One word? When seven would do…

Work this morning for both Ady and I. Neither of us worked very hard ;). Ady officially worked for 4 hours but he spent at least one doing our own laundry, another going to the ferry and probably a further 90 minutes wandering around the village trying to get the Jeep to start and arranging a jump start.

I got to work just before 10am and having taken photos all the way down to the village went round to take a couple across the bay. When I came back Ady was at the car having already tried to start it once. As we stood chatting about it so Sean and Eve walked past on their way sledging. Sean arranged to come and jump start Ady on his way to the boat later.

Ross and Neil came to post office / shop so much tea was drunk and chatting done. Then Jinty arrived, earlier than she needed to be for the boat so she stopped for a chat too. Then Ady came back, got the Jeep started and headed away to the boat. Norman came in, Jinty came back with massive amounts of deliveries (cancelled boat on Tuesday and Thursday meant backlogs of everything) so I stayed and gave her a hand.

Davies and Scarlett arrived them, having spent the morning sledging and come to help with the community litter pick which had been cancelled. Neil came back and we all hung around the shop until it was time to meet Ady from work. The kids went home to let Bonnie out, Ady and I went to the pier to give the car another run and drop off some rubbish, to the freezer to put the meat delivery away and then halfway home to the croft, the rest of the way with the wheelbarrow.

We all had lunch and then the kids went off to do sledging again while we took the car back to the village and brought back the rest of the fruit / veg / post. When we got back Neil & Lesley had been round looking for us and they reappeared wanting to borrow some silicone. They came in for tea and chats until it was nearly dark by which time the kids were finally sledged out for the day and Neil & Lesley needed to get back as they were out without torches.

Ady cooked a lovely curry and everyone else has gone to bed, worn out by sledging, chatting and drinking tea. It’s all go here on Rum 😉

Ady scared me this morning by getting out of bed, opening the curtains and saying ‘Oh my God!’. I assumed there was a slew of dead croft creatures or part of the caravan we’d not heard blowing off during the night but it was snow.

Not loads, not really. But loads by Rum standards.

He went down to feed the animals and returned with another chicken egg – I assume the same bird now laying every day, must get some plastic eggs to encourage them to lay in certain places.

Meanwhile I woke the kids who were in varying states of excitement about the snow – ie Davies not very, Scarlett utterly mental! 😉

Ady cooked pancakes for the kids breakfast and then everyone went outside to enjoy the snow. We thought the kids were ahead of us as we walked down to the village but they had actually peeled off infront and gone onto Croft 2, built a snowman,  found their sledges and brought them up to the caravan and then gotten cold and come back inside in the time it took Ady, Bonnie and I to walk to the village, take some photos, collect some cheese from the freezer and come home again.

This afternoon Ady did some fruit cage repairing and sorted some firewood, I wrote a volunteer information document to send out to people interested in coming to help with the cob build and the kids went sledging.

Pizza for dinner and a gorgeously quiet, still night.

As in, I didn’t go out today. I did go to the wood shed and collect four buckets of wood but that barely counts.

Another wild and windy night with plenty of lying awake – some more thunder and lightning and roof rattling. Despite best efforts the last of the polytunnel plastic blew away. Ady spent the morning in his orange waterproofs cutting it off and moving things around. All pots, fish boxes and other such stuff is now in the old turkey pen. The polytunnel is just a series of hoops and the two remaining doors.

I offered to help but he was happy enough doing it alone, I baked a loaf of bread and hung out with Scarlett instead. We did lots of pages of her doodle book ans kept the fire going. It was cosy.

Ady came in for lunch and once again I offered to come and help him outside this afternoon but again he said he was fine just plodding on so instead I spent some time researching the best way to sell his photos online as so many people have suggested he should do and even said they would like to buy. After a couple of false starts and trying to get my head round photostock agencies, micro and macro selling and so on I went with a photobox gallery – no cost to set up, a full range of every type of photo product anyone might want to purchase and nice and easy to link to on facebook, blog etc. It’s already had plenty of people sharing and commenting on facebook, I’ve added a link to the WW blog and it can just sit in the background and see if anyone is actually up for buying. Ady can upload more photos easily without any techie stuff, perfect.

I made dentists appointments for when we are off in a few weeks – just need to sort out hire car and train tickets now and we’re all organised. Bonnie sitting is in hand and several people have offered to feed animals so that just needs firming up.  Enforced indoor time definitely makes for organised living!

I made dinner – tacos and fajitas and we watched Will & Grace. No boat again today and we had been sort of hoping it might get rescheduled for tomorrow but the boat which was going to Eigg and Muck tomorrow has also been cancelled. Now to wait and see if the meat and veg deliveries we were expecting today will turn up on Saturday instead.

I feel like someone who is going out with the coolest of all the cool boys at school who is way out of my league. You know it can never last so instead of enjoying it you spend the whole time just fretting about how it will end instead.

70mph winds forecast for 3am, it’s been tipping down with rain since about five minutes before I walked down to the shop earlier – walking down was not too bad but walking back, up the hill, wind and rain in my face, carrying 8 cans of beer, 2 bottles of wine, 6 very large potatoes, 4 pints of milk, a pack of  butter, 2 packs of cheese, 2 packs of frozen chicken, all the post from the last boat which was the first we’d had in a week it somehow felt a bit worse…

Made the wine all the more deserved though 😉

Today was soup and bread making this morning, clearing the polytunnel site – cut most of the plastic off, had a major tidy up, covered the strawberries and lavender with some of the cut off plastic. Then in for lunch.

This afternoon was firewood – we did loads yesterday but it was too cold for digging and we had already cut down a branch last week before the chainsaw broke so we decided to very carefully cut up the branch and bring it up. I chopped and stacked it while Ady took some indoors. We fed the animals inbetween and then I made my walk to the shop jaunt. Up til that point I’d avoided getting wet all day.

We re-joined Lovefilm having asked for loads of dvd recommendations and started putting them in my amazon basket I realised this was probably a cheaper way and would result in less dvds kicking around the house too. So everyone has been adding things to the rental list in great excitement all day – it’s like free  movies! 🙂

This evening we watched My Family which arrived today, not sure if it will be a winner or not really. I suspect we will have too much else to choose from to give it a proper go. Never mind.

Everyone is really tired – I think the last week or so has taken it out of us all. Here’s hoping for a roof still in the morning!

It’s hard to get motivated. I really want to be outside digging the house plot. But it is so cold outside that within five minutes you can’t feel your fingers or your toes, it’s so windy your hat keeps getting blown off and any loose clothing flaps around, it hails every 15 minutes and, well, it’s just January in Scotland. Outside is not really somewhere people are supposed to be.

