch for everyone and called for S&C on the way past the campsite. We saw very little – a few porpoises, some scant seabirds but it was a glorious day out there and the sea was like a mirro – flat, calm, turquoise and reflective. Just a stunning day to be out on the water. S&C wanted to go to the ranger talk in the evening so we arranged to meet them for a pre talk beer. It was a night when lots of Rum folk were out so we stayed rather later than planned and in fact S&C caught us up walking back home. Ady cooked dinner which was lovely and it was a much earlier night with them heading away around 1130pm.

Friday – Another mental block of a morning, I have a feeling it was really showery so we were mostly indoors although it cheered up around lunchtime. We went down to collect stuff from S&C and took their bags and kit along to the pier for the first boat as we were  collecting a meat delivery. We said goodbye to them, went to the boat and wheelbarrowed all the stuff up. Ann from Soay’s book had arrived so I read a chunk of that aloud with Scarlett properly listening and Ady and Davies dipping in and out. It’s compelling reading but that is likely due to my utter fascination with Ann anyway as a character of the last 4.5 years of our life who we don’t really know yet see every week. Oh I’ve just remembered that I did booking the ferry to and from Harris & Lewis and sorting out car insurance at some point earlier in the week.

Ady and I went down to the village for a few beers before dinner but were home by 830pm.

Saturday – I’d been sleeping badly and had a poor night so woke still tired. Scarlett and I chatted in the morning, listening to the radio and crocheting as it was too midgey to go out. Ady came home at lunchtime after a shift in the hostel. It remained midgey but we walked down to the village and did some bramble picking around the campsite. A really nice curry for dinner and more of Ann’s book in the afternoon.

Today – a better nights sleep and a bit of a lay in for me. Then an hour or so wood chopping and stacking up, a bramble picking walk with Bonnie followed by the first jam making of the year. Ady has been dismantling an old pig house to move across to a fresh area. I promised Scarlett I would go river swimming with her this year and as summer is running out and today was a very warm, non midgey day it felt like a good opportunity so her and I did that after lunch. It was mad – really cold and a stumble-y walk to get to the spot but really good fun and just lovely to be swimming in a river, not sure of the last time I actually swam or was so immersed in water. We had about half an hour in there before heading back and Ady made cups of tea / hot chocolate to welcome us back.

Vee – an SNH volunteer who has been here for 3 weeks and is off tomorrow popped up for a cup of tea and chat before we went off swimming and Mike popped up afterwards so quite a sociable afternoon. We had a lovely roast dinner and a couple of episodes of Lost. With all muscles used in wood chopping, bramble picking and swimming I am sure I will sleep well again tonight.

Thursday – in the morning Megan the student came up with her friend Molly to explain about her dissertation which is a mapping project and leave some questionnaires and maps with us. Scarlett packed up the rucksack with lunch stuff and we headed down to the pier. It was a busy Sheerwater with a few visitors, a school trip and various islanders having friends visiting who also came along. We spotted a pod of porpoise fairly early on and then a large pod of about 20 or so dolphins which stayed with the boat for quite a while splashing about and swimming alongside us. Dolphin and whale encounters never lose their joy and magic, despite how many we have had in the years we’ve lived here and this was no exception.

We found the drake runner duck dead that morning which was pretty devastating – not least because it means we can’t breed runners ourselves for next year without a drake. Since then we have lost a couple of muscovy ducklings too. We have now penned the remaining muscovy ducklings and are keeping a close eye on everything. We are not sure whether there is a murderer among our own birds or if something else is happening but have been working to eliminate possibilities, one of which is that Bonnie may simply be running through during the feeding frenzy and crushing them. So she is now kept in at feeding time.

When we got back from the boat we managed to fix up the gate from some old bits of a mini polytunnel we rescued that Mel & Em had had and abandoned mostly broken when they left last year. The pieces fitted together to be just the right size to make the frame and I have stitched netting on to it. It is not quite perfect but so far no birds have broken in so it works.

Friday – I worked Post Office in the morning which was mostly chatting to Neil 🙂 I had planned outside stuff after lunch when  I came home but the weather was not on my side for that as it started raining as I walked home and carried on most of the afternoon, so instead I did some baking with Scarlett – several batches of cookies for her to ice, some breadsticks and biscotti for Italian night and pizza and bread dough. Ady and I had arranged to meet Mairi at the shop for a beer so we braved the rain which had all but stopped and headed down for a couple of drinks. Home for pizza and Lost.

Saturday – I had an hour or so of crochet and tea drinking before heading out to do some weeding as the sun came out. I cleared a strawberry bed which had gotten very overgrown and uncovered some runners to plant in. Ady came home so I came in for lunch with him. I made the tiramisu which didn’t really work as I added too much cream I think so it was very runny. It tasted delicious though.

We headed down to the village around 6pm for a couple of beers before the evening started. We had a really good night – loads of food, lots of people, some music as Mike and Jed played so I got to sing, plenty of random nonsense at the end of the evening as we discovered stabilo fluorescent marker shows up really well under Jinty’s new fly zapper blue light so were all drawing on each other to make tattoos… classic Rum larks! Davies and Scarlett headed home around 10 ish, we followed around 1am.

