Storm Deirdre

We are going through another windy period in Shetland and this weekend Storm Deirdre hit. Winds reached 73 mph yesterday, that's Hurricane force

 With the rain and dull conditions we didn't go out yesterday but made up for this on Sunday morning when the storm was just leaving us. A couple of hours later the wind dropped completely.

 It was nearly a year ago that we had a big storm and the slates from next doors room came off and hit our car causing £100's worth of damage.

 This year the slates from the other side of us had already come off and so far the council has not come down to under take any repairs. With all this rain it makes you wonder what damage it has done inside.

 The people living in this house at the time reported this but moved away the next day.

All the photos here had been taken down at Sandsayre, Sandwick and the sea was raging

 I was the only one out but apart from the wind it was a lot warmer and it didn't rain.

 As far as I know the only real damage occurred in Lerwick where a big hole appeared in the sea wall near to Jimmy Perez's house down at the Loadberries. All vehicles and people are banned from the area

 Having previously lived 70 miles from the sea I take every opportunity to get out to see any big seas, and we have plenty around Shetland, it just depends on which direction the wind blows on where we go

 We seem to be having better weather than the rest of Scotland as they have had lots of snow and freezing temperatures

 I will be running a one session Seascape photography course in Lerwick next April, so contact me if you need and further information

In the meantime , thanks for looking at my blog and I will be posting just after Christmas. Why not take a look at my other Shetland Blogs

shetlandsky.blogspot.co.uk
shetlandsfp.blogspot.co.uk
ww2preserved.blogspot.co.uk

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

Second Christmas day in Shetland

We survived Storm Barbara and Conor together with a few severe Gales, but several houses close by sustained damage mostly slates off but next doors also had there shed roof ripped off and some landed in the middle of the road

Looking at the houses across the field a couple have lost several slates and these have ended up in our garden and next doors. Several years ago the Hurricanes got so bad that some slates flew through windows and embedded themselves in the living room walls. Thank goodness no one was injured, that shows the power of the wind

Some people also lost power for four / five hours on Christmas day including our friends who ended up cooking Christmas dinner for 18 more or less in the microwave (They had a generator that managed the TV and lights)

Our cancelled Christmas eve meal at Sumburgh took place on New Years eve and we ended up with far better fireworks than London or Edinburgh as an Aurora display took place, many people watched this on Shetland webcam 3

We only managed to get out once in perfect weather then it was back to gales again, you have to make the most of any decent weather. We decided to walk along the coast just south of Sumburgh hotel, one we have not done for a long time (Hence photos)

The Julian Calender which is used by the people of Foula enabled us to celebrate a second Christmas day today, our cat Furbie was well impressed as he had more Chicken. In Unst a while ago, Baltasound and Uyeasound both had different Christmas's and they are only 5 miles apart

Next week we start Up Helly Aa, the first will take place in Scalloway on 13 January with the big one in Lerwick Tuesday 31 January (worth watching on www.shetland.org) , There will not be any postponement due to the weather

see more photos at www.amazingshetland.co.uk

and join our new facebook group Shetland Aurora Hunter - just send me a request to join