Yesterday the internet kept going on and off. Mel rang to say she hadn’t slept much the night before (the castle basement keeps flooding which means the boiler cuts out so there is a constant petrol pump running to pump the water out. There can’t be an electric pump because the power capacity on Rum can’t cope with such a big draw. So the petrol pump needs refilling every couple of hours through the night and she had been doing that. So the postponed Christmas party was postponed again. She did say that while she was not up to hosting a full on party she would still love for us to come down though so we did.

The kids played X box, we had a nice bits and pieces dinner of Mel’s defrosted festive leftovers, Ady and I both had baths and it was all very nice. Mel headed off to bed around 11 and Ady and I sat up for another half an hour with a last glass of wine and chatted. Feels odd to be sitting in a proper room late at night chatting just the two of us.

It’s been one of those crazy Rum times where we give fate way too much of a hand in what happens next and as usual Rum gives us signs (and yes, we probably choose to see them, I do know that) that we are supposed to be here. I was utterly pissed off with Rum people but then the whole island came out to celebrate my birthday and offer us beds for the night and just generally be lovely all this week. The fact is we have built a life here for ourselves the four of us. It is home, really, properly our home. We just need an actual physical home now to enjoy rather than endure the tricky bits. While we were talking an email pinged onto my phone from someone who reads the blog, is just starting on a home ed journey with a 3yo and wants to come and help with the cob build responding to the newsletter I put out yesterday. Another sign?

So a decent nights sleep, a walk home in a bitterly cold but finally still and dry landscape this morning, Tom & Barbara Pig all happily tucked up in their pigpen all filled with straw looking cosy and warm and all the birds rushing down the hill clucking, quacking, shrieking and calling as soon as they saw us. I love coming home to the croft.

Today Ady and I have dodged the hail and snow showers to chop up masses of firewood, we have a good weeks worth all processed. We kept tethering and untethering the wind turbine too so the kids got to sit in the warm and play on tablets, use the internet and listen to music -January stuff :). We made a big roast dinner as we had all had way too much of other people’s home made pizza and jacket potatoes over the last week and were feeling a bit Goddard food deficient.

And I did our tax returns 🙂 And finished the Rum monthly newsletter. All adminny stuff and paperwork done, firewood processed – the weeks tasks are already being crossed off at a fast rate.

Can’t believe that this time last week was only a week ago. Goodbye to Big Dave, my birthday, crazy wild weather, a night away from the static, a late birthday meal down at Mike & Debs and more crazy wild weather.

Friday night was another wild one in the caravan, no further damage but a very noisy night which meant that yesterday afternoon when I got home from work I was not up to anything other than sitting infront of the fire. A decent nights sleep last night had me feeling more productive today but where Ady is prepared to don waterproofs and go outside to find things to do when it is blowing a hooley and tipping down with rain I am more inclined to stay indoors and be useful. So he has been fixing back up the flapping canvas on the horsebox, tidying up the woodstore and sorting out the damaged fruit cage I have been making bread, yoghurt and granola, editing and sorting out the monthly Rum newsletter and hanging out with the kids.

More wild weather planned to come in, which is rather scuppering our plans to get lots done on the houseplot 🙁 We are down at the castle tomorrow night though for a postponed Christmas party for SNH staff and then a sleepover (with a bath! First this year! Infact first since when we were in FW for dentist way back in October). If it stays this grim we may well take up the invitation to stay a second night!

I don’t think there is any ‘in other news’. It’s mostly just been windy.

We tend to front out the weather here. Ever since the first winter when someone scoffed ‘well that caravan won’t still be sat on that hill by the end of the winter’ we have had a certain sense of bravado about staying put and proving everyone wrong. We are nothing if not bloody minded sometimes, I do know that…

Also we have always thought that it is better somehow to stay put and know what is happening than to be elsewhere worrying about it. But the storm forecast for last night had all of Rum a bit jittery – in the winter just before we came winds like that had visited the island and blown down over 100 trees in the village. People had been trapped in their houses. It is spoken of with the hushed tones and reverence I had previously only encountered reserved for the Great Storm of 1987. We lost two huge trees and a hedge in our garden in that storm. My school was closed for 2 weeks and one of Ady’s friends actually became a millionaire as  a result of his glazing business having so much work and insurance claim jobs to do. (times like that I realise the age gap between us!)

So we had emails from Ali & Sean saying ‘We are worried, please come and stay with us instead of in your caravan, this is the worst storm forecast since you arrived here’. From Mike & Deb saying ‘Come and stay with us. We have beds, food. And alcohol!’ a message from Sylvia (fellow caravan dweller, ever eloquent) “100 mph winds forecast tonight, if I were ye I’d get the fuck oot o’ that caravan’. And finally from Vikki ‘Come and stay at Lyon Cottage, it will be like a holiday!’. So we did. We packed up stuff for the night and the scant few precious things we have and headed down. It was the monthly community meeting anyway so we went to that and then along to Vikki’s for pizza, the last episode of Sherlock and real beds in a real house.

I slept dreadfully – Ady was snoring, the house was too hot, the storm noises were different groans and creaks to what I am used to in a caravan, the bed is cheap and creaks if you turn over, the pillows were too cardboard-y. Yes, I’m ungrateful 😉

So this morning we headed off back to the croft to see how things had fared. It was pretty scary walking home, encountering Mel, Sean, Eve, Ali, Bad Neil, Manager Mike all with tales to tell of trees down, dead chickens, slates off roofs. As we got closer we realised the polytunnel was damaged, the honesty larder fridge was knocked over as was the bird food bin. The fence was peppered with stuff which had blown across and been caught in it, the horsebox canvas was ripped off and flapping and some of the contents were now outside. But inside, apart from some egg boxes knocked off the kitchen shelf and onto the floor / sink, some stuff off the shelf above our bed now on the bed and a mysterious puddle we think must have been driving rain blown through the poor seal in the window in our bedroom everything was fine.

Amazing.

 

All the animals are ok too. Not quite sure how we are so unscathed but we are. Earlier this week Ady and I were talking about needing Rum to give one of her infamous signs to her that we are meant to be here and meant to throw the next level of our time, energy, money and passion at life here. This week has certainly given us plenty of signs.

I’d quite like for tonight’s sign to be a little quieter though – we’re back in the caravan, I’m knackered and need to be up for post office in the morning but it’s crazy windy out there again and very noisy.

and had an incredibly fabulous time celebrating the fact! 🙂

I was up earlyish yesterday and Ady was feeling loads better which was excellent, I was starting to fret about him a tiny bit.  It was a gorgeous day weather wise – cold but almost dry all day, no real wind and lots of sunshine and blue skies.