Sunday – Mairi came up for lunch and stayed a good couple of hours drinking tea and catching up. It was nice outside for a while but then got really midgey so we retreated indoors. We had planned afternoon fishing and it had gotten late so we almost didn’t go but we roused ourselves and headed down and did really well catching 22 mackerel between the three of us. Scarlett doesn’t really like casting and reeling in so she takes fish off the lines for us and is happy to kill them. She will do gutting too but prefers not to so Ady tends to do that. Davies is really good at fishing and enjoys it a lot and we now have three decent rods so everyone is happy. It was very midgey towards the end, just as we had all gotten rather icky with fish blood, guts and scales too… it had gotten later than we’d realised too so it was gone 7pm before we got home having washed out our haul and put them in the freezer on the way home.

Dinner was crazy late but very delicious.

Today – Ady and I took a load of washing down to the village this morning, picking some brambles and sticking them in the freezer, calling in to the shop for some bits and generally bimbling round the village while it was done. We bought it back up to hang on the line and have some lunch. It was really windy so I had a couple of hours on the internet catching up on various things including putting in a butchers order, replying to emails, getting the new car insured, booking the ferries for our holiday in October. We’re going to a holiday cottage on Lewis for 5 nights with bath, wifi, washing machine, dishwasher and freezer. Looking forward to watching crap TV, having baths, eating ice cream… it’s only half an hour from Stornoway so plenty of getting a fix of the bright lights when we want it and beach walks and lazy days when we don’t. We’ll have the night before in Fort William, a day on Skye before the late ferry across to Harris, then come back via Ullapool for a dentist appointment in FW and a last night back there before Ady gets the train and ferry back to Rum to meet Jen who is croft sitting for us, while me and the kids head south.

I rang my parents to catch up with them – they are up here in just over 2 weeks. Dinner was stir fry and my hand slipped while adding the chilli powder making for a rather hotter dish than normal. It was nice though! Very early dinner all eaten by 9pm in stark contrast to last night.

I was Mrs Post Office this morning as Jinty is off for a few days. On the way down the hill I discovered a dead chick – mysteriously without a ring which is very odd as we ringed all we had released… It had blood in it’s beak and when Ady investigated further it was quite bruised so appeared to have been squashed. Nothing had eaten it so we suspect probably our geese of treading on it, hopefully in a non deliberate way but they have been known to kill things by ganging up. We’ll keep an eye on things but the birds generally seem to be shaking down ok together and establishing pecking orders between the species and the old and young. Hopefully this was a single casualty.

Post Office was pretty quiet – Neil and Dougal came for a bit, Ross called in, Ali popped by for a chat. A few tourists were around too. Ady came down to bring some laundry, take some stuff to the freezer, collect some other stuff and walk back with me. While he was with me Fliss, Ian and Kim called by for various shopping. I finished up Post Office and we came home for lunch.

This afternoon’s job was finishing the final panels on the fence which we did, but inevitably took a little longer than expected. We debated and considered various options for the door which is now the weak point in terms of preventing birds and deer getting in and think we have sorted it but it got late and midgey so we abandoned it for today at about 630pm. It had been really breezy all afternoon but suddenly the wind dropped and it was midge hell. I am still itchy now.

I made dinner, Ady rang Chris, we watched Lost. I had another bash at connecting a new printer we have bought for making labels and posters but it’s one of these clever ones with a higher IQ than mine so I messed about for about half an hour which is my limit for things I don’t understand or have sufficient interest in to try and learn before packing it up for another day. Life is too short to get frustrated with things I can’t do. Ian has offered to help so I will have one more go, maybe tomorrow, and then take him up on his offer.

A student came up to the croft earlier, she is doing her dissertation on Rum and some sort of mapping project. She asked if she could come back up to ask some questions so we agreed on 11am tomorrow. Thursdays are a bit of a dead day really with the Sheerwater boat trip right in the middle of the day so that should not be too much of a drain on our time. Tomorrow after the Sheerwater, midges allowing, we should get the gate on the veg cage. I have been looking at stuff we can still sow this late in the season and am feeling very excited about growing stuff again now I know it is safe from the deer and our birds as I have lost too much crops to them this year and lost heart rather.

I spent some time down there weeding today and clearing up, it’s going to look great once it’s all done.

Friday was a raining all day sort of day and we had felt secretly relieved to be not welcoming Mike and Rose til the following day as the ferry was cancelled due to technical issues. They had found alternative accommodation and we were planning a quiet indoors day, some dvd watching and an early night all round to get ready for them arriving the following morning. A flurry of Rum emails went round updating everyone with boat info and it turned out the Orion was bringing foot passengers and the Spanish John was bringing freight after all. I checked the time and Mike & Rose would have had less than an hour to get to Mallaig and get on board so I decided not to try and get hold of them but then had a text from Mike to say they were in Mallaig and would be on the boat!

Which meant a period of frantic tidying and a dash to the pier to collect them! I took them to the camping cabin where they were staying and then brought them up here to the croft. We tried to introduce their cocker spaniel Breeze, to Bonnie but Bonnie was not at all hospitable so we elected to keep them apart for the remainder of their visit. I suspect it could have worked but it felt too risky to bother trying for the sake of a few hours so we either kept Bonnie outside while Breeze was here, or shut her in Scarlett’s room which is where she tends to hang out of an evening anyway.

We had pizza for dinner and a really nice evening with them before they headed off down the hill to their cabin. Because they were keen to be ‘home’ before dark it was earlyish nights to say goodbye for their whole trip which was quite nice as it meant we got to watch an episode of Lost before bed each evening.

