shewhomust | A day at the museum (Reply)

One of the things about Shetland is, you can see where the oil money has gone. The wealth that has flowed into the islands (in payment for serving as a base for North Sea Oil) has been visibly translated into the fast, smooth road that runs the length of Mainland, into swimming pools in small villages, and into a smart new library and museum in Lerwick.

We spent most of the next day in the museum, five minutes walk from 'our house': turn right and down to the end of Burgh Road, carry on straight ahead through what appeared to be a builders' merchant's yard, and you are at the 'sail' end of the building. We were exhausted before we'd seen half the collection, but three things which I wrote down at the time:

A case containing the book Shetland Lichens (by Kery Dalby, illustrated by his wife Claire), and a note headlined "A Passion for Lichens" explaining that "Kery Dalby, who stays in Perth, has been studying lichens for over 30 years. He has identified 26 new species of Shetland lichens, and collected countless specimens. He recently donated a collection of these to the museum." I'm not sure what it is about this that appeals to me so much. On the one hand, Shetland's lichens are genuinely magnificent (I took photographs of them myself); on the other hand, a collection of countless specimens of lichen is not everyone's perfect gift...