Shetland with Laurie Goodlad and Otter Spotting

Shetland Your Essential Travel Guide by Laure Goodlad is the latest book from Misa Hay's 60 North Publishing project. If you're planning a trip to Shetland it's definitely worth giving Laurie a follow on Instagram, and ordering her book either direct from 60 North or through the Shetland Times bookshop. I bought it as soon as I got up there with the definite intention of doing something I'd never done before. After consulting the book and my general level of fitness (arthritis is playing hell with my right foot, and I can't currently walk as far as I'd like and really not very far off road - I'm scheduled for an injection to help with the pain a week today) I thought a sea bird tour around Noss would be perfect.

Unfortunately, the weather had other ideas, it was sunny for most of our time in Shetland, but also windy enough on the free days I had not to be ideal for a boat trip. Next time. Meanwhile the book is full of excellent walks, info for shopping for wool and knitwear, things to see, photography tips, heritage attractions and more. The size is sensible, the weather advice is another excellent feature, and altogether it's a thoroughly useful and engaging guide book.

An actual highlight of the holiday was spending the best part of an hour on a sunny afternoon Otter watching though and there are tips for that in Lauries book too. 

She lists some great possible spots in Lerwick, the best times of day to see them, and gives a bit of solid advice - if you really want to be sure of seeing an Otter book a nature guide. I learned this when I went to Mull and didn't see a Sea Eagle - it feels like everyone else I know just saw them hanging out, so I thought I might get lucky too. Sadly not and if I ever go to Mull again I'm doing a nature tour because I really don't know enough about Sea Eagle habits to have a clue about where to start.

I do know a bit about Otters though, and I'm pretty good at spotting them. Shetland is a great place to do it, it has the highest concentration of otters in Europe and a lot of water close at hand - which otters like. Watching the sea is a good strategy for Shetland anyway - there are seals, an excellent chance of whales, dolphins, and porpoises, and a whole raft of birds to spot quite apart from an otter. 

Spending a bit of time observing seals is worthwhile - once you know what they look like in the water you'll know that's not what you're seeing when you spot an otter. My next tip is to go for a good walk along the coast - look for lots of crab shells, sea urchin shells, and possible otter spraint - otters are messy eaters when it comes to leftovers. From there the best time to see them is either side of low tide - look for good rocks with plenty of kelp around them and then sit downwind from the sea.

Otters don't see very well so if your spot is a good one you might end up getting quite a close encounter. If you see one in the water you can move closer to the shoreline whilst they're diving, but be respectful of their space - it's their home, not ours. 

New Scottish Baking - Sue Lawrence

I didn't think to take a photograph of it, the tent was busy and sometimes you just want to enjoy the moment, but a hotly contested category in the Shetland agricultural shows is best Sultana cake baked by a Gentleman. We hit it lucky and managed to shows in the time we were up north - Cunningsburgh and my local show - Walls (Waas). Dad entered his sultana cake, delicious but unplaced along with a couple of other friends one of whom swiped first prize. I'm not saying dad is bitter about this, but I'm not saying he's not either. 

Doug is now determined to get in an entry next year and so I bought Sue Lawrence's 'New Scottish Baking, because if anyone was going to have a really classic, hopefully show winning as well as stopping, sultana cake it's surelySue Lawrence. Her recipe is based on her mother's and she also mentions similarly simple cakes from the 18th century. It's a simple recipe with no fancy tricks, so will rely very much on the baker making a good job of the business. I'm very much looking forward to the results.

It would have been an expensive book for a single recipe for a fairly standard cake so it's lucky there's a whole lot of good interesting sounding things in here, though at times I'm not sure what makes something Scottish. I'm looking at you artichoke heart and thyme bread, and you Pain aux Raisen, and Pecan Pie is getting some side eye too. I made a Pecan Pie with my sister last week so I should probably let it pass and save my questions for the two separate brownie recipes (it feels like one too many to me). It's not that any of these things sounds less than delicious so much as that I do  not associate pain aux raisins with Scottish home or cafe cooking. 

On the other hand who am I to argue with Sue who knows far more about her subject than I do. I'm on safer ground with Aberdeen butteries (a salty fatty thing that my husband loves and I don't) an excellent range of shortbreads, a particularly intriguing bannock that comes out on the shortbread end of the scale, a lot of scones, oatcakes, and roasted rhubarb, orange and ginger blondies. The concept of the blondie doesn't often appeal, but a rhubarb and ginger version does. It fits the tray bake tradition and the ability of rhubarb to thrive in the highlands and islands. The gentleman who won first prize for his rhubarb at the show told me his patch was well over a hundred years old.

There's a tomato and black pudding (Stornoway of course) tart that's also caught my attention, so altogether I'm delighted with this book and looking forward to making good use of it. I might even see if this pecan pie is a better version than the one  I've been using for the last 20 years. 

