From tiny acorns

Last night saw the bonfire and fireworks happen. Isle of Rum venison burgers and sausages and steaks cooked on the barbecue, a towering inferno of a bonfire with the guy we helped make perched on top, fireworks whizzing and banging, kids writing their names in the air with sparklers and people chatting, laughing, sharing cakes they had brought along. I guess there were about 20 of us, so about half the community were there. It was a perfect night with a gorgeous moonrise over the sea and when we got home we sat on the sporran and gazed at the stars drinking a cup of tea laced with brandy and feeling content and at one with the world.

moonrise, the first I've ever seen over the sea. It felt as though you could walk across the ocean following the reflection like a magic pathway

taking a turn at turning the burgers.

watching the guy catch fire

There has been controversy over which night to have the fireworks - some said it should be at the weekend; we have the older children who attend high school on the mainland home every other weekend so they could have come, others felt it should be on November 5th no matter what day of the week that fell on. We have no such strong feelings either way not being school attendees or die hard pedants about calendars. We also are not much affected by what day of the week it is anyway - ferry timetables, vegetable deliveries and pancakes for breakfast on a Saturday are the only things that shape our week and the pancakes will be stopping now the egg laying has dried up. So we had a win: win situation of fireworks both last night and tonight. I think we deserved to see them two nights running after the crazy walk home from the postponed event on Saturday though.

Although we have Star's birthday as our next celebration thoughts are inevitably turning to Christmas and today we made our Christmas cake ready to be stashed and fed with regular drinks of brandy over the coming weeks. I made our mincemeat weeks ago and have been keeping that topped up, getting a burst of the scents of Christmas every time I open the container up to give it a stir.

We all had a stir of the Christmas cake and made our traditional wishes while doing so. I never remember what I wished for so can't tell you if mine ever come true, Dragon and Star tell me their's always do but I think they may be for quite specific acquisitions each year rather than the sort of wider reaching philosophical stuff I tend to come up with!

Christmas consumerism is not escaped even here on our remote island - Jinty's shop took delivery of festive booze last week; ginger Grouse, Baileys, the bottle of avocaar which apparently is older than Star was dusted down and brought to the front of the shelf. The Christmas signage has gone up and there is a stock of Roses chocolates with holly leaves on the packaging.

Meanwhile I am campaigning to get as many islanders as I can to join in with Secret Santa. I love SS - when done properly. By properly I mean rather than run around getting token, price governed tat for lots of people you are given just one person to focus on. Instead of having a long list of people to shop for you have the luxury of spending time thinking about what to gift to that individual - consider what they might like, quite possibly learning a little about them that you had not previously found the time or had the inclination to do before. What is their favourite colour, flavour, song? Making a hand knitted scarf, a little box of chocolate truffles, burning a cd of songs that remind you of them, framing a photo of their favourite place on the island, writing out a recipe for something you have made and they commented they enjoyed and making it the first entry in a beautiful notebook for them to start collecting other recipes in. The best gifts to give are those you know you have put love and heart and soul into, the best gifts to receive are those you will use, treasure and know were given in the true spirit of passing on a real present. I already have a third of the island signed up - I have further persuading to do...

I can't change the world, but I can have a bloody good try and changing my world :)