One word? When seven would do…

And it gets really hard to get back into the groove again, particularly when I have two blogs to be trying to catch up on.

Thursday – we had arranged for Chris and Julie to come up to us in the morning. Ady and I were doing something outside – quite what now escapes me – when I saw a big and little person coming along the nature trail path. I assumed it was Julie and Lorna based on size and shape from a distance but it turned out to be Sandy and Joss once they got closer. They came in and by the time the kettle had boiled Chris, Julie, Lorna and Maisie had also arrived. So a static-full! 🙂 We all chatted in various little groups and everyone stayed for pancakes for lunch. Sandy and Joss left first, followed by Chris, Julie and their Goddard-lets who were all off for a castle tour. We were destined for an evening of meetings so arranged to feed our animals slightly early and head down for a cup of tea with them after their tour and before our meetings.

We did just that and the kids all went off together while we drank tea then we had our monthly RCA (Rum Community Association) meeting followed by a Venison processing company meeting. Plenty discussed and thrashed out at both. We had a beer at the shop before heading home, arriving just about before it was properly dark. A week later it is now fully dark at 7pm with sunset getting about six minutes earlier a night and the clocks due back in just a couple of weeks now I know it will be dark before 4pm before we know it. It does mean it feels *really* late by about 10pm! I can see even me getting in early nights this winter.

Friday morning we’d arranged to meet the other Goddards down at the village hall as Ranger Mike wanted to do an event with so many kids here. He’d invited Eve and Coryla from the nursery aswell as Fliss and Joss to come along too so we had a really good turn out with our five Goddard kids. First we did a matching game on birds and learnt to identify Rum birds and learnt a bit about them, then we headed outside for some running around and shouting games. It was lots of fun and Julie and I spent ages in hysterics after running around in silly hats and wigs. I do miss her.

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I’d put my washing on at the castle so was nipping back and forth checking on that and then we went to the caravan for a last cup of tea before heading to the pier to meet Mum and Dad. Somehow we managed to lose track of time so just about arrived at the same time as the ferry. Davies and Scarlett had done the same, wandering around on the beach with Jack and Maisie so we scooped them up along the way and just about got there in time to wave and smile as Mum and Dad came off the boat :). We were then on a bit of a schedule to get all their stuff unloaded into the static and get back down to the camping pod to load Chris and Julie’s stuff on and get them to the second boat, just two hours later. Ady took the car, drove all the way up to the croft and unloaded everything while the kids, Bonnie and I walked with Mum & Dad catching up as we went. Ady went back down the road to do some culvert fixing while I made a cup of tea for everyone and the kids unpacked all the things Mum & Dad had brought for them including a massive box of lego, various art stuff, new socks, pants, gloves and hats and a heap of food items I’d asked them to collect for us. I then walked back down to meet Ady and load Chris and Julie up, arranging for Mum to walk down with the kids to say goodbye.

We got them all packed into the car and drove to the ferry – most of us walked although Chris and Maisie squished in the car with Ady. Mum, Davies and Scarlett arrived just in time for all of us to say goodbye. Julie and I both got quite teary, it felt way too brief a visit this time 🙁

We all got in the car to come back to the croft and had a really nice evening eating steak that Mum & Dad had brought over for dinner. Dad and I stayed up til 2am talking, so nice to have him here. We sat up til that time on four of their five nights here, talking about not a lot really but enjoying each others company very much. I miss my dad lots.

Saturday We walked to Kilmory for the red deer rut event. We walked part of the way with Mike and with Claire’s brother and his girlfriend who were visiting for the weekend and were very nice. Mum and Dad didn’t really get the event to be honest – I think they were expecting less authentic out there in the wilderness stuff and rather more cups of tea and comfy seats. For all I enjoyed their visit this time I was slightly despondant at their ability to just sit in the static for days on end saying how wonderful the view was but not really being up for getting outside and enjoying the island. Ah well, each to their own. Davies left with Dad and they enjoyed the walk back together and the hour or so they had before the rest of us returned. Mum left soon after and walked back with Mike but Scarlett, Ady and I stayed for another hour or more tucked into the hillside with Ali who was able to tell us loads about the deer infront of us, roaring at each other, more about the research work and little anecdotes about it all. I could have happily sat there with her for days, it was fascinating and so very very thrilling to be say all but in the middle of the whole thing playing out so close to us. The Autumnwatch team were perched on some rocks just across from us getting the last of their film footage for what will go out at the end of the month – this year it is pre recorded rather than live.

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We walked back and then I did two further walks to the shop and back – once with Dad to buy beer, call in to Fliss and Sandy’s to feed cats and chickens and then again to deliver some eggs that Jinty asked for. Nearly 15 miles walked that day and aside from minor gripes from my knees the next morning I felt no ill effects :).

An earlier night all round though on Saturday, I think we were all feeling the late night from the day before and the walking taking a toll.

Sunday Ady and I moved the pigs. Thanks to a very rainy few weeks they needed moving earlier than last time. We were more efficient this time and had it done fairly quickly with some technique modifications. That done we headed down to Fliss & Sandy’s to feed chickens and cats and have a quick bath while we were there. I did a sweep round the caravan floor and picked some brambles along the front while Ady was in his bath, he collected a pallet from the pier while I had mine.

Back to the static for a roast dinner along with a quick nip down to the shop for Scarlett and I which netted a purchase of ready baked yorkshire puddings (we had no room in the oven to make any) and ice cream for pudding.

Monday Ady spent pretty much all day under the static insulating the floor. Sandy gave us some rolls of loft insulation so Ady donned full waterproofs, mask and goggles and got underneath and pushed it all up into the joists of the floor. It has made a discernible difference to the warmth of the floor and hopefully when a skirt is around the base too it will feel much warmer. A very unpleasant task but a job well done. I gathered water from the river, made jam, baked bread, made a delicious soup for lunch and we had venison sausages for dinner. We left Ady to get clean and changed while we went to the shop to collect the veg box in the evening. Another staying up late night.

Tuesday In the morning we did a ranger event walk – Changing Seasons, a walk along the shore of loch Scresort observing wildlife and nature as the season changes from summer into autumn. I don’t think I will ever take for granted just how beautiful this part of the world is. Autumn takes my breath away here, the low hanging sun creating shadows and amazing light, the colours of the trees and heather as it lets all the gathered up sunshine from the summer back out through the changing colour of leaves. It is truly stunning and no matter how much I photograph it I never capture it entirely.
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I love these couple of pictures Davies took of some fungi – totally as the camera captured them, it’s like a peek into a different world!
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We got back to the static for lunch and then Dad and I walked some of the croft as he’d not done that last time. I showed him where we’re planning to build and we walked the nature trail around the perimeter of the croft. I made pastry for quiches for dinner.

Wednesday The week ended much as it had continued really, Mum and Dad had a pretty low impact week with lots of sitting around doing very little. I do find it a bit frustrating but having promised myself I would not get irritated by them I was determined to enjoy their company, look after them well and remind myself that I miss them a lot when they are not here so to try and almost eke out their visit by thinking how many weeks and months it may be before we see them again. It worked and it was actually a pleasure to have them here. The kids certainly got a lot out of it and Ady and I managed to get stuff done rather than allow having visitors to prevent us from getting on with things. We loaded them and their stuff into the car and took them to the pier. I walked but Ady came and fetched me as the ferry was in slightly early so I would have struggled to get there in time. We waved until they were out of sight and then had a bath and some TV time at Fliss and Sandy’s while our washing dried at the castle. It’s nice to have the bolt hole with permission to have baths and watch TV when we want. I don’t miss baths anywhere near as much as I worried I might and actually when you have to get dressed again and go home it’s not as luxurious as simply putting pjs on and slobbing around on the sofa but it’s good to know there are opportunities for bathing when I want them!

We had a lovely dinner of chicken curry and watched Local Hero which we all thought was pretty crap. I’d had grand plans to catch up online but ended up asleep on the sofa at 9pm, waking to stagger to bed around 11pm. The craziness of the last fortnight had finally caught up with me. We had the fire lit briefly which always makes me drowsy and we have candlelight for light once the dinner is finished which adds to the cosy and sleepymaking feeling here.