Saturday – Ady went off to work while I did some crochet – I’ve caught up with myself a bit and made four midges the last few days so we have a decent cluster of them back in the shop again = I think we decided the collective name for a group of midges is a ‘Bastard’ 😉 Bob the pig kept getting out so we did some pig fence adjusting to deal with that and I re=pitched the blue wigwam tent which was wet and needed to dry out before being packed away.

Ady cooked a really nice curry for dinner, Mike and Rose came up around 5ish having spent the day off exploring.

Sunday – We re-pitched the bell tent and assessed the damage from the storm last weekend. It’s fixable but probably not really suitable for the air bnb renting out. We are researching some other tenting options for that for next year. It was a fishing competition from the pier so we called for Mike and Rose and headed down there. Quite a few folk came along and it was great fun. We caught a fair few including Davies’ first catch and Mike fulfilled one of his bucket list tick offs in catching, killing, cooking and eating fish. We brought back a couple of mackerel, a trout and a pollock for starters as Ady had already got a joint of our pork in the oven cooking slowly. Mike cooked the fish and we ate like kings! It was a later night than I think they had planned but really enjoyable.

Monday – we had arranged to meet M&R to give them a castle tour. I called in to the shop to pick up some more lures as we had decided to do some more fishing later. I held on to Breeze while Ady took Mike, Rose, Davies and Scarlett around the castle. Fortunately Bad Neil was around with baby Dougal so he and I walked and talked while Ady was doing the tour, catching up with Ross and Ian too.

Ady and the kids drove along while I walked with Mike and Rose to the pier to wave them off on the boat, then when the boat had gone the four of us took our rods and did an hour or so fishing off the pier. We did really well, a shoal of mackerel came in and Davies and I were pulling out a catch with every cast. We got 15 worth keeping and had a real production line going of me and Davies fishing, Scarlett taking them off the hooks and Ady processing them (killing and gutting them). Scarlett also had her first catch.

Ady and I collected animal feed and a load of slabs of tinned food from the shop, brought it part way back in one car, transferred it to the other one and brought it home. We managed to forget the meat we had taken out of the freezer and so had to walk back  to the first car to collect that. We realised afterwards we had also forgotten the cider and orange juice but didn’t bother going back again…

Today – Ady emptied the animal feed from the car and collected the forgotten cider and juice, I did a fix up on the bell tent, we listened to Popmaster and then we spent the day fixing up the fence around the veg beds. We are 3/4 of the way there with just one side left to put up tomorrow and a gate to construct. It looks fab and will make such a difference. I made steak pies for dinner inbewteen and then Ady and I sat on the sporran for over an hour listening to music, chatting and having a beer. It was lovely 🙂

Scarlett has spent most of the day beside the river, Davies has made the most of having unlimited power as we’ve had both solar and wind today so has been doing online-y stuff.

And glad to be home 🙂

Monday – I did post office in the morning while Ady and the volunteers moved wheelbarrows full of gravel up the hill. Ady brought Leo along to the post office to meet me from work and we took him along to the pier to wave him off. It was great to have him here, he really got the most out of his time here and hopefully not only had an experience he will take away and remember but may also come back again. I handed the shop keys over to Jinty who was back and then we came home. We had a quick lunch and then caught up with Martin, Katarina and Jean for some further path building (Ady) and finishing off cloches (me). I managed to complete all four of the frames I had assembled parts for and get them covered with plastic. A visitor appeared for a chat, first with Ady and then with me, asking questions about what we can grow here, how we improve the soil and so on. It made me realise how much we have learned and what we have achieved and how it is all an ongoing process.

I cooked dinner, had a shower and a further frustrating phone call with my parents…

Tuesday – The volunteers and Ady were feeding the animals in the morning when I became aware there was a woman and small child hanging out by the bird pens so went out to investigate. It turned out to be K and I, wife and son of N the farrier who we know pretty well as he visits Rum regularly to do work with the Rum ponies and used to live here on the island. I last saw him when I brought Kira and the peahens over and he and I gossiped all the way across on the ferry. I’d heard of K as she also used to live on Rum – it’s how they met – but never met her. She was over with him for 2 nights and had brought I up to see the birds having heard we had lots of them. Really lovely to meet her and put a face to a name. N and K are another sad loss to Rum in my opinion – we really need young, energetic, at the start of their adult life journey types to bring hope and promise and stuff. They came and met the pigs, we had a bit of a chat and then they wandered off and I went down to join the others. They were all busy with path building and as my strawberries have been on my to do list for weeks and I had finally sorted the cloches the day before I decided to make them my task. I thinned the plants in the cloches by the polytunnel which have been super productive this year and had sent out loads of runners to give them room to spread out for next year and planted all the thinned plants out under plastic in the new beds. If they all do well we will have about 10 times the amount of space / plants as this year and we have done *really* well this year. Fingers crossed for us being strawberry barons next year!

