Dance as though no one is watching

At least once every day I am reminded of how lucky we are to live here, on our croft, on Rum.

I was talking to a new friend at the weekend about what an amazing place this is for Davies and Scarlett to grow up. About how although they miss being with other kids all the time the opportunities they have living here far and away make up for that.

Yesterday we were supposed to be going up a mountain to help monitor shearwater chicks. The weather was just too hot to be climbing mountains though so instead we helped out on an equally fun and interesting quest which was moving a pregnant Rum pony and a newly born foal and her mum to a different field.

Davies got to lead the pregnant pony

Scarlett was spotter for the foal, guiding her whenever she got a bit wobbly about realising that the whole world was not just that field she'd been living in for the last 2 days, which she'd only just gotten used to being the whole world outside of her mummy!

I think it's safe to say they fell in love...

I meanwhile worked on my slight fear of ponies. I've done a great job these last few years of conquering my fear of dogs to the point that I am now a dog owner, I'm working really hard on the horse / pony thing. Plus I'm about to sign up to be a volunteer for various tasks on-island which will include leading the cattle around. Once I've done that a few times I can confidently say I'm over all the animal doubts. Sort of....

Some other random photos:

A freshly caught crab we were given in exchange for eggs, caught off the shores of Rum. brought home, cooked and eaten within the day. Sea to plate in hours.

From my island cruise on Saturday where I took in all the Small Isles - twice - I give you....

some shots of where I live. It was an amazing seven hours on the boat on Saturday. The weather was glorious, the skies and sea were glimmering blue, I saw whales, puffins and other seabirds and was just desperate to point things out to my fellow passengers - 'quick a shearwater' 'that's Rum, I live there' 'see that dorsal fin you just pointed out to your husband and claimed was a dolphin? actually it was a minke whale which is even more exciting!'. I didn't. Because people would have edged away from me and I'd have gained 'nutter on the ferry' status, but I wanted to.

Instead I spent the time reflecting on how lucky I was to be spending this time on a boat basically circumnavigating the place I call home, where every stunning view was just the other side of the mountain from where I live, but most of the other folk on the ferry were on holiday, taking furious snapshots to show people where they'd been, gasping at the wildlife, drinking in the scenery.

The internet is slow, apparently we have a Small Isle -wide issue with servers or something technical and broadbandy that I don't understand so photos are taking forever to load up. But I do have more to share soon.

I'll leave you with Scarlett swimming in the river. It's what summer afternoons when you are ten are pretty much made for I reckon...