Author: Lesley

We used to feed the birds with feeders wired to the adjacent croft fence when we were in the caravan.

We learned quickly that either the wind or the ravens, cunning tricksters that they are, would upend and dislodge the feeders very quickly if we left them dangling from their hooks, so we secured them with wire to the metal fence.

The birds got used to them and over the years we saw some beautiful birdlife. Sparrows, a sparrow hawk 😥, dunnocks, tits, goldfinches, siskins, chaffinches, doves, robins, wheatears .. and probably a ton that we mis-identified.

When we moved into the house a few months ago we decided that as there was no visible fence to attach feeders to in front of the windows that we’d buy a heavy iron spike with arms to hold the seed dispensers. It’s driven into the ground for stability. Of course, we don’t have much depth of soil here so we drove it in and husband weighted it down with a large rock.

We’ve hardly had any wind since it’s been up but it already sways like a ship on a swell. I’m really not sure that it’s going to survive a windy Skye day despite our best endeavours.

So far in the three days since it’s been up it’s only visitor has been a robin who hopped round it hopefully and a couple of ravens, clearly disgruntled that they weren’t able to land on it and raid the fat balls.

Let’s hope that it survives long enough to be useful and that the birds find it!

We’ve been enjoying the most amazing weather these last few days, with cold but bright days, remarkable sunrises and sunsets, and the strongest aurora borealis (northern lights) show that we’ve ever seen from this part of the island last night.

It’s been sunny enough that I started clearing the polycrub from its dead winter foliage ready for top dressing with fresh compost in preparation for seed planting.

We still have purple sprouting broccoli, rocket, red kale, cavalo Nero kale, spring onions, parsley, coriander and tatsoi growing happily in there.

And I’ve started sowing this years seeds.

Those huge windows on the south side of the house are worth their weight in gold at this time of the year, and with the solar gain boosting internal house temperatures into the mid twenties (centigrade) it’s created perfect conditions for germination.

I’ve sowed chillies, tomatoes, kale, beans, mixed lettuces, aubergines, cucumbers, dill and coriander. I only meant to start a few but got a bit carried away. I’m sure that we’ll find a place for them all eventually 😊

Then there was the aurora borealis last night. We normally have the aurora watch app on to alert us if there’s likely to be a strong occurrence, but last night we were busy, so it was only when neighbours started texting us that we realised we were missing something special.

Here in the south of the island we rarely see anything other than a faint glow on the northern horizon. But last night was exceptional.

The best viewpoint was the upstairs bathroom which had a north facing window and which was high enough to allow us to see past the steep hill to the north of the croft that would normally block the low evening sky. The camera had no charge, of course, so it was phone camera only.

Husband still managed to capture some of the dancing lights. Remarkable.

This evening is predicted to be active again, so we will be ready. In the meantime I’ve been enjoying the gentler and less dramatic winter evening light as the sun sets.

One of the lovely things about the house being oriented to the South East is that we get the most wonderful morning skies.

As the mornings start to lengthen and sunrise comes earlier each day, breakfast is often taken with the lightening sky. And the most breathtaking views.

Here are a selection from the last few weeks.

It’s been an incredibly wet month so far, with torrential rain every day. The croft is totally saturated. I should be out there sorting vegetable beds out but I fear that I might sink into the mud never to be seen again.

For those of you unfamiliar with Isle of Skye rain, here’s a short video clip to share the joy.

Instead of being out and about, I’ve been wintering. Cooking warming, comforting food and sitting by the woodburner watching the rain sweep across the sea.

We’ve identified a strange noise that we’d been hearing every night around midnight after retiring to bed. We’d usually be just drifting off to sleep when it would wake us up. We’d both look at each other in confusion and in my case certainly, fear. What was that noise? Did we have intruders?

We eventually worked it out. There was no need to sleep with a baseball bat by the bed after all.

It was the woodburner emitting a loud metallic bang as it contracted on cooling after an evening of heating up. Amplified by the big roof volume in the sitting room, I suspect, it sounded like a gun being fired, and to say it scared the bejeezus out of us the first few nights would be an understatement!

As the work on the big bookcase, wardrobes and lighting continues, we have piles of screwdrivers, electrical bits and hinges everywhere. Coupled with the boxes that needed to be brought inside to make room for the carpentry in the shed (but which can’t be put away until the storage is finished) I’m feeling on the very edge of controlled chaos.

The way I’m coping with this without tipping over into the stress that extreme untidiness usually causes me is that I’ve carved a few spaces in the sitting room out of the mayhem and am working hard to keep them free of debris. They’re my small pockets of sanctuary.

We are making progress though. Husband is finishing the upstairs bedroom storage and has added knobbage to all the cupboard doors. We shall start osmo oiling these tomorrow and hopefully should be able to start using them next week.

It will be so good to start getting things finished and put away at last.

January is traditionally the month in which people rest, hibernate, and live slowly if they can. Staying warm and cosied-in feels like the right thing to do as we follow the rhythm of these short, dark days.

Not when you’ve still got a house build to complete, sadly. It’s been busier than ever these last few weeks.

Husband has been continuing the wiring – sockets and alarm systems. I’m sure that he feels that it’s one of those never ending tasks. But we now have some light and power in the hall and living area at last, and I can retire the candles.

The pantry is filling up as I move stores over from the caravan and discover boxes of dried goods from our previous life in London. It’s been a good opportunity to do a stocktake and check dates on things. My weekly meal plan is already incorporating the oldest items wherever possible.

We’ve also made progress with finishing the plinths in the kitchen, and filling in the edges (called the scribes, I’m told). We just need to fill and finish the skirting, choose and fit a splash-back, get some art up on the walls and some well loved things into the room to make it feel like home. It looks a bit bare right now, which is really not me.

The utility room is coming along too, with the worktop and sink in place and unit drawers and doors now in. This is going to be such a useful space for laundry, cleaning croft produce, gutting fish and making homebrew …

Inch by inch it’s becoming our home.