Today has been a quiet one – it was already raining when we woke up and it’s not stopped yet, 16 hours later. The river is running very high, a massive contrast to yesterday when it was at it’s very lowest after nearly a week with no rain. We stayed in until after lunch, I caught up a little online, the kids played. Then to Fliss and Sandy’s for the kids to have a bath. We called into the shop to hand in veg order for next week and buy some milk – we’ve been on long life stuff since Monday. Back at home we tried to watch Kevin’s manmade house but it kept buffering so in the end we watched some CBBC before the kids went to bed and I’m back to blogging to catch up again. I’m debating whether I want a hot water bottle or not – it is cold, I can see my breath but I know once I’m in bed I’ll be warm…

This morning Ady and I left the four kids still in bed with breakfast all laid out for them and went down to the larder. First thing we did some more sausage making – definitely got the hang of that now :). We did some dicing, mincing, weighing out and bagging up. Then we cleaned the larder and then went to the hall for some more theory.

This proved to be rather a waste of time as Claire monopolised Barry the butcher and it was all rather pointless with lots of the group going outside for multiple fag breaks and lots of sitting around. We then broke for lunch.

Ady and I dashed up to the croft with Bonnie and had lunch with Davies and Scarlett who had had a nice morning with Jack and Maisie. We all went down to the hall for the last hour or so which was useful. Ady went off to see Chris while Neil and I collected all the meat from the larder and tried to identify and price it. We need to do some more work on that but it is all now in the freezer and we have a meeting tomorrow evening to thrash out some details of the company.

Finally it was beer o’clock. I don’t think I’ve needed a drink at the end of a day that much since we arrived here, for some reason I found today really testing. I stayed for a beer while Ady went off with Chris to the croft. Ady came back, Davies, Scarlett and Jack went to the croft and Ady and I had a beer at the shop before coming home.

If it were not for my daily blogging resurrection I’d not have not have bothered today – I am wiped out and really fed up about not spending time with Julie who I miss so much and has been here on Rum for 2 days while I have been doing something else. 🙁

Ady and I left the kids to it this morning and headed down to the larder. We were cutting up the haunches and boning out the ribs this morning. We’ll never remember all those cuts and will have to watch the dvd lots of times before getting our heads round what we’re doing. We finished the morning bagging up various cuts before breaking for lunch.

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Ady and I whizzed round to see Chris and Julie and had a cup of tea with them before going to the hall to do some theory training. We learnt about labelling, what goes into sausages and had a bit of a chat before going back to the larder to make sausages. The training has been frustrating in that it has been slow of pace in some ways but we feel like other bits have been rushed through. I suspect we’ll only really get the benefit of it once we’re doing it. It’s all the harder for having Chris and Julie here and wanting to be spending the time with them really rather than doing this.

The sausage making was really good. I’d done a bit of it at Evergreen while WWOOFing but Pete had been very protective of the actual making part so I’d not had a go at that. It was fab to do the whole thing, particularly using the deer we’d skinned and butchered over the last two days. Neil and I had a quick directors chat and decided everyone could keep their own sausages which pleased the whole group 🙂

We’ve come home with a great big bagful, all of which is now added to our meat stash in Fliss & Sandy’s freezer – even more to keep us going through the coming months although Scarlett is not that keen on venison so she’ll be having something else when the rest of us are eating it!

Ady left a little before me to get to the croft to feed the animals and walk Bonnie who has had a fairly rubbish couple of days really cooped up in the car while we get on with stuff. I’m looking forward to getting back to normal once my parents leave and spending time with Bonnie and the kids again, it’s felt like a manic couple of weeks. I walked up to the croft to catch up with Ady and then we both walked back down to put the meat in the freezer at Fliss’, catch up with Chris and Julie and pop to the shop for a swift beer – it feels like ages since we were part of the Rum crowd even though it’s less than a week.

We walked back to the croft as dark was falling to be met by the four kids who had got worried about us so come to meet us, so we all walked back together in fading light. Sausages and chips for dinner – lovely :). Kids to bed and I’ll not be long after them – standing all day in the refrigerated larder trying to take in so many new skills makes for a very tiring day!

Another manic Monday Rum style!

We went to the castle this morning to spend a last few hours with Lynda and Stuart. The kids, Bonnie and I walked to the ferry while they went in the car with Ady. We got a proper look at the waiting room at the pier which had interpretation boards put up while we were away and we’d only gotten a quick look at on Friday. They are fab – one about the wildlife, one about the history, one about the people and one listing various people’s favourite places on the island. The people board features a very special picture 🙂
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We waved them off and from the same ferry welcommed Chris, Julie, Maise, Jack, Lorna and crazy Mabel. Julie and I walked ahead, Chris and Ady followed in the car and the kids wanderered along somewhere behind. We got the code for the keysafe and helped unload everything into their cabin before Ady and I went off to do our butchery training.

There were 8 of us on the course ; me and Ady, Neil, Claire, Ranger Mike, Ross and the two ghillies; Mark and Doug. The butcher, Barry is a jolly sort of butcher bloke although rather sexist and racist which slightly put my back up a few times but I kept a lid on it as armed with a very sharp knife is not the time to lose tempers with people 😆 We skinned the two deer and cut the necks and front legs off them then learnt some cuts and all had a go at various things. Next we cut off the hind legs and the tenderloin fillets.

We’re there all day tomorrow finishing the cutting up, learning some processing (sausages and burgers etc.) and packaging, marketing and what equipment we’ll be needing. It was really good to be learning something we are so interested in that will also make us money :).

we finished later than we’d expected at 6pm by which time all four of the kids had been in and had a quick look at the deer. We went back to the caravan and Ady went in to see Julie & Chris while I got distracted by seeing the finished B&B room at Fliss and Sandy’s and Sandy put a (much needed) cup of tea into my hand while Fliss dragged out a box of outgrown clothes for Scarlett to rummage in – we now have a better stash of clothes for her again although Sorcha and Nell are far more girly and fashion conscious so lots of it was not to Scarlett’s taste.

We called in to the shop to collect fruit and veg and tally up egg sales for September – aside from the ones we sold privately and bartered (at least a tenners worth) we have sold £40 worth of eggs 🙂 Starting small but making progress all the time :).

Home for dinner, Davies and I watched Dr Who and we all watched Dragons Den which the kids had not seen before. And now, despite best intentions it is tomorrow o’clock already! Bed!

Failed on the daily blogging then 😉

Saturday – we went down to find Lynda and Stuart at the castle. I took them for a walk around the village and to the craft shop while Ady nipped home to pick up some lunch stuff. We ate at the castle and then while Ady cleared up the rest of us had a private castle tour :). I love looking round the castle, Lynda and Stuart were very taken with it.

After that we came up to the croft. I walked with Stuart and Bonnie while the others came up in the car. We sat and chatted and I cooked dinner (lasagne with home made garlic and rosemary flatbread) and baked some bread. Just before it got dark Ady took Lynda and Stuart back to the castle and the kids and I got ready for bed and put School of Rock on. We’d been talking about it after seeing Jack Black on the Muppet movie and had seen it in two charity shops in FW before finally seeing it for sale new in Morrisons for £3 and deciding maybe we were supposed to own a copy. Sure enough it was a great watch (Ady and I had seen it a couple of times already) and the kids loved it :).

Sunday – Ady went to help Ian at Tattiehouse with some lifting heavy stuff first thing, the rest of us slept in rather later than planned but feel all the better for the catch up sleep. The kids and I got dressed, packed some lunch stuff up and headed down to the car, collecting Ady on the way and arriving at the village crossroads as Lynda and Stuart were walking past. Stuart, Ady and Bonnie headed off for a good long walk while Lynda, the kids and I went to the castle for a cup of tea and a chat. The men came back and we had some lunch. Vikki and Claire both appeared in the kitchen and we sat chatting a while before deciding to walk back up to the croft. Ady brought the car while I walked the north top trail with Lynda, Stuart, Bonnie and the kids so L&S could get a look at the crofts from above. Lynda is really struggling with a worn out knee and I had not realised just how disabling it is for her. I do forget that our terrain and every day walking around here is probably way more than most people do (certainly way, way more than we used to walk) but she is by far the most challenged guest we’ve had by our lifestyle so far.

Ady cooked dinner – a mild curry, which was delicious. We chatted a bit longer and then as light was fading and we had a window of no rain I walked to the car with them and ran them back to the castle before walking home. Ady and I had showers and I rang my parents, then we all watched the second episode of the Kevin Mcloud man made house series.

I’ve finished my online food hygiene course ready to start the butchery training tomorrow. Lynda & Stuart are leaving on the first boat and we should have an hour with Chris and Julie before we need to head off for training. One set of guests out, the next lot in :).

I’m knackered and very tempted to just go to bed but having got back in the swing of daily blogging I don’t want to let it slip again.

