aquaerial

I've just come back from a tour of South Island New Zealand and have some photos that may interest somebody. We were at Charlestown on the West Coast and in the camp-site I found some old photos of Shetlanders who settled on Nine Mile Beach near Charlestown during the Gold Rush in the 1880's. Somebody then told me about a graveyard that was full of Shetlander and so I went and took some photos. It turned out that they were all from Unst with names of Anderson, Laurenson, Harper and Mouat. So you may have some long lost ancestors. None of them seemed to live very long in the extreme environment and quite a few of them drowned at sea which is very rough there though the Shetlanders seemed to survive better than most. They still gold mine in this area and the gold can be seen in the sand. They had a wonderful spot to live in surrounded by weka birds and sub-tropical bush but lots of rain and sand-flies.

Its Voe Show day and its very windy and its raining. But worse still there's foot and mouth. What happens to all the animals who are already there? Will the officials let us in I ask myself. I have to brave the ferry because I've put a photo in there for a competition. The camper van ain't too keen on the idea.

I don't know what happened in Shetland the last time there was f and m. I was down in Gloucestershire then but it was terrible down there. We lived in the Forest of Dean surrounded by wild deer and you couldn't take the dog out for a year.

I'm struggling to put photos into these blogs but haven't managed it. I know how to reduce image size for e mailing but you don't seem to get the opportunity with the blog. Any advice anybody out there?

I live on Whalsay and have interests in walking,photography and wildlife watching. Look forward to somebody telling me of events and so on in Shetland.
I'm attempting to play a fiddle but can't find anybody to teach me in Whalsay as yet and I play a tuba. The husband plays a cornet.

So if anybody wants some brass playing for the church or something , let me know. Its all free, just glad to help out if we can fit it in with a shopping trip to Lerwick. We're not that good though, we play in a brass band in Gloucestershire in the winter doing Brassed Off type competitions which is very fraught. You have to practice one piece for months on end and eventually get good at that one piece.

It looks like the good weather has come to an end as I look out of the window and see Isbister Holm disappear into the black stuff. I hope it improves for the Voe Show.