What I did during the lockdown
Jun. 3rd, 2020 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shewhomustI have not found time hanging heavy on my hands; often I reach the end of a day wondering just where it has gone. I have acquired no new skills, learned no new languages, accomplished no major works. But I have finished sorting the photos from last summer's trip to Shetland, and posted them to Flickr: in celebration of which, a stroll around Lerwick, the capital of the islands. This isn't the full tourist guide, just a few pictures, starting with something that's new since our last visit:
It's called 'Da Lightaome Buoy, and I rather like it. The handsome buiding behind it is the Old Tollbooth (now the Lifeboat Station).
And here's the view from inside (from the RNLI shop) looking out at the harbour:
This is the other side of the building, where it forms a square with the Queen's Hotel:
I don't think the bunting was for any special occasion, it's just there to enliven Commercial Street, the main - more or less the only - shopping street:
While I'm on the subject of shops, this is Lerwick's department store:
If I really wanted a department store, I'd try , for example, the shop at Aywick, in Yell, which I compared at the time to an Aladdin's cave.
Famously, there are no trees in the Northern Isles:
In fact, I was constantly surprised by how many there are. I admit that this one isn't very big, and like Kirkwall's Big Tree it is sheltered by the surrounding buildings rather than sheltering them, but it is indisputably a tree.
Have a random street sign:
This isn't new, but it was not yet, when we were last in Shetland, the most photographed house in Lerwick:
The Lodberries - the series of private piers, and the houses (originally storehouses) they serve - were always picturesque, but now they are also As Seen On TV. This is Jimmy Perez's house in Shetland. Which is as close as this visit will get to tourism. No pictures of the fort, or the museum (though the museum is highly recommended). One last not-to-be missed sight - the Library:
Goodbye, Shetland. Where next? There are many more folders of half-sorted photos on my hard disk - and revisiting them is the nearest to a holiday I expect to come this year. Is this too gloomy a view? Possibly. The more optimistic the official announcements, the more pessimistic I become. But at least I can enjoy my photos...
It's called 'Da Lightaome Buoy, and I rather like it. The handsome buiding behind it is the Old Tollbooth (now the Lifeboat Station).
And here's the view from inside (from the RNLI shop) looking out at the harbour:
This is the other side of the building, where it forms a square with the Queen's Hotel:
I don't think the bunting was for any special occasion, it's just there to enliven Commercial Street, the main - more or less the only - shopping street:
While I'm on the subject of shops, this is Lerwick's department store:
If I really wanted a department store, I'd try , for example, the shop at Aywick, in Yell, which I compared at the time to an Aladdin's cave.
Famously, there are no trees in the Northern Isles:
In fact, I was constantly surprised by how many there are. I admit that this one isn't very big, and like Kirkwall's Big Tree it is sheltered by the surrounding buildings rather than sheltering them, but it is indisputably a tree.
Have a random street sign:
This isn't new, but it was not yet, when we were last in Shetland, the most photographed house in Lerwick:
The Lodberries - the series of private piers, and the houses (originally storehouses) they serve - were always picturesque, but now they are also As Seen On TV. This is Jimmy Perez's house in Shetland. Which is as close as this visit will get to tourism. No pictures of the fort, or the museum (though the museum is highly recommended). One last not-to-be missed sight - the Library:
Goodbye, Shetland. Where next? There are many more folders of half-sorted photos on my hard disk - and revisiting them is the nearest to a holiday I expect to come this year. Is this too gloomy a view? Possibly. The more optimistic the official announcements, the more pessimistic I become. But at least I can enjoy my photos...
