cooking up a storm at the edge of the world
Hams of Muckle Roe: old Norse for havens (or harbours) of the big red island. I lost the entire month of July to working full time and then August seems to have flown by. The winter weather is going to be starting up again soon, confining us indoors again. This last week has given us …
The Iron Age in Europe occurred between 1200 BCE – 1 BCE. I’ve rekindled my geocaching bug – well, my friend Julia’s rekindled my geocaching bug. In 2010 a crafty friend of mine (Julia – who blogs over at Jaydee’s Ramblings) introduced me to the wonderful world of geocaching. For those of you who don’t …
No electricity, no wifi – 48 wonderful disconnected hours. After our unfortunate attempt at camping on the top of Rona’s Hill, Shetland’s highest hill, for the Simmer Dim (summer solstice), my family (ie: my husband!) inwardly groaned when I suggested we go camping again, this time for the whole weekend. I didn’t bother checking the …
#24 Kayak into a sea cave. Complete. Earlier this Spring I completed my one star kayak training with the Shetland Canoe Club, meaning I was qualified to go out on trips with the club this summer. We’ve done a few small (5-6 mile) trips on club nights and I’m delighted to say that thanks to …
Simmer Dim – Shetlandic for ‘summer twilight’ Sometimes I have good ideas. Sometimes I don’t. I’m not sure where on the spectrum of good-bad ideas this camping trip idea lies – somewhere in between, perhaps?
Spelunking: the exploration of caves, especially as a hobby. There are approximately 1679 miles of indented coastline in Shetland punctuated by the regular appearance of caves, most only accessible by sea if they are accessible at all. The cave at the far end of St. Ninian’s tombolo is one of our family’s favourite haunts, but last …
A small quartered log and a few pieces of kindling can provide enough fuel for one meal. Regular readers will be aware that I contribute to Promote Shetland’s A Taste of Shetland food blog – a collection of recipes and stories featuring ingredients from the UK’s most northerly island archipelago, my home, Shetland. I am …
A whole lot of science and a little bit of cake. The beauty of waking up each morning, for me, is that bit after you dreamily return to reality and that subsequent anticipation of what might happen that day. It’s a new day! What adventures could possibly lay before you in the following 24 hours? A …
Going back in time to a Middle Devonian lake bottom! It’s the Easter Holidays. I completely forgot about the Easter Holidays until the Thursday before the schools broke up for the Spring Break. This meant that I had to take the kids to work with me (there being no childminders around where I live, and …
An adventure story involving an airplane! Have you ever had one of those days where you say to yourself (and anyone else who will listen) – I love my life! Monday was one of those days for me, when my adventures took me to Fair Isle, a tiny island midway between the Orkney and Shetland …
A fantastic Mother’s Day adventure out! The Muckle Roe lighthouse has long been on my bucket list of places to visit, by land, when I first saw it from the sea: an intriguing beacon of light warning sailors of the dangerous cliffs ahead and marking the entrance to Swarbacks Minn. I’ve explored the base of the …
I’m sorry, ye old weather gods, I’ve come to the realization that I have taken you for granted. I have paid the price of this negligence; the result of a mighty fine summer 2014 spent mostly indoors writing and trying to meet copy deadlines. I am truly sorry. This atrocious winter you have precipitated on me …
An adventure had in between hurricane force winds. No, this post isn’t about that film of the same name Between Weathers, which was allegedly supposed to have been filmed here in Shetland years ago (what ever happened to those plans?!); it’s about how we, as a family, escaped the confines of our house for one …
ideal for sipping from a tin cup on the rocky sea shore Hot soup sipped from a tin cup while sitting on the rocky shore watching the waves dance. What can be better than that? There are nine years between my eldest child and my youngest. This means it can be difficult to find something …
A gorgeous marriage of chunky peanut butter and chocolate chunks – in a cookie! Salty peanut butter… Sweet, sweet chocolate…. Together in a can’t-eat-enough-of-them cookie! These delectable morsels were my fourteen year old son’s creation. He fancied making peanut butter chocolate chunk cookies and, searching through our recipe books and using the ingredients we had …
We’ve had some pretty glorious weather up here in Shetland this summer. Temperatures have regularly been hitting the 20’s, which, in Shetland, is considered a heat wave! On one fine sunny day, we decided to go rock pooling at Leebitton, a place we’d never been before, but a nature-loving friend told us that it was …
I may live as far away from Glasgow as I possibly can and still be considered to living in Scotland, but the Commonwealth Games have touched our rural island village in the middle of the north sea. On the 1st of July the Queen’s Baton Relay came to our village. The buzz on the day …
Last year I blogged about the fantastic experience I had at the continental market held on Commercial Road in Lerwick, the main town here in Shetland. I am delighted to announce that they are returning again this year! Delicious home made baklava and exotic cheese – here I come!
The sun came out in Shetland the other day. This means one thing: screens get switched off, the housework gets abandoned and we head outdoors for some proper exploring adventures. After all, it could be weeks before we see the sun again!
Our youngest has a thing for maps at the moment. He absolutely loves them. So when the sun came out in Shetland for the third day in a row yesterday we decided that when our youngest had finished nursery we’d get him to find a place on the Ordinance Survey map 467 for us to …
