Which sounds like a recovering alcoholic!

Today marks the three year anniversary of us leaving the Isle of Rum, a place which had been our home for just short of seven years. We left in much the same way we had arrived, crammed into a vehicle loaded with what we thought we needed for the next chapter, rather unsure of what to expect but excited by the adventure.

We didn’t have a hamster – Humphrey had lived most of his life and was buried on Rum. Bonnie was rather a lot bigger than the 12 week old puppy we had arrived with and we had our already very well travelled Kira cat with us, who was well versed in cat carrier based in car travels having been on several holidays, trips to Glastonbury, Sussex and of course Ireland with us already.

We didn’t have jobs, or furniture, or mainland suitable clothes but when have details ever stopped us from heading off in new directions?!

What a strange three years it has been for the whole world. A pandemic, continued climate emergencies, civil uprisings and protests, headline news updates on war in Europe, terrifying cost of living increases. I am not sure these are the most uncertain times we have lived through but we are certainly all aware of the uncertainty now.

In many ways a return to mainland life, to moving back into a house and reconnecting to the grid has meant our lives are less tuned in to the things we feel so passionately about – low impact living, reducing our carbon footprint, being as self sufficient as we can. In others we have been able to make more of a difference now than we could on Rum – able to shop locally, support our community in ways we were not always able on Rum. For certain though we have been able to find opportunities for all four of us individually to follow our passions and find fulfilling ways to spend our days. This had stopped being quite so achievable for us on Rum.

All four of us are working, all part time, in jobs that we really enjoy, feel valued in, find challenging and worthwhile. We have made friends and connections, despite the pandemic, and found opportunities to socialise, learn and take on new hobbies and interests.

Most importantly for all four of us though we have found a way of meeting as many of our individual needs as possible, while staying together as a close family unit. The extra space, solidity and security of a house rather than a caravan, greater connection to technology to enable remote working, learning and socialising, more space to host, easier logistics for travel and no real loss of access to the wild spaces mean that, certainly for the time being, this is home and we are very happy here.