One word? When seven would do…

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.

There were supposed to be about 10 on this event. Two French girls who had already been quite hard work by email and negotiated a later arrival time and asked tons of questions pulled out last week at short notice, three Americans cancelled this morning! Two French guys just didn’t turn up on the ferry at all. Jen, who is lovely and was here last year and croft sat for us in February had already cancelled a while back as she injured herself a while ago and knew she was probably not up to the work after a sea kayaking break in Arisaig this week. So we have one lonely volunteer which frankly is more hassle than she’ll be worth. None of the big work party team jobs are worth starting with just one extra pair of hands and the notion of sending her off for hours each day to work alone is a bit mean. Gah! And one of the volunteers for the August event who seems very nice but has been very hard work by email with countless questions all of which I had already covered in my information sheet has just emailed to say she has booked her train tickets and given me the times. She will arrive in Mallaig after the Monday boat she is supposed to be coming here on and needs to be back in Mallaig to catch a train before she would even have left Rum on the following Wednesday… so either she finds somewhere to stay in Mallaig for two nights and comes on Wednesday, then leaves the following Monday and finds somewhere to stay til the Wednesday or she needs to rebook her train, which I bet she can’t easily do. And I send all the links to the Calmac timetable and explain it is just one boat and not every day… Argh. I try really hard to ensure I send out stacks of info because there is so much to be communicated in advance but I am sure the amount of stuff to read means people just don’t bother.

I’m even more pissed off because I had an airbnb enquiry about 2 nights this week for the bell tent which would have been worth nearly £60 but I turned down as I was expecting a bell tent full of volunteers…

Davies and Scarlett have been off all day playing with Evie and Poppy who arrived yesterday for 3 weeks. They hung out in the village and then came up here for the afternoon to bounce on the trampoline, cuddle the duckling and hang out. They are not getting together tomorrow and I think they are planning on a one day on, one day off arrangement to allow the girls to spend some time with their Dad – Dan, Claire’s boyfriend.

Ady and I finished off the base camp area. It looks really good now, very pleased with it. We need to better partition off the compost loo but have some ideas for that which we’ll sort out next week once Estelle the current volunteer has gone. For now though we have set up a camping stove with double rings and grill, the sink, a table, loads of undercover seating and space for storing food and hanging wet clothes. It will be great for up to about 8 people to use , will be a good space for the bell tent campers if we get any and will mean that next year we can do actual proper WWOOFing and just provide food for people to cook for themselves without feeling we should have them in the caravan for meals. I will try and view the prospect of all the volunteers arriving being what finally galvanised us into sorting it out even if said volunteers never arrived.

I walked Estelle back from the ferry while Ady drove back to finish things off. I gave her a village tour and introduced her to people, showed her the shop and the hall etc. I finally remembered to take the shears with me and clear all the grown grass around the wellies on the welly trail while we walked so that was productive. This afternoon I stitched up a huge rip in the trampoline net where Evie managed to fall through, poor kid :(, I watered the polytunnel and then did some baking – ginger and chocolate oat cookies and a vat of soup for lunch tomorrow, bread, lasagne for dinner – I think every pan was used with cheese sauce, melting sugar and syrup, cooking soup and the bolognaise for lasagne. I had a shower too. A new crochet book arrived in the post for me which I have had a quick flick through but not properly looked at yet, I am really keen to sit down with a hook and a cup of tea and play with that but suspect I won’t get a chance until the weekend.

Wednesday – We met the boat as we had fence posts arriving on it. We spotted one of the Rum pony mares in the castle field had had her foal (there are two in there, both due to deliver) – a little boy, very cute.

As we got back to the croft we met Mathieu the wussy wwoofer on his way back up. They had indeed decided to pack up and head away. We had a chat, a hug, they filled in the volunteers book and we waved them goodbye.

Thursday – Ady worked in the morning. It was Sheerwater day but it was intermittent rainshowers with a heavy side order of winds so we decided against it and Ady came home instead. I crocheted a scarf, rather ironically called ‘spring’ full of greens and yellows. Seems like we had a better spring than summer again so far this year. I had promised Scarlett that if we didn’t go on the Sheerwater I would walk down with her to see the foal so we did that late afternoon. We more or less dodged the showers and just got drizzled on instead.

Friday – In the morning Ady was on loo emptying duties while I spent some time sorting out the peas. The WWOOFers had done a great job of cutting down the grass and weeds inbetween the raised beds but in doing so had moved netting covering the beds. A combination of that, the wind and the turkey realising that peas are quite nice to eat meant the two beds of peas were getting a bit decimated. So I weeding between them, fixed the netting, found some more stakes to keep them all upright and re staked them all. I picked a few and planted out the two or three from the polytunnel that had germinated late. We had lunch and headed down to the ferry.

We had CoOp shopping and a couple of deliveries so collected that and then went round to Fliss’ to collect a couple of old sacks of tatties which were rotten and she had given to us for the pigs (actually they are not as rotten as we thought and instead we’re planning to plant them out and see if they sprout and grow) and some leftover dog food from Tinker for Bonnie. We collected the post and decided we probably wouldn’t bother going back down to the shop for a Friday night beer after all as there are not many people around.

Back at the croft we arrived at the bottom as Ali arrived at the top, walking round with a bloke who used to live here and his two kids, come to visit the baby birds. We chatted to them for a while before unloading the shopping. I made pizza dough and then did some ruthless culling of tomato plants in the polytunnel and weeded the salad beds – the pigs did well out of that exercise!

Saturday – the last Graham Norton before the summer break. I settled down with my crochet to listen but there had been no takers for the tour so Ady was home by 11am. It was very showery weather so we darted out a few times but mostly stayed indoors making the most of power from the wind turbine. We did a bit of working stuff out on the camp kitchen area, worked out where the materials were around the croft but did not attempt to start moving 9 foot long galvanised metal sheets around when it was so windy. We made popcorn and watched Suffragette which we had from Lovefilm. Really powerful film.

Ady and I went out to feed the animals and Mike & Deb appeared walking round the nature trail. They came in for a cup of tea and a bit of a moan. Curry for dinner.

Today – it was really rainy first thing so I stayed in bed reading my book. It decided to cheer up though so Ady and I finally got outside to look at the shelter. We have a shed which was originally built as a chicken house, then housed the feral cats, then became a tool shed and then we moved the compost loo up there as it is close to the bell tent. We wanted to create a camp kitchen / undercover shelter type area to sit, cook and eat in, maybe string up a washing line to dry wet clothes etc. It will be the space for WWOOFers to cook their meals and a nicer addition to the bell tent for campers. We messed about with it as we went and spent a lot of time gathering metal sheets from various places on the croft and walking them up the hill.  It’s looking good – still needs some work, some gravel brought up to create a better floor and some shelves and benches for stuff but we’ll spend some time up there in the morning doing a bit more and then leave it for the first lot of volunteers.

Lovely roast dinner, couple of episodes of Lost. Tomorrow we have either 1 or 3, 4 or 6 WWOOFers arriving.

