Food

I will be starting an Intermediate Digital Photography course (6 weeks) in Lerwick commencing        9 November 9.30-12.30. Subjects will cover Outdoor portraits, Seascapes, Birds in Flight, Still Life, Low Light, Night Sky. Only a couple of places left, contact Shetland Adult Education at Lovers Loan or apply on line.

When you think of great food France and Italy may come to mind, but Shetland has to be considered as well. Over the year Shetland holds a number of festivals and fairs, mostly music but at the end of October Clickimin will hold the Shetland Food Fair.

Celebrity chef Tony Singh who starred in BBC2's `The incredible Spice Men' will travel up from Leith to take part in `A taste of Shetland' demonstration. If you go into either Tesco or the co-op in Lerwick you may see some Scottish produce but little from Shetland.

This is surprising considering the quality of local food, especially the Lamb. Some people cannot eat lamb as they see lambs in the fields in spring and feel attached to them in some way. Living in the rural part of Shetland we are surrounded by sheep, in fact they are in the field in front of us now. Farmers don't get a lot of money for a lamb so going direct to them is helping them and you get a really good deal as well

We go for Mousa lamb which is local to us, just over the hill. It is cut to your requirements, boxed and delivered to the door and tastes superb. We have recently received our first for this season and have ordered another for February when we have room in the freezer.

Everything being fresh tastes great, for along time in Sheffield we had potatoes with no taste. Here we buy a sack from Weisdale, which last along time without going off, unlike the last bag we had from Tesco which went mushy after a few days and they taste great.

This is the first time we have ever had some space to grow our own vegetables, although its not massive we are able to grow potatoes, parsnips and beetroot. Next week we harvested some of the crop and hope it had grown to a good size and also tastes great. This has spurred us onto to planting more next year after some ground preparation as the ground is very peaty.

You only have to go a local concert to benefit from homebakes and tea at the interval. There a some excellent cooks here and the range of buns and cakes are staggering. Its very hard to go on a diet here.

One thing we do miss is Henderson's Relish, we stocked up recently when we visited Sheffield- seems to be the only place they sell it to my knowledge. Its just great with stews or pies.


During the last few days the weather has changed from the still mostly sunny spells to, Gales and rain. This reminded us to have our tyres changed to `all weather' in anticipation of the colder icy weather. If you believe the weather forecasters they say this will be with us in the next week or so.

Past makes the present enjoyable

While we have no regrets at all moving to Shetland I was just building a sound photography business in Sheffield. I started just at the wrong time with the recession at its peak but having been made redundant and finding another job hard to come by, this was the best move and a dream job. I diversified as much as possible moving into school and nursery photography, up the number of illustrated talks to over 40 which were much in demand from various RSPB , wildlife, Probus, WI, church and various other groups.

                                                                                                        Busta House

During my last full year I was delivering over 45 talks a year, since 2006 my 1:1 and small course practical photography Training courses had become well known around the country with people travelling from Scotland, Devon, Norfolk, Liverpool and many other places.

                                                                                                      Muckle Roe

The pleasing thing was that I was having a lot of repeat business, always a good sign that what I was doing was well received. Having a training background, it was good to continue to build on this and as well as practical photography training, i was asked to deliver courses for the Forestry Commission and Sheffield adult Education, this has continued with courses for Shetland Adult Education.

It's good to find out that four of the people that came on last years courses have enrolled on more courses this year, I really enjoy passing on my photography knowledge and being kept on my toes with a variety of questions.

Although I no longer run the main part of the photography business I still do talks and the training, but it does give me an incentive to get out as much as possible- if ever that was needed in Shetland.

Photography opportunities are endless in Shetland and it's worth getting out in all weathers. I really look forward to the dark nights when there is a possibility of seeing and photographing a aurora or the milky way- that is when the wind is light and no cloud in the sky (shetlandsky.blogspot.co.uk).

I have recently given talks on Winter Birds, Seabirds and wading birds and have received a lot of good comments, i really like the fact that most people enjoy looking at wildlife in Shetland and seem to have a good knowledge. For me wildlife has kept my sense of wonder alive - not lost in the past with most of the people i came across in Sheffield.

Living in Shetland and a closeness to nature can only be beneficial, Diane's blood pressure has dropped to a good level since we move to Shetland after years of high blood pressure in Sheffield. The stress of living in a city is far behind us now, its even a pleasure driving in Shetland with very little traffic, good roads with no potholes.

