Shetland Top 10 destination-Lonely Planet

Shetland has been named as one of the top 10 European destinations by the Lonely Planet today. Not that we needed to be told

The house of Jimmy Perez

It came 6th and the only UK  destination chosen. This top award together with all the TV programmes such as Jimmy Perez `Shetland', Wild Shetland, the Island Medics and all aboard is very good news for the tourist industry.

It doesn't matter whether you see Shetland day or night, summer or winter it is an exceptional place to live, visit and work

Tengmalm Owl at Tresta

Shetland is a top place for seeing rare birds and this spring has been outstanding. To see more photos visit shetlandsfp.blogspot.co.uk

 Tall ships visit on a regular basis and there is always something interesting to see in both Lerwick and Scalloway harbours

 Lerwick

Tronda

Up Helly Aa attracts many visitors in the winter

Sumburgh Head

Rough seas at Scatness

Dales Voe

The Drongs

Lots of folk from all over the world now come to Shetland for Wool Week

Aurora on most people's bucket list

Shetland has to be one of the best places in the UK to see the Aurora, for more join Shetland Aurora Hunter on facebook and shetlandsky.blogspot.co.uk

More photos at http://amazingshetland.co.uk

#Wool Week, #Shetland, #Shetland Aurora Hunter, #Aurora Shetland, #Shetland rare birds, #Jimmy Perez, #Up Helly Aa, #Lonely Plant awards, #Lerwick, #Scalloway, #amazing shetland

Earthquake

Seems a bit ironic that we went to hear a talk by the Lerwick Observatory on Earthquakes and the Aurora the other Friday night but that afternoon an actual earthquake hit Shetland , with a magnitude of 4.8.

It hit a point in the north sea south of Shetland, 10 km deep and this time people have felt the effects. The last one, 8 years ago close to Lerwick measured 3.3 and there has been a few more going back 25 years but not as big as the other Friday.

I do like photographing detail and Lerwick provides many opportunities. I took a group of photographers from my Shetland Adult Education class on a practical the other day and had a good time. Everyone sees different things or different angles so we all got something a bit unique.

Details about a new Beginners (Know your own camera) photography course starting in September and a brand new Night Sky Photography course starting at the beginning of November should be available very soon. Both will be run at Islesburgh in Lerwick

You may have seen a petition going round to try and change the Shetland Island council's mind about withdrawing funding for the Shetland Amenity Trust who run  Promote Shetland.

If you are thinking of moving here then this is an excellent resource, they provide a lot of information together with running the webcams around Shetland and also proving a Video link to Up Helly , today i was informed that at least the webcams will still run for the time being.possibly to the end of September.

                                                                        No Policeman outside our No.10

While it may not have been as hot as the south of England we have just had a superb week with temperatures up to 18 degrees. With the ozone layer being much thinner in Shetland this made it a lot warmer than recorded

My Other blogs:

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

Shetland aurora Hunter (Facebook) just send me a request to join

www.amazingshetland.co.uk (Canvas Prints)

Lambs, BBC and wind farms

 Lambing is now fully underway and where ever you look there are little lambs running around, bleating.

While the very young ones tend to stay close to mum other older ones like roaming around in small flocks. 

If you talk to anyone in crofting, lambing consists of long hard days and nights as they wait to deliver the young ones. Some need more assistance than others and occasionally some lambs become orphans. If this happens one person has to be up ever 4 hours feeding the lamb until it is healthy enough to be adopted by another sheep

Filming is now well underway for the next Shetland BBC1 drama. Shooting took place on Monday in the Loadberries area of Lerwick. and then Commercial Street on Tuesday.

On Wednesday they moved to Wester Quarff and today i saw the whole crew down at Cunningsburgh Hall.

 The Folk Festival has now finished and has been a great success. With many more festivals coming up Shetland is the place to be

The proposed Wind Farm for Mossy Hill on the outskirts of Lerwick has now given concerns to Lerwick Community Council. The Red Throated Diver nesting on Grossa water could be affected by the 21 wind Turbines, this is a protected bird in decline.

In addition people have said that the £250,000 potential community benefit that could come from the wind farm was not sufficient to counterbalance the environmental disaster. As the Shetland Island council has to approve every proposed windfarm it is said it will never get out of hand- if you can believe it.  As far as i am concerned any wind farm of any size would be a potential disaster to the wildlife and the landscape. With the Oil revenue declining surely tourism is the next best thing, people i have spoken to outside Shetland say this is one of the few places in Scotland without turbines and that is one of the reasons they come this far north.

Other blogs

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

www.amazingshetland.co.uk

facebook: Shetland Aurora Hunter (send a request to join)