A month on an island

I’m about to enjoy the unbelievable luxury of a whole month off. Firstly huge thanks to Jill for enabling me to do this. I feel very lucky for all her support over me bogging off for four weeks. I’m going back to the tiny island I visited in April. Unlike last time, I will be staying in an unrenovated off-grid cottage – so no gas lamps or gas fridge… in fact nothing but two rooms above the sea, and two wood burning stoves. We have to take EVERYTHING else that we might need. Here’s a (tiny) picture of it…

Regular readers of the blog may have noticed my growing obsession with bothies, remote cottages and general hippy stuff in recent months. I’ve been preparing thoroughly for my trip by…erm… creating a Pinterest board of pretty cabins. That should cover it, right? In my mind the whole trip is going to look rather like this…

Florist Amy Merrick’s cabin in the US

However, the reality is this. Everything we need – plus me, the fella and – yes – the cat – need to fit ourselves into a small inflatable boat for the trip over. We then have to carry everything up the hill to the cottage. So where I want to buy gorgeous antique tin and copper stuff to cook with, and natural brooms to sweep up with and lovely fabric to mess about making curtains from… in reality we have to go plastic. I’m developing a new aesthetic called ‘Necessity Chic’ where I will find the beauty in green plastic buckets and camping kit. I have, however, allowed myself a few luxuries. After weeks of looking I found our hot water supply on a salvage forum. Meet my new bathroom:

This baby – a tea urn that has a sort of military or institutional look about it – holds three gallons of hot water, and it will fit on top of the stove (hopefully), meaning we can have hot water on tap – I think this will feel like an indispensable simulation of civilisation once October comes around. The big green trug was bought from an equestrian supplies shop. That, my friends, will be my bath. Yes, I’ve checked and I do fit.

I am also packing our feather duvet and comfy pillows – the only bad thing about last year’s trip to the Bothy was that my bony ass* couldn’t get to sleep on a camping mat. I’m also taking a hammer, nails, some industrial-strength tape for mending a leaky roof… but I’m also sneaking some art into my rucksack to decorate with. A few postcards and those 3 little paintings on card I bought last week. While I’m there I will be occasionally writing – primarily bits about the history of the island and what I see there – on a blog, here. Can’t wait to come back and tell you all how it went. Wish me luck!