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Da Neuk from the air 
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July 2008
In the early hours of a Shetland morning there is quite often a heavy mist or even quite a dense sea fog at this time of year. A few days ago I went out in the morning to let the chickens out and went around the side of the house to the drying green where I had just recently cut the grass. The mist sometimes comes up like a white wall stopping short of the edge of our property and it was then that I saw them emerging through the wall of mist like a convoy of Viking raiders, gliding on the grass surface, intent on their mission….the vegetable patch! You guessed it! Slugs! There was about fifty of them so I went and got my secret weapon from the garage. A large plastic milk carton with the top cut into a scoop which is most effective for picking up slugs, some of which can literally measure up to three inches long.
One evening I used this to collect a similar number and put the carton inside the chicken run. Now chickens are very wary of new objects in their run and were circling around this carton, like Indians around wagons, eyeing up the black objects which slowly emerging. One of the white hens finally plucked up courage to investigate and picked up a slug. The others rather than help themselves to the abundant feast now crawling everywhere in the run chased the white hen around trying to get her beak full of slug off of her and when she went and picked another one they all charged after her again. Meanwhile the rooster just stands there watching them all.
It’s been an eventful month what with the Simmer Dim been and gone. I had to drive on the longest day when the Johnmas Foy was on. I do the Council mail route occasionally and now that it has been redesigned it is much more efficient than previously. I decided in my lunch break to go and get a wrap from Karibuni, they make some rather delicious combinations which are put in a spinach or plain wrap (now I am presuming you all know what a ‘wrap‘ is? A bit like a tortilla) and inserted into a handy little cardboard holder to facilitate consumption. Thus with said luncheon in hand I sat by the water front looking at all the Norwegian yachts and their crews basking in the sunshine and took a big bite. The entire contents shot out of the end of the box all over my trousers and went straight into the water! To say I was a little peeved was an understatement! The cardboard tab end had simply slid out of its slit through no fault of mine or the café so I ended up eating plain wrap whilst the seagulls fought over the Cajun Chicken floating in Lerwick harbour.
Whilst we are on the subject of seagulls, I was summonsed from bed by the youngest C shouting with great excitement about a seagull being in the chicken run. I had been working at a function at the Town Hall the night before and bought back a huge bag of scraps. I had thought well I will put it in the run now, when I arrived home, so the chickens when let out would have an early morning feast. What I hadn’t bargained on was the wiliness of seagulls and the state of the covering on the run. So I went outside and there was this blimmin big seagull flapping around dementedly in the run. No way was I going to try and catch that so wife and I ripped off the plastic green net and eventually the gull escaped. It took sometime because gulls are rather heavy birds and need some distance to take off, a bit like a heavy plane especially after all the titbits it had scoffed. On the roads or on the kerbs here in Shetland you will, rather sadly, see a lot of gulls which have been hit by cars. They come down to feed on flattened rabbits and then have to take a run to avoid cars, sadly not safely all the time! Quite dangerous for car windscreens too! I usually put my hand on the horn when I see them but sometimes it has been too close for comfort!
Oh the chicken coop now has been covered in a very large piece of green fishing net courtesy of my neighbour Mark who dragged this net out of the beach down at Ireland with his car, all 30 metres of it. I had been standing there talking with him outside his house and happened to look down to the beach and saw this large green splodge on the beach. He couldn’t use all of it so shared it with me. Very useful stuff is fish net. Use it for garden windbreaks and protecting the rubbish bags before the essy cart comes to collect.
We have our visiting Viking up for a week. My wife has to go down to Glasgow for two weeks on a training course to do with her work so it is just him, me and the 3Cs who break up for the summer holidays at the end of the week. I think she is going to try and fly home at the weekend to see us but there is a proposed fireman’s strike on the Friday so it may be hit and miss. We are going to go up to Unst to see the archaeological sites where longhouses are being excavated.
In this fine weather essential repairs are being carried out. We had the undercroft insulated with Airtek which will help us save on the cost and use of oil. The last tank fill cost £740!! We are getting a multi fuel burner put into the living room and have obtained peat rights plus can get surplus wood off cuts from a builders near the airport. We also discovered that the gables on the house ends are rotten due to the fact that they are MDF!! Amazing that they have lasted this long! So we have a garden full of scaffolding and bits of wood lying all over the lawn, the chickens are complaining because they have been confined to quarters for the week - they usually come out for an hour every day. Unfortunately the weather has changed to heavy rain and the builders are sitting around drinking tea…very expensive tea!!!
Sadly with all this expenditure I also have to get another car as my present one will fail its MOT and the cost of parts and repair would be well above what I had originally paid for it!!! The good thing is that I can get a smaller engine sized car which has less mileage and will be more economical. Fuel here is astronomically higher than the rest of the UK! It is getting to be a serious problem for businesses as it reflects on the cost of food production. Keeping your own hens and growing vegetables really does go towards making a difference in the food bill. Tesco is opening in 15 days time so it will be interesting to see how their prices are compared to the mainland shops!
Being ever resourceful I have again pickled herrings and are trying my hand at making rhubarb wine which is not something which I have tried before. My neighbour Paul made some once and said he managed to keep it for a few months before succumbing to temptation!
The Scottish Ballet is performing here next weekend and I have got most of my pupils attending the performance which promises to be an entertaining evening. I have also been invited to watch a class with a couple of my ‘older’ pupils!
Onnyway Viking Bob and I went to Unst on Monday and we saw Killer Whales at Bluemull Sound whilst waiting for the ferry to come back fae Fetlar. It was all very exciting. Apparently there are a lot of pods around so fingers crossed!! There have been reports of pods of up to thirty five Orcas out by the oil rigs in the North sea. This Sunday (talking of oil rigs) is the anniversary of the demise of the Piper Alpha. We never thought we would ever be living in this part of the world where people have to work so hard and risk their lives in such a challenging environment.
We missed out on the beer purchase on Unst because the Das Meister Broewer was out and we couldn’t find him! So we went to Saxa Ford and had lunch at the new restaurant which was very pleasant. I can only recommend it! Like wise I can also recommend the Shetland Museum restaurant. We went there the other day and had a light lunch, a very very good seafood salad which was full of flavour though perhaps a little too much lettuce, but the squid was perfection.
Excavations? No I am not talking about dentists ( and they are almost as scarce as Orcas here at the moment) but the digs on Unst. We were very lucky to be able to go and see an archaeological dig in Underhoull on the west side of Unst which was really interesting. The University of Bradford sends up students to do this over a period of three years supervised by an expert! That trip made Viking Bob very happy! I mean…where in one day can you travel on two ferries, see a Viking dig and see killer whales plus a miniature Artic garden! He also went fishing with my neighbour Paul and caught 7 trout! What a holiday!!
The big news for this month apart from Simon King from Nature Watch (he is living in Shetland now by the way - just wait for your first Shetland winter Simon!!) giving a talk to open the Shetland Nature week…is that the real St Ninian’s treasure is coming back to Shetland at last for a period of time. I fully intend going to see this wonderful example of ancient man’s artistry and ingenuity. The replicas are okay but to see the real thing will be very very exciting!
Anyway, so much to talk about and I must apologise for the lateness of this edition but I have been busy. I had the Islesburgh Nursery performance yesterday of “Peerie Mootie and her Muckle Buits” to attend. I had worked with the bairns over a number of sessions over the last two months and it all came together beautifully with my fellow colleague Valerie Watt (she wrote the book) and every one loved it!! Great fun. A peerie break for the hols coming up except for some classes! Plus I have to get ready for my Aunty Lyn’s visit next week!! Hope the weather picks up…….Toodle pip
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December 2006
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