Shetland

There's an absolutely beautiful public garden in Lerwick which we visited several times. Despite the chilly wind, there were the most beautiful herbaceous flowers, such as these lupins - which, unlike mine, seemed to be immune to the depredations of slugs and snails - delphiniums (ditto) and every imaginable colour of columbines with nary a greenfly (unlike mine). I imagine the greenfly are blown off. Or perhaps they can't fly this far in the first place.

There were also lots archaeological sites, such as the Clickimin Broch, dating from about 100 BC, with an impressive indoor stair.

The Shetland wildflowers included these red campions, which were everywhere and absolutely lovely. Orkney had the usual pink ones but these were much brighter, with stems really thickly covered with blossoms.

Commenters have asked if I visited knitting shops. To my shame - no - though I did look in some windows. I'm not really a knitter. However, at the Bon Hoga Gallery there was a great café with this basket of knitting - a long scarf. I knitted one row, thinking of Thimbleanna and Daughter 1, both industrious knitters.

These notices were beside litter bins in various places. "Bruck" means "mess" - so "Don't drop litter".

 And

 everywhere

 we

 went

 there

 was

 something

 lovely to look at.

And more Viking and older remains. This is Jarlshof, which was occupied over many centuries.

Fortunately it hardly rained. Lerwick has a wonderful museum and there are a few other minor museums and some shops, but there's not a lot for tourists to do in either Orkney or Shetland in bad weather unless they just do it in the rain. Should you decide to go - which I would recommend - take warm, rainproof clothes, hats (yes, Mr L wore his fleecy hat on occasions), gloves (we didn't have any but often had to retract our hands inside our jackets to keep them warm) and a lot of books.

I got quite a bit of evening quilting done.

 

And yes, there were many Shetland ponies. Very cute!