Monday – we had a cup of tea with the volunteers at about 10am and showed them the first few jobs to be getting on with – cutting down all the grass & weeds in the walled garden, filling a couple of big holes in the track just outside the croft where the river has washed part of the track away and clearing one of the raised beds ready to plant strawberries. Ady and I made a couple more poultry pens. The pair of hens we’d brought up the day before had one dead chick and one pipping egg discarded from their house so we took the pipping egg indoors to see if it would hatch there.

Lunchtime was pretty busy – the two volunteers, Dave and Faye and us four. We all chatted and ate and then the volunteers carried on while we took Dave and Faye to the pier. We got back in time before the egg hatched. Scarlett didn’t want to keep it indoors with her duckling – the duckling is quite noisy at night and keeps her awake although she is determined to carry on with it but she couldn’t face another baby being noisy. Ady tried to reintroduce it to the others but they all rejected it in that special way which chickens seem to have of pecking it on the head! They would have killed it so we retrieved it and brought it back indoors. I thought it might recover but it had splayed legs which Davies and I tried, unsuccessfully to splint with tape and after being very noisy through the early part of the night it was dead this morning. I suspect it was too cold for it overnight and the reality is we were not really able to nurse it through unless one of the kids was up for it. Much debate here just now about whether we should cull cockerel chicks as soon as we can sex them or fatten them to eat. The non compassionate side of rearing animals…

Davies is pretty tired, lots of twitches and tics so I called an early night for him and as he had failed to put his light on charge and was in pitch darkness I think he did actually go to sleep fairly early, by his standards anyway.

Today – the volunteers appeared late and very bleary eyed having not slept well at all in the very windy and rainy night last night. It was bad, but also sort of normal for Rum. He is coming down with the cold that she had last week which kept them from arriving when they were actually due here and I think they are just finding it way tougher than they expected. We had a fairly candid chat about things resulting in us making it clear that it is not an endurance test and we are not able to offer anything more than we have already – as in accommodation and work so if this is not for them then we would be supportive of them calling it a day. They are spending the night down in the village tonight so we will see what tomorrow brings. It’s made us think of our WWOOFing time and know that we would have stuck out what we are offering here while possibly finding it tough depending on where during our year this experience had fallen. I think we have a lot to offer in terms of unique experience and interesting lifestyle but we are very aware that this is  a very challenging hosting with no real comforts and being utterly at the mercy of nature – wind, rain, midges etc. Much like actually living here! We always used to feel quite content with a rough deal at hosts where they were clearly having the same experience themselves.

So they did more work in the morning while we made a chicken house dodging the rain showers. This afternoon was just too rainy so Scarlett and I played Blokus, we all had showers and I prepped dinner so early we had finished eating by 9pm which horrified our late eating posse here!

Friday – in the morning we made more animal pens.  Scarlett joined us for a bit and had a go at constructing one – drill and staple gun operation. She is very practical, I swear she could run Croft 3 all by herself that girl.

We had lunch and then Ady and I went to the boat – we were collecting various deliveries – co-op shop, animal feed, some amazon stuff, plus Big Dave & Faye are over for the weekend. Also, unexpectedly on the boat were two volunteers I had given up on! They were supposed to come at the start of June, then changed their dates, then went to Eigg and then she got a cold and said she needed some recuperation days back on the mainland. I was very supportive of this as we didn’t want her cold but then I heard no more so fully expected that was the last we’d hear of them, until they walked off the boat! So that was quite a surprise. I directed them up to the croft, we loaded the car up and headed up. We transferred everything from one car to the other, Faye & Dave left us to head up to the cabin having arranged to meet for a beer later, and then drove up to the caravan with everything. We unloaded, the volunteers borrowed the scythe to cut a place for their tent and we had a cup of tea and chat with them once they were set up.

Ady and I went for a beer or three at the shop, the kids stayed home. It was a nice evening in the sunshine talking about the referendum, generally chatting and celebrating the news for Trudi that she got her masters with merit. Home for a late pizza dinner.

Saturday – my usual lovely morning of crochet / crafting / radio / peace while Ady was at work. When he got home we had lunch and then he got a text from Fliss to ask if he would go down to euthanize Tinker who has been getting progressively iller over the past few months. She had started having fits daily and had a huge fit at the shop on Friday night while we were all there. Fliss and I had already talked about it when I was there for the evening in the week and we’d agreed we’d do it when the time came. She had not fully recovered from the fit (she went blind last year and has been getting worse ever since) and had had several more fits over the course of the night / morning so Fliss had concluded the time had come. Ady rang her to discuss what would actually happen and it was agreed we would go down at 7pm. On the mainland clearly a vets is the right course of action for pretty much everything from diagnosis / treatment to euthanasia but here on the island it is not really practical on a logistical basis, let alone in terms of animal welfare or cost so it tends to be dealt with by someone in a respectful and loving manner. Tinker lived her whole life here on Rum and had a good life and was much loved. Her quality of life had ceased and while Fliss went to check on Joss Ady and I had a final whispered conference and agreed it was the right thing to do looking at her lying there, barely conscious and twitching. Ady had already dug the grave and so while I sat with Joss he and Fliss led her outside and then Fliss and I chatted while he dealt with it. He said he found it hard (obviously) but was glad he had been able to do it. The alternative of a ferry trip, train ride, overnight (ferry times mean we can’t get to the mainland the same day as the vets is open) and taxi to the vets to be put to sleep, then the choice for Fliss of trying to bring a body home by public transport or leaving her there at the vets compared to being led outside to the garden and stroked and said goodbye to before being buried in the garden she had played in her whole life was not really a tough choice at all.  Ady came in after it was all done and we had a drink and toasted Tinker’s life.

Home for dinner. Kira had been in while we’d been down at Fliss’ but gone back out and didn’t come in all night. I went to bed around 130am and she had still not reappeared but as the WWOOFers were in their tent I didn’t feel able to call her as I normally would.

Today – I read in bed for a little while before I got up. It’s been alternately raining and drizzling all day long so I’ve not really been out. I walked up to the top of the croft calling Kira at about 11am and she came sauntering up to me as though she’d not been AWOL for about 14 hours! She had clearly had adventures though as she has been in and sleeping pretty much all day.

Ady and I did carry up a chicken house with two broody hens who had started hatching chicks in and put it inside a pen. I think there are about 3 hatched so far.

I decided to tidy the bookcase; one of those jobs which takes ages and doesn’t really look much different afterwards but I *know* it’s been done which is what matters. The bookcase is behind the log burner and chimney so has lots of dust and ask so we put the genny on and Ady hoovered as I went along. We took a few books off the shelf, some of the cookery books which we never use and I moved some of the books and magazines around so that the most used ones are the easiest to get to.

Vikki is over visiting for the weekend and she came up for a couple of hours in the afternoon just as we were finishing off. It was good to see her even if only to remind us that for us at least Rum still works.

We had roast dinner, watched a couple of episodes of Lost and tomorrow is the start of volunteering stuff happening.