My gifts from Ady and the kids were some nail varnish, some fancy handcream, a gorgeous mug and a fab book from Davies to go with the book. I love them all lots. I was always going to love the mug because I chose it but Ady had been in touch with the potter who made it (bought off etsy direct from the bloke who made it, LOVE his stuff and the service was excellent Ady tells me) and had my name added to it and it reglazed. My best present was my Davies book though, explaining the story of the cup and how Viking Ady had got it made taking green from the land. I love his storytelling, his imagination and his amazing illustrations.

The kids went off to search for ice to play with (one of their outdoor winter hobbies!) while Ady and I took the wheelbarrow and the chainsaw and went logging. We got a whole barrowful, brought it up and I split it while Ady gathered it and took it indoors. Then we went to a different bit of woodland and started to cut another branch. I had had a go on the first one (I love chainsawing, it feels really empowering wielding a big old scary chainsaw!) but when we swapped over for me to have another go the chainsaw it had stopped working and the chain brake was broken. So we brought up what we had already chopped and Ady dismantle the chainsaw to see what it was. In B&Q days he attended a few garden machine basic training courses for maintenance in things like mowers, chainsaws, strimmers, wood chippers, leafblowers etc so can strip one down pretty competently. It is properly broken with the metal bit sheared off so although the chainsaw works perfectly it is without a chain brake which is the major safety feature on it. So currently shopping around online for a replacement, it’s a rather essential bit of Rum kit and although it could be replaced with a felling axe and cross cut saw which would be greener, low impact and not need petrol I suspect we’ll end up going with another chainsaw.

We had lunch and then it was pretty much time to head down via animal feeding to the village. We had initally planned a group meal in the hall for my birthday as we don’t have sufficient room to invite everyone up here and most people wouldn’t make the trip all the way up here anyway but in predictable failing to commit Rum fashion the only person who said a definite yes to coming along was Vikki. Much as I like her I didn’t really want to just sit in the hall with Ady, the kids and Vikki on my birthday so we cancelled that and Ady asked Jinty if she’d open the shop for a couple of hours instead – she is usually closed on a Tuesday evening in winter. She agreed and suggested 4-6pm so Ady stuck an email round saying we’d be there for a birthday drink and would love to see folk. Davies and Scarlett went ahead of us with a box of cupcakes and assembled them into a cupcake mountain with  a heap of candles in the top one. Jinty had blown up a load of balloons and written birthday greetings on the white board. She said to me ‘You can choose anything you like from the ice cream freezer as a present’ and had stuck a bottle of fizz in there 🙂 I was tempted to select a pack of potato waffles or fab instead – but went for the fizz.

Dave & Sylvia had arrived just before us and presented me with another bottle of fizz. While I was opening the post that arrived earlier which included birthday cards from Granny and Frazer Fliss arrived with Joss and gave me a card and pressie from Joss (a home made card and a chunk of wood which Joss had drawn a picture of our family and her family on :)) and pressie from Fliss of a distressed wood plaque with self sufficient on it which she had made. It’s gorgeous 🙂

Next was Vikki with a book and a card including bath vouchers, Jed and Cosmic gave me a couple of random bottles of leftover alcohol from the students staying in the bunkhouse, a bottle of elderflower fizz from Sean and Ali, jar of home made marmalade from Mike & Deb, and a bag of Lush stuff and a handstitched elephant from Bad Neil and Lesley. The elephant is the best gift of all I think. It is really, really badly made and coming apart at the seams, the ears are wonky, one of the eyes has already fallen off and it has no tail because “I lost the will to live. Sewing is *really* hard. I can’t believe people do it for fun.”

Fliss put on music, load of people bought me drinks and we realised that the whole island had turned out – every single person on Rum at the moment was there, I have never seen so many people all crammed under the covered area outside the shop at once. Dave set off a firework in honour of my birthday and then got the guitar out and we all sang songs. It was a fab evening. Instead of staying open til 6 we ended up there until gone 11pm. Eventually we came home, Ady cooked venison steak and chips while I rang my parents and we finally went to bed around 2am. Excellent, excellent birthday 🙂

Today was a rather slower start – the kids didn’t get up til midday. It has rained solidly all day long so I have not actually left the static, instead done some reading, some online stuff, baked bread, made dinner, brushed Scarlett’s hair, watched her Alive (Attenborough in Natural History Museum with extinct animals coming to life) dvd with her. A whole day off which is not really the plan for getting stuck into making things happen this year but was much needed after Ady was ill, late nights from Christmas, new year and birthday stuff. Ady donned oranges and went to feed the animals and grab some stuff from the freezer for dinner.

We watched a couple of episodes of Bottom tonight which arrived yesterday but it wasn’t working for the kids. Think we’ll order Big Bang Theory next, that seems to have the most recommendations.

AKA jump, jump, jump, it’s my birthday tomorrow 🙂

Ady is feeling better today, still rather weak and was not up to eating much until dinner time but is definitely on the up – hurrah!

We walked down to the village this morning, to collect some bits from post office and see if Jinty was open tomorrow evening – she was not but when she realised it’s my birthday said she would open specially. So now I feel special (in a good way ;)) and Ady has put an email round saying she will be open and to come down and have a birthday beer with me, Hopefully a few folk do. We also grabbed some venison steaks for dinner tomorrow and then brought the Jeep back up ready to take Big Dave along to the boat later.

We had lunch and had a second failed attempt to watch the last Miranda.

Big Dave came over for a cup of tea and to deliver a bottle of birthday fizz for me – I barely have room in the wardrobe and fizz is almost not feeling special! 😯

We went down to the boat, calling in on Vikki’s on the way to drop off cabin keys (Big Dave) and collect jam jars (me), then to the pier where we had several bags of rubbish for the skip between us. It was a quiet boat with just the supply teacher coming off and Big Dave getting on.  We dropped the car in the village having collected pig feed from the Bunkhouse which had a group of folk staying for Hogmanay who created plenty of food waste and then walked home. Ady was struggling with the bags of pig feed  – I had the box of jam jars – so we took the Rangerover across the river and I took it back while he staggered on up the hill. I got in some wood and started dinner, Ady emptied toilets and fed the pigs. I re-boiled the marmalade and thought it had set but it appears still not to have done. I also made some orange curd which was also resistant to setting, a delicious steak pie for dinner, a loaf of bread and some rolls, potatoes for dinner.

We watched Hoodwinked with dinner, great film which we’ve not seen in a while but we are all missing a series to be working our way through.

And now I am going to hit publish because I want to get this in before midnight and head off to bed.

