Sandlodge, Shetland

Its so good to live so close to the sea and Sandsayre is about 2 mins away on the eastside

I have just finished a 3 day photography tour for a couple from Australia, they were very impressed with Shetland and had some great weather

Shetland is getting a lot of visitors at present with three cruise liners most days and lots of yachts

Why go abroad when you can come to Shetland, so much to see and experience

We are heading south for a break soon, we always say we have 50 weeks holiday and 2 weeks south

A view from the top of our road looking over Sandlodge and over to Mousa

 Still got some Shetland Puffin books if you are interested - £14 +£4.75pp (UK) just drop me a line 

Shetland in the landscape

                                                                              The long road to Bigton

Sunset over St Ninian's

Family visit to Sandwick

The Quendale snakes meet up

                                                         Old croft, some wallpaper still showing

Broken window at the old croft

Shetland spring

Its spring and that's time for the lambs to appear, the black faced lambs have been with us for about 6 weeks 

But now its Shetland lambs that are being born, up to the end of May usually

 

They are so cute at this age

The air is full of bird song as well and we have had some sunshine as well

over Easter we have seen lots of visitors arrive but we are still having  a lot of covid cases

But spring is about a fresh start so its time to count your blessings and get on with it. While everything seems calm we must think of those in and who have left the Ukraine.

Shetland aid has been sending lots of supplies so we can only pray for a quick end to the war which seems along way from a peaceful Shetland

Da Voar Redd Up, the annual Shetland clean has started and around 40% of all Shetlanders help clearing beaches, ditches and roads from plastic and other rubbish. 

My new book is out now and available at £14 + postage, it is A4 size with 97 colour photos,  i can send anywhere in the world. email me at shetpuffinbook@gmail.com

Shetland- Changing times

 It seems to have been a long winter in some respects, Shetland has been hit repeatedly with gales or severe gales over the past two months and only in the last couple of days have we had sunny clear but cold weather.

Not good when you want to get out photographing.

Its always good to start planning for later, we hope to be back in Sheffield for a couple of weeks mid year and we have my sister in law visiting Shetland for the first time in six year. Covid is still high in Shetland and is restricting where we go and who we meet.

A lot of the music nights are only just starting up but only a few people are going, think we will leave it for a while.

We are not looking forward to April with the big 56% increase in electricity prices. Our costs are far higher than down in England, we pay more than double for our power for some reason. Some folk are expecting to pay around £4500 per year but will go up again in autumn then again next year.

 View down in Sandwick

How are folk going to pay for this, its gaoling as Shetland will soon be the biggest windfarm in the UK. We get absolutely no benefit from this as it exported south and it will ruin our countryside.

Jarlshof, seen plenty of changes here

Fuel prices are at an all time high with petrol at £1.50 a litre, everyone said when it went up to a £1 a gallon people would be out protesting and now its around £7 per gallon . This is affecting food prices as well, Tesco are pushing 5-25p on products and the average bill has gone up by £30 per week.

Sumburgh Head

I know its a world wide thing but look at France they are only putting Gas/Electric up by a small amount unlike our government. How many people will die before help is given and i am not talking £200 loan.

Old Croft Eshaness

It was good to see the Ben Fogel programme on Yell last week, it seems that's the destination for a lot of folk moving up here with house prices a lot lower than the Shetland mainland. Work needs to be done on a lot of properties.  It can be soul destroying for local folk trying to buy houses, one friend has been out bid several time by £1000s . I do suspect however, that some folk will leave Shetland due to the high cost of living, Shetland will have around 50% of the population in fuel poverty.

Drongs, Eshaness

I am looking forward to spring, daffodils are coming up early, normally these flower in mid April but these may be up and flowering well before, Daises have been in flower for a couple of months which seem odd. A lot of birds will be looking to pair up and breed, Ravens have been displaying for several weeks (see shetlandsfp.blogspot.co.uk)

The Aurora and seeing the milky way has always been a  driving force to keep us going throughout the long dark winter months and we had a superb display the other week , 

Mega Shetland Aurora

Shetland does have a lot of benefits and we are hoping we can survive until things get back to normal (prices)

Eshaness on a calm day

Cats life in Shetland

Ever since we were married we have had cats and we moved to Shetland with one of our cats -Furbie.

Furbie didn't like the trip up to Aberdeen calling all the time, he did enjoy the Scottish air when we stopped at Jedburgh &  Stonehaven for a break and he joined us for a short walk (in a harness) along the sea front.

That was his introduction to big white birds (Gulls) which he had never seen but wanted to get to know better. We boarded the ferry and put him in the pets sleeping quarters. Luckily we travelled mid April and in the middle of the week so he was the only customer.

He seemed glad to see us in the morning and was too tired to meow as we made our way down to our rented home in Sandwick. He was very restless in this house and was glad that we moved out 3 months later into our new permanent home.

He soon settled and made himself at home on our bed. He didn't like the workmen who came into our home the next few months, they disturbed his sleep and other routines .

He passed away after a illness and we were thankful to the staff at Scalloway vets who made is last days bearable .

We vowed never to go through the suffering again until a friend contacted us who was moving to Africa and was looking to home her two cats, not wanting to split them up

We met Tinker first, he seemed very timid and hid away and didn't want to be picked up.

Teddy above was the opposite and came up to meet us and seemed very settled. We took both back the short distance over the hill to Sandwick and let them out of the cat baskets. 

Both fed well and went to sleep, it had been a traumatic few hours. The next morning they ate well and made for our bed settling down together

Although not true brothers they work well together with Tinker chatting away to Teddy to let him know a meal is out. Teddy on the other hand never spoke to us for many months, perhaps he couldn't get a meow in edge ways

Both are house cats and they like the fact we have big windows and spend time looking and chattering to the birds we have in the field in front of the house. 

They have never caused us any problems and are very well behaved. They don't even touch the Christmas tree unlike our other cats which brought the tree down numerous times.

Cats do what they want , when they want but always respond to treats. We wouldn't be without their company.

 We have been in Shetland nearly 8 years and are so glad of their company,