Yesterday Ady and I went down to collect a sack of potatoes from the shop, post a letter and collect the IRCT trailer. It is an old SNH one which they no longer had a use for so donated to the Trust and the IRCT rent out for a fiver a time. We had a stack of 14 pallets all waiting to be brought onto the croft so had decided a fiver was a very good investment rather than carrying them or bringing three or four each time in the Rangerover which doesn’t have a roof rack and the roof is too bulbous to strap things on to. A visit to the village is *never* speedy so we chatted to Development Officer Steve who was over for a board meeting, Fliss who was heading to the boat, Neil who was hungover (Lesley and Baby D are away at the Royal Highland Show) and Jed. Our MP – Ian Blackford was over visiting for a few hours holding a surgery so we went and introduced ourselves, shook his hand and had a brief chat about Rum issues. He seems nice enough, always worth having made proper contact with your MP I think so that should you have occasion to email / ring / write to them they are more likely to put a face to the name.

We went to collect the trailer from Claire’s and brought it back to the fork, swapped it from the Jeep to the Rangerover and loaded it up with pallets. Across the river and up the croft hill, then unloaded into a huge pile ready to use – dismantled for animal pens, used whole to build a woodstore, always useful for quick animal fencing. Excellent to have a good stash of them and as we will be taking up the pallet path around the caravan in order to create a proper footpath we will have even more soon. The great thing about pallets is there is literally no waste as once we have done whatever we can with them any scrap wood is excellent kindling.

We stopped for lunch and then made some more nursery pens. We moved around the three chickens and chicks we already had penned onto fresh areas of grass and then Scarlett checked a broody hen nest and discovered she had started hatching them. Cue a speedy construction of a house, a changeover from small clutches of chicks into smaller pens to free up a bigger one ready to take the new hatchlings. Ady caught the hen, Scarlett put all the chicks (7!) into a box which I carried up the hill and Davies brought the eggs – one pipping (which has hatched today) and 2 more. Some deft moves and we had them all installed – eggs on a bed of the nesting material she’d gathered, chicks in and hen on top all inside a new house inside a new pen.

We then took the trailer back down to the river at the foot of the croft where Ady had filled about 12 bags with gravel from the river a few weeks ago ready to come up for path building. Scarlett had checked on Crispy Duck, our champion broody duck who was hatched here herself and has reared 2 broods previously. She came hurtling down the hill to say that she had started hatching too… We dragged the gravel bags to the trailer and heaved them in then drove back up the hill. While Ady unloaded them Scarlett and I checked on Crispy and took a small pen over with the intention of putting it over her. but the uneven ground and brambles everywhere around her nest meant it was not going to work. Scarlett very quickly adopted a duckling, which had always been her intention. With a big brood (seven in total we realised this morning) Crispy was happy to let one go and Scarlett had been so desperate for a duckling that it is good to have her happy. We decided to leave Crispy overnight as she was hunkered down well in a good hidden spot from crows and ravens and decide what to do with her in the morning.

The others had dinner and watched some dvds. I walked down to the village for an evening with Fliss. It was her birthday several weeks ago and I’d originally offered to take her to Canna for lunch but that had not happened so I had made her a painted glass as a gift and arranged to have an evening with her to drink fizz this week instead. She cooked some pasta, we got through three bottles of fizz, had some proper chats about Rum politics, UK politics, parenting and education, then moved onto gossip and silliness, then did some singing along to youtube videos. At about 130am Joss got up and told us it was time to go to bed now, so I headed back up to the croft. It was a gorgeous night to walk home, a big moon hanging low in the sky. I sang all the way home and both the kids were still up when I got in. We chatted for a bit and then all went to bed around 230am.

Today – Ady went to check on Crispy and discovered she was already down at the river with her six ducklings waiting for food! She followed him up the hill and hung around the nursery pens so we made a spur of the moment decision to evict the three oldest chicks and their mum who are close to grown and pen Crispy and her ducklings instead. She seems ok with that and on the basis that it’s better for her to have a slightly curtailed few weeks to raise her young and have an extra 6 ducks than letting her free range and end up losing them all we are happy with that. The mother of the 3 chicks legged it back to the flock but the chicks hung around looking a bit lost. We have some leg rings on order as we had planned to start ringing each years young from now in an attempt to keep better tabs on the birds, plus we had decided not to release any cock birds into the free range flock but to keep them penned and fatten them as we really don’t want any more boys. We’ve earmarked the fruit cage as the perfect place for that – way bigger than most so called free range birds have, nice and secure, they can eat all the bugs, caterpillars and other crop damaging creatures so a dual purpose keeping of them, they can fatten well on free range findings and higher protein feed and then be chicken meat for us. So as they looked quite lost without their mother who clearly felt she had done her duty and not at all sure what to do with their freedom Ady put them into a pen again.

I packed up food and we headed down to the pier for the Sheerwater – taking the Rangerover and trailer to the fork, unhitching the trailer from one car to the other, dropping it off on the way to the pier back at Claire’s. Trudi, Fliss, us and one tourist were there for the boat trip. It was a quiet trip across to Soay with just a mother and calf porpoise sighting just before we got there, but Ronnie the skipper took us round the outside of Soay to head back to Rum. Trudi had a go at steering and then Scarlett had a go, steering almost all the way back to Rum. She was as random with her steering as you’d expect 😉 but really enjoyed it. Just before we reached Rum when we’d all given up on seeing anything a couple of porpoises and then at least one dolphin leapt infront and then alongside us. So that was a good ending to the trip.

Back home with all good intentions to do some more stuff but my late night had caught up with me so I was only really up for drinking tea and doing an online Co Op order. Ady cooked a really nice dinner and we watched a couple of episodes of Lost. I had a plan to stay up way later to watch EU ref results coming in but I suspect I will end up in bed fairly soon and anticipate waking up to the the news instead.

I stayed in bed reading this morning as it was tipping down with rain and all windy.

When I got up I finished off the dreamcatchers I had started last night, adding feathers and beads and labelling and pricing them, then I took them down to the shed and hung them up. I also added some nails to hang hairslides and brooches from which looks better than on the shelf.

We had lunch and then Ady and I went to see if we could clean up the bell tent as it has some stains on it. We got it looking better than it did before and hung up the bunting and fairy lights.  We only have one booking so far although it will get used by WWOOFers during the three volunteer events this year and we’re keeping an eye out for bargain bell tents and tipis to add to the little camping area up there with a view to expanding the camping side next year.

This afternoon there was loads of powers so I did lots of email organising, sending out confirmation emails to all the July WWOOFers, sending details to people who have been in touch about other volunteer events and generally clearing my inbox.

I made dinner – pasta bake, garlic bread and a loaf of bread for lunches and we watched a couple of episodes of Lost – we’re on series 2 now.

This morning after Popmaster Scarlett and I walked down to the village to send some post, collect some stuff from the freezer and drop some stuff off at the freezer. We bumped into Neil for a chat on the way back.

Back at home we checked on various broody birds and then had lunch. Ali called in for a cup of tea / catch up chat as her parents left yesterday after nearly a month here so she is back in the village again after weeks at Kilmory catching newly born deer calves and tagging them / taking samples and collecting data on them. Nice to see her 🙂

When Ali left there was lots of sunshine and wind power so Scarlett and I decided to do some stuff with feathers. We made some hat pins, some hair clips and some keyrings. I labelled them all up, finished off a fourth braided wristband and took them all down to the shop with Ady when he went to feed the animals. I need to find a better way to display them.