South

It's been awhile since my last blog, all down to going back to Sheffield for a break, i will not say a holiday as we consider we are on holiday every day in Shetland.

It seemed odd that we only had to travel for 20 mins until we hit the port in Lerwick. We got stopped just after getting our tickets as security wanted to check whether we had any illegals in the back of the car. We quickly pointed out, why would anyone want to leave Shetland permanently !

                                                                             Looking towards Queens Hotel in Lerwick

The crossing was calm and as we entered Aberdeen we found it was fog bound. It wasn't long until we hit our first traffic jam just before the main road. I can understand why some Shetland folk don't want to drive on the Scottish mainland, after all there are traffic jams, lots of traffic lights, pothole, air pollution, roundabouts and people cutting you up + roadworks- its much better being on the Shetland roads.

After stopping in busy Jedburgh we continued past Newcastle down the A1 then the M1 into more roadworks where they are creating smart motorways - one without cars we don't think so ! Only held up by two crashes so it took around 8 hours including breaks before arriving at Diane's sisters.

We had to create a timetable of who we were visiting when, careful not to miss anyone out. That meant two visits per day in the afternoon and evening, but one full day down in Shrewsbury and a day shopping.

                                                                                                    Last cruise ship for 2015

In between I managed to give a talk `A year in Shetland' to a group of over 30 people, everyone seem to enjoy it and i was asked to do another on our next visit.

We did manage to get to one Sheffield Wednesday match which they lost 1-3 to Middlesboro, no change there then. It was good to see the new ground improvements and scoreboard. With the amount of money they have spent on the team I hope we see some improvement fast.

The journey back was ok , with no held ups. However the ferry trip proved rough with a Force 7-8, so we had to retire to our cabin early

While it was good to see everyone we are glad to be back in Shetland, one thing this visit to Sheffield did was to reaffirm that we made the right decision to move to Shetland 17 months ago.

                                                                                               Family in Shrewsbury

Quickly we settled back into a Shetland routine, with plenty of music throughout this last week. Ness accordion & Fiddle group, Shetland Fiddlers, and the Asta music group. Thursday proved very good for aurora activity (shetlandsky.blogspot.co.uk)

I start delivering photography courses for Shetland Adult Education very soon. Just a couple of places left on `Know your own camera' which starts on the 21 September 2015  (6 weeks) 9.30-12.30   phone 01595 743888 as soon as possible.

If you are interested in intermediate photography courses then the first of these starts on Monday 9 November (6 weeks) 9.30-12.30 - Outdoor portraits, Seascapes, Still life, Birds in Flight, Low Light, Night Sky

Yell

For many people Yell is a place to drive through on the way to Unst. The road from the ferry passes the west side, virtually a straight road north. It does pass several interesting places if you have time to take a detour.

Westsandwick beach is superb with parking nearby. A good place for Otters and a paddle.

Yell in fact is the largest of the north isles with a population of around 900 people, most on the eastside. The normal pre wedding advertising above.

Although it looks uninteresting due to a peat dominated landscape , it needs closer inspection. The White Wife (upper) really stands out at Otterswick. This is the figure head from a German Training Ship, wrecked on 26 April 1924. Four died from a crew of 38

Like most places in Shetland ruined crofts can be found throughout the island, they always make for a interesting photo, although its also sad that people have left the island or they may have built a new house nearby

                                                                                       Westsandwick beach

We have spent many nights in B&B since 1987 so know many of Yell's secrets but we still have many to discover. Our next visit will be soon and we hope to take in Breckon sands and revisit the Catalina crash site.

Back in Lerwick it came as no surprise that the council had messed up again , this time with the new helipad at Clickimin. Would you believe that the new helipad is too small, so they have now agreed to extend the site.

This will come as good news to the local footballers as last week a football match had to be delayed for 40 mins while the helicopter  landed on the pitch. This happens on a regular basis , but for genuine need of emergency treatment. However it's not as simple as leaving the pitch, the goal posts have to be removed, owing to the down blast from chopper.

People are then transferred to the Gilbert Bain hospital, a short distance away. However the local residents are not happy at all as the site is very close to their homes.

