A Shetland Month
Reporting Days: 28
Location: Shetland (south end of)
Distance Walked: 180 km
Distance Driven: 535 km
Auks Spotted: Lots of guillemots at Sumburgh Head and a few black guillemots around Lerwick harbour.
Weather
The ever changing (but never changing) Shetland weather always seems to dominate island life, particularly in the winter months. Are the boats running? What about the airport? Is there ice on the roads? Have the gritters been out? Is it possible to walk the beach without being sand-blasted? Can I hold a camera still without getting spray on the lens or water in the works?
Two things you can safely say.
1. My pictures give a misleading picture of the weather, and
2. There is more light each day at the end of the February than there was at the beginning of the month.
Places
In the summer months I very often head out for the day expecting to spend significant amounts of time walking or just sitting watching (usually waves or auks). In the winter months the walks tend to be shorter and inevitably I end of doing the same walks again and again. Quendale Beach. Scat Ness. Sumburgh Head. West Voe. Pool of Virkie. St Ninian's. And Repeat.
Scat Ness
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| Scat Ness Waves |
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| Breaking Waves at Sunset |
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| Waves in the Sunshine |
Quendale Beach
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| Q Beach from the west end |
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| Q Beach from the east end |
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| Q Beach Reflections |
Sumburgh Head
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| Sunshine & Rainbow at the Lighthouse |
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| Guillemots at Sumburgh Head |
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| Sumburgh Fog Horn |
Pool of Virkie
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| Harpers Marina, Virkie |
St Ninian's Isle
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| St Ninian's Stacks |
West Voe of Sumburgh
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| West Voe coastal walk |
Reading
The short walks and the long evenings leave plenty of time for photo processing, but once that is done there is still time, while one is waiting for the northern lights to appear, for reading (and listening to audio books), so I thought I'd highlight one of each from the last month.
My real book pick for February is Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli (an attempt, by me, to re-engage with the quantum physics I never understood as a student). So what does quantum physics have to do with 'a treeless, wind-battered island in the North Sea'?
My audio book pick for February is Great-Uncle Harry by Michael Palin. The story of H W B Palin, who died in the Somme in 1916 (having survived the chaos that was Gallipoli).
Social Media
If you want to see more pictures (including some of the bad weather ones) - I post pictures most days on Instagram, Bluesky and Flickr, and the Picture of the Day appears on Blipfoto and on Facebook. I've pretty much given up on the platform once called Twitter.
To find the links to all these (and to my Parkinson's Blog) - click on this LinkTree Link.
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