The Formidable Miss Cassidy - Meihan Boey

I'm back from Shetland and feeling low about it. We had a fabulous couple of very busy weeks and really weren't ready to come back to work yet. So far the adjustment has been hard even with the extra time on the ferry and then stopping in the borders on the way back. Maybe not helped by the borders being another beloved area which deserved more time. Work today was overwhelming, not because of the work itself but more the sheer number of people. That I'm listening to football chants carried to me on the wind and not the actual wind, birds, or sheep is another disconnect that I can't quite reconcile yet. 

The formidable Miss Cassidy wouldn't give into this sort of melancholy, she'd shake herself down and sort something out and as that's hardly the worst example to follow she's where I'll start. I really liked this book which i read a good few weeks ago as a proof. It's out in hardback now and if any of you are in the mood for a reasonably cosy fantasy with a bit of an edge I highly recommend it. The blurb on my copy likens the heroine to part Mary Poppins and part Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Miss Cassidy is like neither of these characters, and yet it's not the worst description. It does at least capture something of the vibe of the book. 

Miss Cassidy arrives in Singapore in 1890 to be a governess for the listless child of a merchant who has lost the rest of his family to tropical disease. She soon realises that there is something supernatural haunting the remaining family and takes steps to deal with it. The first problem solved she moves on to another family and a more worrying creature, and in the process, the reader finds out more about Miss Cassidy who is as enigmatic as she is formidable.  

The blurb also promises Magic, Romance and Mystery. Do not be taken in by the promise of romance. There's an intriguing relationship that promises to develop further in subsequent books but here it's a deep friendship and not more. the romance is along the Travis Baldree lines of Bookshops and Bonedust or Legends and Latte's - and all the better for it. 

What really makes this book special though is the way that Meihan Boey has taken her Singaporean/ southeast asian folklore and mixed it up with the myths and legends of her Scottish husband. If I have this right the novel was originally published in English, and it's Pushkin who have the UK rights. Hopefully this will  be successful enough that we get the next two books here. The mixing of traditions is both unexpected and entirely successful. Meihan brings her melting pot Singapore to glorious life evoking flavour and smell along with an oppressive heat and all shot through with an affection for home that is entirely beguiling.

Miss Cassidy is a curious visitor eager to learn about her new home and in that spirit makes friends wherever she goes. It's a charming book with enough of an edge to avoid complacency in the reader - maybe more Buffy than Mary Poppins in that respect, though it's kinder to its monsters with a  hint of sympathy for the way they come into being that begs the question of who or what is monstrous first. 

The Witching Tide - Margaret Meyer

In some sort of personal record I seem to have finished two books whilst on holiday and only bought one. I bought The Witching Tide because it was described ad Margaret Atwood meets somebody (maybe Angela Carter?) that sounded particularly compelling along with all the other plaudits it was recieving.

Now that I've read it I'm not really sure what to say about it. the Margaret Atwood comparison is fair, Margaret Meyer is a fine writer who approaches her subject with compassion, sensitivity, and just the right amount of anger. She creates a convincing version of east Anglia during the civil war and witch hunts of the 17th century, the plot and pacing are both compelling, and yet there's a but.

There are a lot of novels, and almost as much non fiction examining the witch hunting craze of the 17th century, some will be better written than others - and here's the but - do we need as many of them as we have? How much outrage can an individual reader muster and how many times do I want to read about how bloody awful men can be to women? 

Not many times in my case, so whilst I appreciated this book and found it almost as absorbing as the cover quotes promised, I'm also left a little cold by it. Everyone suffers too much, and sometimes it's not entirely clear why. Having the main character as a mute midwife is effective - of course, she's going to get caught up in a witch hunt, and as it happens she does have things to feel guilty about. That Martha cannot speak adds to the sense of horror - she cannot speak up to defend her friends or herself, not that it would matter much if she did. 

There is a suggestion of actual witchcraft that also works well - mostly we see things from Martha's point of view and some of what she feels is suggestive of powers beyond strictly human - which also reflects the genuine belief in, and fear of, witchcraft that people felt. So overall there's much to like, and I did like it, but at the same time it's just not a book I feel passionate about, and will probably the novel on witch hunts I read for a very long time. 

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Faeries - Heather Fawcett

This book was big for us early this year, I bought it when I was in the mood for something light and managed to ignore it ever since. It seemed like a good bit of holiday reading in that it probably wouldn't be a book I'd keep so I wouldn't have to carry it back with me once I'd read it. 

It has been a nice bit of light reading, and I will leave it with my sister to read. Before this sounds too dismissive I'm looking forward to reading the sequel when it comes out in paperback; it's a thoroughly enjoyable bit of fantasy with some decent jokes and a welcome relief from the romantic fantasy which is everywhere. 