Poor Mr G is still poorly, generally feeling rough, very tired and with added diarrhoea 🙁 He is insisting on going outside to the compost loo so I am spending ten minutes each time worrying about whether he is ok out there. He spent most of today asleep on the sofa and says he feels better today than he did yesterday but I don’t believe him. It sounds a lot like whatever I had in December 2013 which lasted 2 days so I am hoping he awakes tomorrow feeling better although I suspect he will feel weak and blurgh for a couple more days before being fully back to normal.

So that set the tone for today really – we had planned to do some houseplot digging with Big Dave but I didn’t really want to leave Ady alone and didn’t really want to do the digging without him either. So I spent the morning making marmalade – my first ever attempt. I’ve only used half the bargain oranges I bought off Jinty but have run out of jars. Vikki said she had some for me so I will collect them tomorrow and maybe make some orange curd too. I also made some yoghurt, some bread and some wraps for lunch. And started getting dinner prep done in daylight – so a full day stood in the kitchen area really.

The kids did lots of online stuff, Scarlett and I watched some youtube videos that had been doing the rounds on facebook – dead shark being cut open by loud American family on beach to deliver three baby sharks, man with CP who makes amazing art by using an old typewriter, dolphin who is caught in  fishing line and comes up to some divers and gets untangled, that sort of thing.

Big Dave came over after lunch for a cup of tea and chat, then headed off to do some more wood collecting having offered to help if there was anything he could do. I brought in firewood and Davies & Scarlett fed the animals. Ady did eat a tiny bit of dinner but left the table early to sleep more on the sofa and then went off to bed. The kids watched TinTin and they have gone off to bed fairly early too. Hoping it is Ady specific and he is better tomorrow.

Yesterday we had arranged to help Big Dave at the cabin, so after feeding animals we headed over there in time for Popmaster. On the agenda was fixing the ceiling panels. We had a cup of tea and then made a start. Predictably it was not straightfoward and before lunch we had just about got the first one up with lots of swearing, bumping heads (up on the mezzanine, literally just a crawl space really) and arses showing (all wearing jeans which slipped down and tops which rode up with all the scrambling around). We came back to ours for lunch and then headed back over and had a slightly more productive afternoon.

Ady was starting to feel unwell so was a little delicate, he is still not right but we are hoping a good nights sleep and an easy day tomorrow may see him right again. Illness here really scares me, we are so far away from doctors, pharmacies and even flushing loos and a nice hot bath when feeling ill. There are so few home comforts and even less emergency medical supports.

Dave came over for dinner and we had a nice evening before he headed back to the cabin.

This morning Ady and I both worked – Ady at the hostel, me at Post Office. It was a busy one for me with lots of people hanging about waiting for the boat to come and take them off – yesterdays boat had been cancelled so all the hogmanay revellers had been stuck here an extra night. I met Ady and the kids came down with Bonnie, having packed a picnic and brought Scarlett’s metal detector. The post has bought everything Ady and the kids were waiting for for my birthday so they are very pleased. It also brought a replacement charge controller for the wind turbine. It has not been working properly and we hoped it was the charge controller which was the cheapest bit to replace so ordered one. Ady has fitted it and it appears to be fine again now so fingers crossed that is that sorted. It’s windy tomorrow so we should know for sure then.

We did some metal detecting along the beach but had forgotten to bring a shovel to dig things up so after about an hour came back home. Ady and I walked along to Dave’s for a cup of tea and chat. Vikki was there having come off the boat. Ady came home to feed the animals and lie on the sofa feeling sorry for himself. I walked down with Vikki and Dave and had a couple of beers at the shop before coming home and cooking dinner. Everyone is knackered so they were all in bed long before 10pm and I am about to follow. Hoping Ady is better in the morning and the rest of us remain okay.

So… 2015 and that.

Think I got up to Monday.

Tuesday… ah yes, we went to the boat, as expected animal feed came off along with some amazon food orders. I know the world hates amazon and anyone with any ethics at all would never buy from them because they are worse than nestle or something. But here, they deliver free, we buy ethical stuff like suma from them and they are reliable with amazing customer service. I’m sorry they are clearly the incarnate of the devil but I think we make enough green, eco, ethical choices in our current lifestyle to be forgiven amazon shopping. So we do. Quite a lot. As in we get most of our dried goods from them on the subscribe and save arrangement whereby we sign up for regular deliveries and get discount for buying in bulk. So we get: flour (from organic direct from the mill suppliers in 16kg sacks), yeast, sugar, hot chocolate, stock cubes, pasta, rice, mixed nuts, dried fruit, gravy, coffee, chorizo, washing up liquid, cooking oil, shampoo, conditioner, hand wash, loo roll, dog food…

 

We got back for lunch – leek and potato soup and rolls. And then Ady and I walked down to meet Mike in the woods for some woodsman lessons. Ady felled a couple of trees, I got mostly distracted by Debs who joined us with a flask and some mince pies and chatted to me rather than me doing any practical woods stuff. Still learnt a fair bit before she arrived though. Mike is super knowledgable and very keen to share his wisdom. He is rather anal about H&S but still a very interesting person to spent time with and learn from. We left them as it was getting dark, called down to the village to drop the car back off and then brought back animal feed to the croft. Ady took 3 bags in the wheelbarrow and I rather foolishly thought I could manage a bag on my shoulder from the fork to the croft, I guess about half a mile. I did really well until the polytunnel which is only about 200 paces to the croft gate but my shoulder and upper back was really painful by then and I decided it was silly to be a hero and potentially do some damage to myself so I stopped, carried a small way hugging it to myself and then Ady came back and took it. They do weigh over 20kg so I was not being a total wuss 😉

Yesterday we went over to Dave’s cabin for a cup of tea and blether to see how he is getting on. All is well over there and we have arranged to go over tomorrow and help. We came back for lunch and that was us in for the rest of the day. We watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks which always makes me think of my friend Olivia who is Mary Norton’s granddaughter and went off on a European WWOOFing adventure just after we headed off on ours. Must catch up with her online…

 

We watched the last few of HIMYM. had haggis for dinner and drank fizz. Just before midnight we went outside and took photos, shouted NY greetings across the croft and looked at the aurora which were faint but present.  I’ve been reading about the lights as I keep seeing posts on fb from local places showing displays and it turns out they are often present but not visible to the naked eye. On a dark night with no moon the brighter skies in the north are usually the aurora even if there are no colours like in the classic northern lights displays.

Bed about 130am. All very tired.

 

Today was obviously a later start. I have not been out as it rained solidly pretty much all day. We de-Christmassed the static, taking down the tree and decorations which always makes it feel huge. Big Dave called over to first foot, bringing fizz and a lump of firewood in the absence of coal. He was practically followed in by Mike and Debs so we briefly had a houseful for tea, coffee and a wee dram to see in the new year. They all left, Ady had chopped some firewood and I had got a roast beef dinner followed by apple pie and cream in the oven so we ate really early, watched the alternate ending to HIMYM  (I still cried!) and everyone went off fairly early to bed. Except me. And I am planning to go pretty early too.

