Happy Travels

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.

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.

FEBRUARY 1, 2 and 3

Snow!  and enough of it – we are an island on the coast. Snow covered all the islands visible from here, which of course, included Mull; it seemed very strange to be so close to the sea and have snow too. When it stopped after 36 hours or so it took about a day or more to melt and there were little patches of ice all over the hills and gardens and up against the cottages and buildings.

The goose managed to stay out in it and in the early hours of Saturday 1, little red calfie was born to Jeanie, nice and warm in the byre filled with clean straw. We now have Morven due in a month or so. She is a red cow and all of them are pretty and friendly; there is a herd of 2 cows, 1 heifer and this little calf. They may not keep this calf as she is only (AI) half dairy and sometimes not all dairy temperament is not so quiet. Took some pics of the snow, and the calf, and maybe one day will print off one or two and send out.

The community just looked lovely. All the beaches beyond the water were covered with snow!  and the camping field opposite us on Mull was covered with snow. Pretty, pretty, pretty. But it was blowy and cold and did I tell you we have composting toilets so it\’s a dress-up each time we head out into the back yard – then a quick stand in front of the fire back in the house.

It is a quiet month here on Erraid, there are few guests for various reasons. Different seasons, equinoxes, solstices, Easter programmes are advertised on their site inviting guests, pretty exciting too.

When Autumn comes

This is called \’dutch time\’ when the dutch family who own the island and the community, ie buildings etc, come here for the whole of August for their annual holiday. The residents here have to pack all their own and personal belongings and store them for a month in some of the buildings and present the place to the dutch. And I believe the dutch have an extended family here also with them. It is an \’enforced\’ holiday for all the Erraid residents who at present number 7. By August Hilary and Richard will have left (probably mid-March – they\’ve been here for about 6 years) and maybe Debbie Paul and Josh. So there may be some changes in who constitutes the community.

Work

So far because of all the rain I have done little gardening only and a little seaweeding the latter being very beneficial to the gardens. We drive the tractor and trailer to the beach, 150m, and load the luscious seaweed on, return and then spread it over the gardens or grass. Very very nutritious. It feels good, is fresh, slippery and there are huge fronds and pieces and quite heavy to lift a fork full. With the rain there hasn\’t been much weeding so I have spent time in the candle studio \’polishing\’ candles and cleaning moulds. Erraid has been making candles for over 20 years and selling them in the local shop at Fionnphort (pronounced Fin – e- fort) and at the Findhorn shop at Forres, northern coast of Scotland. I am learning a bit about the process each time I spend in the studio which is heated with a wood fire and has a great old radio which plays classical music – this is something that I really miss out on. Down in the cottages my radio doesn\’t pick up the stations that play the music, think one is BBC3, and the other is called \’Classic FM\’. This in no way compares to ABC Classic FM. The UK station rarely, that is rarely, plays music longer than 5 mins so it\’s usually just a movement of a symphony, opera, concerto – in ways it is very disconcerting and interrupts the flow. That is their policy I hear. So back to the studio – thanks that there\’s a radio which picks up the station clearly – a great drawcard for my spending time there.

Cooking

As a temporary long-term part of the community here I am on the rota to do cooking. This was a concern for me as it has been a long time since I have cooked for more than myself and it is over 7 months now!!! since I have left Sydney and therefore cooked only rarely at hostels etc. So I am going into the kitchen with others to watch and learn things such as how the AGA cooker works which runs on coal, how much to cook for how many guests there are, how to time it so the cooking is all completed about the same time etc. What a lesson.

Gardens – Monday 28 January 2008

Quite a good day – don\’t think we had rain. Got into the garden and weeded out old carrot patch and grass. We collected a trailer load of seaweed in the afternoon from the beach in front of the Croft ( farm house) about 150yds away from the houses. We were Sylke and Maren, both residents (that is they live here permanently and are part of the community), David and me. Debbie, resident, was still weeding the garden this afternoon so we could throw the weed on it. The weed is feet thick on the beach, this is the time of year when the winds and tides bring it in, and we just fork it onto the trailer and then load it into wheelbarrows and throw it over the weeded gardens – it is extremely beneficial to the gardens and is an annual chore for the community.