I’d made a couple of veggie pasta bakes for the volunteers lunches the night before so Ady popped them in the oven to warm up while I finished off what I was doing and then we gave the volunteers their lunch and I came in to pack and supervise Scarlett’s packing. We said goodbye to the volunteers and Ady took Scarlett and I down to the pier to head off on the Sheerwater. It was a bumpy crossing and a really busy boat – so odd to be on such a familiar space but not going to a familiar place. We got in to Arisaig, found the car, called in to the Spar for a bottle of wine (for me) and some milk (requested by Alison) and headed to Alison and Leon’s. We got there around 7pm. It was really midgey and they were trying to settle three chickens and three ducks who had arrived the day before and were not settling well – two of the hens had pecked the third badly and then started pecking the ducks, the ducks were terrified and had not eaten or drunk anything. I shut the chickens out of the run and got the ducks to eat and drink, checked over the injured hen (she was fine) and advised not letting the other hens back in until it was almost dark and time for them to roost, then putting some sort of enrichment in to their run for them to prevent boredom the next day. Another of those ‘Oh actually I do know what I’m talking about…’reminders for me 🙂

We had dinner and variously headed off to bed. Scarlett worked out that actually she can use facebook messenger without reading and writing by using voice recognition apps which she was very proud of herself for. I do love the way she has engaged problem solving, creative thinking and IT skills to circumnavigate literacy! 😉 It does at least serve to support my ‘literacy is important but not the be all and end all’ stance… I was definitely asleep first. Most amused that my children after ten hours apart were mostly keen to catch up with each other online from their respective locations.

Wednesday – Scarlett and I were off and away before 10am, arriving in FW with time to grab a pastry for breakfast from Lidl before heading to the dentist. Scarlett had her palate expander refitted and the train track braces put on her top and bottom teeth. She was offered a choice of colour of bands and asked if she could have rainbow but was told she could only choose two so she went for blue and green. So she now has a mouthful of metal. As ever with Scarlett she is being brave and stoical about the whole business. She’s taken a few painkillers – one tooth in particular has quite a way to move so will likely be sore with every adjustment and she is getting cuts or rubs to her mouth in various places so has been busy with the dental wax sorting that out.

We had the whole day in FW – a trip to the secret charity shop (two a couple of miles outside FW which we only discovered this year), all around the FW charity shops, lunch AND dinner at McDonalds, Morrisons shop, Lidl shop, Superdrug stock up, a chat with the woman at a newly opened craft shop which will be running crafting courses. We bought a cd of David Attenborough talks which we listened to in the car, collected a reservation for Ady from Argos and bought some stacking boxes from Poundstretcher to fit on our wheeled luggage trolley thing, inspired by our recent Swiss volunteers who were using something similar for all their stuff. We arrived back at Alison’s at 8ish and I was offered a bath which I gratefully accepted with a large glass of wine and my kindle 🙂

Today – we headed off to Arisaig, called into the Spar for last minute bits, I dropped Scarlett and all our stuff off at the marina and took the car back to the car park, dropping the key at the keysafe and getting very wet walking back to the marina. I had a cup of tea, bought our tickets and we were first on the boat loading all our stuff on board. It was a really, really crappy crossing. Zero visibility, incredibly choppy, about half of the 18 people aboard were sick, Scarlett included. I felt queasy but was very focussed on being one of the half of stoic folk handing around sick bags and mopping up vomit, a real Dunkirk spirit aboard the Sheerwater today. I was thinking this morning that actually I almost feel like an adult sometimes these days, when I was talking about something to Alison and Leon the other nights saying ‘well that was 30 years ago’ and telling Neil the other morning about how we bought our house when I was just 20, over half my life ago, when Neil himself was 3 years old! I felt like a grown up today on the boat. I’m really stiff now from sitting tensed for such a long time in the cold though, I was bracing myself against the rocking while focussing on staring at the horizon and supporting Scarlett who was lying across me, my thighs feel all bruised from 90 minutes of being flexed!

We got off at Rum, very very thankful that we at least didn’t have to get back on the boat again in a couple of hours like everyone else on the boat did. It rained a bit on us heading up the hill with our wheelbarrows but was mostly kind and held off tipping down with rain until we were indoors, then proceeded to rain for the whole of the rest of the day and still now. We unpacked, had lunch, caught up with each other and have had a companionable afternoon with the internet on catching up online, listening to Popmaster, I’ve nearly finished off two midges who were both part made, which is just as well as I have sold another one while I was off. I keep telling myself I’ll do one more and then I can do some more bags and I keep selling them so having to carry on with midges. Over winter I definitely need to crochet up a whole stash of them.

Ady cooked dinner, fishcakes at Scarlett’s request. We watched a couple of episodes of Lost. The ferry tomorrow is cancelled – technical issues rather than weather although it is forecast to be really windy and the road to Mallaig is currently closed due to a landslip with the train disrupted too. Our Not Swingers friends Mike and Rose were supposed to be arriving for the weekend so they are having to work out other arrangements, hopefully just delayed until Saturday morning. I have to confess to feeling really bad for them but ever so slightly relieved that we don’t have to do a single thing tomorrow though. The idea of not getting up and not having to meet a ferry is really very alluring.

This week has definitely been too busy. I’ve been doing Post Office shifts as Jinty is off, we’ve had six volunteers here plus Home Ed friend Leo, the weather has been a crazy mix of rainy, midgey and this weekend tent destroying gales. We’ve been taking phone calls from dysfunctional families in Sussex on both Goddard and Davies side and the calendar stretches ahead with yet more of the same. Friends and family visiting, all of which is lovely but exhausting.

We have however had a very successful volunteer event, largely due to Martin, the dad of the family volunteering with us, who is an Ady style work horse! The two of them have delighted in pushing wheelbarrow upon wheelbarrow full of path materials up the hill leaving the youngsters far behind. The French girl came on Monday, worked on Tuesday and left on Wednesday! The French boy came on Monday, sort of dangled about for most of the week, moved his tent inside the bell tent and managed to fill the tent, the camping shelter and general area with rubbish and leave the bell tent door open so it blew down in today’s gales. Leo has been great, really easy company, helpful where he can be and just generally delighting in all that Rum has to offer.