Up early this morning to keep checking Calmac status updates. In the end I rang them and was told they were hoping to get at least one ferry to Rum today so to head for Mallaig as planned. We breakfasted and packed up and headed off to collect Bonnie. The vets were really disorganised and we ended up sitting there for about 45 minutes before they managed to discharge her and see us. Her ear is fine but we’ve been given (very expensive!) antibiotic drops to just clear the last little bit of infection up and it’s all been cleaned up. She’s to be booked in for spaying a month after her season finishes which should be earlier than natural due to the injection on Wednesday but we’ll need to keep her away from dogs just incase. So that was £80 for not a lot really 🙁

We dashed into Argos to collect a telescopic curtain pole and thermal door curtain we’d reserved – the plan is to hang it across the archway between the kitchen and the hall to stop the through draft. We’ll also need to put something over both doors and probably line the curtains at all the windows too, every little measure helps though. Then straight to Mallaig.

We arrived, loaded all our shopping on to a pallet and paid the freight (£2.81) to have it taken across then went to the CoOp to stock up some more, mostly on meat which is now in Fliss’ freezer but should see us through a good few weeks. Lynda and Stuart had arrived so we left the kids with them while we parked the car and put the keys back in the keysafe.

Then on to the boat 🙂 Lynda was feeling a bit wobbly so she sat in the cafe with the kids and they watched the ipad and ate chips. Ady and I sat upstairs with Bonnie and Stuart spent a lot of time roaming the boat. Our local MSP, and councillor were on the boat along with some senior SNH people and Scotland community development people all coming to Rum for our Community Engagement Event this evening. The crossing was pretty rough – certainly the worst we’ve had on Calmac but at under 90 minutes it was tolerable. Poor Bonnie was sick though – she doesn’t travel well 🙁

As we pulled in so an extreme hailstorm struck, soaking everyone in seconds as we came off the boat. The kids walked with Lynda & Stuart to the castle so they could check in and then walked them to the croft. We loaded the car with all our stuff and drove to the croft to unload. It looked like about five Christmasses once I’d got everything unpacked – so much food! And socks, lots of socks :). I loaded four bags with tinned stuff to go in the horsebox, unpacked everything else, stashed things like cereals under the sofas and then Lynda, Stuart and the kids arrived so we stopped for a cup of tea. Ady finished off putting things in cupboards. It feels like being squirrels all ready for the bad weather to come in!

And come in it has. The wind is howling outside and the rain is lashing the windows. With every new storm I feel a little more confident about the static but will probably always be twitchy.

At 5pm Ady fed the animals and then drove everyone else down to the village while I followed on foot with Bonnie. We even ran part of the way 🙂 We called into Fliss & Sandy’s to drop off meat for the freezer and then to the shop for Lynda and Stuart to buy milk before heading in to the hall for the event.

It was very good, very well attended and although I am never confident much in the way of action or results comes from such forums at least things were discussed. We were in a group with Fliss and Mike which was slightly unproductive in that as they are among our closest on island friends we already all know what each other thinks about things so we didn’t get new perspectives on anything. Retrospectively I think we should have mixed the groups up from who people naturally sit with. Afterwards we had a really nice meal – soup followed by buffet style spread, all very delicious and welcome as we were really hungry by 830pm when we finished. We stayed for about an hour chatting and then everyone drifted away. We decided it was too late to call at the castle to see L&S so headed for home.

We had a tiny window of dry and got in to the static before the rain started again and hasn’t stopped since. Cups of tea and then bed. I am looking forward to no stress about Bonnie, ferries or anything else tomorrow, just enjoying sharing more of the island with Lynda and Stuart.

Ady rang the vets this morning and the vet was not happy to go ahead with Bonnie’s spaying. I had been googling last night and was feeling uneasy about the increased risk, particularly given we’d not be in easy reach of vet care should she not recover well so it was almost a relief really, albeit a nusiance. They were happy to keep her kenneled though and we arranged to visit her during the afternoon – we’re all missing her lots, it feels most strange to be without her.

Davies wanted a bath but there is a problem with the boiler in the cottage so although there is hot water if the immersion heater is on we had not done that in advance. We left to walk into town for Davies’ eye appointment and were about half an hour early. We *almost* walked into the town to look round a few shops assuming they’d be running late anyway but decided to go in and wait incase there was a long walk around the hospital to find the right place. I’m really glad we did as we handed in the referal letter at reception and were told we were in the wrong place! The appointment was in the health centre, just outside the town. The receptionst looked at me as though I was mental when I asked about walking there 😆 It was only 3 miles so although we’d not have made it in the half an hour we had I think she was more amazed at the concept of anyone walking anywhere that far!

Back to the cottage to collect the car and then to the health centre. We were still early but decided to go in anyway and were seen straight away. Infact we were back in the car again five minutes after the appointment time so prompt was the service. Davies and I went through while Ady and Scarlett waited in the waiting room. Davies did a brief eye test and then had drops put in to dilate his pupils. That was most entertaining watching them get bigger and bigger. The nurse told us about how her and her fellow nurses had dilated their own pupils in their training days having read that men found woman with large pupils more attractive 😆

The doctor called Davies in and checked what we were there for, we had to say we were not entirely sure but at the last routine eye test the optician had referred us to our GP due to some scratches or scars on the back of Davies’ eye. He did a very thorough examination but found nothing and said his eyes were fine and healthy and the eye test revealed his vision is fine. He said that in the last five years or so they have had a massive upsurge in referrals from high street opticians since they were asked to look for general eye health but the trouble is they are not trained to look for anything particular so often refer when there is no cause for concern or like in this instance whatever was seen has long since healed up and may have just been a small injury. Hurrah for Davies’ eye being fine and I’d far rather waste time and find it is okay than any other outcome but the doctor was frustrated and I was too – the only two reasons we’d come across both turning out to be a waste of time particularly as at no point had we had any real concerns about Davies eye anyway.

We left there and called in to Direct Pets who we have an account with and wanted to check out what they sell. We bought a harness for Bonnie as she pulls lots on her lead and is very tiresome to walk that way but sometimes does need to be on a lead so should be better with a harness than a collar. We picked up some nice dog treats for her too. Then back to the town via Argos (kitchen scales and uplighter to run off the genny) and Poundstretcher (kitchen cloths, price check on cereal bowls, batteries,
some onion sets to get autumn sowing started, big flask with two cups for jaunts to the beach in the winter, door mat for the static). We went to McDonalds for lunch where we got recognised by a couple who we’d chatted to in Mallaig on the morning we moved to Rum. They asked after Bonnie and wanted to know how we’d settled in – it was really nice to see them and made FW feel not quite so big and impersonal :).

Then we walked into town. We had a bit of a shopping list – socks for me, underwear for everyone, jeans for all of us and tops for me and the kids. I needed various toiletries if I could find perfume free stuff. It was a fairly unsuccessful trip really – Ady and I did get thermals in a newly opened Sports Direct and I picked up a pair of jeans for me from a charity shop along with some toiletries but that was about it.

Then to the vets for a Bonnie fix 🙂 She was delighted to see us, less delighted to go back in the crate when we left but just fine. Looking forward to collecting her tomorrow :). They will look at her ear and we’ll book her in to be spayed, probably in January but at least her current season has been suppressed with the injection.

Then to Lidl and Morrisons for mega shops – tinned goods, a few treats such as olives, nuts, chocolate, stocked up on coffee, cereal, stock cubes, lasagne sheets – stuff that is so much cheaper when you buy supermarket own brand rather than the stuff we can get from Amazon. We also picked up pizzas for dinner tonight.

Finally back to the cottage just before 7pm. A crazy-long day. I got dinner sorted, Davies had a bath, Scarlett had a shower and hair brush and then I had a lovely long bath – always so much more special when you’re not sure when you’ll have the next one! 😉

There are gales predicted for tomorrow and warnings of disruption to the ferries. As it goes we don’t mind too much as we know we can stay here another night and Saturday is due to be fine, or even Monday would be okay accommodation wise although it will start to cost lots for kenneling Bonnie. We want to go home really though so fingers crossed the ferry gets to Rum even if there is disruption over times. Alarm is set ready for an early start to check the update from Calmac.

Up early this morning to get everything sorted ready to leave Rum. We had parcels and post to send so left the static by 10am, called into the post office and were at the pier by about half past. We took Bonnie for a walk along to the otter hide, aware that she’ll be cooped up for a few days now.

