ERRAID
February 2008
has come and gone and there was lots of water, rain, hail, sleet and some sun too. Even a spate of 10 days of spring weather, little wind so it could be called a light breeze, flat and still water such a huge change to the surging, splashing, crashing waves in the bay and onto the pier. It is a glorious place-still. Both the Oban and Iona and most of the Hebridean ferries have been regularly out of service because of the seas this month. Family of one of the residents visited last week and had to return to Newcastle and managed the ferry which had not run the previous day; they were excited – now all they had to do was reach Oban to catch their train – however found the train not running – there\’d been a landslide! It all happens here.
I have been cooking for the community in my turn starting off with lunches and now I have graduated to dinner! What a challenge! And there is something about me that panics when I have to cook dinner. One would think I haven\’t cooked before and haven\’t cooked this type of food. We eat mainly what we grow and have grown and frozen or dried. So a lot of potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and onions are cooked which is a strange statement from me as the latter 3 vegies have run out and we buy these in! But there are frozen broad beans, broccoli, cauliflower and a few peas left and with soup each lunch, the vegies are ideal. Yes, there is still some meat cooked, generally for dinners, and we have had about 2 meat meals in a few days – quite a record. It is not something I want to cook and the cooking of it generally goes on the preference of the cook, or a special occasion.
So what else? The latest job on offer for me is the painting of the wheel barrows, 4 of them, which have to be rubbed down and prepared for the paint. Also had a hand in the potting of seedlings, rocket and cauliflower, in the new coldframe, and just finished the annual clean and check on all the garden tools. They are always in good condition because when we finish using tools we are required to clean and oil them – worth every minute. And I am weeding and tidying the gardens outside the back doors of all the cottages – these are like the personal flower gardens of the cottages rather than vegie gardens. And presently in the very wet yard, wet they all are, behind #7 cottage where I presently live we now have the 4 community sheep to eat down the grass so it\’s great to look through the window and have these 4 woolly horned sheep outside my window. I feed them pellets and hay daily until they can go outside the yards in with all the other Island sheep. Which will be soon.