I’ve been intensely hacked off with Julie & Chris and my parents who are all being woolly about when they might want to come up until we finally decided for them all and told them instead. My Mum is being all shitty about the fact we are planning a week in a holiday cottage on Harris & Lewis asking if we have won the lottery?! My Dad has bought us a car which is very lovely and much appreciated but appears to be much smaller than we would have chosen given we wanted something suitable for supermarket shopping runs/ all four of us plus dog / sleeping in if stranded off the island. As I say much appreciated but also annoying for my Mum to be insinuating that perhaps we should not be having a break in October but paying Dad back for the car instead, which he announced to me by saying ‘I’ve bought you a present…’ so not really something I would then offer to pay him back for. I’ve booked tickets for me., Davies and Scarlett to see a live show they were desperate to see and Mum is also annoyed that I didn’t count her in for coming along to that too, precisely the last thing the kids would want and actually something *I* want to do with them anyway… she has plenty of opportunity to do nice things for them /me if she wants to at any given time, she just never chooses to. Argh, anyway, didn’t come here to rant, well maybe just a little.

Leo leaves tomorrow, Scarlett and I are off for dentist stuff on Tuesday for two nights (another couple of evenings of blah with Alison, sigh), back on Thursday and then friends arriving on Friday for the weekend. They leave Monday and then more friends are arriving although not staying with us next week. Then a whole week of nothing before the next lot of volunteers followed by Mum & Dad, followed by Ady’s brother… we are going to be so, so ready for that holiday, I can’t believe my Mum begrudges me it.

Monday – a quiet morning of packing and generally preparing for going off. Ady was over doing some wood cutting with Big Dave and they both came over for lunch, then we headed down to the ferry. The crossing was a little bumpy, but I spent it on the middle deck sitting with Fliss and then being joined by Camille and Sheelagh from Eigg so lots of inter island gossiping 🙂 We gave Camille a lift part way along the road as far as Glenfinnan. It’s lovely to feel so very part of the Small Isles community like that.

Straight to the dentist where Scarlett got a bit of a lecture about breaking the brace again and after some debating it was decided that it would be best for her to have the fixed brace (it’s been sent off for mending) and the train tracks put on at the same time in 2 weeks. Nightmare as far as logistics, travel arrangements and cost are for the trip – I’ve still not actually sorted it but will think about that more tomorrow. We drove to McDonalds for dinner, popped into Morrisons and then headed to the Travelodge. The kids overdosed on wifi and trashy TV while I had a long bath with wine and chocolate. A travelodge bath so only one quarter of my body in the water at any one time and I did knock my first glass of wine into the water and the water did keep draining away because the overflow was so low down in the bath that it was constantly draining but a bath nonetheless.

I was the first asleep!

Tuesday – I was also the first awake… I watched the TV and drank tea while the other two slowly awoke. We got up, dressed and packed up and were out the room just after 10am. We dropped our stuff off at the car and then walked round the town, nipping back to the car to drop stuff off as we bought it. A quick charity shop trawl and then we collected the car and went back to the golden arches for lunch, Lidl, Morrisons, Argos (to collect a tent we’d paid for online) and Poundstretcher runs for various stuff and then we were headed out of Fort William. We went to the ‘secret charity shops’ – a little gathering of two shops in a tiny community shopping centre type square which also has a wool and material shop.

We were on the way back to Mallaig when we drove past Treasures of the Earth, a bright yellow painted building with ‘Gems! Fossils! Minerals!’ painted on the walls which we always chorus ‘Treasures of the Earthhhhhhh’ when we drive past (tens and tens of times over the years now). I said ‘we should go there some times. Actually we should just go there!’ so did a U turn and we did. It was pants 🙂 Just over a tenner to get in, one large room filled with back lit gem stones and loads and loads of very wordy interpretation boards, so I made the kids listen while I read then all out. We were not the only people there but it was very quiet so we got to mess about without disturbing anyone and it was fun 🙂

Back in the car, we drove to Mallaig and loaded most of our shopping into the container for Rum for the following day which makes life so much easier in the morning and is well worth the extra 50 mile drive and mileage charge on the hire car. Then to Alison’s.

The kids had a nice time, I had my usual slightly odd experience there and was glad to be away this morning.

With much prompting we did all manage to be in the car for 9am and were in Mallaig by 930am, I dropped the kids off at the Calmac office, took the car back and then went across to the CoOp for last minute bits. Faye was on the boat too so I saw chatting to her while the kids sat together at the next table. It was quite choppy but I was so busy talking to Faye I didn’t really notice.

We managed to get the car all the way up the croft which was amazing as we had a fair bit of stuff. We unpacked everything, let some ducks go, made some other ducks pen bigger and moved it a bit, put the new tent up ready for the kids, had some lunch and then spent some time looking at options for netting / penning / enclosing the raised bed area. We went over to have a cup of tea with Dave and Faye and then came back to feed the animals and sort out food first for the kids and then for us.

It’s so good to be home, as ever.

I’m really struggling to find accommodation in Fort William for the two nights in a couple of weeks for Scarlett’s brace – I am going to ring the dentist tomorrow and see whether a couple of weeks delay would make much difference as the Scottish schools will be back then. There is literally nowhere in the FW area with space as it is the crossover week or two of both Scottish and English schools being on summer holidays. Bloody nightmare!