We got on the 1135 ferry to go to Canna. We’ve been wanting to go for ages but it’s expensive at about £40 round trip for the four of us so going today meant only needing to pay one way as we were not going back to Rum and it’s only a few quid more expensive back to Mallaig from Canna than from Rum. It’s just over 2 hours on Canna on a Wednesday and the Calmac just sits in the harbour there.

It takes an hour to get to Canna and means hugging the Rum coastline past Kilmory and the shipwreck just past there that we’d heard of and seen pictures but not seen ourselves before. Canna is pretty flat, quite bare in terms of woodland but lush and dry in comparison to Rum. It is teaming with rabbits and has sheep and cattle but no rats or deer. It is linked to Sanday by a bridge. There is no shop and I think the population is currently 11 with rumours of another 2 people about to leave and the restaurant to close. We went expecting to love it and left feeling that it simply didn’t have the same feel as Rum at all. It feels more like Wales than Scotland landscape wise and although there are loads of buildings, probably more houses than on Rum and a better road system we are definitely in the right place.

Back to Rum where we felt like we were coming home just pulling into Loch Scresort and approaching the pier. We waved to Chainsaw Dave and settled back in for the journey to Mallaig.

Once arrived it was fairly chaotic – Lynda and Stuart met us from the boat which was lovely, Bonnie was overwhelmed by mainland cars, people and so on and we had to pay for our tickets, chase up our diesel that had not arrived and find our carclub car. The lovely staff in the office only charged us from Rum so our Canna trip was free 🙂 Love them 🙂 We booked our diesel on the Saturday boat and then tracked down the car after finding the keysafe and getting the key out. We loaded ourselves into the Ford Focus and headed off with Lynda and Stuart arranging to meet us back at the cottage.

The road is long, with many a winding turn 😉 from Mallaig to FW so although it is only 40 miles it takes a whole hour really. I enjoyed the drive once I’d gotten used to seatbelts, other drivers, NOT waving at every passing car because I would know the driver and driving a manual car after the automatic Pajero. We found the vets and dashed in, an hour later than planned but they had waited thanks to a couple of phonecalls.

Unfortunately in checking Bonnie over the vet discovered she has come into season, today! We have a few possibly options here which will rely on the operating vet’s opinion tomorrow but include the op going ahead as planned but with increased risk of hormones playing up / blood loss, delaying it til Friday and us going home Saturday instead or one or all of us coming back next month. He gave her an injection to suppress the season so she will not get pregnant at least even if we have to delay and come back.

We said goodbye and she was led off to a cage for the night, we’ll go and see her tomorrow regardless. Feels very odd not to have her with us, hope she is coping okay.

Lynda sent me a text to say would we like to have dinner out instead – her treat? To which the obvious answer is yes 🙂 So we met them at the restuarant and had a meal there before coming back to the holiday cottage.

It’s really nice, very modern, clean and quite Ikea in decor. The kids watched some TV before bed, Ady and I had baths (very nice :)) and now we’re in bed enjoying phone signal and electricity. I don’t miss all these things day to day but they are nice treats every so often :).

Tomorrow Davies has his eye appointment, we’ll find out what’s happening with Bonnie and do our stocking up food shop and wander round FW. Determined to make the most of being here even if it doesn;t all go according to best laid plans.

Davies and Scarlett went down to Ranger Mike’s this morning for J Ranger. Not sure how much I’ve blogged about this and can’t be bothered to read back! Davies wanted to spend some time shadowing Mike to learn just what a ranger does incase it’s something he considers as a future job, also to learn from Mike and his extensive wildlife and nature knowledge. Possibly also just to hang out with Mike actually as he is pretty cool :). He asked Mike about it and although it has morphed slightly as Mike has gone into Teacher Mode and is creating a mini curriculum and Scarlett is now going along too they are all three getting loads out of it so I certainly have no complaints. A whole morning every week of dedicated ranger time with loads of practical outside stuff too is a dream come true for our kids and precisely what we moved here hoping for 🙂 :).

Today they continued their work from last week about biomes and learnt about our biome which is temperate deciduous. They are learning about how the climate and environment dictates the wildlife and plantlife in an area aswell as doing some Darwin stuff about evolution alongside it. Mike really seems to be passionate about this and is putting loads of effort into amassing resources, planning in advance and wanting to put up displays of their work in the visitor centre and community hall. It’s a perfect mix of indoor and outdoor stuff, arts and crafts, learning with books, online resources and getting out and about. Today they created a J ranger logo, watched some stuff online about biomes, got distracted by Muppet show clips on youtube, went for a walk all along the village gathering leaves and identifying trees and then came back and drew pictures of leaves and labelled them in their books.

In the meantime I had a chat with Claire, helped Vikki make and move the community composter and then Ady and I went to Fliss and Sandy’s to do some more painting. The kids walked round to us there and took Bonnie out for a walk before playing more with Muppet toys and Joss. We put some chairs (camping chairs, not needed again now til the spring) into the workshop there as Sandy has given us a corner to use for storage. We’ve also moved down some books from the horsebox that we don’t have room for in the static and I was worried about getting damp. It means the horsebox is ready to be filled with tinned goods from our mainland trip.

We came up to the croft and the pigs were out (Scarlett had left the electric fence off, oops!) so we got them back in and then Ian came up for a cup of tea and to be shown how to feed the animals as he is looking after them for us while we’re away. I typed up the minutes from the last RCA and emailed them out – trying to tidy up as many loose ends as possible before we go as we have two solid weeks of guests once we’re back. Scarlett and I cleaned out Humphrey and I packed our bag to take off island. Ady cleaned out the car and then I took it loaded with the bag to the other side of the river, called down to the shop to hand in next weeks veg order and came home to cook dinner. Ady and I had showers (we were very painty and dusty) and we all watched Countryfile on iplayer as it had been in Lochaber last week.

We spent most of today down at Fliss and Sandy’s painting. It felt a bit like WWOOFing again :). The kids came with us and had a great morning watching films with Joss and playing with some Muppet toys that Fliss dug out. On the way down there in the car Davies was asking about trigger words based on a scene from the movie so we got into a whole conversation about therapy, counselling, 12 step programs and types of management for issues such as depression, anger, drink or drug addiction. I miss these sorts of random tangent conversations, we don’t seem to have them so often as we used to.

I like it at Fliss & Sandy’s and it’s great to be doing something so useful for them; returning favours, deepening friendships :). The kids took Bonnie and Tinker out for a walk while Joss was having her nap, Fliss fed them all lunch, Ady and Fliss went to meet the boat (no diesel or water butt for us, grr, it means they will probably come on Wednesday and someone else will have to do us a favour and bung them in the car for us as we’ll be heading off on the first boat.

We left and came home to feed the animals before heading back down for a meeting with Neil and Lesley about venison processing. We’re all systems go there and looking forward to the training next week. I think it’s going to be really good.

We stayed for a drink and as Alasdair (who moved our static) was over we had a chat with him. It was a busy night down the shop but quite cold and we were keen to get home so collected our fruit and veg and headed back after about half an hour. It definitely feels time to be snuggling in and getting cosy at the static long before dark now. We have a busy couple of weeks with guests chich almost takes us to November and then I think we’ll go into semi hibernation and be catching up on reading stories, online stuff, crafting and just hanging out together again. We’re also looking forward to film nights, book group and communal cooking events planned for the winter though.

Back home for dinner – I rang my parents for a catch up although Mum is avidly reading the WW blog so has a good idea of what’s going on here. I’m looking forward to seeing them soon.

Everyone else in asleep and I’ve just ploughed through the first half of an online food hygiene training course but am getting cold now so am heading off to bed too.

A lovely start to the morning of a snuggly lie in reading my book while Davies also slept in and Ady and Scarlett went to feed the animals. Scarlett then brought me a cup of tea and joined me in bed and I read her a story.

We finally got up and all had pancakes for late breakfast / early lunch. The kids did some drawing and played with the lego while Ady and I did some outside stuff. We had some strapping which we were planning to secure the static roof on with but it didn’t work so further considering needed on that. I am finding a whole swath of people who live in static caravans on the internet though so I am sure help is at hand if I just find the right place to ask the right questions.

Then we had a bit of a tidy up as we have three sets of visitors over the next few weeks – Mum & Dad, Chris & Julie, Lynda & Stuart. L&S have not been before so I want them to get a good first impression and I want Mum & Dad to see we have done stuff since last they were here. We moved the pallets which make decking around the static and generally tidied up, I swapped the old clothes pegs on the washing line which keep blowing off for my new ‘hurricane force’ no metal bits pegs, we burnt all the cardboard and collected rubbish and emptied the toilets.

