Shetland in Spring
A still day in Aith where the low sun and reflections really bring out the way communities are structured: the houses run along the edge of the water, with the parks, the cultivated fields, running down to the water, and the scattald, or shared hill grazing, up above. This is the Norse pattern, with every household having its own fields and shore area, for the boat.
Spring is when crofters burn off the old heather stems, to let the new grass come through.
A March mist on the hills.
At last in mid-March the spring flowers appear!
The last Up Helly As are held in March: South Mainland, Delting and the Walls and District Up Helly A, where the honour of being the Jarl, or lead Viking, is shared between the Brownies, the Youth Club and the Sea Scouts.
Motoring from the marina to the pier to get her mast craned back on.
Mussel floats at the end of the voe; the mussels grow from ropes dangling down.
Spring sunshine.
A pair of colourful Shetland lambs.
A spring gale at the cliffs of Eshaness.
The spring sunshine turns the weathered grass on the hills to gold.
The last daffodil to flower is the “Shetland green lily” which you find in old crofthouse gardens.
The last week in April, and volunteers all over Shetland take part in our annual ‘Redd Up’. The Amenity Trust issues rubbish bags and gloves, and we all ‘pick up brukk’ on verges and beaches.
Junior sailing begins up at Brae on the first weekend of May.
No, they don’t need to jump in afterwards when we’ve managed to keep them mostly dry, but they love doing it!
May, and fulmars nesting on the cliffs.
A field of primroses in mid-May.
Tulips are an early-summer flower in Shetland.
Out in the Røna on a windy day.
Milla, pressed into use as a lawn mower.
Shetland in Summer
Suddenly there are flowers everywhere...
Here I am casting – cutting long rectangles of wet peat and putting them on top of the bank to dry out.
A bonny day for taking school children out on Shetland’s own Tall Ship, the restored fishing boat Swan. She’s a Fifie, and the largest boat to be built at Hay’s Docks, where the Shetland Museum now is.
A golden evening on the beach at Papa.
June’s ‘flower of the month’ – the gorgeous ‘curly dodie’. First the royal purple ones, then, later in the month, the smaller marsh orchids in every shade of pink.
The summer flower that’s in every garden: big scarlet poppies.
A golden summer evening in Gruting.
Standing stones, Papa Stour.
Selkies, or seals, drying out on one of the south mainland’s sandy beaches.
A very fashionable yowe or ewe, with earrings!
Red campion and sea pinks.
Driving west from Lerwick, with the three steps of Foula on the horizon.
Summer is sailing season, of course, and on very light wind days I can sometimes fly my Karima’s bonny spinnker.
Waterlilies in a lochan.
Summer skies promise a fine day tomorrow.
A bonxie, or great skua, the pirate of the bird world.
The agricultural shows begin in August. Voe is the first; this is the pony show ring at Walls.
Puffin at Sumburgh Lighthouse
Shetland in Autumn
Dancing toadstool
Mist lying low early in a valley.
A still autumn morning in the marina.
Coloured sheep enjoying the last summer weather.
Scarfs or shags, on Papa Little.
Heather on Muckle Roe.
A rock known locally as ‘Da Kist’ (the Chest)
Sunset over Vementry Isle.
An October gale.
A young guillemot in its winter plumage.
Autumn ram.
The voe in Autumn colours.
A verge of montbretia on Fair Isle.
Gulls sheltering on the football pitch.
The last of the garden flowers, Shetland delphinium, or monkshood, a deadly poison.
By late October, the heather stems and marsh grass create this glorious burnt orange.
The ponies are getting their thick winter coats.
A flock of shags flying over the autumn hills.
The marina rules are that masts must come down before the start of November. Of course I delay it as long as possible...
Winter activities begin, like evening classes and hall dances. Here the Papa Stour Sword Dance group are beginning their performance of this traditional dance.
Shetland in Winter
Winter colours reflected on the voe.
Guillemots in winter plumage.
Looking up the voe on a frosty December morning.
Another bird that you see closer inshore in winter is the shag.
Milla with her winter coat.
A bonny January day can be just as colourful as autumn.
Ruby spagnum moss by a hill burn.
A January gale.
A ‘siege’ of herons up in the hill.
Ice on a loch.
I had great fun watching otters from the pier on still winter mornings.
Herring gulls.
Signs of spring: snowdrops in the old kirkyard, mid-February.
Voe Kirk, old and new.
A crofthouse in mid-February.
A black sheep up on the hill.
A still February day out on the water.
We almost always get several days of snow at the end of February.
A bright, breezy spring day.
Spring sunshine on the marina- time to think about antifouling and getting my mast upright.