Unst diary 2
Jul. 15th, 2009 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sheenaghpughJune 21st
Walked to Norwick.
This is the second most northerly beach in the British Isles (the most northerly is Skaw, but that isn't as pretty). Norwick is in a very small agricultural settlement in a coastal valley and is absurdly peaceful. I defy anyone not to feel laid-back there. It's also the name of a hymn tune, composed by a minister who was living there at the time. Apparently most of those who sing it think it's a misprint for Norwich. Ah well.
There was a tame lamb there, in a field by the roadside, who baaed loudly to tell us he wanted chatting to and feeding some clover. You meet a lot of these in spring and summer.
As you see, we got around to uploading some photos. They're in the gallery Shetland 2009. The wayside flowers I mentioned in the last instalment are among them.
And it was the longest day. Unst is far north enough that at that time of year, the sun doesn't set; it passes across the north still visible. This feels really weird to me, because of the shorthand they tell you at school; the sun is never in the north, night is dark, etc etc. I was trying to figure out the direction I was headed in and getting it wrong, because I was automatically thinking that's the sun so it must be the west.... not at midnight it wasn't!
Not
This is what doesn't happen:
near midnight, and the Sun
resplendent, having passed
unsetting through the west,
proceeds across the north,
unmaking, in his path,
dark and direction, all
we thought we learned at school.
Walked to Norwick.
This is the second most northerly beach in the British Isles (the most northerly is Skaw, but that isn't as pretty). Norwick is in a very small agricultural settlement in a coastal valley and is absurdly peaceful. I defy anyone not to feel laid-back there. It's also the name of a hymn tune, composed by a minister who was living there at the time. Apparently most of those who sing it think it's a misprint for Norwich. Ah well.There was a tame lamb there, in a field by the roadside, who baaed loudly to tell us he wanted chatting to and feeding some clover. You meet a lot of these in spring and summer.
As you see, we got around to uploading some photos. They're in the gallery Shetland 2009. The wayside flowers I mentioned in the last instalment are among them. And it was the longest day. Unst is far north enough that at that time of year, the sun doesn't set; it passes across the north still visible. This feels really weird to me, because of the shorthand they tell you at school; the sun is never in the north, night is dark, etc etc. I was trying to figure out the direction I was headed in and getting it wrong, because I was automatically thinking that's the sun so it must be the west.... not at midnight it wasn't!Not
This is what doesn't happen:
near midnight, and the Sun
resplendent, having passed
unsetting through the west,
proceeds across the north,
unmaking, in his path,
dark and direction, all
we thought we learned at school.
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Date: 2009-07-15 05:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-16 12:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-16 12:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-16 08:37 pm (UTC)To me, "south" mean cold and windy, and houses should be north-facing for sun and warmth. However as most fiction is set in the north, I can switch round easily enough.