We had showers and I cooked dinner, a cake for the teashop tomorrow and two loaves of bread for the next few days. We had roast chicken followed by bramble crumble and watched Puss in Boots followed by the Man made House Kevin McLoud thing on 4od which was interesting and has been talked about to us by at least 3 people who saw the adverts and thought of us :).

Guess which film we have from Lovefilm and has been good enough to watch twice? 😉

This morning we went down to Fliss and Sandy’s. The push is on to get their B&B ready by the end of the week as they have their first guests arriving on Friday. It will be tight but I reckon it’s doable. Ady and I helped paint all morning while the kids spent some time playing on the beach and then came in to watch a film.

Then we all loaded ourselves into their car – all nine of us plus two dogs – and drove to Harris. Tinker the dog got out half way and ran behind the car the rest of the way for a really good exercise – she was foaming at the mouth with exhertion by the time she caught us up! Sandy is a great person to explore the island with as he has just been here so long and knows the island really well.

We walked along, a bit further than we’ve ever been and sat near the feral goats having our picnic. We had a fire and enjoyed the amazing light and views while collecting beachcombed treasures. Davies and Scarlett have decided (a la Cressida Cowell) that there are dragons here on Rum and Scarlett was given some egg shaped stones by Ranger Mike so is now collecting such things believing them to be dragons eggs. She tells me some are incubated hot and some cold depending on the type of dragon.

We had a fab few hours down there before loading back up and coming home again. Ady stopped at the village to help Claire empty the shed for the newly coming Swap Shop (like freecycle!) while I took the kids and dog home to the croft, dropped them off, fed the animals and came back down. The kids had been watching Ponyo at Fliss’s and had borrowed the disc to finish watching, then watched Puss in Boots (from Lovefilm) by the time we got back.

Our new 15tog duvet arrived today, along with storm pegs for the washing line (steel reinforced core washing line arrived so we can repair our suffering line ready for spring laundry, I fear we have our final load of the year currently hanging out – it’s just too cold to dry even when it’s windy). We’re told it dropped to minus 2 last night and we all had frost on windows this morning so we feel justifed in pulling out the winter ready stops already. I’ve been googling warm socks but will hang on til after our mainland visit next week incase I find some bargains then.

Home for curry and an earlier night all round – even I’m off to bed in a minute, pre midnight thanks to the cold. Looking forward to a family day and roast dinner tomorrow.

Home alone again this morning. The kids had room tidying to do so Bonnie and I took some empty Flora tubs and set off bramble picking around the croft. We did really well to get four punnets just on and around our own land 🙂 It was a perfect morning with beautiful clear blue skies and sunshine and I was perfectly happy and content :).

Back at the static I had a cup of tea, made some lunch for the kids and some sandwiches for Ady and I then went down to collect him. I arrived at Fliss & Sandy’s at the same time as Fliss so went in for a cup of tea. Norman was there too so it was all very sociable. Then to the boat for Ady to do piermaster via the castle to shove a wash on.

At the pier our plans to go to Harris with Fliss and Sandy were scuppered when a woman from Isle of Mull theatre group arrived on the boat to do a workshop. We’d agreed we go but totally forgotten it was actually happening (and I’m fairly sure it hadn’t been due to happen today) so we dashed back to get the kids and back to the hall to do that. Fliss and Joss came down too and we had a very happy couple of hours creating a map and a 3d castle as props for the performance next Saturday.

Fliss took the kids back to hers while I ran the woman back for the late boat and collected the washing from the castle. Ady was supposed to be doing swap shop clearing out with Claire but it didn’t happen. I went back for him and we went back to Fliss’. We had a cup of tea and watched a film about the SOund of Rum music festivals which took place in 2005, 2006 and 2007 organised by Sandy and Fliss. Amazing to see our island as such a different place back then.

We went back to the shop and had a really nice hour or so with the people down there this evening, one of the good nights there where we could have stayed much later but needed to get home for food, particularly when I realised we’d left the croft at 230pm and not fed the animals!!! We dashed back and Ady did belated pig feeding while I hung the washing out just about before darkness fell (it was about 8pm), then indoors to watch the Muppet Movie which had arrived from Lovefilm and have dinner.

It’s really cold at night now, we can see our breath in the static so we put the fire on for 20 minutes which warmed it up really quickly but didn’t stay. Everyone now has hot water bottles and we have several last lines of defence including heavier weight duvets, sleeping bags, warmer pjs and fire on for longer. We still have insulation and a skirt to go round the bottom of the static which will also help and Sandy has promised to do with us once their B&B is finished (next week). I am not too worried, just anticipating hefty gas bottle usage really.

Yesterday – Ady went off to Sandy’s. The kids and I dressed as pirates and headed down to the village to catch the post office open and talk like pirates 🙂 Lesley had dug out some stuff for Bonnie’s ear which will hopefully make a difference as it is now smelly and not very nice 🙁

We ‘arghed’ at the post office and various islanders who were around and then went to meet the ferry and arghed some more down at the pier. There is a film crew over at the moment taking shots for a gaelic film recreation that was shot here 25 years ago and they are doing an update. They are not at all sure what to make of any of us really so me and the kids saying ‘the ferry be coming now look ye’ to each other and threatening with plank walking probably didn’t help! 😆

Fliss and Sandy had *loads* come off the boat so we managed to load it all into the Pajero and took it round. We stopped for a cup of tea and collected Ady to come home for lunch. Ady then went off to do piermaster for the late boat while I knocked up some pizza and bread dough. We had been planning to go up Hallival with Mike to do some shearwater chick ringing but being worried about leaving Bonnie for so many hours meant we didn’t go and in the end neither did Mike.

Scarlett and I walked down to the village to get some tomatoe puree (which we then discovered we’d not really needed as I had some in the cupboard) and Mike came up. We had a nice evening eating pizza and chatting.

Today was the last Sheerwater boat trip of the season. We have been to every single one – I think it was only last week it didn’t run, since we arrived back in May. That has been a real unexpected bonus of living here, particularly the early ones when it was free too, but £10 is a very small price to pay for the experience we have each week – we love it :). I made a cake and did some snickerdoodles too while the oven and genny were on and we walked down to the car, collected Mike and Ady on the way and were there. Kate & Ian and Vikki also came and it was just the 8 of us which was perfect. We presented Ronnie the skipper with the cake which he shared with us. It was a great day., calm and a lovely light and beautiful sky but very, very cold. I even put a hat on!

The outward journey was very uneventful aside from lots of gannets and there was no one on Soay to row out to meet us so the post got left in one of the little row boats. On the way back though, right at the end we spotted a pod of porpoises who were unusually friendly and curious and breached around the boat for ages. We also saw two minke whales who stayed with us for a long time – the sea was once again alive 🙂

We were out for a good 3/4 hour extra and it felt like a fitting end to what has been a phenomenal summer season of wildlife watching out on the sea each week. In our wildest dreams I don’t think we could have dared hope for this to be there for us week in week out with such amazing wildlife spotting experiences every time. The fact we also got to share it with family and friends on several occasions has made it extra special too. We’re looking forward to the next season of wildlife experiences starting with the red deer rut in the next weeks.

We dropped Ady off in the village as he was off helping Ian take some more stuff up Hebnet Hill as we’re now calling it here. We went home and the kids had a happy hour or so playing with Bonnie in the sunshine while I had a cup of tea and blogged. We then went down to the village via feeding the animals and persuaded Kate out for a beer while we waited for Ian and Ady to return. It ended up a nice evening down at the shop as Fliss came out too (Thursday night is veg order night) so we stayed for a couple of hours before coming home for pasta dinner.

This morning I had some home alone time. Ady is helping Sandy with some work finishing their B&B extension. They have offered to pay him but he feels odd about it given the amount of favours they have done for us and has told them he would rather just carry on bartering for favours. I am keeping out of it as either option is fine with me and I’d rather Ady be happy than anything else. He is enjoying Sandy’s company, liking having something to do outside of the croft and feeling useful so I think it is win: win whatever happens :). It’s good to feel we are giving something back and it’s further deepening our friendship with Fliss and Sandy too.

Davies and Scarlett went down to Mike’s for J Ranger stuff – Ady took them so by 9am I was home all on my own. I had a long job list though so with Bonnie sat at my feet I worked through that making phonecalls, returning emails, researching various things. I registered Ady and I as self employed and did some work on the Rum Venison processing company. It was soon time to head down to collect Davies and Scarlett so Bonnie and I walked down to the village in the sunshine – the world was a happy and shiny place 🙂 I do so love living here.

