Minor fireworks

Things have started to hot up this week after 5 viewing last week. We then got two people bidding, one only offered once which was too low, but the others started low and increased four times, the last one we accepted which was lower than we wanted but we are taking a chance.

The big news is that they want to move in by the end of February, alot sooner than we wanted. I have three courses i want to finish delivering, all these end at the start of March so hope we can stay for these. We are hoping that we can stop in Diane's mother in laws empty house for a few days so we can arrange the ferry.

We have meetings planned this week with the movers,Surveyors and our solicitors. Most of our things will go into storage, it depends what we can fit into the car, which has got to last us until we buy a house and have our things shipped up.

Our friends Beryl and Maurice are helping to sort out some rented accommodation in Shetland, we know of one property so far so that will help. Cannot believe how quickly its moving, we expected to have around 10-12 weeks but it never goes to plan.

Round the corner a house which had been sold for the third time is back up for sale again, must have bee down to the survey. Another house a bit further away is also having these problems, lets hope ours goes through smoothly. They are first time buyers and have today confirmed their mortgage details and details have been passed to both solicitors.

However you can never count your chickens, things cannot be taken for granted so for now we are not getting too excited. Just hope the survey comes back ok for them.

Strange week

Since Christmas things have been picking up on the viewing front. Suddenly we have had four viewings booked for this week, three have taken place already. One first time buyer arrived and didn't look that interested really but came back the next day with a low bid.(Monday) which we rejected.

The following day nothing, then Wednesday another bid came in a bit better but still less than we could afford to accept, so rejected that one as well. Thursday morning came and the estate agents said two people were now bidding, one who came three weeks ago, again with a low bid and then followed by another revised bid from the first couple , falling just short of what we could accept.  We decided that if we changed a few things we could now come down slightly more than first thought so that left a £2000 short of the very lowest we could accept.

Just to remind us, if we needed that, i also gave an illustrated talk on Shetland Thursday night to stir up a few memories so it would appear this might be our year

                                                                                     Sunset over Quendale Bay

This week has been very busy as well with trying to get all my course work and presentation ready for the micro teaching session and assessment next Wednesday. Not very happy that i will have to travel to Leeds for this when i had originally booked to do this in Sheffield. Will be glad when this is completed as next week I will be delivering three different photography courses at different levels, so alot of preparation

Need to relax doing some photography after next week

2014 dreams

Happy new year  -Well I hope you got the Christmas presents you were looking for. We decided to hold off for our main present and look forward to receiving it early in 2014. The sale of our house !!

On the 1 February it will be  year since we put our house up for sale, sometimes its seems longer. We are not getting disillusioned yet, we still have hope and as we may have mentioned, we still have the option to reduce the price again .

We saw some friends last week we hadn't seen for a while, they informed us that they will be moving to Orkney by June, so we could have close neighbors when we eventually move up to Shetland.Christmas would have been a bad time to move anyway  as Shetland had several snowy days and a run of more than 10 days of gales.

One thing we will miss is visiting Diane's sister and husband and the rest of our friends, its never the same on the phone, that's when its working. We still want to visit Sheffield each year if we can afford it, but we have Skype so at least we can see them as we speak.

There is so much to look forward to, these far out weigh the negatives, no one can move and not feel some regret yet moving becomes a new adventure, a new chapter in our lives and we are keen to explore the islands, see the wildlife, meet the people and see the northern lights and other night sky delights

In the meantime I am taking my PTTL's qualification later this month which allows me to teach adult education courses, so that might be one avenue to go down once we have moved. I really enjoy delivering courses- both photographic and wildlife , meeting people and even building the content. We will see what happens, any way for now we will wait and see who comes to see our house and continue our dream in Sheffield until it happens then we can fulfill our dream.

Christmas Cheer ?

As Christmas draws ever near, we have been surprised to find that the Estate Agents had booked three viewing this week. The first one came and we never got any feedback, the second one never turned up and the third one decided that she couldn't get back by bus to the area she was currently living.

Normally people usually look at the area , buses and shops before they come to view a house, it saves everybody the hassle.Or- we would, we always check out as much as possible before considering anything, especially moving house its such a big commitment.

We didn't expect to be spending Christmas in Sheffield this year, but things never work out the way you want them to. We will start the process off again next year, just hoping that we will get an early buyer so that we can move in Spring, that would be great. It's just down to patience at present

                                                                                       Our new house in Shetland?