Saturday – work for us both in the morning. Ady ended up only working for just over an hour as the heating and hot water is off in the hostel as the boiler is broken so he appeared round at the shop with Ross by 11am. I had brought Bonnie down with me and put her in the car so Ady went off to meet the boat in the hopes an animal feed delivery we are waiting on might come. It didn’t.

It was quiet at the shop but sociable. We collected the laundry, some stuff from the freezer and headed back up the hill for lunch. We had arranged to go over to Dave’s to see how he was getting on at the cabin. We helped set the fire and left Dave drilling the first hole and arranged to go back over again in the morning. Having seen Lije and Lulah’s Boxing Day bagels on facebook I had a bagel craving so made bagels for dinner which were lovely.

Sunday – I had a lie in and a shower. Ady went over to the cabin and I followed over. We got the fire in and lit and toasted it with a mug of tea and a third of a Mars bar each. We came home in theory to have lunch but shortly after we got back Steve and Trudi appeared for a cup of tea and a chat. And then Vikki appeared for the same. She came to share the news (which actually we already knew from another source) that she has given notice on her house and will be leaving at the end of Feb. Mixed emotions on that one really. Will maybe blog about it more at some point.

Scarlett and I made up a bird feeder stand that was one of her Christmas presents and set it up outside the lounge window with nuts, water, bird food and a dangling apple. It has already had a robin land on it but using it as a perch rather than to feed from.

We had been invited down to Mike & Debs for festive tea and cake, as had Vikki and Big Dave so we walked down with Vikki. We had a nice couple of hours there – they are lovely folk and their home is very cosy. We left and walked back with Big Dave and had  a late dinner.

Today I did a couple of hours digging on the house plot, followed by an hour chopping wood. Ady did some collecting wood (which I then chopped). We all met up for lunch which Big Dave joined us for. Ady and Scarlett made up her metal detector and spent some time trying that out. The kids and I walked down to the village on a fools errand as I wanted to check the venison freezer in the hall but I couldn’t find the keys at home and assumed they must be in the car in the village. They were not so we walked home again and after looking everywhere I could think of I found them in my jeans pocket. The jeans I was wearing and had been wearing all day so had had the keys on me down at the village anyway. Grr.

Several episodes of HIMYM – we are on the final series and tomorrow will start the final disc. I *think* I have guessed how it may end.

Christmas Eve – we promised the kids we would not do anything other than festive stuff. Ady did head down to the castle to collect a load of washing we had done the day before and stuck in the tumble drier but he was back with that before the rest of us were up.  Scarlett had wanted to make Christmas crackers in the style of the famous The Good Life Christmas episode so had been gathering empty loo roll middles and oddments of festive wrapping paper. Abby had given the kids a bagful of card making tat when she left back in the summer which also included some Christmas stickers and crappy bling too. So all of that came out and we all made two crackers each. Maisie rang in the middle of the cracker making so Scarlett went off to talk to her for a bit which always makes me grin – pre teen gossiping on the phone 🙂

We had to make the whole thing including hat, joke / motto and gift. We had newspaper (which is actually a fairly precious resource here on Rum given no one gets newspapers so we rely on folk bringing them or leaving them behind when they visit) and so using Ady as the biggest head in the house as a template we made various crown style paper hats. Davies won at this by cutting out a picture of Ed Milliband as the tallest front pointy bit of the crown. Next we did gifts. Ady gathered both his from the ManDrawer – I am not even sure what he put together as I think he pulled and won both of his on Christmas Day so they got returned there but I have a feeling at least one of them was tie-it related. I made a cellophane fortune telling fish cut from packaging from one of the packs of festive bling stickers from Abby (the sort of thing The Jules used to make cards from back in the day – old time MPers will know *just* what I mean) with a marker pen eye drawn on and a note saying ‘fortune telling fish. It’s magic and real and definitely not made from a bit of cellophane. Head curls – you are happy, tail curls – you are sad, fish dances – you are drunk, fish does not move – blame yourself and definitely not the quality fortune telling fish’. My other gift was an empty dental floss box covered in nasty bling stickers with a festive poem tucked inside wishing Christmas blessings and shit. Quality. My jokes were ‘what did the snowman say to the aggressive carrot? Get out of my face’ and ‘what do you call a man with wrapping paper on his head? Russell’ Winning 🙂 On Christmas Day I pulled and won Davies’ cracker which contained two croc jibbitz of spiderman which had been part of some random tat attached to something out of date Jinty had palmed off on the kids earlier in the year.  He included a note saying ‘OMG it’s only Spiderman!’

 

We decorated the Christmas cake, as usual I had left it til the last day in order to have as long as possible to tip copious amounts of alcohol over it prior to icing so the marzipan did not hold the icing and chunks of it kept slipping. That has happened for so many years it would now not be a traditional Goddard Christmas cake were there not at least two places where you can see the cake, so hurrah for sticking with tradition 😉 The kids made a marzipan snowman each to stick on top and then we bedecked it with stupid amounts of edible glitter. Hurrah for festive excesses!

 

Ady marinated the chicken for curry that evening, Big Dave came over having cut his hand and had a bad day. Scarlett administered first aid in the shape of alcohol wipes and plasters and he rather solemnly asked if he could have dinner with us. We fed the animals and headed down to the shop in various combinations. Mulled wine and mince pies and bog myrtle whisky or vodka selections were on offer. It was a great evening with all of Rum’s finest folk out laughing and chatting and being festive. We came home, Ady cooked, we watched a film and the kids finally went to bed around midnight, Ady and I followed having watched midnight Mass from Arundel Cathedral and put out the presents around 1am

Christmas morning started a mere 5 hours later when the kids did their very best being quiet opening their stockings in Scarlett’s bedroom. Except of course we live in a caravan where not only are the walls paper thin I have ripped thinner paper by accident and also Scarlett does not really have a quiet setting. So we dozed while they did that and then they came in at the agreed 7am timeslot. Ady got the fire lit and the kettle on, I put my contact lenses in and mostly made groaning noises and the kids opened their presents. Despite all best intentions  we still had fairly large piles under the tree. Scarlett had some playmobil, some loom bands and several books on loom banding, a bird feeder to out outside her bedroom window, some fairy lights for her room, a metal detcector, a candle mold, some spirograph. Davies had loads of books, some lego, a couple of DS games, a megaphone, a speaker pillow. They both had loads of chocoalates, biscuits, sweets, small numbers of stocking filling tat, glow in the dark stars, a decent laser pen (green, very awesome, they reach the tops of the mountains!). Everyone got new knives (essential Rum kit). Ady got a new hat, new wind up radio, biscuits, chocolate. I got perfume and a couple of River Cottage books. I also got a secret santa from online friends of a lovely snuggly purple scarf and a load of chocolate.