I put Bonnie in the car which was in the village square and went in for a cup of tea and chat with Mike. The kids had been doing stuff on biomes, colouring maps, watching some clips on youtube about different biomes and learning about chaffinches. Mike is really passionate and excited about the j ranger project and is talking about creating a big collage in the village hall. It has had precisely the desired effect of renewing his passion for rangering on Rum and getting the kids some excellent educational input. They both adore Mike anyway so 3 hours in his company once a week with a slant towards learning stuff is perfect. We might be going out ringing sheerwater chicks with him tomorrow night although the thought of the trek up Hallival in the dark to do it is rather daunting…

We left Mike and walked round to Fliss & Sandy’s to meet Ady. We ended up staying for another hour drinking tea and being offered but declining to share their lunch. A nice chat with them about various things and a half planned trip Christmas shopping in Inverness for Fliss and I and maybe some of the kids.

Back to the croft for a very late lunch via bringing in my finally dry (and very rinsed and wind blown therefore incredibly soft and fresh smelling) laundry. As we started eating Vikki arrived with some questionnaires. One for all of us about our opinions on the proposed bunkhouse project and one for Davies and Scarlett about what it’s like being a young person on Rum. She stayed for a couple of cups of tea thanks to several more rain showers before heading off.

Ady and I moved the barbecue and dismantled the whole ‘camping area’ as that is over for this year now. Ady then fed the animals while I did a few more online bits and pieces. Ady cooked dinner and the kids watched a film then it was bedtime.

I’ve spent far too much time staring at my screen today and not nearly enough time outside but it has been productive and I’ve got stuff done. The weather has really turned cold now and the static feels very chilled. We have insulation to line the floor with and the wood to put a skirt around the base which will help lots. I also want to put some heavier duty curtains up along with some curtains over the two doors and something between the kitchen / lounge and the hallway. We’ve also realised we seem to have a summer lightweight duvet on our bed too so we need to invest in a heavier one. Winter is coming!

Sunday – a well deserved day of rest, well as close to one as we get anyway 😉

Up late, animals fed and dealt with, eggs collected etc. The washing was piling up and in danger of starting to go moldy so Ady and I went down to the castle to get it washed. It was two loads, close to three but we hung the wet towels out on the line to air and dry and managed to it into two loads :). While it went round we delivered some eggs to Vikki (bartered for salad and fennel) and picked six punnets of blackberries. It was gorgeously sunny and aside from a brief chat with Norman and a wave at Rachel we saw no one. There is something quite lovely about the Sunday feeling on Rum when literally everything is closed and people are tucked away in their houses – like Sundays when you were a kid and shops were all closed and everything was a proper day off :).

Back to the croft to hang out washing, turn the brambles into jam (another flavour – blackberry and apple, we now have about 25 jars of jam which is close to a years supply 🙂 ) and generally potter about on the croft. I cooked dinner – toad in the hole with roasted vegetables. I went through the veg cupboard and cooked up more or less everything while the oven was on with the intention of turning all leftovers into soup for lunch tomorrow.

We had dinner and after a failed attempt to watch a streamed film on Lovefilm we watched River Cottage edible seashore dvd and enjoyed dinner folllowed by bramble crumble. After reminising about tinned cream (not evaporated or condensed) for ages I did a proper google and turned up the actual stuff – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nestle-Carnation-Extra-Thick-Cream/dp/B0077PO4MG/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347920782&sr=8-1-fkmr1 so we enjoyed a tin of that with it. I love our life, it’s like living as one of the Famous Five every single day. We even have a dog to be Timmy!!!!

Monday – I slept badly so had a lie in, as did the kids. Ady had gone to do some work for Sandy, which is now to be official as Fliss and Sandy have offered to pay him AND he gets some training from Sandy. This is Good News :). Meanwhile back at the croft the kids and I baked bread (two loaves) and rolls (for lunch), did all the washing up, I had a shower, the kids did some drawing, Davies decided to long to gift his old DS to Scarlett who had dropped hers in the river and it no longer works so she is thrilled. I made a couple of phone calls – both scary but with good outcomes and ticked more things off my joblist.

I walked down with Bonnie to collect Ady from Sandy’s and we went to the ferry, dropped Ranger Mike off on the way back as it was raining and then came home for lunch. Home made soup from leftover roasted veg whizzed up with some stock and home made bread rolls – delicious :). The sun came out so I collected the washing that was dry, Ady did some path making in the chicken area and the kids played outside with Bonnie and Davies’ new kite while I did some finishing up of a crochet scarf to sell in the Craft Shop.

We went to the shop to get some veg and had couple of drinks – there is a real Monday Club down there now and it’s a regular buying each other a drink venue for us and Fliss :). We caught up with various people and Norman offered to cook a curry for Ady and I. He’s been offering food for weeks – he’s a chef, so we took him up on it and popped in on our way home to collect it – a tray of rice, curry and dahl along with some poppdums. It was delicious, a real treat and our only taste of a takeaway living here on Rum!

Ady cooked for the kids and I rang Julie so have ticked almost everything off todays job list. I have more to do tomorrow but everyone else is out for the morning – Ady at Sandy’s and the kids at Ranger Mike’s so I have a few hours to get stuff done before walking down to the village to meet them all.

Monday – Arrival of The Barts day 🙂 🙂 Monday is the after lunch ferry although due to being disorganised I don’t think we actually managed to have eaten lunch in the end before the ferry. Always very exciting to see friends coming off the boat. Hugs all round and introductions to Bonnie before loading the Pajero up. The kids set off ahead of us, Ady and James went in the car and Kirsty and I walked. I failed in the usual talk and tour for chatting instead but we did plenty of walking during the week to make up for it and I showed Kirsty around properly over the course of their stay.

Ady and I wanted to attend a meeting with some reps from a company doing research into marine tourism on the small isles. Only 8 people turned out which is still nearly a third of the adult population and for lunchtime on a Monday when people have work it was a pretty good attendance but we were keen to ensure we were there, despite it being a bit inconvenient with guests arriving. That done we headed up to the croft.

We chose a spot for the tent and after some refreshments and a bit of unpacking the tent went up. I had a Blasda meeting to attend so I headed down to the village first and the others followed me down afterwards. Fliss was back after five nights off island so it was good to catch up with her and get some pressies of chocolates, a candle and some pants for Tarly that she’d bought us on the mainland (pants requested rather than a random gift!). It was a good evening at the shop with a lot of the islanders out for a drink or two so we stayed a while. Infact Kirsty and I stayed a bit longer than the others so Ady had got dinner started already when we got home.

It was a blowy night with an early start the next day for a Fungi Ranger event and Kirsty didn’t sleep well in the tent. A pole broke the following day which signalled the end of their tenting experience on the croft – fortunately we do have a pull out bed in the lounge so that became bed for Kirsty and James for the rest of the week.

The Fungi event was good, although Mike is self confessedly no expert (at all!) on mushrooms but he did bring along several id guides and we had a couple of our books too so with the help of books we found a good variety of fungus. James’ leg was playing up so he left us to return to the croft a bit earlier, which was good (although not of course for James and his leg) as it meant Bonnie was not home alone for quite so long.

” alt=”” /> We went through various plots of woodland, tasted some chanterelle mushrooms and went down to the otter hide doing some heather potting along the way and tasting some wood sorrel (mmm lemmony!) before going back to the croft for lunch.

After lunch Kirsty & I went off foraging and collected many punnets of blackberries, rosehips, rowanberries and apples for jam making. I forget that the couple of miles from croft to village with it’s hills and hard going path is actually quite strenuous if you’re not used to it so when I went down for a third time to buy milk from the shop it was without any other grown ups! I did take Bonnie, Scarlett and Alex though so I was not alone :). A late night listening to music 🙂

Wednesday Another ferry day – we were hoping for plenty of parcels ready for Davies’ birthday but nothing came for us except crisps we’d ordered through Claire (we buy them by the bucketload, mostly because they are very cheap but also because they come in very useful plastic buckets that we then store flour, pasta, rice etc. in) so we dropped them off for her and then returned to do some fishing off the pier. I had a very failed attempt using too heavy a weight and lost both the weight and the hooks so gave up and did some blackberry picking instead!

