Shetland up north

Its always good to get up north, this time to North Roe

I like humorous items like this fence post

Great to see this house painted in a sea theme, this is Kenny's house

A lot of Red phone boxes have now been adopted by the local community for £1, most turned into libraries.

Seat anyone

another fence post

aircraft in the garden

Tesco a long way a way, best go by boat

Viking wind farm destroying our landscape. I gather because of the concret shortage they have been importing concrete from Ireland

Fog is a common problem in summer, often stopping flights in and out of Sumburgh

Lots of fields now have grass cut for silage leaving nice patterns on the rig

The heather has been very colourful this year, not had hardly any rain over the past two months

 Lots of visitors up, more caravettes and caravans this year with covid stopping a lot of accomodation from openning fully.

Filming for the 7th Shetland BBC1 drame series has started but some of the crew have now gone down with covid symptoms . They are due to start filming in Sandwick this Thursday

Shetland Spring- its nearly here

 I am now selling Ebb Tide Gifts, Sea tumbled  glass and pottery as well as Canvas prints, see www.shetlandebbtidegifts.co.uk, this site is updated on a regular basis and also can be found on Facebook- please take a look

Although we are in May looking out of the window some days you would think its winter in Shetland. Large hail stones, stormy skies and heavy rain combined with cold conditions has put a halt on Spring, although we are now getting Shetland lambs born

The Shetland BBC1 Drama film crew has now left the islands and it looks like it may be on TV next year. Phil Vickory (Chef) brought another film crew to Shetland for a few days and they seem to be filming around Brae.

Stormy clouds over Bressay

Shetland May weather

Thankfully the snow seems to have ended and today its a lot warmer

Had a walk down to Sandsayre and then round to Sanick, only saw one other person. Gather its chaos down in London with packed Buses, tubes and trains can see another outbreak of the virus breaking out in England.

Up here in Shetland its still the same, don't go out unless its necessary and most people are doing that. People will cross over the road if they are coming down the road towards you and the supermarkets still seem to be working ok although now we only have ferries every other day there seems to be less on the shelves.

You have to feel sorry for the lambs , many of which are still being born and for those crofters that are helping them. Our friends are often up in the middle of the night and the cold snowy weather has not helped

Looking east towards Sand lodge

clouds gathering in the north

Snow storm over Cunningsburgh and a few minutes later it hit Sandsayre but plenty of cover behind the buildings. It only lasted about 15 mins but with so much salt in the air it never settles for long

Will be good to go further a field when the ban is lifted but still plenty to see locally especially with an ever changing sky

Winter arrives in Shetland

Most visitors have now left Shetland, the last cruise liner came in mid October and its just locals you see.

                                                   Ghost clouds over St Ninian's tombolo

I like winter there is lots to do, most music groups start up and go through the winter period as do the social groups. Lots of folk like to go for a walk, no matter what the weather. In the last 5 weeks up to Christmas we  had very little rain and was very still, unlike down south so ideal walking conditions.

Doorway at Scalloway

These last few days have been very windy with gale force winds and heavy rain forcing the cancellation of the Ferries for a few days. This means no food at Tesco.

You can always find a beach to yourself and this is one of the things I like about Shetland, I also like winter for the rough seas, the Aurora , winter birds and good food.

 Sunrise over Mousa

There are still festivals to look forward to, especially Up Helly aa which starts with the Scalloway fire festival on Friday.
We some great low light and sunsets, you can also catch a sunrise only a few hours apart.

The election is over but how this all affects Shetland after Brexit is another story, will we continue to see lots of foreign fishing boats in Lerwick and Scalloway or as many visitors?

Oil tankers waiting for a call

Shetland is well connected to Norway through the exploits of World War 2 and I don't feel this will change.

Sunrise at Sandlodge, Sandwick

Shetland will be bidding to bring back the Tall Ships in 2023, hope they succeed as this will be a great event to go to

 Oil tankers at Fladibister waiting to go anywhere in the world

As usual we had a visit from Father Christmas on Christmas eve

my other blogs

shetlandsfp.blogspot.co.uk  (Shetland Wildlife)
shetlandsky.blogspot.co.uk ( Shetland night sky and Aurora)
ww2preserved.blgspot.co.uk (WW2 Shetland Stories)

Website
www.amazingshetland.co.uk

Shetland Aurora Hunter on facebook