 

Friday – in the morning Scarlett and I walked along to see Ali and meet her new kitten, Buttons. He’s very cute and so tiny. I love cats very much and kittens are adorable but I’ve never hankered after one that much and prefer already grown cats really. We did have a pair of kittens when we first bought our house back in the mid nineties but their cute factor was massively outweighed by their giddiness, clambering up curtains and constantly getting into scrapes. I think I prefer toddlers really. Nice to go and coo over Buttons every so often though and then come home and breath a sigh of relief at the zen-ness which is Kira curled up on the bed 🙂

Scarlett went off to hang out with Poppy and Evie and I came home for lunch with Davies and Ady. Ady and I went along to the ferry – we were hoping for petrol and animal feed, neither of which arrived but we did get all our monthly amazon supplies of flour, tinned tuna, bulk loo rolls, boxes of crisps and packets of teabags, 12 bottles of wine etc. So we were glad to have had gone.

Back home we unloaded all that and then went to start making some cloches to go over a couple of raised beds we are planting up with strawberries. It was a bit midgey and we were sort of making it up as we went along but we came up with some good ideas and laid out pipe and wood ready for next time we get to it. I made pizza dough and bread dough, we fed the animals and went down to the shop for a Friday beer. Lesley came down too and then Doug & David appeared so it was a good hour or so. We had started off sitting at the table in the sun but it got midgey so we retired under the cover. We stayed for a couple of beers and then came home for 8pm.

Pizza and Lost and a phone call for Ady from his brother.

Saturday – I had a phone call with Julie which gave a rather different slant to some of what Chris had been saying. It’s very odd both being the confidantes for a couple splitting up, particularly when there are such close relationships. We also learnt that Ady’s mother died, at some undisclosed period in the last few years since any of us last had contact with her – we last saw her at Chris & Julie’s wedding reception (14 years ago)  and before that at Deborah’s funeral (over 15 years ago), although I never actually spoke to her and neither did Ady at either of those events. Chris had seen her much more recently, but still probably 8 or 9 years ago.

I cleared the coat rail in the hall and sorted some coats to get rid of, put some away in other places and cleaned some mold off the way with bleach spray. Ady had been at work and came home with laundry so I folded that up and we had lunch. Big Dave came over for a cup of tea and chat. I was feeling a bit rough with either a cold relapse or a brand new cold hot on the heels of the one I had been congratulating myself on getting over so quickly, so did crocheting in the afternoon, which was fine as it was quite rainy anyway.

Ady and I went to the evening boat to collect Muscovy ducks and gave Bad Neil a lift along as he was putting fuel in his run out of fuel car at the pier. The ducks came off fine and we brought them back. It is five adult ducks and 11 ducklings belonging to two of the adults so we worked out who belonged to who, reunited ducklings with their mothers and put the three other adults all in a pen together. Ady had cooked a really lovely curry for dinner which helped a lot with my cold.

Sunday – up for the ferry as we had runner ducks coming – it was quite  a busy boat with various people coming and going. The ducks were just in a small cardboard box so we were able to just carry that up the hill. Ady had made the frames for a pen so I stapled the chicken wire on and we did some moving things about with the birds, putting one duck pen on fresh ground, releasing Crispy duck and all her ducklings, releasing one of the mother chickens, ringing some more chicks, bringing the three adult muscovies over and putting them in a pen with a cluster of muscovies so they can all see each other, giving all the ducks little ponds for swimming in and generally settling everyone in. They are all eating, drinking, swimming and looking happy and settled. Mike & Deb came along and chatted for about an hour, meeting all the new arrivals and hatchlings which was nice. We had a late lunch, Ady did some electrical work fixing a little cool box / fridge we have bought which runs on either 12v or mains and we have to plug into our 12v solar system as a dump load for when we have too much power on sunny days. It made sense to dump it into something which will actually be useful on sunny days such as a fan or fridge and this came up and seems to work well. We may have chilled wine and beer on sunny days yet!

I stapled on plastic to the cloche we had made so far but the staple gun which has been ailing for ages finally gave up the ghost and broke. Fortunately we already have a replacement on the way as we had anticipated it’s imminent demise so it shouldn’t hold up progress as hopefully the new one will be here when I get back on Wednesday. We might need some more plastic to make covers though, will have a look for some while I’m off. We did a fix on the bell tent of a ripped seam which I had tried to sew with waxed thread and sail canvas needles but had split more so we bought some Gorilla tape having looked on line for suggestions. It seems like it might do the job, really need to fabseal spray the tent though as it has a few leaks in heavy rain which we get rather a lot of here on Rum!

The kids went to the village to buy some potatoes, Scarlett had a shower and I brushed her hair and then I went down to Mike & Debs to meet with Fliss to do some singing. Inevitably we got distracted by chatting so only spent an hour singing rather than the two hours we’d planned but it was fun. Back home for dinner and Lost.

Tomorrow the kids and I are heading off island for a brace fixing appointment for Scarlett – car to FW, late dentist, McDonalds for dinner, bath! Tuesday will be charity shop shopping and supermarket run and then back to Alison’s for the evening before bringing Jenna and Iona back here for a few days. Hoping for decent weather as the plan is for all the kids to be sleeping in the tent.