We had breakfast of sausage, bacon and eggs, I made some bucks fizz and then Dave came over with gifts. He’d got Ady and I a bottle each of drink we like and the kids a game of name that tune with kazoos, Scarlett a 3d puzzle and Davies a paper airplane kit. We gave him some jam, some pickled onions and a Christmas jumper with the Saltire on it. He stayed for a cup of tea and glass of fizz and then we arranged to see him later at the shop. Ady brought up the turkey and got that sorted while I peeled veg and made an apple turnover for the kids pudding for later. We had originally all been planning to walk down to the shop but the kids elected to stay home and play DS games instead. We all went outside and took some festive photos then Ady and I walked down to the shop.

It was nice to be there with Rum folk, we had a couple of beers and then walked home again to get dinner sorted. I rang my parents and we all chatted to them until my Mum cried and had to stop talking to us 🙁 Later Julie so we all chatted to all of them too. Love speakerphone for that 🙂

We had dinner which was delicious, did crackers and then played the kazoo game from Dave. He left us around 9pm so we watched a HIMYM before packing everyone off to bed.

Boxing Day

A later start for most, although I was up around 930am. Ady went off to chop some tree down. I had a cup of tea and very much enjoyed the silence of a house all alone (kids were still asleep). Then Ady came back in for a cup of tea and some Christmas cake. I chopped the wood he had brought up, we gathered leftover food and all headed down to the hall where a leftovers feast had been planned.

We had taken down all the lounge curtains and pelmets and cleaned the windows so took all the curtains down to the laundry to wash and dry, went along to the pier to put rubbish in the skip and collect some parcels that were in the boatshed for us.

The bring and share leftovers feast was a little bit of a wash out. Trudi was there. as was Big Dave, Kirsty. Jinty and their Dad. And us. We had hoped for more people and rather more food. And games. But never mind. We went, we ate, we chatted and then as it was all fizzling out we headed for home again. Big Dave walked up with us and then went back to his cabin. Ady and I fed the pigs and then we watched Good Life Christmas special, ate lots of chocolate and drank tea.

This evening we ate loads of festive food, watched several episodes of HIMYM and most of us were in bed early.

 

Back to work for Ady and I in the morning.

Oops, didn’t realise I’d missed so many days.

Which of course means I can’t recall everything in detail, ah well.

Ady and I both worked Saturday morning, we met the ferry which was delayed but did come in. Big Dave came off, so we took his stuff along and then walked down to the village later and met up with him. He and I stopped for a beer at the shop; Ady brought the post back home.

Sunday morning Ady went off to skin and process a couple of deer for Fliss with Bad Neil. A bit of a cheeky favour to ask really but Ady loves to help… I spent the morning baking and made mince pies, what was supposed to be an apple and cinnamon roll but opened up in the oven so became a solstice strudel instead, and some bread and rolls. Big Dave came over for lunch, Ady finally got back and in the afternoon we had planned to have a walk and all gather ever green stuff and a fallen log but it tipped with rain all day long so in the end only Ady and I went out gathering while the kids kept the fire going. We made a yule log with a fallen branch, decorated with holly and pine and cones and Ady drilled some nails in to mount candles. We talked about what the winter solstice means, how it has long been celebrated and then we lit a candle each and talked about what we are grateful to nature for.

We had a nice dinner and watched Fred Claus which is one of my favourite festive films.

Monday the kids had showers and hairbrush for Scarlett, Davies and Ady went wood gathering and Davies has his first go at the chainsaw. I started making a stocking for Scarlett the same as the one I crocheted for Davies last year. Dave came over for lunch. The kids and I went down for the kids Christmas party, Ady fed the animals and followed on, getting changed on the way to become santa. Lots of silly games and fun, presents for all the kids on island (all five of them!! ;)). Then to the shop as it was festive food chilled delivery day so Christmas food shop ahoy! We got all the nice cheeses, crackers, pate, Baileys cream etc. We stayed for a couple of beers and it was a nice atmosphere at the shop, all very festive.

Big Dave came back with us for dinner, we had a couple of bottles of fizz and it was all very fun and festive.

 

Today Ady killed and plucked and gutted the Christmas turkey, I did some last bits of wrapping and finished Scarlett’s stocking. We walked down to put a load of laundry on and get stuff out of the freezer for tomorrow’s dinner. Then it was nativity time. Davies was Child 3, I was Mary, Ady was the headmaster, Scarlett maintained her refusing to join in stance but did video most of it, sadly none of my parts! We exchanged secret santa gifts – Ady got beer, Scarlett got a clay duck. Davies’ did not been done (grr!) so I got him some chocolate from the shop quickly but he was a little upset, particularly as he’d put a lot of effort into his…hmmm secret santa often seems to go wrong for him. I did really well and got one of Deb’s keepsake cocoons, and a new years blessing – will photo the cocoon in daylight, it’s gorgeous 🙂 There was talk of carols but Davies was keen to come home so we headed back. Bonus early so we decided to catch up on the film we missed yesterday and so had a nativity-fest with Nativity and then Nativity 2 with pizza for dinner.

Planning a nothing very much at all day tomorrow, cake icing and decorating, maybe some Christmas cracker making, a bit of festive TV on iplayer and then mulled wine and mince pies at the shop in the evening.

I remember last year (and probably the year before too) the ‘last boat’ panic that sets in on the islands. As the inevitable December weather disrupts things people get all stressy about getting off Rum for Christmas if that is what they are planning and start obsessively checking the weather and predicting cancelled ferries. We should have three more to come; Saturday. Monday and Tuesday. Our usual Thursday ferry won’t come on Christmas day but a special all around all the isles boat runs on Boxing Day instead.

This slight hysteria means that people are already heading off, the first lot left today and I reckon if we get a Saturday boat the other folk planning to be off for Christmas will probably leave then ‘just in case’.

Our festive veg came today – sprouts, chestnuts, sack of tatties along with usual fruit and veg so we’re fine for food. I am hoping the planned chilled food order comes on Monday as that will bring nice cheeses but if it doesn’t, well it won’t ruin Christmas 😉 Obviously we already have the turkey sorted 😉 I think there are one or two last presents which have not arrived yet  but they can always have an IOU wrapped up instead and be a late gift awaiting ferry arrival, I think every Christmas and birthday so far has had at least one instance of that!

