My Last Night in Shetland

I can't even believe that it is my last night in Shetland. This trip has flown by and yet I feel like I am leaving a changed person.

I woke up to a wonderful repreive from the rainy weather this morning. It was bright and beautiful, just like my first day here.




I spent this morning and early afternoon in the garden with Jan. I was tasked with digging up tatties (what they call potatoes here). I dug up so many tatties, I couldn't even believe it. It was probably a bushel's worth. They ranged from teeny tatties to gigantic ones. It was fun to play in the dirt all day. Dig your hands through the dirt and mud to find the tatties.

The soil here is so rich, it's unlike anything I have ever seen. And the worms...oh my god, the worms. You can hardly go a cubic inch in the dirt without finding at least 5 worms. It's amazing. I saw a worm today that was 10 inches long and at least a quarter inch thick. I actually thought it was a snake for about 10 seconds.

This is the garden:





And this is the tattie patch (to the right):





And this is the polytunnel. It's filled with amazing things.





After digging up tattie (and Jan picking beans and peas) Pete brought us both hand made cappiccinos (with shaved chocolate and all!) They are spectacular! I am definitely going to miss those. And tea. Oh god, I can't even talk about tea yet.

After our coffee break, we gathered all of our loot...




And cleaned it up really well to sell at the Sunday Tea at Hillswick town hall.

I kind of love Sunday Teas. They have tons of little sandwiches, cakes and biscuits and (obviously) tea. Jan does an amazing job with arrangements. The goods sold like hot cakes.





Sorry this photo is kind of dark...but this is the booth. There are peas, courgettes (zuchinni), tomatoes, celery, beet roots, cauliflower, poppy seed pods, and tatties. In this photo (L-R) is Alice (a regular fixture and wonderful person), Jan, and Nancy, a Shetlander who lives nearby.

We walked back from the Hillswick Hall because it was so beautiful outside. The sky could not have been more amazing.




I spent the evening down in The Booth by the peat fire. I can't even aptly write about how warm and inviting the atmosphere is in that place. It is as though you time travel back to a simpler days every time you walk through the door. No TV, no computer, no outside world. Just the pleasure of the company you are with, a nice cuppa, and the cozy warmth of the peat fire. I could spend an eternity in that room.

For dinner we had baked tatties. The ones I had dug up earlier in the day. I only put a little bit of butter on it and a spoonful of cheese. In all my life I have never tasted a potato that good. I saved the skins for last.

As I held the potato skins in my hand, I looked down and noticed the dirt lodged beneath my fingernails from earlier in the day.

I gave a satisfied smile to no one in particular.

And took a bite.

Hard work has never tasted so good.

Location:Hillswick, Shetland, United Kingdom

Update on the baby otter

The little baby otter died about 30 minutes after arriving at the sanctuary last night. It was so sad to watch. It was only about 10-15 days old. It's poor little paws were all raw, and it was apparent that it had lost its mother and was desparately searching for her.

Location:Hillswick, Shetland

Last Night

Last night was magical.

I had spent the majority of the morning and afternoon making a parsley pesto (omg so good) and an encore presentation of Sweet Potato Pie, and then spent the evening down in Da Bod (The Booth) which was once an old pub for hundreds of years, and is now a vegetarian cafe on the weekends. .





It's hard not to get swept away in the magic of the room. Stone walls and floors constantly remind you just how old the place s. And the low lighting and warmth of the peat fire just make you feel cozy and at home.





We ate dinner around the peat fire, drank wine, and listened to Miles Davis, a reggae band from New Zealand, and a wealth of other world music bands.




Around midnight or so the phone rang, it was Jan's son telling her that he had just seen two fire trucks, a police car, and the coast guard headed towards Lerwick. Immediately we got our coats and cameras and walked out door. The fire was at St. Magnus Bay hotel, a very old house here in Hillswick. Luckily it wasn't anything serious, just a small fire that had started by someone's cigarette on the porch. But the town was a-buzz. People were driving by in their cars slowly to see what was happening, and everyone that lived nearby was out on the street watching it all happen.