Its now been a year since we moved into our house and it's passed so quick. We have done a lot of work in that time, removing the solid fuel burner and chimney, two new doors put in, bathroom sorted out and bath plumbed in, external house walls painted and some internal. The long standing window saga in which we had to wait six months to replace the frame and glass when the original one was broken when we had to bring the furniture through the opening, stands out.

                                                                         Our first day with the window already broken

We are still waiting for a new sink and worktops, this started 2 months ago, all the items have been received by the joiner but he has been too busy with external work, just waiting for a few poor days to get it done. It shows we have had a reasonable summer, even some of the lochs are drying up.

                                                 Great view now even better now we have two windows to look through

Finally we have someone to paint our roof, at only 1/4 of the cost of the last quote and will actually be doing far more than the roof and hopefully start in next three - four weeks.

Bressay

Recently we have been getting around a few of the islands that we haven't visited for a few years. This weekend it was Bressay , well in fact this was the second visit of the week.

Only 5 mins from Lerwick this island has a population of around 360 but with little work available many have to travel the short distance back to the mainland. This aging population will no doubt reduce substantially within the next 20 years and then it may become another Foula, Fetlar, Fair isle or Papa Stour which have advertised for more people to come and live.

On farmer i was talking to said it would help if they put an early ferry on which would allow people to travel up to Sullom Voe for a 7.00 am start. Another topic of conversation was the poor summer, he complained that the oats had only grown to half the size they were last year. Its hard work being a farmer / crofter here in Shetland, the weather always being a problem, except for an exceptionally good summer last year which seem to go on and on.

He was renting land but from who, all I could see was nine deserted crofts, people left some 30 years ago. More evidence was on the beach with many rusting chains which had been used to tie up small open fishing boats many years ago.

On many hills WW2 lookout posts can be seen, and on two eastern side hills WW1 guns still exist together with many more deserted crofts. Most folk shoot over to the far side of the island wanting to get over to Noss and therefore miss the delights of Bressay. From the west side of Bressay you get a good view of Lerwick and all the sea traffic

The north link ferry has been in the news twice recently. On one occasion the ferry had to take action to avoid hitting the Herakles which was in the main shipping lane, then last Wednesday night the autopilot failed (14 seconds) resulting in a large roll where people commented that they thought it was going to capsize. Both these incident covered by Shetland News. We are hoping for a safe calm crossing when we go on holiday .

Last night was the final concert of Fiddle Frenzy and it was a superb evening at the Mareel. Much more music to come over the next few weeks with Maggie and Brian at the Shetland showcase tomorrow, Shetland Fiddle society on Wednesday, then the Asta music group on Thursday. I am also organising a variety concert for the Royal Voluntary Service which will take place in September, so its all go.

Up North

Shetland has so many great places to visit. Although we have been coming here for nearly 30 years there are still many little gems to visit. Some people don't like going back to the same place twice as they think that the second time will be a disappointment - this definitely doesn't apply to Shetland

I like going back to places time and time again. I always find something new to see whether its the light that reveals a hidden part, or the wildlife which is constantly changing.

Shetland offers the old and new, often mixed close together. A bit of decay adds interest and as a photographer it's these little bits of detail creates a great photo

People really are creative, the sign posts below are splendid and intriguing, obviously make by visitors from different parts of the world that have been lured to Shetland. Once you have been , Shetland gets in your blood and you must come back time and time again.

Sitting on a beach somewhere has never appealed to me, I like exploring places and Shetland has so much to offer even a casual visitor. Like us this can lead to big decisions, like moving here some thing we have never regretted.

The old and even older (Giant Stones- Hamnavoe) equally interesting. Seeing these things gets you interested more in archaeology, the range of my interests has been broadened  by coming to Shetland

Music has been a big plus with so many concerts to go to, the young south mainland fiddlers are inspirational and may even get you started playing an instrument. We had a chat with someone at 76 who has just started playing a mandolin so its never too late, that's if you can fit it in with everything else going on

I have now finished painting all sides of our house and have arranged for someone to give us a quote on painting the roof. This will add extra years onto the life of the house.

The house a few doors away has still showed no signs of being repaired or painted and his garden is very overgrown so the value will have decreased considerably.

I have just been asked to do a talk `A year in Shetland' when we go back to Sheffield, it's going to be very difficult knowing what to leave out.