For the last few weeks, there’s been a sense of excitement among a lot of islanders. They told me to keep an ear out for an almost theatrical “awhoo!” that echoes across the water - and today, I heard it. Cutting through the stillness of a gorgeous spring afternoon, the eider’s sound seemed to mark the change of the seasons, the return of longer days, and the gradual shift from winter’s grip to something softer, though no less unpredictable.

Living here on the Isle of Rum, you learn to take your cues from the natural world. The eiders return, the yellow gorse bushes are in full bloom, the daffodils are sprouting, and the daylight stretches itself a little further every evening. These are the quiet markers of time passing, the subtler shifts that replace the idea of a mainland calendar filled with appointments and errands.

But that isn’t to say that life here isn’t busy. People often ask what we do all day out here, as if life in a remote place must be an endless stretch of unfilled time. And the dreaded question; what on earth do you do during winter?

The truth is, there’s never a shortage........

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