Marcus caught his first fish which was fab 🙂 Sadly it was too small to be a keeper and meant fish was off the menu as despite staying for a good few hours nothing of any suitable size was reeled in. Davies, Scarlett and Alex were ready for some lunch so I went back to the croft with them and Bonnie for some food. The others ended up not far behind us as they drove home.

We decided to all go to the shop in the evening and Vikki appeared just as we were leaving so we persuaded her to join us for a beer too. The deliveries we’d been hoping for had almost all arrived in the post so we got a big sack of parcels and bought dinner from the shop instead of our planned fish dinner.

Thursday – a rubbish weather day ALL DAY 🙁 The Shearwater was cancelled and the static felt quite small with all of us trapped indoors all day. We lost our water butt when the wind blew it over and it split and we discovered on Friday that we’d also lost one of our little chicks 🙁 Kirsty & I walked down to the village in the afternoon as I had a meeting with Neil about venison processing so we at least got out for a walk but it was a soggy walk.

Friday – Davies’ birthday! :):)
A crazily early start at 6am with two excited children in our bed and then nowhere to send them as every other room had sleeping Barts in it still. Davies was delighted with his presents – from us: a DS game, knife sharpening oil for his sharpening stone, wind up torch (an essential here! we’ve come home by torchlight at least once a week already as the nights draw in and it will get earlier and earlier from now), new buff, boxed set of How to train your dragon books and a bloodstone pendant. He has another book still to arrive. Scarlett has decided to collect stamps having been sent a few interesting ones from places so we got her a scrapbook and 100 world stamps and a wind up torch too for her sibling pressie.

Davies had asked for cinnamon rolls for birthday breakfast so I sorted the finishing touches to those out and Davies got a lego pressie from The Barts. Mike came up bearing card and gift of some really nice drawing pens of the sort he uses himself. The kids managed some outdoor time as the weather was mostly brighter and we took the first half of the Barts luggage down and left it in the boatshed ready for the ferry on Saturday when Ady and I met the boat. More stuff arrived for Davies including parcels from Julie and cards from family. I got a new sieve :).

At 5pm we went down to the shop where Davies had invited everyone to share his birthday cake with him. I asssembled it – quadruple layer with blackberry jam, buttercream and 12 candles. Unfortunately although it looked gorgeous it slid and ended up looking less lovely but still tasting gorgeous by the time we ate it! Davies was incredibly touched at the community effort – Steve had decorated all around the shop with tinsel and crackers and gave Davies a set of top trumps, Fliss & Sandy gave a fab bow and arrow that used to be Sorcha’s, Jinty put together a HUGE bag of stuff from her shop including a crab trap, *loads* of sweets, party poppers and a fishing lure, Rachel gave him a kite, Kate & Ian gave him corn on the cob with the promise of some sketching pads, pastels and pencils still to arrive (curse island delivery lead times!) and Vikki gave him a book. He had a full quota of people singing Happy Birthday and cheering when he blew out his candles, a card signed by the whole island and got to share his cake with everyone – just what he had told me was his perfect birthday vision 🙂 AND to have friends here to share it with him too!
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Back to the static for pizza 🙂 I’d kept back a couple of tiny cakes and some buttercream so he got to blow out more candles and have a mouthful of cake for pudding too :). It was an earlier night due to earlier start yesterday and planned for today too.

Saturday Up and at ’em to say goodbye to the Barts. Everyone was up, dressed, breakfasted and on their way to the car for 815am. We got to the ferry and said our goodbyes -waving them off. Odd to think they are all the way home again now – Sheffield feels a whole other world away these days.

A whizz back to the croft and some last minute jam making – I wanted to have four flavours on offer for Blasda – bramble and ginger, bramble and lavender, bramble and chilli, bramble and rosemary – I need to add something different to my jams so I am not competing with other jam mistresses on island ;).

I walked down to the village to add my contributions to the market and bring & barter stall – walking with 4 dozen eggs and 8 jars of jam is not easy in wellies over rocky paths. Combination of breakable AND heavy does not combine well! I set it up and then with time to kill decided to go to Vikki’s early as her friend Mari had arrived on the early boat. She was visiting here when we very first came to look at Rum back in November so was keen to meet up with us again and see how we are faring. Rachel, Ian and Ady & the kids arrived a bit afterwards and Vikki showed us all round her garden for the Open Garden bit of Blasda. I love looking round other people’s growing so this was ace. We then all went to Jinty’s and then Ali’s before the final few – Vikki and Mari came up to the croft. Ian comes here all the time, Rachel has no wellies (and we are definitely a welly only zone now) and Ali didn’t make it because Eve was insisting on being carried and it’s too hard going walking up here with a four year old on your back! We looked around at the animals, I showed the the potential house site and we walked the side nature trail before coming in for a cup of tea.

That put me behind schedule so it was a rush to make pastry and chop apple to make a tart and made some crumble topping to take down, pack ingredients for custard and all head down to the hall. I picked a tub of blackberries on the way and turned them into a crumble down there – I called it ‘brumble’ (as in bramble crumble) and the pie SNHapple tart (as in apples foraged from SNH reserve office garden).

The food was delicious – we had a great turn out of about 20 people, all brought own drinks and sat down to choice of 3 soups served with home made breads, mains selection of mackerel, venison stuffed marrow, veggie curry, veggie quiche and salad all made with locally grown, caught, foraged or reared produce. Also on offer was home made mayonnaise, picked nastursian seed pods, gherkins, pickled beetroot. Aswell as my puddings there was a triple layer sponge cake and I made custard from our chickens eggs. It was truly a feast!

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It was one of the frequent ‘magic in the air’ events on Rum when the community all get together, are greater than the sum of our parts and show just what we could be like when we get it right. The sort of thing that reminds us (not that we really need it) why we are here. It’s probably best likened to Christmas camp dinner or that time we all brought a cake to J&Js birthday cake to spell out the message HAPPY BIRTHDAY – you just feel part of something really very special :).

Not a late night with the last of us heading for home at 930pm but as we’re a good half an hour from home and it was pitch dark with lots to carry up the hill it was late enough. I’ve caught up online a bit and will look forward to not having to get up for anything at all tomorrow 🙂

All very excited about Kirsty & co coming. It seems like such a long time ago we set the date for their visit and now it’s tomorrow they arrive 🙂

Yesterday was a productive day – the area we had fenced off for the birds was a quagmire, mud is definitely going to be our biggest issue here. All of the birds now free range anyway so the only thing being kept in by the fencing was us when we go to feed them and collect eggs. Davies and Scarlett have both slipped over in there so after some debate yesterday we decided to remove all the fencing. It looks better, we now have a spare heap of fence posts and stock fencing to reuse somewhere else and hopefully the muddy area can start to recover a bit – we’re planning to use some stones to create a bit of a pathway to walk on.

Ady did some strimming and I spent some time writing a response to a consultation currently being undertaken by SNH regarding the access onto the reserve by vehicles. I’ve been quite irate about both the consultation and the format it has taken so it was good to actually form a coherant response and feel I have at least done my bit and can sit back from it now. Grrr government bodies…

I then decided to finish off the bookcase project I had started earlier in the week. I cut down some more shelves and tried to fix it together but my rather sloppy cutting had led to a very ramshackle effect so Ady helped me and we screwed it together in the end. It looks pretty good and has taken all the books that were piled up – looks more like a lounge :). Progress can often feel slow here with so many of the projects I talk about wanting to do remaining just that – things I have talked about, but I have to remind myself this is now our whole life and while I don’t want to find us in five years still with nothing achieved there is no great rush either.

That did take longer than expected as these things so often do, so it was much later than we planned when we got down to the village. A joint celebration of Claire’s belated birthday and Izzy’s leaving on Monday was being held with a barbecue, some shared food and a good turn out of people in the hall. It was a bit of an atmosphere-less event but Davies and Scarlett enjoyed playing something on the computer in the hall with Ian, I chatted to Vikki, Rachel, Lesley and the ghillies (Doug and Mark) and Ady and I had a couple of games of pool. We left at about 11pm. Highlighted again the need to get decent torches for roaming around in the winter as it gets properly dark here and it will happen ever earlier in the coming months.

Today has been a real Sundayish feeling day. This morning we looked at the CCAGS form and read the latest edition of Crofter magazine which we get from SCF. It’s tough being somewhere where there are only us and one other croft which is not actually being worked anyway, there is talk in the magazine about crofting communities and we realise how removed we are from being part of a crofting community here. I’m looking forward to getting neighbors and hoping they are serious about doing something with their croft. We’ve concluded that we’re applying for funds for the first wave of things including polytunnel, shed for animal feed, access track on the croft and a quadbike and trailer. That will get us properly set up for growing next year and we can look at the next wave of grants when we know quite what we are building as a house. From what I hear getting funding approved and sorted can be a very drawn out process so it will be good to feel we have set the wheels in motion and have something happening.