Later I had a walk with Bonnie around the north side trail collecting willow to make some hoops for making dreamcatchers as that keeps coming up as a pintrest idea whenever I search for feather crafts. I have plenty of wool scraps and beads and an unlimited supply of feathers and willow so have made a couple of those to further adorn tomorrow. If nothing else they will look nice in the shop hanging from the ceiling. I like the idea of a good mix of stuff in there for this first season at least.

Showers and hairbrushing for Scarlett and I, leftover curry from Saturday night for Ady and I for dinner and so I made a small batch of pizza dough for the kids to have pizzas. We watched Lost and the kids had an 11pm solstice full moon bounce on the trampoline. Kira stayed out til about 1230am, I was just starting to fret a little when her eyes appeared glowing at the window. She was sleeping under my side of our bed but the last couple of nights has curled up with Davies in his bed. I am a little jealous…

Friday – An on the croft day. I had some bread to make for an order so I did that. We tracked down another broody duck – that’s three now sitting one eggs, at least one of which is surely due to hatch in the next few days. Ady secured the trampoline down with various things. In huge winter winds we will probably still take off the bed but it is much less vulnerable now. I removed nails from a load of pallet wood ready to make more pens, Ady put up a hammock I had bought last year but we’d never used and we all spent some time lounging in that or bouncing on the trampoline. Out the back of the caravan is becoming like a huge back garden! We took down the bell tent and scythed the area, trimmed the area around the tent pegs with hand shears and bought some old carpet tiles up from where we were storing them in the Pajero to put down to create a more solid base underneath it. I scrubbed at a bit of the inside with soapy water and the dirt came off ready easily so the plan is to clean it like that once it’s back up again – almost impossible to clean while it’s down as you end up sitting on / standing on / draping in the mud the very bits you have just cleaned.

Later we went down to the shop for a few beers. The kids elected to stay home. We had a nice couple of hours with Neil, Lesley, Jinty, Jed, Trudi and Jenn, a volunteer who is here for SNH for a few weeks then home for pizza and Lost.

Saturday – Ady worked in the morning, I messed about with a friendship bracelet kit which I’d got from The Works and had arrived the day before to learn how to make letters in the braiding with a view to making them to sell in the shop. Easy enough but quite time consuming. I’ve made a few and will price them up and see how they sell but not much of a money spinner really…

Ady was home early. We had lunch, I painted some more glasses and a slate sign for them then took them down to the shed. That meant a bit of a change around in the shop to accommodate new stuff which Ady and Scarlett came and helped with a bit. We need to make some more candles, more scarves and more feathery stuff to bulk out those sections but have decent stocks now of postcards, bath fizzers, jam and glasses.

It was our 23rd anniversary of being a couple which feels like such a very long time. Ady cooked a HUGE curry with all sorts of side dishes and extras. It was delicious and more than enough for another meal later in the week.

Sunday – I slept in way later than I had planned to, must have  been a big catch up from the week of early mornings – I had gotten into the habit of waking around 7 / 730am and struggling to go back to sleep. Feel much better for a good lie in though. We just about had time to put the tent back up before it started properly raining around lunch time and it has not stopped yet! Ady cooked dinner – roast beef, we all rang my parents, I’ve made several more bracelets and painted some more glasses, glued Made on Croft 3 labels onto tags and listened to about 5 Desert Island Discs. The kids both made fab cards for Ady for Fathers Day and as his choice of film we watched Close Encounters of the 3rd kind which he has been desperate to share with the kids for ages.

Saturday – My usual morning to myself although Ady was home earlier than usual so it was slightly curtailed. I spent the time baking instead of crocheting, cheese scones, peanut butter cookies, cherry and almond cupcakes with marzipan. All very nice 🙂

After lunch Ady and I walked down to get some stuff he had left in the car and I had a go with the new pallet dismantler tool, it’s pretty good. While we were playing with that a couple walked past having been to the shop and stopped to chat for a while. I had had an email exchange with her earlier in the year as they are Friends of Rum and I do the newsletter for that a couple of times a year. They had also seen the Fogle show so we talked about that a bit.

Later I planted out the strawberries which had arrived into some compost. I have a large bed earmarked for them but it needs weeding and filling with soil so for now they are in there waiting to be moved.

Ady cooked a curry, we watched Lost.

Sunday – Big Lunch. We went to the pier to collect petrol and then to the hall to set up. There had been some miscommunication about the time so we didn’t actually get going until about 1pm but we had a really good turn out and lots of nice food. I chatted lots to Lesley, Ady and I gave an interview to Sara who came before and is doing a Phd on healthcare in rural highlands and islands, this was her second visit and she’ll be back for a third probably next year.

Monday – Scarlett and I packed ourselves up in the morning and we had a visit from Ivan From France, a WWOOFer from last year who was over for a few days bringing his girlfriend over. Good to see him again. They had a cup of tea with us and then we headed off to the pier. A smooth but busy crossing on the boat which was packed and then a drive to Fort William. A quick Lidl and Morrisons shop, dinner in McDonalds and then off to the hotel which was about 20 minutes outside of FW. We went from 4g phone signal to nothing at all and the hotel only had wifi with purchases down in the bar so that was us cut off from the world again! I crocheted, had a shower and we watched crap TV before a relatively early night.

Tuesday – I’d not slept terribly well and woken at least twice sufficiently to check the time – 330am and 530am. Which meant that when I woke again to realise either the alarm on my phone had not gone off or we had both slept through it and it was now 849am it was quite a shock! I woke Scarlett and we were incredibly efficient getting everything packed up and us from bed to car down stairs in 8 minutes! Scarlett’s appointment was at 9am – the whole reason we had come off Rum and spent all the money on travel and accommodation. While I drove Scarlett kept checking for phone signal and as soon as she had it she rang the dentist to explain we were running a little late. They were classic highland chilled about it and we were there by about 915am.  Scarlett had the palate expander tightened and that was us for another 8 weeks.

We did the charity shops of FW, Superdrug, WHSmiths, the card shop, the gift shop, I posted the midges I’d bought off with me and a Fathers Day card for my Dad, we went to Morrisons, got fuel, got cakes and cookies from Lidl, had lunch in McDonalds, went to Poundstretcher and some other only really accessible by car charity shops just outside FW. Then we drove to Mallaig and dropped off all the shopping at the container for freight for Rum to come across the next day, had an ice cream and then drove back to Alison & Leon’s.

Scarlett had a lovely evening with the girls there, I had some chats with A & L but they were working as Leon was off the following day down south to lead a bushcraft course so was busy doing prep while Alison was doing paperwork so I mostly sat enjoying the view and reading all the links to articles I never normally follow on people’s facebook posts. Interesting stuff…

Scarlett and I slept in the double bed in the office and it was so warm it was another unsettled nights sleep. The alarm did go off this time and Scarlett had another half n hour or so with Iona before she went off to school. They were mostly watching cooking clips on youtube I think. We left then to drive back to Mallaig for the ferry. Wednesday is coach trip day and I was genuinely concerned we might not get on the boat as I suspected it was close to capacity numbers of 190 passengers. We popped in the Co op for dairy stuff and got on board. We sat downstairs in the cafe deck which I prefer. It was a bit rocky but it’s a short straight to Rum trip so not too bad.

