We are looking forward to seeing the new BBC drama 'Shetland' sometime next month. This has been adapted from the novel ' Red Bones' by the award winning crime writer Ann Cleaves, staring Douglas Henshall. Its not often that Shetland features on National TV, the last time was a three part programme by Simon King on the 'Shetland Diaries' which covered his wildlife encounters during the course of a year. The only other one was many years ago featuring Billy Oddie and his birding exploits,
unless you know otherwise !
This new drama should highlight not just the life in Shetland but also the fantastic scenery. When we have talked about our move to these northern isles, people have often commented that they imagine a bleak, windswept island, devoid of people and facilities. In fact 22,000 people live in Shetland on 15 islands, over 100 islands in total. Yes there is a Tesco and a Co-op and a hospital along with other shops. There are miles of deserted roads, in superb condition, lots of sports centres and best of all fantastic people, music and superb wildlife. Shetland is a 12 hours ferry journey from Aberdeen, nearer to Norway than Aberdeen, 300 miles north of mainland Scotland, so to some it may seem like we are going to the edge of the world.
We have had some more people to view our house in Sheffield but so far no offers, we knew it would be a lengthy job with some houses in our area taking over a year to sell, not helped by the recession and the high deposits needed by first time buyers. Last week we decided to use one of our two newspaper adverts and got a couple of people interested, but this is only the start of our 4th week on the market.
I have now sent for my driving licence ID and are still waiting for our builders to send a written guarantee for a number of items they have done for us in the past. Both of these are needed by the solicitor at some time in the future.
We continue to de-clutter as some people call it, this started over 6 months ago and is nearly completed. Anyhow what we have will be packed away in storage when the time comes.
Not many houses up for sale in Shetland at present, but this is expected at this time of year. With over 300 council workers due to be made redundant and several schools to be closed it could create more buying opportunities in the areas we would like to live. I suspect this may encourage more people to think of leaving Shetland especially the young ones which could spell more bad news for some island communities such as Papa Stour , Out Skerries, Fetlar and Foula.
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