The funding for the compost loo is ticking over – thanks for the shares on facebook and twitter 🙂 If everyone who reads the blog / follows us just sent a tenner we’d reach the amount we need – that’s a heartening thought, particularly as we’ve already had some very generous donations.

It’s our anniversary today – 13 years married. Our first was spent with my pregnant to pop with Davies, our twelth we went out for a meal with our penultimate WWOOF hosts in Tarbet. I wonder where we’ll be on our fourteenth. It would be lovely to think we might actually be in a house rather than a static.

This afternoon we took Fliss’ girls to the school boat and have come into the house to all have baths. We’ll head back to the croft for roast dinner in a bit and have decided to open the bottle of fizz that Jill & Johnny gave us when we left Glastonbury. We were going to open it when we got the static but it took so long getting where it was meant to it never felt right. The day we actually got it up the hill was our anniversary but we were so exhausted by the whole thing that opening it that night felt like a waste. So we decided tonight is the night – 13 years married, living in our dream location if not yet our dream home, excited about friends arriving tomorrow and feeling like we’re part of the community we looked for for so long. Celebratory reasons enough I think to pop the cork!

The mouse ran up the clock 🙂

The kids and I spent ages yesterday rhyming versions of that – we got all the way up to the clock struck twelve 🙂 I also sang in a French accent for some random unexplained reason. These are the things they will remember me for one day 🙂

When I was a child I often used to set the table for dinner with cutlery. My parents had a selection of bone handled knives and several of them were butter knives so round ended rather than with an actual blade. These used to offend me and I hated to end up with one. My Dad used to find it hilarious to swap my knife for a butter knife, having realised I didn’t like them (presumably we had less than four proper knives at the time so one of us had to have one). It was a regular dinnertime thing which used to really wind me up. Fast forward about 20 years and Ady and I had a tradition with my parents pre-kids of going out for dinner on Christmas Eve. One year we were settled in the tinsel filled restaurant and had ordered our meals and Dad and Ady were acting really strangely. The meal arrived and I picked up my cutlery only to realise I had one of the bone handled knives in place of my steak knife with Dad having sneakily replaced it. He laughed til he cried and was probably the most pleased with himself I have ever seen him :). He said to me later ‘you’ll remember that long after I am gone’ and he’s right, I will. It is things like that I will remember my Dad for and why I miss him not being in my life all the time. Tonight the kids and I had a long chat about standing up for what you believe in and I told them if I leave them with two mottos ‘ be the change you want to see in the world’ and ‘you can do anything if you try hard enough’ then I have done my job. I hope they remember me for the fun and crazy bits along with the half a bottle of wine philosophizing too 🙂

So, today. Morning is rather a blur. The kids and I did Popmaster – Ady had gone to the shop tp buy vanilla essence and milk for custard making. He returned and did some stuff outside while Davies made custard with our egg yolks and Scarlett made meringues with our egg whites. I meanwhile stuck a sponge I had made earlier in the week for the teashop but had not been required in the oven covered with syrup. We had it for lunch with Davies’ very gorgeous custard – a triumph 🙂

Then it was ferry o’clock. We headed down with rubbish and recycling. It was super late and I got a voicemail to say the doctor was over and would like the nebulizer back so the kids and I went back to the croft to collect it and gave it to Eric (the late doctor Rachel’s widower who brings over the new doctor on his boat). Ady chatted to Eric for ages. We didn’t have anything on the ferry in the end – well we did but it had all come in the post rather than as parcels.

Back to the croft where Ady did some strimming for the new community polytunnel while I sawed up and measured wood for a bookcase in the static made from our old bookcase. It’s a real bodge-job created in a very made to measure manner but will hopefully take most of the books we have inside just now (we have a whole heap more in the horsebox)

Then it was time to head down. I dropped Ady, the kids and Bonnie off in the village along with eggs for Jinty – we’re selling duck eggs as a trial in the shop. well see how they go. I went along to meet the school boat and picked up Sorcha and Nell who are home for the weekend but Fliss and Sandy are away settling Keava (Sandy’s eldest) into uni in Edinburgh. I dropped them home having arranged to ring them later and call in tomorrow to check on them and take them back to the boat on Sunday. They are really nice girls and it feels like a real privilege to be asked to nominally keep an eye on them – I know I’d only ask someone I really trusted to do the same for Davies and Scarlett.

Back to the shop to meet the others for a while before heading to Vikki’s where we’d been invited for dinner. After a bit of a blip with Vikki we are back on track after I went round for a pep talk with her on Tuesday. I’m really glad I did and all is well now 🙂 We had a nice few hours round there and an earlier ending to the evening that if she’d come to us as we had to get children home. We parked at the crossroads so had a lovely in the dark evening walk home to the croft with a couple of turning off torches moments to fully appreciate the dark. It is shearwater chick fledging time just now and we really must get up to the hillside where they are doing it and experience it – maybe next week with The Barts 🙂 Then it’s deer rutting season. Oh the treasures of nature ahead of us.

As mentioned we had a chat about being the change in the world etc and then everyone went to bed but me. And I am now about to follow.

Today was a writing a job list and ticking it off as I went along type day. Davies and Scarlett are in a limbo of the excitement of the move wearing off and this now feeling like home and therefore requiring of stuff starting to feel ‘normal’ – whatever that is 😉 Scarlett has very much thrown herself into crofting and loves going down with Ady each morning to feed the animals, collect the eggs and splosh about in wellies. Davies is making his own strides out and spending time particularly with Mike the ranger and Steve who makes molds and casts models and creates games. He gets huge amounts from both of them and this allays my concerns about friends but I am also aware that he has always functioned best with a close relationship and plenty of time with me. 12 seems scarily old and I want to grasp at him a while longer and keep some of him still for me. We are all quite looking forward to the change of pace in the winter when we get to snuggle up, read, draw, craft and reconnect and gather ourselves ready for next season. We have another month or so of playing host yet with The Barts arriving next week, Lynda and Stuart at the end of the month followed by Julie & co for 3 weeks and my parents for a week in the middle of it, so the static is not quite all ours just yet.

Anyway, after a very minor wobble last night from Davies I promised him some of my day today so once I’d whizzed off a couple of pressing emails I sat and played a lego game with both the kids that Davies had designed and been trying to pin me down to play since Monday. It was actually a very enjoyable couple of hours and reminded me anew of how much I love spending time with my kids and where my priorities lie. 🙂 Far too easy to lose sight of the important things even when you think you have stripped everything down to literally nothing else.

We had lunch – pancakes made with duck eggs, Scarlett cleaned out The Humph and I did some more pressing online stuff. Our crowdfunding pitch is now live on the website but having realised you need to raise the whole sum or the pitch gets cancelled I realise I should have picked one method or another rather than starting to do it myself via paypal and the blog. I now can’t decide quite what to do as to start putting the link to crowdfunder in the same places I’ve been putting links to the blog, but I wonder if the crowdfunder site might look somehow more credible to people? Hmm, what to do…

The weather has been possibly our most testing yet today – really high gusts of wind. We took my big clock down from the wall as the walls were flexing a lot but other than that it has felt pretty safe and secure in here. We still have futher tethering and winter-readying work to do but this was a good test to give us confidence in what we’ve done so far. No Sheerwater today due to weather – there are only two more Thursday trips scheduled for this season anyway, fingers crossed we get to do one or both before that ends for this year.

We had enough of a break in the weather at 3pm ish to gather up various things and head down to Fliss & Sandy’s. Fliss had told us to use the house as much as we like for baths, Tv watching, charging stuff up etc. so we went down for Ady and I to have a bath, to do a quick inventory on our stuff in their freezer (we use space in it but I’d lost track of what was in there), the kids to watch TV and to give my laptop a charge up. The kids loved it and we left them there while Ady and I went to the RCA Meeting. The meeting was fine and fairly straightforward this month, which was just as well as I was taking minutes. My suggestion of introducing a feral cat population to control the rats bombed 😉

Back to collect the kids and then home for dinner. We had an illfated attempt at Lovefilm instant when all latops refused to play silverlight so maybe that was a silverlight issue rather than our laptops. We watched iplayer instead while we ate.

I was up far too late last night so need to be in bed before it gets too far into tomorrow 🙂