Excellent to be home and the river is still so low we were able to transfer everything from the Jeep to the Rangerover and drive all the way up the croft which made for very easy unloading. All unpacked and put away. We had lunch and then Ady and I walked back down to the village to check for post.

I rang Julie who has told Chris and was needing some support.

I made dinner – tacos and tortillas and nachos. We watched Lost.

Today – Ady worked this morning while I faffed with various online things and did some wine glass painting – it was Fliss’ birthday the week before last which I missed as I had offered to take her to Canna for lunch then it fell through, Ali’s birthday yesterday although she is still over at Kilmory catching deer calves and it will be Lesley’s birthday in a couple of weeks so I had bought a pack of wine glasses to decorate as gifts for them all to go with a bottle of fizz each. A few designs later I am really pleased with what I have done with them all.

We packed the rucksack with lunch and walked down to meet Ady but Scarlett was edgy about the boat being bumpy as she has already been on board a choppy boat twice this week. We said she could decide and drove to the pier to check out the white horses. She decided she would rather potentially regret not seeing something when visibility was poor anyway than regret going on the boat and being seasick so we came home again. We unpacked the picnic lunch and ate it then Scarlett and I made some bath bombs. I packaged them and took some down to the shop. Ady scythed the fruit cage and some of the ground around it, I cut around some of the raised beds in the walled garden with hand shears – it looks a bit less wild and forgotten but still quite untamed.

This evening some more glass painting, more Lost..

An overcast, still and very midgey day today. I spent the morning inside with half an eye outside and a plan to head out to stitch on the fruit cage netting but every time I thought I might venture out Ady came back in to take cover from the midges so I stayed inside. I finally finished two blue midges which had been kicking about for ages – one for Scarlett and one for Lynda. I also had a friend saying she had been coveting a blue midge so made the effort to finish another ready to send her too. Blue midges definitely the most popular so the next one to work on is one to actually put in the shop…

We had lunch and eventually I decided to brave the outdoors. I got two sides of the netting sorted and was struggling with the third when Ady came close with the sycthe so I got him to help me with the final two sides which were easier quicker than half the time of me doing it alone.

The kids were bouncing on the trampoline for hours.

We fed the animals, moved a chicken pen which was on manky grass after a couple of weeks, I looked at the plumbing in the drainage of the campers sink that Ady had done and then I made pizza dough while he fed the pigs. The kids elected to stay bouncing while Ady and I went down to the shop for a couple of beers / to collect the post / buy Neil a beer for his birthday earlier in the week. We ended up staying for 3 drinks and it was a really nice couple of hours. Neil’s brothers were over for the evening and there was a nice atmosphere down there. We’d promised to be home by genny o’clock so headed off with our wheelbarrow just after 7pm to be home for 730pm.

Pizza made, Lost watched over Doctor Who (Davies’ choice, he’s *really* enjoying Lost). I got the new sounds of the 80s album so we listened to that which spawned a Guess The Intros 80s contest.

I have utterly mixed my drinks tonight with pear cider down at the shop, G&T while cooking and a very large (Scarlett poured it) amaretto after dinner so am most yawny now. Bed is calling…

The fine weather continues with a brief spell of rain on Tuesday morning the only respite.

I’ve been midge making in the mornings, Ady’s been scything. We’ve been polytunnel watering, strawberry harvesting, moving broody hen plus chicks, released the peahens, who promptly went missing – very much hoping they reappear.

I took the damaged netting down from the fruit cage, the new stuff has arrived and needs stitching on  – a non midgey, non windy, not too sunny, not too rainy day job which is quite niche conditions round here 😉 The compost loo is installed, just needs some attention to prettying up the shed now.

Today we finally set up the trampoline we bought ages and ages ago (last year?). We’d been putting it off as had imagined it being a long and tricky job, in the end it took under 2 hours and was pretty easy. We set it up and then moved it to the back of the caravan, so far it’s a hit!

Sheerwater today – saw a minke whale and had a lovely sunny couple of hours out at sea.

Scarlett and I made some ill fated bath bombs, something wrong with the mix meant it didn’t compact properly.

My hot glue gun arrived and we’ve been playing with feathers making badges and keyrings.

It’s too midgey at night to sit up so I’ve been legging it to bed fairly early.

Yesterday – I did some more midge making, finished off the yellow one, gathered some feathers and painted them and turned them into quills and put them in the shop. We finished the sink, getting the fence posts banged in and the cradle sited , the water connected and everything working.

Then we went down to the village to Claire’s opening of her Gypsy Waggon (spelling of wagon is Claire’s before anyone picks up on that and assumes it is me…) . There were a few folk there and we had a nice couple of hours in the sunshine drinking fizz and toasting the success of Claire’s venture before heading home. We collected the post from Saturday and Sunday’s boats on the way and came home to water the polytunnel. Ady did dinner, we had strawberries and cream and the midges sent me to bed early. It was so hot in our room and we had the curtains down to wash them so when I stirred around 430am and it was broad daylight streaming in I opened the window as it was stifling hot. Error! It was still crazy midgey outside and they all swarmed in.

Today – Priority jobs were rehanging the curtains and changing the duvet to the summer weight one and the bedding to cotton rather than brushed cotton. It’s certainly no less midgey tonight but I am hoping for a better nights sleep thanks to those measures at least.

A tiny bit of crochet midge making – wings for the midge Linda has asked for for her newborn nephew so I can at least get that sent in the post and concentrate on making ones for the shop. I’ve cleared all my emails, painted a couple more feathers but even better persusaded Scarlett that she should try doing it – not only is she better at it than me she can make some money and be creative.

Ady and I went down to the post office to post our votes and various other post and gather stuff from the freezer. We went down again later to the boat to send off petrol cans. We saw Ali and Fliss down there so had a quick catch up with both of them.

It’s been simply too hot to be outside most of today, I find this level of heat energy sapping, dehydrating and grumpy-making. I did whinge a bit on facebook but that made me even grumpier so I’ve moved away from that. Actually facebook generally is making me grumpy just now – rather too much ‘I am right and anyone who disagrees is an idiot or evil’ type posts. At least the third time in the last couple of years I have felt seriously out of step with lots and lots of my friends. Once it rains again I am sure I will feel far more appropriately at home on my remote island…

At 6pm when it was finally slightly cooler Ady and I walked the compost loo up the hill to the shed. More to do on that tomorrow and everything crossed for the forecast rain on Friday as the river is running dangerously low, the pressure is pretty much a trickle (showers are not fun!) and the prospect of carting water to drink and cook with up from the village is pretty unattractive. There are many things we did sign up for moving here, Heat and drought were not on the list!

Yesterday morning I did an hours crochet and finished off two midges – a rainbow one and a tartan one. Ady came in for Popmaster and we spotted a group of folk down at the croft gate and realised they were The Wormells. Peter Wormell was the first ranger on Rum – arriving here in 1957 when Monica Bullough sold the island to the Nature Conservancy Council (who later became Scottish Natural Heritage SNH). Peter was a huge figure in Rum’s recent history – leading the replanting of woodland – a million trees, the millionth tree standing with a plaque just above the crofts, instrumental in the release of the sea eagles here and someone who shaped the start of the national nature reserve that Rum is today from the rich boys playground it was previously.

