Extremes

Having barely caught our breath from our Cob course and visiting friends mainland visit in May / June we were off the island again, hence our silence.

With just one night to ourselves after we arrived home before we had a tag team off WWOOFers with us we packed ourselves up and left Rum again to visit friends and attend the Royal Highland Show - something we had been planning since last year when we intended to go but never quite made it. We have friends who live close enough to the showground to travel in each day so it was a perfect opportunity to spend time with them and go to all four days of the show.

When in Sussex we used to go to the South of England Show every year and it was a real highlight of our year - plenty of animals, agriculture, stands showcasing or selling the latest clothing, gadgets, technology and ideas in farming and working the land. It was always a long day of walking round the showground, rushing to take everything in and arriving home sunkissed (I think it was sunny every single year we went!) and exhausted. But a day was enough to take in more or less everything and I confess to wondering quite what we'd do with four whole days at the Royal Highland Show and how we'd possibly fill them. I was wrong! We could have spent at least four more days there and still found things to do. From food demonstrations and tasting with chefs, endless free plastic tat to collect, demonstrations of machinery and ideas, three different arenas with constant shows (falconry, sheepdogs, gundog training, stunt bikes, horses showjumping, cart pulling, cattle and horse and sheep and goat judging, donkeys, rare breeds of all descriptions, mini llamas, poultry tents, chainsaw sculptures, pole climbing, sheep shearing, farrier displays, craft tents, rural skills displays) and endless tents with quizzes, games, activities and giveaways. It was a fantastic four days and  we're already looking forward to next years show.

Ady and Scarlett came home from the show and had a good few days home on the croft swimming in the river, barbecuing dinners, attending a couple of community events and generally tending to the croft. Meanwhile Davies and I continued on our mainland adventure and flew south to collect our new car, before taking a couple of days driving it all the way back up to Rum. An epic road trip of the type that films are made about. Not made any quicker or more straightforward by the fact that we had been advised not to take the car over 50mph.

I must confess that the final 48 hours on the mainland were the type which make me eternally glad I don't live there any more. All the worst bits - traffic jams filled with angry, impatient and rude drivers, supermarkets filled with expensive items and harassed shoppers, motorway services selling overpriced items of poor quality to an endless stream of autopilot people. Never have I been so pleased to sink into a seat on the ferry and catch my first glimpse of Rum across the water. I drove the new car off the boat and onto Rum flashing the lights and beeping the horn with delight! I have no intention of leaving again any time soon!

Normal blog service will be resumed soon - I have much real life catching up to do first but expect photos of the croft 3 creatures and our gorgeous scenery to be reappearing as soon as I have caught my breath.