How are you spending Christmas this year ? Its good to be around family but many people don't have anyone, some don't even have a home to spend it in. In Sheffield over 2,000 people now live on the streets in the freezing cold and wet. I have also come across another person who actually sleeps in a cave in Derbyshire because he lost his job, car, wife walked out and then his house was repossessed, this was all in a 6 month period, we are just so luck, never take anything for granted. !!!!

I don't know the situation in Shetland, its a smaller but more caring community so lets hope no one has to spend Christmas on the street. Many Church's open there doors on this special day and make so much difference

Any way, hope you all have a great Christmas and a good new year and i will be back on air soon. Thanks for viewing over these past month

                                                                                                 Sheffield City centre

Christmas present please

What would you like for Christmas, this is what we have been asked a few days ago. We have no need to think about it, we both said to sell our house and move to Shetland !!! whether it is wrapped or not.

No luck again from those viewers last week, and in fact one due on Monday never turned up. So whats the solution 1. we could reduce the price again but we will wait another few weeks before considering that 2. we could rent - but we really need the money to move up to Shetland 3. we could stay put but our heart and minds are set on the move 4. We could pray for someone looking for this type of property in this area with a small garden across the road from a pub  to put an offer in- Yep this is what we are going to do.
Have you any ideas?

Its not been too good weather wise both in Shetland and in Sheffield although we never got affected by last weeks gales. Plenty of snow in Shetland , while in Sheffield it was fine and clear all day, much needed for lifting our spirits, so hope to go out photographing in Derbyshire tonight

Working hard at the new WEA (adult education courses) I am delivering, great group of people all with mixed photography skills. Hope to start a new course this week, also will be out photographing a school, two nurseries, a couple of dogs, a 6 week old baby so will be spending a good deal of time in front of the computer. Also just been asked to do a talk on Shetland flowers to another gardening group and a talk on Skuas to a local wildlife group.

Also just finished printing all the photos from the schools and nurseries i have photographed over the past couple of weeks. I even managed to squeeze in a night time photography course, it was very festive in the town centre.

No Change

Not much change over the past week or so, just one couple came over to view the house and they have yet to give feedback, but we know that if they were due to make an offer it would have been within a couple of days.

The estate agents have told us to expect less viewings as at this time of year people are looking more to Christmas. Its odd that when we first put the house up for sale we were sure that we would have settled in Shetland before Christmas, you can take nothing for granted. While our friends and family are happy that we are staying a while longer our thoughts are always on Shetland and what is happening.

With snow hitting Shetland this week, together with strong winds we are glad we are not making the move at this time, even the ferry is not stopping off in Orkney with storm force winds imminent. In Sheffield we have only had rain and plenty of it, but these last few days are very cold. We are surprised that most of the trees are only just changing colour, it seems to get later each year. I am sure that they turned in late September about 20 years ago, or is my mind going?

I have been doing Photography courses for the adult education and are working on developing others for later on, both current courses are full and the students are very eager. The other night I finally made it out to give a 1:1 Night Sky course to someone who came all the way up from Leicester to Sheffield. The forecasts are never very good down here but it does seem more reliable in Shetland, especially needed when living on an island.

We have just started to write the Christmas cards, starting with the ones which will be sent to Australia and America. This is early for us so we must be well prepared and have got plenty of cards in hand.

This is the only snow I have seen so far- A Snow bunting on Fetlar

Thanks

Over 1000 hits, thanks very much, didn't think it would be so popular.

This week has been dominated by poor weather, with heavy rain throughout. Similar to that in Shetland. Tonight I am giving an illustrated talk on Shetland down at the other side of Sheffield near Endcliffe park an area we know well as we lived there for 15 years after getting married. I also lived there for over 40 years in total, man and boy ! before we both moved to the south side of Sheffield.

One thing that has happened both in Shetland and Sheffield is that the small shops have disappeared. As a lad I remember that on our road we had two corner shops which seem to sell everything. It was more than a shop really as it was a place to share information and where people cared for each other. The shops even delivered food to the house bound and would get items that they wouldn't normally sell.

                                                                                          Two supermarkets in Lerwick

In  Shetland we have seen the biggest change on Unst, with all the shops closing at Haroldswick and Uyeasound, leaving only the ones at Baltasound. Overall the problem is that around 1/2 the population left the island when the RAF decided enough was enough and now around 500 people are left. Its far worse on other islands but on Fetlar the shop/ cafe is still running have been taken over twice in recent years.

                                                                                                 Cafe with a difference

Every shop has to be diverse to survive now that Supermarkets control things. If fuel was cheaper in Shetland i think that even more people would travel to Lerwick to shop in either the Co-op or Tesco.

                                                                                   Shop at Uyeasound Unst now long gone

Of cause if you can think up something original then you might just survive the onslaught