What else happened here in the community today –

Debbie and Paul took Josh over in the small boat to Mull about 8.40a to go to school. This is of course the regular way for him to get to school at Bunessan about 20kms away on Mull. They got the boat to the other side and found that with the wind, weed and high tide they would not be able to bring the boat back and expected to go there this afternoon and trailer it back. A local school bus picks Josh up a half mile from where the boat lands. Then Debbie and Paul had to walk about 2 miles around the bay, which was very very wet, and when their walk was interrupted by a swamp and a river, they headed to a made road and walked to KnockVologan, a croft up on the hill where the residents are allowed to park their cars,  and where the community van is kept when it is too windy or dark to use the boat (as happened this morning on the school run!). From KnockVologan they walked back to Erraid and through a little water over The Narrows (between Mull and Erraid) as the tide was still going out. Took them a couple of hours. One is kept fit on this Isle. This afternoon 3 of them walked around and found they were able to float the boat and bring it back here.

One resident, Maren, cut and split wood, a regular and necessary job as all the cottages burn wood in their stoves to heat the water and cottage; Sylke did a bit of housekeeping, washing the tea towels etc etc; Debbie fresh from her bay walk, prepared both the morning tea and lunch of soup and salad-yummy too, all food from the garden; Paul, not sure what he did after his walk; Heather looked after the cows and chickens and did some computer work for the community; I did the garden and seaweed and David, guest, the same. That\’s today\’s story. Richard and Hilary are away visiting grandchildren and will be back on Wednesday.

The day was quite mild and as I said it didn\’t rain. Will continue soon.

Galway to Connemara

Tour

A great bus trip and one to fill in my day while awaiting the bus leaving for Dublin at 1.15a tomorrow morning. Went to Kylemore Abbey which was a beautiful house built by Mitchell Henry for his wife, who died a few years later. He was distraught so built a small beautiful church on the grounds in her memory and there is even a mausoleum with all the family residing now in the grounds.
http://www.kylemoreabbey.com/ OR http://www.gardensireland.com/kylemore-abbey.html

just for a bit of info. It is a beautifully designed church and has marble, different types and all from Ireland in the inside pillars . Connemara marble is a light green and gorgeous. Bought by the Benedictine Nuns for £45,000 in about 1920s they repaid the loan within 12 years – pretty good going – must have been a fortune then.

Then to Connemara, past the only fjord Slatibastfast didn\’t design for Ireland called Killary Fjord, etc etc and then through Costello, Inverin and Spiddal where all they do is build walls out of stones – the landscape is littered with small fields all surrounded by stone walls – magnificent to see an almost unbelievable maze. The weather cleared a lot during the day and although still cloudy no rain and the view of Galway Bay was clear. The promenade along the Bay is longest in the place (UK even?) at 3kms and is v busy during the summer months. With all the narrow roads and narrow streets in the towns, the traffic would be a nightmare in summer.

Landscape

The landscape changed quite quickly from peat bog which is dug and dried in the summer weeks and then burned for heat etc during the winter – black chocolate looking soil. I saw it being harvested on the way from Dublin to Cork but didn\’t know what was happening. The deeper they go, the better the peat and there were acres being bulldozed in the midlands. Oh and some of the houses, particularly older ones, are thatched and still repaired with thatch except now that is reeds and the reeds are now imported from Turkey – quite an expensive exercise because the insurance on these cottages is about 20% higher than normal. But they look good. Put this way, as against the modern straight-sided, aluminium, stone and glass with slate roof houses being built, they are a charm.

Still got about 45 minutes to wait until I get onto the bus. The night is quite fine, a little rain and I went to an Irish pub with a friend I met on the bus tour today. They had a \’jam\’ session; 1 banjo mandolin, mandolin, flute or drum, 2 squeeze boxes of different types, couple of violins and the spoons – think that was the total – great music and a good evening had by me.