When Peter arrived here he met and fell in love with Jessie who lived in the shop and post office. They married and had three daughters who grew up here. Two are still here in Scotland – one I had met previously Jessie Jnr who does scientific research on moths, keeps poultry and has a daughter who applied for the ranger post here two years ago. One  – Cathy, moved to Canada, the other, Fiona, works at an animal rescue sanctuary where we got Kira from and breed peafowl and sold us two peahens. Peter died a few years ago but Cathy was over visiting her Mum Jessie and sister Jessie so they all came out to Rum – for Jessie snr and Cathy it’s the first visit in many years. I’d briefly chatted to Jessie jnr at the pier on Wednesday, and I knew Cathy had been to the croft while we’d been on the Sheerwater on Thursday as she’d bought a scarf from the shop but here was both sisters, mum and Cathy’s husband all coming up the croft.

We made them all tea and sat and chatted while looking out across the hills, them reminiscing and saying how they could not believe we were here and making this happen, us prompting them for stories of Rum gone by. It was lovely 🙂

They left, I put midges in the shop and we had some lunch. Then I helped Ady finish some nursery pens he was building for the next round of hatched chicks. He had already constructed several panels so while he carried on making more I stapled chicken wire to the ones he’d made. I watered the polytunnel and planted up a few more tomatoes then we walked down to the village to get cheese from the freezer for pizza and collect the post. The pipe had arrived so Ady got that rolled out and hooked up to check that water would travel up the slight hill to where the bell tent is pitched. It did 🙂

Pizza and Doctor Who.

Today – my usual Saturday routine of crochet, tea, cat cuddling and Graham Norton on the radio. I made a green midge (now labelled and in the shop) and started on a yellow one before Ady got home from working. He’d done a castle tour for about 30 people.

I hung out loads of washing – the kids had sorted out their wardrobes yesterday getting rid of all their outgrown clothes and tidying their rooms so Davies had put about 100 socks in the wash. I binned all the very obviously too small ones which Davies had sorted and Ady had washed (rolls eyes!) and paired all the rest as I hung them out. Meanwhile Ady made lunch.

This afternoon we created a cradle for the sink to sit in and after much bodging realised one of the pair of taps on the bath down in the walled garden would fit perfectly, so we installed that. It all works well and we know how we are going to site the whole thing so that is tomorrow’s job, midges permitting.

Polytunnel watering done and tonight was mostly googling crafts to do with feathers. I made a couple of quills and have some ideas for other things.

It’s mad midgey tonight so I’m getting chased off to bed.

Second time this week I’ve heard that on the phone. First from Mum when talking about Frazer struggling to come to terms with Robin’s autism diagnosis and Kat finding it hard explaining to people why they don’t know which school he’ll be starting next year (apparently they need to wait for a further diagnosis regarding whether he can attend mainstream school or will need to go to a special needs school). Then today I spent an hour mostly listening to Julie crying down the phone. She has finally decided that actually she does need to leave Chris but is terrified at the prospect of setting it all happening. I am not actually sure quite what I would do in either situation to help by being there but it is very hard to hear and hard not to be around just for a real life hug.

This morning I did an hours crochet and now have two midges just waiting on wings before getting them in the shop. Hoping to get them winged up tomorrow morning and then get another one done on Saturday morning. Ady was at work and it was really lovely sitting in the sunshine with Kira sitting in the shade on one side of the caravan and Bonnie sitting in the sunshine on the other side. Kira has been out and about again today, pretty much coming and going as she pleases and all still seems well.

I got the kids up and Scarlett packed up lunch to take with us and we walked down to meet Ady to head off on the Sheerwater. Although it was gorgeously sunny it was also very blustery and it was actually a really rough crossing with next to no wildlife at all. Not a hint of cetaceans and barely a seabird. There were three other couples on the boat with us, one of whom I had been chatting to earlier in the week about life here. As we got off I joked to them that we always had next week, he retorted that he would console himself with a takeaway! 😀

Back at home I gathered in a load of clothes we had airing on the washing line and hung out the washing Ady had done to dry. I folded up and put away the dry aired stuff.  One of the broody chickens had hatched some of her chicks so Ady started making a run for them, I started helping him but we kept getting distracted – we went to the bottom of the croft to gather some batten and so fed the birds as we were down there, I collected money from the shop (another scarf sold!) and started to close it when a group of people arrived so I opened it up again so they could buy some eggs. I went to water the polytunnel and pick strawberries and found the mini greenhouses had blown over (really strong north winds today) so Ady banged a post in to secure a pole across the front to keep them in place and I tied them to the frame they are already in. I reloaded them with stuff which had blown out, watered the polytunnel, picked a load of strawberries and went to help Ady some more. We looked at the compost loo which Ady has found a big mat to cover and so we have decided will be fine. Ady got a sheet of metal from the castle today to put down under the compost loo so we are pretty much ready to move that up there tomorrow. I started chopping some wood while I was waiting for Ady to need me to hold things again for the bird run when my phone rang and it was Julie so that took me to the end of my outside time for today.

A bit more midge making for me before dinner, we watched a couple of episodes of Lost tonight, had strawberries and cream and somehow it feels quite a lot longer ago than this morning I got up for the day!

I’ve been heading to bed way earlier than usual as it’s been so midgey. They all flock to me once it gets dark and I have my laptop on as the light attracts them so I just get really fed up with them and go to bed. I remember the same happening last year. It means blogging doesn’t happen though as that is usually my final online thing each evening.

So, Monday… in the morning I walked down to the village to drop off Lesley’s phone which she had left here on Sunday, post Lovefilm, check for post from the weekend and get stuff out of the freezer. The paracord had arrived so I rethreaded guy ropes and replaced all the bell tent ones. I got all different colours of the rainbow which looks really cool on the bell tent and means I have a load more paracord to make bracelets to sell. Having said to Ady that I was surprised none of them had sold yet we walked down to check on the shed that evening to discover that two had sold that day! Another one sold today, so I am glad I have more stock for that!

I started sewing on the fruit cage netting in the afternoon and got a large amount of that finished. Another job ticked off the list. It was Fliss’ birthday and we called in to the shop to collect a sack of potatoes which had arrived and in the hopes Fliss might be around for a beer. She was not but a beer in the sunshine was nice anyway. Home for dinner which was a mish mash of leftovers for everyone – curry for Ady from Saturday with some extra rice cooked up, pizzas for the kids with leftover pizza dough from using the cob oven the day before, leftover sausages from the barbecue for me cooked up with onions, garlic and potatoes, herbs and some red wine. So different dinners all round but loads of space in the fridge afterwards!

Tuesday – We’d planned to not have to go to the village at all as it is such a time suck. I spent much of the day stitching on fruit cage netting. Almost done but the cheaper netting on the lower area was beyond repair really so I have ordered some replacement stuff.  Ady cleared out the top shed which is going to be the compost loo for bell tent customers and the kids came out and played by the river and watered the polytunnel for me. Davies picked the ripe strawberries, I think there were about 10 in all so we had a tiny portion for pudding with lashings of cream.

