Hot weather in Shetland

The temperature in Shetland rose to 21 degrees on Friday, excellent for this far north. With the hot weather comes fog which has been thick on a couple of days and thunderstorms which hit the west side of Shetland 

We know quiet a few folk that have been hit by lightening in the  past. TV's and other electrical gear blown up, brass door handles blow off and chimney stacks hit and coming through roofs

With the sea breeze its been a lot more pleasant than down south and we make the most of this for walks

The other day we walk up to Noness in the south mainland

The wind turbine companies are rubbing their hands with the news that the government are fully backing offshore windfarms, which Shetland is part of.

£557million has been allocated to this and auctions will now take place every two years.  Lets hope the interconnector costs continue to rise beyond the reach of all these companies.

Peel Energy continue to put proposals out - 17 turbines in Yell and 12 at Mossy hill in the Central mainland, add the 103 Turbines that Viking energy want to get off the ground and several other proposals you can just imagine what Shetland will look like (or see Scotland)

The lack of a scrap yard means that cars are dumped around the countryside

With many people building new houses old croft homes are now left to the elements

Looking north to Sanick in Sandwick

Good concert the other night with Kollifirboli making a come back after 3 years off the scene

Henry's Loch near Quarff completely dried up, this hasn't happened for many years

Great way to show flowers

Don't forget to check out my other blogs

ww2preserved.blogspot.co.uk

shetlandsfp.blogspot.co.uk

shetlandsky.blogspot.co.uk

Going South

We have just returned from a holiday back down in South Yorkshire. The day before we set off all the ferries had been cancelled due to gales but our journey was straight forward and calm but very crowded.

The weather couldn't have been better with most days over 30 degrees but we found sleeping a problem.

                                                                                                Attingham Park NT

It was the sounds that caught our attention this visit. We stayed with Diane's sister down in the east of Sheffield and it was noticeable to us at least of the many different sounds- no more Skylark, Curlew, the sea or sheep making the noise.

                                                                                 Clumber Park

It was sirens, road noise, trains, large industrial hammers and aircraft that caught our attention and not just during the day.

                                                                                        Elvington Air museum

                                                                                                                    Donnington
We visited the National Arboretum, a place we had passed a few times. We can highly recommend a visit, but allow plenty of time. Our visit coincided with the Paratrooper regimental service.

                                                                                        National Arboretum below

We caught up with family and friends around Sheffield and also travelled over to Shropshire for three days. Here we stayed in a 15 century converted coach house in the middle of the country and had trips out from here.

                                                                                                Coach House in Condover

We always kept our eyes on Shetland, noting the good weather. We gave a talk ` Amazing Shetland' in Sheffield which was attended by 43 people , up on last year and it was well received. It was good to raise money for our previous church.

                                                                                                               Shetland

No problems on the return except for the heat and we also found out that we would get a part refund on the ferry due to a government subsidy of 20% which came in on the 1 July.

Back in Shetland we continued with the good weather and found many lochs drying up. Shetland Drama has already started to film and there seems a good chance it will be back on TV before the end of the year. It has been voted the best detective drama ever.

                                                                                                               Bakewell

We had the power off along with another 4,500 homes last week due to a main power cable being faulty. In the Skerries power was lost for 12 hours over the weekend. A bit unusual at this time of year, more shorter ones in the winter due to gales.

Unst

Unst is the most northerly place in Britain and it takes a bit of an effort to get there. Once you have travelled north to Toft in the mainland you have a 20 min ferry trip to Yell, then 25 mins across Yell to pick up another 10min ferry to Unst

The world famous bus shelter at Baltasound is worth a look, the theme changes each year and it has its own website. The theme this year was all about the possible satellite launch site at Saxavord, would be great to have it in Shetland.

                                                   A world war 2 lifeboat at Skaw and the most northerly house in the UK

Looking back to the new RAF radar base at Saxavord, just after this was turned on a Russian jet flew the length of Shetland, just to test out the response

                                    The other Skeggie, we used to go to the one down on the east coast of England

                                                                                           Longboat outside the Viking longhouse

                                                             Viking long hut now completed at Haroldswick

                                     A great welcome, Unst offers something different to the other islands in Shetland

                                                                        Back down in Lerwick for a coffee at Mareel