Emily Wilde is a brilliant academic in the field of Dryadology engaged in a winters worth of fieldwork in a remote Scandinavian community. She's soon joined by her college, Wendell Bambleby who might be rather more than he seems, and her dog Shadow, who is definitely more than an ordinary dog. Emily and Wendell find a mildly cursed village where Emily, despite her lack of social skills starts to put things right with the reluctant aid of Wendell. Unfortunately, academic curiosity leads her to make a very silly decision.

In some ways very little happens, but it doesn't happen enjoyably. The footnotes are amusing and Heather Fawcett both understands and has fun with all the folk and fairy tale conventions. Emily is a spikey kind of character with just enough chaotic energy to balance her competence and make her decently 3 dimensional. Wendell becomes slowly less human but in an equally relatable way.

There isn't really much else to say about this one - if you like a bit of light fantasy I'd recommend it, if it sounds utterly unappealing it won't be for you. As a fan of Holly Black, Sylvia Townsend Warner's fairy tales, and Susan Stokes-Chapman darkly gothic novels I found enough to enjoy here, though Heather Fawcett is definitely more at the whimsical comedy end - with just a hint of a love interest. I'm not sure she's as good as Travis Baldree in the feel good stakes - but it's in that league. 

A Lerwick Yarn Shopping Expedition.

I'm currently in Shetland enjoying a mix of weather from idyllically sunny to driving rain - often in the same hour. I love it in both moods and all the stages in between. It's no hardship that a wilder kind of day is a good excuse to go to Lerwick to enjoy both the museums and the wool shops. It's a heady mix of inspiration for a knitter. 

Working on the principle that someone out there might find this useful this is my idea of a good time - you could start at either end!

Shetland Textile Museum. If this is open it's more than worth the £3 entry fee. Exhibitions change each year and sometimes within the season. This year one of the rooms is devoted to the late Zena Thomson, she taught me to knit at primary school, she was a brilliant teacher and a formidable knitting talent, it's been a real treat to see so much of her work together. The textile museum shop is also brilliant and you don't have to pay just to go in that bit (do pay!). 

There can't be many gift shops where the things for sale can match the quality of some of the exhibits - there's a nice selection of yarn from some of the smaller organic producers, these are at the more expensive end so it's great to be able to see them before committing. The knitwear is always inspiring, and there's generally people demonstrating upstairs who will teach a little and give useful advice. 

From the Textile museum it's a short hop to the The Woolbrokers (Jamieson and Smith) on the North Road. It's the bigger of the two dedicated yarn shops and they've been really good at introducing new ranges/weights of yarn over the last few years. The heritage ranges, and the 1 ply cobweb lace yarn are interesting, and so is the latest 5 ply sports weight they do. There's an excellent choice of colors in jumper weight too, but the biggest draw from my point of view is the extensive range of yarn they have on cones - 250g for the new 5ply, 500g for everything else and a few 1kg cones in stock at the moment. 

Cones are the cheapest way to buy and the savings can be significant, they're perfect for larger projects - jumpers and shawls, as there are no ends to tie in either. they're oiled for machine use so you need to be thorough when washing and dressing your finished piece, and you'll get grubby hands knitting, but when you find a colour you love they're an excellent investment. 

Next stop would be the Shetland Museum at Hay's Dock. They also have a decent collection of historic knitwear (as well as a cafe and toilets). From a knitwear point of view, their displays don't change as much as the Textile museums do, there are some star pieces there that are well worth repeat visits. 

From the museum, it's a pleasant walk into the centre of the old town (10 minutes at most) on a dry day. The Peerie Shop, Loose Ends, Ninian, R.A.M, Anderson & Co, all have a good range of knitwear to have a look at. Loose Ends sells Uradale Yarn and a couple of other smaller local producers. Ninian and the Peerie Shop are great for Shetland themed gifts of all sorts. 

As you go along Commercial Street there's probably my favourite shop, fabulous windows, Jamiesons's of Shetland I love the heathered colours they produce and their famous wall of wool. They produce their yarn in a wool mill at Sandness so everything happens in Shetland, and there's also a decent range of machine-knitted jumpers, slip overs, cardigans, and hoodies as well as a few tweed items for sale alongside other gift type things. Both Jamieson's and the Woolbrokers do a good range of pattern books (the Woolbrokers possibly have the slightly better collection of these). The staff in both shops are also great with advice for every knitters level and can help with everything from required yardage, through colour matching, to shipping if you want to buy a lot. 

Jamiesons have the best range of Double Knitting weight and if you want coloured lace weight this is probably the best place to look. Spindrift and jumper weight are interchangeable between here and the woolbrokers - there does seem to be an amount of personal preference between more experienced knitters but I don't have one. If the bands are gone I can tell the difference based on colour with reasonable success, but not on texture or quality. You can get everything here from a really fine lace weight through to a super chunky Arran weight. 

The Shetland Times bookshop is definitely worth a visit too - there's a good range of knitting books, both Shetland specific and beyond, an excellent selection of more general Shetland books, and plenty more besides.