Tuesday –  A madly sunny day. I had half a plan to head down to the village to visit Ali and meet her new kitten Buttons but got stuck into outdoors stuff and then Poppy & Evie came to call for Scarlett who was planning to come down to Ali’s with me so I never got there. Instead I made a pen while Ady made a house, using the circular saw and the drill and the staple gun. I LOVE the new cordless power tools 🙂 We have had a cordless drill for quite a while but it’s quite heavy and I’ve been a little nervous of it so preferred to use a screwdriver instead (we rarely use it for actual drilling, almost always just for putting in and taking out screws). Obviously cordless is the only practical tool for us with our power constraints. We’d been talking about a smaller drill or a cordless screwdriver for a while and keeping an eye out online for something suitable. We also do a lot of sawing wood, mainly pallets and had bought a cordless jigsaw a while ago but taken that back as it didn’t really work for what we wanted. A trio pack had come up on Aldi where we buy quite a bit of stuff online as it’s free delivery which had two batteries, a small drill, torch and reciprocating saw so we’d bought that. We were really pleased with the drill and the torch but the saw was not really suitable for what we wanted either – great for cutting through things like nails but no good for the pallets or chunks of wood, so we invested in a cordless circular saw. A lot of money on power tools but they really do change our lives and save us sufficient time to justify the cost. The circular saw is amazing and the smaller drill is ideal for me and I’ve lost my fear (though not my respect!) for the power tools which is great. So while I was doing one task Ady was getting on with another which also makes us work so much quicker than waiting to take turns with tools.

We made a further three houses so we currently have two empty pens and four empty houses, which is good as we have ducks galore arriving (muscovy ducks and their ducklings being rehomed from Muck and runner ducks coming to us as soon as they are grown from a poultry dealer) and another two broody hens still to hatch their eggs. We had the big speaker outside (another cordless rechargeable Lidl find) in the sunshine and it was a lovely day. Ady had The Eagles on his playlist and we were most amused to see both a golden eagle and a sea eagle at various points while they were playing 🙂 I utterly failed at the sun cream task though and had sore back of the neck and upper arms as a result. Just as I was sorting out our dinner Fliss messaged me to ask if she could pop up for a bit and bring refreshments. I had a quick shower and she arrived while Ady was on the phone to Chris so Scarlett sorted her out a G&T and sat chatting to her on the sporran. I LOVE that girl 🙂 Unfortunately it set the scene of the evening and while Ady took over dinner and fed the kids he and I didn’t eat and between Fliss and I we sunk the whole bottle of gin. I have never been drunk on gin before, it’s usually a start of the evening tipple and I just have one or two glasses, not half a bottle. There was a truly spectacular lightening storm which was amazing to watch and then torrential rain which Fliss left to walk home in. I had a cup of tea and was then very poorly. Curse that gin!

Wednesday – I was rather on the delicate side so not up to much, although it was another rainy day so not much opportunity for outsidey stuff anyway. We met the ferry as we had shopping coming off and then walked round the village a bit waiting for the post to be sorted. We picked some raspberries from a couple of wild patches around the village, chatted to Neil and then came home for lunch. Scarlett went off to hang out with Poppy & Evie, Davies, Ady and I watched the end of the film we had abandoned when Bob pig got out. An early night all round. I managed a bit of crocheting but that was about my capacity. I also did some online stuff but was not entirely productive.

Today – This morning I sorted out my wool stash as it had been gathering down the side of the bed in our room and was really annoying, all now packed in vacuum bags and stashed away again in colour organised fashion. I packed a picnic and we headed down to the Sheerwater. Only saw seabirds today but Debs came on the boat and so I had a good chat with her which was nice.

Ady saw the GP on the way back as he was over, took some more blood samples to try and ascertain what is happening with his swollen foot and I made him tell the doc about his indigestion which I think is symptoms of a hiatus hernia. Doc agreed.

Home for a cup of tea, some faffing with animal pens, released another two ringed chicks. Scarlett and I marked 20 odd eggs under a broody hen who we suspect of nicking more eggs off other hens each day and watered the polytunnel and checked on the strawberries which are definitely the next job to get sorted – we have loads of runners on this years and some new plants to go out, must get that sorted.

Davies helped me make dinner and we watched the season finale double parter of Lost season 3, halfway through now!

Another week nearly passed…

Estelle managed to get on the ferry despite nearly missing it on Wednesday. She was lovely but her timekeeping made even Rum time look punctual! She left a really touching comment in the visitor book, bless her.

Davies and Scarlett were up early to come to the ferry with us on Wednesday as their friend Katriona was visiting for a few days with her parents. Always a really easy friend for Davies and Scarlett they were utterly delighted to see her, she was as charming as ever and it was so nice to have her around.

Thursday was the only decent day of weather and we went out on the Sheerwater, Katriona and her Mum coming along too. We saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins which was just fabulous, always forget how big they are compared to the more usual common short beaked dolphins we generally see in the waters around Rum. I love dolphins, they always seem to bring such joy, with everyone exclaiming and smiling like loons whenever they frolick around the boat.

I really nursed my cold and have seen it off with no lasting effects. Vicks on feet then socks to bed each night is my secret weapon, along with plenty to eat, plenty to drink and plenty of rest. The rain helped as I didn’t feel remotely obliged to do anything…

Orville the brown duck (second generation Rum) hatched her clutch of eggs. She was sitting on 10 and had hatched 8 which we decided was enough to move her with. We did move the other two eggs but she abandoned them – you never know if they may have been on the verge of hatching or not but we’d rather lose two potential ducklings than 8 already hatched ones. We could crack open the eggs to see what was happening inside and have done so before – interesting but rather macabre and often stinky! We caught her and the ducklings and moved her to a pen, ringed some more chicks and released another mother.

