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.

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New Arrivals

You don't have to go far in Shetland without coming across lambs. Although many have still to be born, lots of fields have lambs jumping around trying to keep warm. It's has been very cold this last week with snow in parts , not a kind introduction to Shetland life.

Lets hope its a better season for the crofters as last year lambs only sold for £5 or less. A poor return when you consider the price of 4 lamb chops in Tesco - £7. Last year the Italian market which bought a lot of lamb suddenly changed to buying lambs from China.

Last weekend it was Da Voar Redd up, an annual event when a large proportion of the Shetland population turns out to collect rubbish from beach and ditches. Not a nice job when the weather is poor but vital for wildlife as birds and whales digest a lot of plastic and end up dying. A lot of this is blown onto our shoreline, thrown over the side from ships.

Each year brings a few surprises, this time a note in a bottle and a hand grenade uncovered by storms, left from the Second World War. The bomb disposal unit could not come to Shetland for several days so the area has been cordoned off.

We had a great meal at the Fisheries College in Scalloway last Saturday night, a Fish banquet was arranged to raise funds for the Fisherman's Mission. A great success and very tasty too

The Folk Festival has just finished, another superb event which has brought people to Shetland from many foreign countries. One we spoke to, was on the way up from Aberdeen on the ferry when it hit a rough patch and a lump of sea smashed through a few windows. Not the best of starts but she made it the following day after repairs to the ferry

The above photo taken from St Ninian's isle looking back to Bigton, the light is superb throughout the year.

Its still cold and windy but many people are already out looking for Killer Whales with a few pods giving superb views to a few. I saw one pod pass through Lerwick , a bit far away on the Bressay side but still well worth seeing (More at shetlandsfp.blogspot.co.uk)

Aurora season has just finished now we are getting lighter nights, you can still see many photos on Facebook at Shetland Aurora Hunter - just send me a request to join

WW2 Invasion of Shetland

At the outbreak of the Second World War the Shetland population was around the 18,000 mark. Soon nearly 24,000 servicemen arrived to make sure that the Germans didn't take control of these islands or the seas around them.

This friendly invasion of British service men automatically caused problems as there was little accommodation to house them. This resulted in a large amount of building work which benefited the local workforce.

It wasn't just the number of Nissan huts that sprang up but other concrete structures that would provide the defence of Shetland

Lookout hut on the cliffs

 Torpedo launch site protecting the south entrance to Lerwick harbour 

                                                Various gun posts provided the protection needed.

Today many of these structures remain in the outlying areas of Shetland and provide a fascinating insight into that era. There is not normally the pressure that you find in other parts of the UK to re-use the land for building. Some building have been removed for safety reasons while the biggest change has been in Lerwick which has expanded. This is where the largest amount of troops were stationed, but even here if you look carefully you can see the odd building among the houses

I have been collecting verbal accounts from people who lived in Shetland during WW2 and have amassed many hundreds of photos of various WW2 structures in Shetland which i hope to use in a book(s) that I will write at some stage. Still more research to do yet.

You might also be interested in my other blogs:
shetlandsfp.blogspot.co.uk
shetlandsky.blogspot.co.uk

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Shetland

Shetland has a good mixture of the old and new, this is especially evident in Lerwick and Scalloway

 The above was new in October 2016 down near the pier in Lerwick, called `Da Lightsome Buoy' it is a celebration of the role the pelagic fishing industry plays in Shetland life.

In Lerwick old stair wells lead to interesting buildings

                                               How long ago did this building have windows?

Striking red doors 

This area was used for filming the recent BBC1 Shetland drama, good news that filming will start again next month. Just hope that Shetland has more coverage this time

                                                                            Lerwick behind bars

                                                              Signs of how windy it is  in Shetland

                                            Anderson High School due to move to new premises later this year

Spring has almost arrived in Shetland, with a mass of daffodils beside the road, Puffins back at Sumburgh in the last few days, Skylarks in full song and the temperature in double figures.

We attended a birthday party at Islesburgh  recently and met Peter & Sandra Manson. Peter had a multi coloured beard and hair and the other day did a sponsored head shave, they were both raising funds for two local charities. They hoped to raise £5000 but due to the generosity of the local people raised an amazing £22,000 - well done to all, it could only happen in Shetland

The wind farm band wagon rolls on the Garth Wind Farm in North Yell opened last week and aims to boost the  local economy. At the same time Peel energy announced that they might build 21 Turbines across Mossy Hill just to the north of Lerwick but this depends on whether they get the go ahead for the interconnector (now around £80 billion)- just hope this and others never go ahead.

It must be a good time to start think about boosting tourism. People are talking trying to attract people up to Shetland in winter and why not with several Up Helly Aa's to attend, numerous music events and of course an opportunity to see the Aurora. (see what its all about and send me a request to join Shetland Aurora Hunter on facebook) I am sure they come to see a wild place and would not see wind turbines as a tourist attraction.

Please take a look at my other blogs

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