This morning we walked down to the shop, bought a few bits, headed to the ferry, the log burner for Big Dave came off – not sure if I blogged already but he has swapped us the big fire that Gav bought for the cabin (much, much too big but will be perfect for the cob house), plus the sink and hob that Gav bought and Dave won’t use, altogether well over £2K worth, for a new log burner like ours which is far more suitable for the cabin. It was an epic saga to find one and get it here which took us countless phone calls and emails and cost over £200 but is still a very good deal for us. So relieved it is finally here safely.

Back to the village, walked around to the freezer and then back to see if post had been done, it had not so we came home for lunch. After lunch it was looking bright if cold so the kids and I grabbed bags and headed down to the village again to collect the post and the veg while Ady chopped more firewood. Unfortunately it did not stay bright and dry and started raining, increasingly heavily as we walked down so we all got wet! Between us we managed all the veg except the sack of potatoes which we left in the car although it was very heavy even between three of us. Made me think about living back in Sompting and how we’d never dream of walking to the supermarket a mile away to buy a weeks worth of fruit and veg and then carry it all home again… should have taken the wheelbarrow really but it’s so hard to push over the really bumpy bit of the track and up the really muddy bit of the croft hill.

Once home again kids got into pjs, I had a shower, we got all the veg put away and I showed the kids a clever pom pom making trick using a fork I’d seen on facebook yesterday. We’d picked up some dvds, audio books and books from the library not having realised that Highland Council must have sent new stock over sometime recently and so raided it earlier. I read a chapter on platypus to Scarlett from an Attenborough book and then we all watched Mr Ben with increasing levels of hilarity. Such a charming reminder of my own childhood 🙂

Along with the veg had been 2kg of pickling onions so I made bread dough and then spent an hour topping, tailing and peeling them to soak in brine overnight ready for pickling tomorrow. Ady made dinner – delicious lasagne. Tonights festive film was How The Grinch Stole Christmas.

 

I’ve had  a lovely day today, a real return to the run up to Christmasses past just being in the same space as the kids while they got on with their stuff and I got on with mine. I do miss that easy companionship with them sometimes as we are all off doing our own thing.

I made pastry for mince pies and gingerbread dough and Scarlett and I attempted some brazil nut brittle but I took my eye off the sugar and it caught so it looks gorgeous but tasted too burnt to eat. Barbara pig will enjoy it nonetheless so it won’t go to waste! Scarlett found some boiled sweets to crush up so we made stained glass window biscuits and loads of stars to stack up for Christmas trees and we listened to lots of festive tunes too – the news on the radio was too sad today 🙁 Head firmly in sand.

Ady was off with the chainsaw stocking up our firewood reserves, I probably should have been helping really as tomorrow’s weather is forecast to be horrid so will be another indoors day but never mind.

Ady came in for lunch, we watched the second Vicar of Dibley on our Christmas special dvd but it was a comic special one about Live Aid and G8 summit so was more preachy and worthy than funny. Hmmm, not at all easy to avoid the world troubles today really!

After lunch Ady popped back out to finish up for an hour or so while Scarlett gathered decorations, I covered some cardboard in tin foil to make mini cake boards and mixed up some green icing and then we all made a gingerbread tree each by stacking up stars, lobbing icing at them and covering in sugary stuff. Ady went totally overboard with everything from icing to glitter spray to sticking a candle in the top, Davies seemed to mostly be eating the decorations, I tried to be arty but failed – hey gingerbread and icing is not my art media of choice and Scarlett was precise and took forever but outputted by fair the best finished tree. It was lots of fun 🙂

We watched something about BBC in the 80s on catch up and then I cooked dinner. Stir fry with more of our own pork 🙂 Self sufficiency never tasted so good!

Couple of episodes of HIMYM and then Santa Clause 2 as advent movie. Everyone, even Ady is struggling to get up in the morning, it is still not fully light even at 9am although sunset is a tiny smidge later every day now.

This morning we went down to the post office to get Ady’s faulty spade sent back. This has been slightly epic in that a spade from Amazon didn’t last very long at all so I emailed them and they sent out a replacement but asked for the faulty one to be sent back. Which is not as straightforward as it may sound… the replacement was delayed, which meant we had no packaging to send back the faulty one, when it finally did come the link to the return label had expired. Then boats were cancelled. It may have been easier just to pay for a new spade really… anyway, it has finally gone off Rum.

We had a couple of other things to do in the village, nip in to Sean and Ali’s to put the dead jack snipe in their freezer as Sean is sending it to the British Museum, collect food from our freezer for dinner, buy some milk, that sort of thing 😉

Back home we got changed into working clothes and then gathered all relevant tools for putting in apple trees; mattock and spade for breaking ground and digging holes, stakes to support trees, string to tie stakes to trees, knife to cut string to tie stakes to trees, sledgehammer and post banger for choices in ways to bang in stakes to tie to trees, compost to add to the soil put back in the holes, actual trees. First though Ady fixed up the stakes which support the netting and keep it taut while I did some work ‘sewing’ up’ some of the wind blown netting joins. I need to get some decent rope / twine for such tasks. We dug in the first four trees and then broke for lunch.

After lunch Ady and I went off to meet the boat – we were hoping the logburner for Dave’s cabin would come but in the event it didn’t and the boat was really delayed so we wasted well over an hour on that 🙁 We parked the car back in the village as the rat had not been in overnight so clearly lives up near us rather than in the car. Derek gave us post – not much but did include a couple of copies of the latest Scottish Islands Explorer which I have an article in so that was nice.

Back home we had all but lost the light so Ady went to feed the animals and gather more string while I dug in another two trees, then he came and dug the holes for the last two while I tied them all to stakes. We got more firewood in and then the kids had showers so I was on hairbrushing duty. We watched Nigella Christmas while doing that – I may be alone in my love for upper class women and their Christmas ego shows but I love her and Kirstie no matter what anyone else says! 😉

Ady cooked – our own sausages, we’re getting through them very fast. We watched one episode of HIMYM and then several Christmas special dvds = Dibley, Madagascar and Ice Age, which are never as satisfyingly festive as an actual film I don’t think.

Tomorrow we have wet or dry weather options of houseplot digging or festive baking. Either will be enjoyable 🙂

We had a boat on Friday to cover the cancelled one and most of the Christmas post we were waiting on turned up on it. Friday seems so long ago I can’t remember what else we did. Oh, I made a candle with Scarlett for her secret santa gift to Jinty. Davies finished his picture for his too so they are all done. We took a load of laundry down too and washed it then put it in the tumble drier and left it to do it’s thing.

