Shetland Wool Week 2018: Day 11: The storm

Stormy : Wed 19 Sept

This was the day THE storm was forecast. We decided we would not go too far from base. As we were having breakfast we had the most wonderfully short thunderstorm and this left us with a glorious rainbow. 

I had brought 8 mordanted skeins with me to use for a natural dyeing demonstration/ workshop at the Heritage Centre with the Knitting and Spinning ladies. I split each of these into 4 mini skeins so that we could get more colours from the one dye bath after breakfast. 

Late morning we had a tip off about a bird that was in the area. It was in a roundabout way. Stefan, the cyclist  from the Netherlands had got a lift up to Hermaness. This was not a day I would choose to go there but it would certainly be atmospheric. He set about walking back south down the island and got a lift with a group of birdwatchers. During the journey he heard the group discuss A bird they were going to look for   in a corner of a field not far from us! He thought M would be interested, but wasn’t exactly  sure where or what it was. 

We decided we would drive out following Stefan’s encouraging but vague  description of just where this bird was we would take a look. 

He was spot on, in a field of many birds we saw a Buff Breasted Sandpiper! These breed in Arctic North America but migrate to South America in the winter. This one must have been brought over with the westerly winds we had been having. This happens quite often so the bird is uncommon rather than a real rarity. 

The weather was decidedly turning for the worse so we parked the van in more shelter and I took my knitting in to the hostel conservatory for the rest of the afternoon. 

It was quite a storm, one camper was aiming to leave his tent outside but Stefan had moved inside as he was not fancying a night out tonight. We had very heavy rain alternating with very high winds. We were relieved we were not on the ferry between Shetland and Aberdeen tonight. We had a very social afternoon and early evening. 

During the storm: Notice the gannet, the gannets seem to have loved the storm

At 21.00 we decided the worst of the storm was over and moved back by the shore. It was actually more sheltered and we both had a good night’s sleep. The storm did not seem as bad as it was forecast, perhaps we were on the edge and the worst was further south.