After the excitement of the fire, we all came back inside, enjoyed a few more glasses of wine and talked until 3 a.m. It was amazing sitting in that old, old room. Hundreds of years of history and good times have been had in that room and you can sense it. I feel so blessed that I am staying at a place with such energy and happiness lining the stone walls.

Earlier in the evening, Pete noticed my embroidered camera strap and asked me where I had gotten it in town here. I told him that I had had that strap since my first camera about 12 years ago. He looked at me, kind of surprised and said:

"You do realize that is a Shetland Fair Isle pattern, right? The Ox-O. It is the one they are most known for."

I had absoloutely no idea.

But I do know that I definitely chose the right place for my trip.

And as my trip winds down to an end, I can't help but think, given all that has happened and the wonderful people I have met, that this island chose me.

Then again, perhaps that's just the LOST nerd in my talking. :-)

Location:Da Bod, Hillswick, Shetland, United Kingdom

Meet Bill

This is Bill:





Bill is an adorable baby seal that they have been caring for here at the Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary for the past few months.

Bill likes to make faces like this:








He's having a hard time learning how to eat fish properly. He likes to bite, tear, and shred instead of gulp. He should be released by the end of the month.

If you'd like to donate to the sanctuary here (it's run entirely on donations from the public) you can do so through the following link:

http://www.shetlandwildlifesanctuary.com/contact%20details.htm

There will be a yello "DONATE" button towards the top. Or you can mail a check or cash to them.

They truly do amazing things here. As I type this, they are headed down to Lerwick to pick up a baby otter that just washed up on shore and collapsed. I will keep you updated on his progress/prognosis.

Bill thanks you for your donation:

Location:Hillswick, Shetland, United Kingdom

Pony bites and Scenic Sites

This is going to be a very photo-heavy post because I am dileriously tired.

But I will share two misadventures that I had today on my long walk back from the Eshaness Lighthouse to where I am staying.

Along the way I ran across a pack of four Shetland ponies. They were not scared of me and came up close when I got near. I was taking a photo of one of them and when I wasn't looking one of the other ones bit my toe through my shoe. Just as I was realing from the shock and pain of what had just happened, another pony bit my jacket that I had tied to my waist and was trying to rip it off of me.

Item #1 of things I learned today: Shetland ponies are shifty, bitey bastards.

But they sure do make for good photography (following the next bit).

No sooner had I recovered from my traumatically-hilarious encounter with the ponies and had carried on enjoying the sites, when I apparently lost my footing and literally faceplanted on the road. I was trying to save my camera, which I had around my neck as I fell. I didn't do a good job. It got dinged up pretty bad. As did my knee. I popped up quickly, having just past about 3 houses after no houses around at all the entire rest of the walk...and I didn't want to be caught in embarrassment so I got up and ran. ha. Makes sense, right?

Anyway, short of those few things, it was quite an amazing walk among the sheep and ponies.

I stopped into the Tangwick Haa Museum in Tangwick. They have a great collection of artifacts and photos of crofting in the area back in the day. But I got to talking with the two people working behind the counter, Evelyn and Sarah, and had a blast talking with them about stories of the area and the dialect. I was really glad that I stopped in there (I had debated not doing it since it added on 1.5 miles to my walk...and, in retrospect, it would have prevented me from faceplanting) I ended up talking with them for about an hour or so!

Anyway, without further ado, I bring you the best of the best of the photos from the day.



















































In the photo below it the rock/island thing has an official name (I can't remember what it is) but locals call it "Drinking Horse" you'll see why in a later photo.







This is an old Croft house...they are ALL over the island. You literally can't go a mile without seeing a similar broken down old croft house.








There was a sheep skeleton in this particular croft house.










This is "Drinking Horse." Do you see it?










It was clear that humans don't own the road in these parts.













And then I came upon this shady cast of characters. That brown and white one on the left is the bitey bastard that tried to snack on my big toe.































If you look closely in this next one, you can see it is actually a self-portrait...





































And here's the view from the cafe. I had an orange soda when I got back and nothing has ever tasted so good in my life.

Location:Eshaness, Shetland, United Kingdom