Saturday morning Ady and I both worked – he was working for the reserve rather than the castle loading 40 deer onto a trailer from the larder and then meeting the boat to load them onto the game dealer van which came off. The Calmac was waiting for them as it was just one boat so it was quite stressy apparently – it was Manager Mike, Ady, Lesley and Ross but I heard Ady was the one doing pretty much all the lifting. Lesley and Ross are tiny and Mike is not a strong bloke, Ady is very strong, my own Geoff Capes!

I was at the shop, it was busy-ish but plenty of time to drink tea and chat to folk. I went along to meet Ady from work and he made me a cup of tea while he had a shower to wash off deer blood! Mairi had come off the boat but gone to have a cup of tea and chat with Deb while Ady and I finished work so she walked along to the hostel to meet us after 1 and we all came up to the croft together.

Ady did various bits and pieces outside in the afternoon after lunch. I made bread dough, pizza dough and chatted with Mairi. It was fab to have her here, we get on so well and she is lovely company. She was quite happy to slum it and sleep on the sofa in the lounge which worked well. She had been up since 4am to leave home to get to Mallaig so we only stayed up til midnight but managed to sink 4 bottles of fizz between us. Mairi only drinks fizz 🙂

Sunday we had a selection of pastries and croissants for breakfast that Mairi had brought with her, then Davies and Ady went to chop a christmas tree while Mairi, Scarlett and I went out with secateurs and collected holly, larch branches with wee cones and cotoneaster branches with red berries on them and met Ady and Davies at Dave’s cabin. We had a plan to install and decorate a Christmas tree for him as a surprise. It was crazily windy and frequently hailing but Mairi insisted we sat on camping chairs on the decking and made decorations which we felt Kirstie Allsopp would have been proud of 😆 Meanwhile Ady was determined to create a cross shaped stand for the tree ‘just like the one Mickey Mouse make in Disney Christmas cartoons’. It was generally hilarious and quite giddy all round. The tree was massively too tall and having nailed the stand on and manhandled it into the cabin we realised it didn’t have room to stand up so had to chop about 18 inches off it. More hilarity! We found two old water bottles over there and some tealights so Scarlett and I showed Mairi how to make the plastic bottle icicles which may have added burning plastic fumes to the mix :). Once finally the correct height we decorated the tree and it looks beautiful. Mairi is convinced Dave will put it out in the porch once he arrives but he will certainly be touched and we had several hours of much entertainment over there.

Back to our croft for a late lunch and then Mairi and I walked down to the shop to buy supplies – another six bottles of fizz which were not all supposed to be for drinking – one is my Christmas present from Mairi which she insisted on replacing and one was her present to Dave which she has left me money to replace too! Ady cooked a lovely roast pork dinner, we had a very funny napkin folding contest. On the way home Mairi and I had rescued an injured jack snipe which had been ringed so the kids noted the ring number down and I emailed Sean who told us he had ringed it back in 2012 and then caught it again in 2013 here and that if it could fly we should release it as they feed at night. So after dinner, about 10pm, several bottles of fizz down we all put on coats and went outside to release the jack snipe. It didn’t fly so after a chance to escape we decided it was more likely to get eaten by a rat if left outside so put it back in a cage in the horsebox and then stood for another 20 minutes or so watching the meteor shower which was just fab.

 

Back indoors Davies spent nearly an hour talking to me about conspiracy theories which he has been researching on the internet and is fascinated by, while Scarlett and Mairi did somehing together on Mairi’s ipad and looked at old photos. The kids finally went off to bed, so did Ady and then Mairi and I stayed up til 3am chatting.

Today I have been a bit broken 😉 Mairi and I walked over to the cabin to collect some bits, then sat and chatted on the sporran. We showed her the house site and then had one last cup of tea while she packed up her stuff. The kids were outside hunting for ice so we collected them, swung by the hall to get Mairi some venison, our freezer to give her a joint of pork and then off to the pier where the boat was already in having not been to Muck today. We waved Mairi off, welcomed back Fliss and Joss, waved off also Deb, Sean, Ali & Eve and Bad Neil who were all leaving today. We called in at the shop to work out veg orders for the next couple of weeks and buy a few bits, carried the shopping up to the fork as we have had a rat in the jeep so want to leave it parked in the village to see whether the rat lives in the car all the time or just comes in and out and lives nearby where we usually park it. Ady loaded the Rangerover up with a load of wood while I walked back down to collect post and something from our freezer for dinner, then I got back just as he had finished loading up.

Back at the croft I went up, brought in firewood and had a shower, while Ady finished emptying the load of wood and fed the animals then we watched Home Alone and Home Alone 2 which were the 2 films we didn’t watch this weekend as Mairi was here. Perfect hangover cure with popcorn 🙂 I cooked dinner of bacon and cheese pasta bake and garlic bread, more comfort food and had a very small hair of the dog glass of wine with my dinner, which restored me sufficiently to watch Scrooged which was tonights film.

And now off to bed where I imagine I will sleep very well indeed!

No ferry again today. It was pretty blowy first thing and we’ve had loads more hail, thunder and lightning all day but the wind calmed down by this afternoon sufficiently to release the wind turbine.

Post Office was semi-busy. Trudi, Steve, Bad Neil, Fliss, Norman, Derek and Vikki all came in – various stopping for cups of tea, Bad Neil stayed all morning and had four cups! Various topics of conversation at various points with various people as diverse as weather bombs, hail and ice, infrasound and whether there is a bigger reason for dogs going mental at thunder and lightning and where in the UK various people’s spiritual homes were rather than where they are actually from – Neil is clearly a Yorkshireman at heart, he was talking today about wanting to keep ferrets!

Ady came to meet me from work having chopped down a Christmas tree for Mel & Em so we walked along to the hostel to deliver that. Rum gossip in overdrive just now as Claire and Cosmic Mike have fallen out and Cosmic and Steve are swapping house so that Trudi & Steve can move in together. Steve is officially gay but Trudi keeps telling everyone they are a couple while Steve keeps telling everyone he has made it clear that he is not up for a relationship with her on account of being gay. Much speculation on just what the sleeping arrangements might be 🙂 Ah Rum gossip!

Back home for lunch, some festive cooking show (think it was Heston today, we’ve been watching River Cottage and various others, it’s not Christmas without them according to Ady) and then Ady did some fire maintenance while the kids and I had a big tidy up in the lounge. It probably looks no different to the casual observer but I know it is less cluttered! It may be a bit like when Joyce came to visit all those years ago and in preparation I went through my make up bag and threw out all the dried up mascaras! 😆

I finished my secret santa gift of a crocheted purse and sewed a button on, finished a scarf which has been on the needles for weeks and weeks and sorted wool for something else to be working on then put all the rest away under the sofa.

Tomorrow is putting in the apple trees day, hopefully some more house site digging and fingers crossed we have a rescheduled ferry too which might bring vegetables and other supplies.