Friday was From The Sea theme community bring and share meal and was a real success. Sean and Ali came bringing loads of great food contributions including sea trout, potatoes, meringues and baklava, there were three risottos / stir fries with fish, two types of bread from me (one shaped like a turtle) and a splendid and delicious fish pie from Ady. I’d made a silly playlist and we had a really good turn out – another £100 raised for the hall too. Just as the evening was looking like it might start to wind up – Davies and Scarlett had seen Katriona back to the campsite and headed for home, some folk came ashore wanting to know if anyone was up for joining in with music if they brought their instruments along. We said yes so they rowed back to their yacht and came back with guitars and bagpipes. So midnight saw me sitting on the floor outside the shop dueting with some random bloke and his guitar to Ed Sheeran songs, then listening to bagpipes while we all swigged from a giant bottle of prosecco. Fun! An excellent night, got home just before 3am!

Saturday was a quiet one! Lesley, Baby Dougal, Lesley’s Mum Carol, brother Gordon and his son Cameron all came up in the afternoon to see all the ducklings and chicks and Katriona came up to hang out with Davies and Scarlett but it was all very chilled and low key in deference to our late night.

Yesterday was more of the same. Davies has the cold so didn’t really get up til about 4pm, Ady and I took advantage of a short break in the solid rain to walk down to the village and collect the post, I picked some raspberries for dessert and Ady cooked a delicious roast beef dinner.

Today I went with Fliss over to Harris to collect her car which had broken down. She drove one of her cars back and I drove the other. It was a really eerie drive through the very low mist on the narrow track with waterfalls and burns rushing past. Beautiful but strange to see so little when it is usually such a panoramic view driving from there. I stopped for a cup of tea and she gave me a lift to the ferry. She was collecting guests so I started to walk back with Neil who was also walking, his car having run out of fuel. Claire gave us a lift part way and we were chatting outside the hostel when Steve and Jed came along so we all chatted for a while before I collected some stuff from the freezer and came home.

We watched most of Martian this afternoon, while I crocheted but then Bob the pig got out so Ady went to sort that out, I got dinner sorted and then went back to the village for a meeting and stopped for a beer as the sun was now shining.

 

Not sure how that happened.

 

Erm. Well. Estelle the volunteer has been lovely, she leaves tomorrow. She has worked hard ; planted seeds, dug in about 200 potatoes, weeded several raised beds, dug out some misplaced comfrey and moved it, sewn the remainder of the netting on the fruit cage, picked currants. She’s had some really crappy weather but has remained cheery and smiley throughout. We’ve had some truly dreadful nights of high winds and torrential rain but she has a really good sleeping bag  and liner, a good camping mat above the campbeds, earplugs to drown out the noise and is a seasoned camper. She didn’t bring wellies and her coat got soaked through fairly early in the week so she’s been wearing one of mine but she has gotten on with it and made the absolute most of being here. She’s had a castle tour, come down for a gig on Saturday and had a few drinks, been out walking and got to Harris and Kilmory. She’s taken loads of photos and copied out the recipe for my WWOOFers cookies which so far every single volunteer has asked to take with them. I hope she has had a good experience overall despite the weather and the trickiness of camping here.

In other news the kids have been mostly hanging out with Poppy and Evie although Davies gets a bit fed up with too much time with them and today ended up coming home early on his own. I ranted a bit at Scarlett about it as she nags him to come down with her when he is not really bothered about hanging out with them and then he gets grief from them. D&S have a friend coming tomorrow for a few days so I’m hoping they’ll have  a bit of a break from P&E which might mean week three of them here next week goes smoother. We’ll see. Such a small pool to cast one’s net in…

Scarlett has a cold caught from Poppy & Evie, which Ady and I now have too. Feeling not dreadful but not right either. Planning on taking it easy this week to see it off.  I have a few smallish tasks to do around the croft but will be just as happy sitting on the sofa crocheting.

We’ve been busy making more animal pens and houses, hatching continues to go well. We moved the pigs, I’ve made jam, I had a big order of baking for yesterday which I did on Sunday and delivered to the village yesterday. More good sales in the shed the last week or so, a real run on paracord bracelets which seems to happen whenever there is a big student group over.

A 15 year old lad from Norway visiting with his parents and aunt went missing on Sunday night so we’ve had helicopters, coastguard and mountain rescue all over the island. He was found safe yesterday morning thankfully. He’d managed to get a long way around the coast with no sensible footwear, layers of clothing, supplies or shelter. The family and he were quite blase about it which has angered people a fair bit. We rely heavily on these expensive, largely voluntary services for our day to day lives and emergency care so to have them used with so little gratitude or actual regard for the time, cost and inconvenience is pretty annoying. Obviously we are all hugely relieved he was found safe and well but to have so little feeling of responsibility for your own health, safety and welfare is just bloody stupid when it impacts so much on others.

Elsa Jean McTaggart, one of our favourite regular visiting musicians was here for a few nights Friday and Saturday, doing a gig on Saturday night. We did food and ran the door and we made a decent amount of cash for Elsa and for the hall fund. which was great. The evening was a good one and I ended up on stage singing for quite a while after hours with Dave and Gary (Elsa’s husband) which I always really enjoy. Delicate heads all round on Sunday though.

I think that’s me caught up. I’m taking my sore throat and snotty nose to bed early and planning on changing the rather disturbing kindle book I had been reading which had been creeping into my dreams and giving me horrid nights sleep the last few nights for something more cheery and frothy instead.