Ady cooked roast chicken, almost entirely outside on the barbecue, I rang my parents, we watched Lost.

Today I made bread first thing and then while Davies and Scarlett did some tidying up Ady and I went down to the boat to meet my friend Cally, her husband and their two boys. It’s about 8 years since we last saw each other and I’d never met Seth her husband or Arthur their son before. So, so lovely to see her and have a few hours together. We walked them all back up to the croft, nipping into the castle for a sneaky look around before the public tour started. We sat and had a cup of tea enjoying the view, the kids all disappeared and then we had some lunch and Cally and I shared a bottle of fizz, it felt appropriate! We walked back down to the village, collecting the kids who were playing on the beach along the way. I think Cally and Seth were starting to fret a little about their boys missing the ferry although we had offered to send them back to the mainland on the boat tomorrow if the worst happened!

We waved them off and then came home, via the shop to get ice pops and check for post. My missing greenhouses had arrived – huzzah! Now all that remains is the refund for the greenhouse covers. We came back up to the caravan for a cup of tea and then Ady and I took the Rangerover to the Jeep, swapped all the rubbish in the Rangerover for all the animal feed delivery and greenhouses which were in the Jeep and then brought the Rangerover back up. I watered the polytunnel and in the spirit of not putting off til tomorrow what you can do today while it’s not midgey I quickly made up the greenhouses too.

Kira disappeared for a while and it had suddenly got very midgey. I was having a mammoth quiche making session for dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow, Scarlett’s dinner tomorrow (the rest of us are having burgers and she doesn’t like them but loves quiche enough to have it again!) and one for the freezer but kept popping back outside to call her and suddenly she appeared running up the hill to me. She has clearly been having adventures 🙂

Ady is working tomorrow and I am planning crochet during the morning as I have sold another 2 midges today so am down to just three in the shop – stocks need to be replenished fast!

Off to Eigg on Friday. Before we left Scarlett and I had a row about her clothes, she had been arsey with me a couple of times during the week and I’d let it go each time but on Friday morning she just kept arguing with me until I lost my temper and shouted at her and she cried. It cleared the air though and we chatted about it, she apologised and order was restored. At least our fallings out are over and done with very quickly. After that we had a really nice day.

We were the only people on the boat – the Orion, which is the boat we very first went to Eigg on when we went there to WWOOF. This time though we know the owner, Pete, really well so spent the journey gossiping with him, drinking tea and he got Scarlett to steer the boat for a while, while he made the drinks.

Eigg was, well Eigg really. There is much I like about the island and much more I don’t. Of the four Small Isles if we had chosen to actually live on an island, rather than choosing a croft which just happened to be on an island, we would probably have chosen Muck. That is far more Katie Morag and while it is not without it’s community tensions it does seem more ordered and charming. Canna is similar to Rum with the issues surrounding joint land ownership – in Canna’s case with National Trust Scotland, in Rum’s case with Scottish Natural Heritage. There are some fab people on Eigg making really interesting things happen, but equally there is a hardcore of drop outs making it an uncomfortable place to be at times too.

We got a lift along to the health centre and were very warmly welcomed. We chatted to all sorts of people, caught up with Neil & Sue (our WWOOF hosts there) and various other folk, put a couple of faces to names of people I am facebook friends with but had not actually met before in real life, chatted to lots of the NHS people who were there and attended a really interesting talk by two doctors from Alaska on the NUKA  system of care. Really fascinating stuff.

We bimbled around chatting to folk until it was time to head back to the pier to get a ride back to Rum. Pete was doing the school run so we were getting a ride back with the school kids and going to Muck first, so Neil was down there to pick up Struan who was home on the boat for the weekend so we chatted to him a bit more. He’s a really good bloke, nice to catch up and hear some of the same issues happen on Eigg as on Rum.

The boat ride home was much the same, via Muck so a bit longer and a bit colder as the sun had gone in. Home to let Bonnie out for a bit to run around after most of the day in the caravan and make pizza dough for dinner. Loads of deliveries had come on the Friday boat so we loaded them into the Rangerover and drove that back home. It was mad midgey so we just dashed around unloading what was necessary and left the rest. On the way we were met by a couple who had been looking at the croft and were really interested in learning more about life on Rum and what crofting might entail. We chatted for a while and then they said they would email with then rest of their questions.

Saturday morning is generally my favourite of the week, having never lived alone and for the last 15 years almost never having been home alone I really cherish the space of Ady being at work and the kids still being fast asleep for a couple of hours. It’s just me, Bonnie, two cups of tea, Graham Norton on the radio and a crochet hook and now I have Kira too 🙂 Lovely. I did the washing up naked, because I can! Made lots of rainbow bunting and observed the amusing antics of cat and dog working out how to share a space. Ady came home earlier than usual bringing with him a bag of laundry, some wet, some dry to be sorted and hung out on the line and chatter from the village which rather shattered my final half an hour to be honest ;). He went off to do some pig pen maintenance while I set up the campbeds in the bell tent. We paced out the length of hose required to plumb the sink in and got that ordered and then I made up the mini greenhouses. Ady had finished his pig pen stuff by then so he made us both a cup of tea and we sat and chatted down by the polytunnel while drinking that, sat on a pile of bags of compost, one of those perfect moments. Then Ady scythed the inside of the fruit cage while I worked through the polytunnel bringing out the herbs ready to plant on in the herb spiral, replanting some of the tomatoes, planting out the peas which had germinated and discarding the ones which hadn’t. Still much to do down there but definitely feeling about right progress for the end of May in terms of what is growing and where.

I closed the shed up and organised the jams and eggs a bit, we could actually do with a couple of nasty weather days to get on with restocking things in there – we need some more candles, some more bath bombs and some midges – both the in-resin type and the crochet type as I have sold another two crochet midges today – yay! 🙂

Davies had not realised the power was running low during the day and had managed to all but kill the solar battery so there was not enough charge to use the internet in the evening. I was pretty cross about that but Ady and Scarlett went off to bed and Davies and I sat up til midnight having a really good chat instead so it was all ok.

Today – I made bread rolls and pizza dough and finished getting the herb spiral sorted – got the slates all put back and some wood cut to create a fence around it. Then Ady and I did sausage making with our new mincer, really impressed with it :). I finished the herb spiral and got it planted up with the herbs and then Neil, Lesley and Dougal arrived. Ady had got the barbecue lit and the pizza oven fired up and we had a feast – our sausages, a lump of pork rib roast, burgers they had brought up, bread rolls and onions, salad and a load of pizzas. All really nice 🙂 We had some wine and beer and sat outside chatting for hours. We moved indoors around 9pm and had a last cup of tea before they headed home. It was a lovely afternoon with perfect non-midgey weather and just really nice to do something like that.

Kira has been outside loads, she likes going under the caravan but that is excellent for mice and rat prevention anyway and she always comes back out. She is pretty good at coming when I call her and is slowly exploring but dashes back to the caravan every time. I am so glad we got her, she is just exactly the sort of cat I was missing having in our home. Ady and the kids love her too and Bonnie is being very tolerant and accepting.

