A little wind obsessed

I have a dim memory of a picture book I had as a child, it had various stories including one about Bluebeard so I assume it was a retelling of myths, legends and folktales. There was one about a zephyr which was a new word for me and the picture was of a whirling cloud-like little stormy wind with a cross look on his face. I don't recall all of the story but I think it was a version of the Hyacinth and Apollo tale.

I have always been a bit snooty about the anthropomorphism of animals that children's books and TV promotes but here on Rum I find myself joining in with the attributing characteristics to the weather, the landscape and the island itself that we all seem to do. The wind certainly feels as though it has been playing with us a little this weekend. We have had the wind turbine tied up twice as it has been so windy we feared it getting damaged. Yesterday we had so much energy from it we had to plug in an electric heater to dump some of the load to prevent the battery overloading. 

We are in ferry disruption territory again; Saturdays was late, todays was cancelled altogether and tomorrow we are getting one instead of two. Very high tides have meant the sea is washing over the shore road and last night was another of the nights where we kept being woken by the wind rattling the walls, shaking the roof and drumming at the windows. We have had some impressive snowfalls up on the peaks and on Sunday when I was chopping firewood the logs kept getting blown over before I could swing the axe to chop them!

All of this has meant nice amounts of indoor time though. On Saturday we watched the rugby along with a few others at someone's house. On Sunday Ady went to watch some more, the children and I having tried and failed to understand what was going on at all. Davies confessed to me that he doesn't really understand most sports - I agreed, I don't either. We have spent time today doing a large jigsaw puzzle lent to us by another islander from his large puzzle collection. It meant we had dinner on laps as it is spread out on the table but it was a very nice way to spend the afternoon. Another friend came round for a cup of tea and the visit lasted until after wine o'clock so she stayed for a glass of that too. Scarlett came to work with me on Saturday morning, Davies and I went down to join in with the music practice on Saturday evening so I enjoyed a walk down to the village and back with each of them at different times of day. Scarlett and I marveled at the snowfall in the early morning sunshine and talked about age differences between couples. Davies and I were awestruck by the stars and discussed playing musical instruments and ways of learning to do so.

While all this is going on we are planning for the coming months ahead and getting excited about adventures to come this summer.