Erraid
MARCH
and it\’s almost the end of the month and because of the equinox and easter there are a lot of guests here which makes daily life experience a bit different. Rather than the total sum of residents, 7, and long term guests, 2, and me, there are now 26 guests one week and 31 the next – so there\’s a lot more action and a lot more personalities – and children too. And a lot more chopping of vegies and peeling of spuds.
Richard and Hilary, long-term residents, left. They\’d been living here about 7 years and have motored off to Edinburgh to their home in their new camper van. From there they\’ll drive around to places they want, maybe even do a stint at wwoofing – you know, the working on farms experience I did in Austria and Romania. The total sum of residents is now 5 so I can see those responsibilities that Richard and Hilary attended to spread within the remaining group. Maren takes over the chain-sawing of logs, and even goes collecting them from the other side of the Bay; Sylke now does the candle-making as well as her homecare and glass making; Paul does all the mechanical maintenance and fiddling with tractors and trailers and boats – and probably does more now; and whereas Richard also did transport, driving the boat back and forth, when the weather permitted! I think that now is shared by Heather, Maren and Paul – so the community residents work a pretty full day. They all have to take their turn at cooking of course and meal preparation can take 4 hours for dinner for the numbers presently here. So guests are invited to help. Sometimes it works best with 3 extra to cook, and for washing up and cleaning the dining room – well a good team is at least 4.
GARDENS
Debbie has spent time she loves in the greenhouse getting those little seeds to sprout with her tender loving care and there are cauliflower, rocket, cabbage, herbs and goodness only knows what else coming along fine and in a little while will be planted out. We have planted garlic and onions in the gardens and the next to plant are the potatoes. We\’ve got a few more loads of seaweed, badly needed for the gardens, and cut back the willow shrubs that line one of the garden paths. The cuttings taken here were planted on the Island, around on the south-western side just inside the perimeter of a fenced area and when grown will create a windbreak for trees that will be planted inside that fenced area. Tried before but the trees didn\’t do too good because of the wind.
What else have I been doing?
Today for example, it was an amazing day weather-wise. A pleasant breeze, and none, and sunny and then a little cloud later in the day, but very pleasant to wander over the island. Yesterday, even though we worked in the garden, it was sunny, hail, gales and this pattern was repeated about 5 times! So today was a surprise and very much enjoyed. A lot of the guests and some residents walked to Balfour Bay with bags in hand to pick up trash. There can sometimes be a huge amount of trash – plastics (of course) of all types, ropes, twine, old fishing baskets and so on but today most of the rubbish was ropes and twine – I wonder if the sand is covering a lot more probably is as on previous clean ups they have got 50 bags of rubbish. Today maybe 12 with a few other hunks of flotsam and jetsam. And a couple of the women went swimming! Now I wonder if the water temp is more than above freezing I doubt it – mad they were – English – and then two young boys went in too – they too are English. What does that tell me…
ACCENT
they laugh at the way I say \’people\’ – what a giggle, some of the guests didn\’t know what the word meant…..it is interesting to hear those clever enough to be able to copy accents, mimic my accent. i always say, i don\’t have an accent, i just speak ostrayan!
STAFFA
Tomorrow Wednesday is my day off and I thought about a trip to Staffa Island which takes about 40 minutes by boat from Fionnphort. Staffa looks beautiful, amazing vertical rocks and on the island, which is very small and no one lives on it except the Puffins when they come in about August, there\’s a cave called Fingal\’s Cave, made more famous by Mendelssohn who composed an overture about it being so impressed by it. But I may have to leave this boat trip for another day because of the transport arrangements off Erraid. The boat for Staffa will leave at noon instead of the usual 9.45am and transport off here is at 9am unless I walk around the Bay at low tide later in the morn and add on another half hour walk then to Fionnphort – so I will wait until I can coordinate my transport better. But I have learned that one has to \’seize the day\’ generally – weather being what it is – however I have about another 3 weeks here and will fit it in some time before I leave – this is thinking positively.
LEAVING ERRAID
Now that date is anticipated to be about 17 April and from here to Wales, then Romania and Mosna again, back to Venice, fly out of Rome on May 4 to Singapore, wait for Myanmar visa and visit Peter, Sri Lanka and then back to Sydney about 9 June.