Lots on this week, waiting on stuff arriving, friends visiting…

I had a surprising facebook message this morning from Bad Neil asking about the sheerwater boat trip – what time and how much. I assumed he was asking for someone else but no, when we arrived at the pier he, Lesley and Dougal were there ready to get on with us!

First though it was talk at the croft – when we first arrived here we met a couple of uni professors here with a group of students and doing experiments about the worms here on Rum. The paper which one of them was writing was published last year and hit the press renewing interest in the worms. We gave a talk to some of their students that year and again the following year. We missed the next year as we were away but this year they had been in touch to ask if we would give a talk and croft tour again so they came up this morning. We had been clear about our available window – between Popmaster and having to head off on the Sheerwater – we are busy people! 😉 We packed up lunch and met the group. We did a fairly standard Q&A session, talked about crofting generally, crofting on Rum and why we personally were here, then talked about our animals and crops and took them round to meet the pigs, the penned mother hens and chicks, the new peahens and to see the wind turbines. It was a good session and came after getting a reply to a speculative email I’d sent to one of the big cruise ships that calls at Rum and brings passengers ashore for castle tours offering croft tours with the As Seen On TV Goddard family. Exploiting all possible opportunities 😉

Then off to the pier to meet the Sheerwater. It was busy – Neil, Lesley & Dougal, Fliss, Debs brought Eve and Joss on a ‘school trip’, Trudi and her two volunteers and a whole load of tourists plus us. We grabbed our usual seat at the back and Fliss, Neil & Lesley joined us so it was a bit of a locals day trip which was fun. We didn’t see much – a few porpoise fins at one point, so Ronnie the skipper took us to the south east corner of the coast of Rum where there is a kittiwake colony. We were really lucky to see a sea eagle flying through the middle trying to snatch kittiwake chicks. It didn’t succeed but had a couple of fly-bys trying delighting all the binocular wielding folk.

Back to Rum where we had to clamber across two moored boats at the pier to get ashore. We’ve had to climb across one before but never two. We drove slowly back stopping to position the wellies for the trail as we went, got stuff out of the freezer for dinner and then came home. Davies and Scarlett headed back down to deliver a dozen eggs to Fliss. I took Kira outside for a while and she wandered around the caravan a bit then managed to get underneath. I could hear her miaowing so we knew she was there. We took the hatch off where we access the generator and I called her and she came out. She seems unscathed by the adventure and still very keen to get outside. She and Bonnie had a few face offs but seem as cautious of each other really. Kira tends to bolt for the caravan when scared too which is heartening. We will keep letting her out a few times every day with us around until I am happy to just let her be outside but I am confident she will be just fine and of course she is such a long way from roads that she is safe too.

Ady had been making a hole in the wall next to the bell tent earlier so that campers can access it from the top trail so we were looking at that and chatting more about ideas for up there, we closed up the shop and the polytunnel and Mike & Debs were walking around the nature trail so we chatted to them for a short time but it was very midgey so none of us wanted to linger.

I brushed Scarlett’s hair as she had had a shower and now I’m knackered after too much sunshine and talking! More of the same tomorrow as we’re off to Eigg for the day.

Yesterday I used the blog to find out the exact date of Lorna’s birthday as I am never sure just when in early June it is and rather embarrassingly could not actually recall how old she is about to be either. I used to be sooo much better at blogging and having sensible blog post titles, which is really useful when you are playing detective like that. 10 years from now entitling a post Sunday & Monday won’t really assist. Mind you using random song lyrics probably won’t either and I did that for years!

Yesterday morning I started fab sealing the tent while Ady scythed the spot we were planning on putting it. Ady put Kira outside in a dog crate for a while thinking she would enjoy the sunshine but she hated the crate and just miaowed constantly for about 10 minutes until I took her out. She stayed close to me for a while but then got a bit bolder and as I was barefoot so I could walk over the tent I was edgy about being able to dash after her so I put her back in the house. I bought her out again later in the day and several times again today. She is pretty fine and has walked all around the outside of the caravan exploring, checked out under the horse box, the pizza oven, the wood shed. She gets nervous about Bonnie outside though and I am still too worried about her getting spooked and dashing off then not being able to find her way back. So far if she gets afraid she runs back into the caravan and is quite good about coming when you call her. Another week or so with regular forays into outside while we’re about and I am sure I will feel more relaxed about it and she will be fine. She makes me very happy though, I am so delighted to have her 🙂

We had lunch and then Ady put some waterproofing stuff on the caravan roof on a spot where it’s been leaking in heavy, straight down rain (which we don’t get often really!) while I started painting some welly boots to be a welly trail to lead people to the croft. There is Sign Wars happening down in the village with the various craft shops, bike hire and so on, mostly between Fliss and Kate but it does mean we need to also maintain a presence otherwise it looks like the A frame advertised craft shops are all there is. Ady had the brilliant idea of painting old wellies to mark the way to the croft so have decorated ten boots and we’ll stick them along the way tomorrow on the way back from the Sheerwater.

All that done we moved the bell tent. Unfortunately it did not pitch very well and we were forced to conclude the slope on the bit of ground we had chosen was probably too steep. So we chose another bit higher up the hill and a bit flatter. Ady went to scythe it while I watered the polytunnel and did some more welly painting.

Today Ady woke me ringing the CoOp to pay for today’s shopping at 7am and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I read for an hour and then got up and was outside painting wellies in the sunshine by 830am – unheard of! Ady was whittling tent pegs from some green wood he’d cut and we set the radio up outside. It was really nice and we had Kira out with us a bit. Ady drilled holes in the bottom of all the wellies so we can put stakes though them so they won’t blow away.

Off to the boat for quite a lot, but not all of the deliveries we’re waiting on. CoOp came, part of the Halfords order (chairs and campbeds ordered, one chair arrived), some monthly amazon groceries stuff. We also picked up a gas bottle as we are now on our spare as the gas went out last Friday and on the way back to the croft we spotted that a fallen tree Ady had mentioned to Mr Rhys we’d pay him to cut down for us had been done and stacked beside the road so we collected that too. And some laundry we’d put on while we were at the boat. We bought the CoOp stuff up in the wheelbarrow and came home for lunch. Then back down to pump up the tyres on the Rangerover and take that up to where the Jeep was parked and transfer everything across into the Rangerover. Dr Butt, the famous worm professor drove past while we were doing that so he stopped and we chatted to him and his assistant for a while, then brought the Rangerover home loaded up and got it up the croft. All unloaded – so, so much quicker and easier than wheelbarrowing it all up here, that would have taken days.

The kids went  down to the village to watch Star Wars on Rum cinema while Ady and I moved the tent again to it’s new new spot. And finally it is looking good 🙂 I’ve ordered some cord to make new guy ropes as a lot of them are worn and frayed so we’ll replace those when that arrived. Also the groundsheet is a little bumpy as the ground below is so when we take it down to replace the guys we will re-scythe it and trample it down more. We went across to the cabin to collect the sink Dave said we can have and worked out where to set that up so it’s all coming together nicely.

Polytunnel watering, shop shutting up and in for showers and dinner. I’m worn out today and tomorrow is another busy one so for once I’m off to bed in the same  day I got out of it in!