The Best Five Days

It wasn’t the sun. It wasn’t the gorgeousness of it. It wasn’t the friendships. It was meant for you. And for Will.  I didn’t give proper thought to any of the rest of it until I had to.

I am enjoying moving on. There’s lots to do and I do lots of it.  And while I’m doing it, Tiree lingers like a favourite perfume. It wafts all around me, invisible and silent and fleeting and never far away.  Unfinished business.

I am a creature of habit and commitment. The Tiree 10k and Half Marathon is the first of Tiree’s annual events. It's also something I've taken part in more times than I care to remember. It’s a big deal. This year it was celebrating its 20^th Anniversary.  Not its 20-year anniversary, but the anniversary of its 20^th race.  The pandemic has ruined continuity for everyone who bothers about that kind of thing. Everyone like me.

Image by Tiree Fitness

It was a record year for Will, apparently.  Some 350 runners, although I could have sworn there had been close to 400 once but I must be wrong. It was said that 63% were first timers. That figure astounded me.  I always imagine the year-on-year regulars getting in first and leaving only the dregs for first-timers. I wonder what changed last year when registration opened?

Anyway – the point is, I could see it looming and it didn’t sit well with me that the café may not be open for it. I can’t explain why it was so important to me that it should be, it just was. It didn’t matter that there hadn’t been a café at the pier for its first hundred years, there was a café now and it mattered that it was open for this.  I had this daft notion that the very last thing some runners might see on Tiree, and think of, was a closed sign at the cafe they went to get coffee from before the ferry arrived.  And if, like me, coffee was a good start to their day and they hadn’t time before they reached the pier, it would really cheer them up to be able to park up, check-in, and stroll over to Yellow Hare for a delicious caffeine hit.  It would be the last thing they did before getting on the ferry. The finishing touch to a fabulous weekend.  

A big part of me also genuinely did not want to do it.  I hoped the new owners would be up and running by then and willed everything to fall in to place, but it soon became clear that this wouldn’t happen.  Progress has been trotting along rather than galloping.  No-one’s fault.  Just how it is.  And so I knew by April that it was going to have to be my way or the highway. And yet I couldn't make up my mind.

I don’t know how many of you have worked festivals or pop ups, but it’s no mean feat. Those stalls, and food places, and merchandise cabins that often have people sitting at them looking bored, waiting for someone to buy something? Each one of them will have taken weeks and possibly months to get to that point. Not to mention lots of gambling and going out on a wing. Number-crunching, creating, pricing, listing, packing, designing, fetching, carrying, off-loading, etc., etc. The most work that goes into doing a festival pop up happens before the festival.

I knew it would take a fair bit of coordinating but I reasoned it would be worth it.  And no, not financially.   As it happened I broke even, which is good, but that’s not why I did it.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; if money was my only motivation, I’d find easier ways to make it.

Once I’d worked out how I was going to do it and had found a way to process payments - the shop no longer has a phone line or broadband - the rest was easy.  All I had to do was make the decision, which I finally did, once and for all after much dithering, a week before I got on the ferry.  One whole week.  I would open for five days.

This was my to-do list:

TAKE TO TIREE

✓         Brown sugar

✓         Caster sugar

✓         Butters

✓         Stork

✓         Flavourings

✓         Coffee

✓         Decaf tea/coffee

✓         Hot choc

✓         Chai

✓         Alternative milks

✓         Snacks

✓         Tea

✓         Mallows

✓         Cream

✓         Water

✓         Juice

✓         Dove GF flour

✓         Cleaning stuff

✓         Cloths

✓         Knives

✓         Teatowels

✓         Aprons

✓         Hair nets

✓         Treacle

✓         Cup cake moulds

✓         Whisks

✓         Spatulas

✓         Blender

✓         Mixer

✓         Large Bowl

✓         Baking sheets

✓         Parchment paper

✓         Cling film

✓         Foil

✓         PRINTER

✓         PAPER

✓         Laminator

✓         Mixer

✓         FLOURS

✓         CHOCOLATE

✓         SYRUP

✓         CHERRIES

✓         Raising agents

✓         Syrup

✓         Icing sugar

✓         RECIPES

✓         Dishes

✓         Pan

✓         Cutlery

✓         Cake moulds and trays

✓         BOX OF BAKING TRAYS

✓         CUTTLERY

✓         COOKIE CUTTERS

✓         Flan cases

To set up shop again:

Mobile WiFi

Cash float

PL Insurance

Gas check

Cups/dishes

Stock out

Retrieve cake display

Allergy/ingredients list

Water/Electric/Gas on

Menus

Gift bags, wrapping, etc.

Set up retail unit

Card readers for back up

Coffee machine check

Calibrate coffee

Fridges - thermostat checks

Clean toilet

Wash floors

And still I forgot lots of things.  I only took one pan.  I forgot a tin opener and corkscrew. Not enough sharp knives.  No measuring jug. Forgot the oven trays for scones. As I was baking, I kept reaching for something I hadn’t brought.  

The car was creaking under the weight of it all but I was on my way and excited to be going. Then - wow– that moment as you drive off the ferry onto the island.  I’d almost forgotten that feeling. It was a cracking day, wall-to-wall blue-sky beautiful. I checked in on the shop and it greeted me like an old friend, all warm and welcoming. I emptied the car at the house and went to a friend’s for dinner.  I was so happy to be back.  It wasn’t ideal, what I was doing, but it was okay and I believed I’d manage.  It would all be fine, even if it wasn’t busy.  In truth I didn’t want it to be busy because I was on my own.  I hadn’t attempted to get help. It’s difficult enough to get staff at the best of times without trying a week before opening for a few days.  I kind of knew I’d manage busy boat times because I’m no stranger to busy boat times on my own.  I get into the zone and I manage.

Getting to hold the cup: the closest I got to the 10k/Half Marathon this year.

It was the best five days.  I caught up with customers of old and friends I’d not seen in an age and slipped into baking as though I’d never been away. Ferry time on Sunday and Monday morning was frantic.  Out of the blue, Frances - Yellow Hare’s longest serving barista - appeared like a vision on Sunday just as the queue reached its peak and between us we managed. Monday was just me so I opened even earlier in the hope of reducing the crowd. Two hours and 84 coffees later, it was all over. I watched the ferry drift towards Coll.  Those two days… watching that continuous stream of happy faces leave with a hot-to-the-touch Yellow Hare cup of coffee or hot chocolate and more often than not, some cake too, made my heart swell with an odd and completely undeserved feeling of pride.  I was riding on Will’s Anniversary coat tails and I loved every minute.  I tidied the shop away and left the next day.

There was the briefest of moments right at the beginning when I thought I could pick up the pieces and start again if I had to. But in my heart of hearts I know that I wouldn’t. It’s over. I did what I came to do and was happy to leave at the end of it all.  I don’t want to go back.  I want to go forward. And forward for me starts in Edinburgh. I can’t seem to stop baking, though, so I’m looking at cafes somewhere near the centre.  I’ll keep you posted.  Meanwhile, to everyone who helped make my day, my week, my year, just by being there; thank you.

Over to you, Perky Otter.

Kate MacLeod May 2026