Our last full day in Shetland was as busy and fun as all the rest of the days of our trip! We started with a Fair Isle workshop from Wilma and Terri Malcolmson — they’re a grandmother/granddaughter team who create beautiful Shetland designs. They spoke about color and finding color inspiration in the things around you.
After a short presentation, we were allowed to pick several colors of yarn and work on samples of our own color work. And to sweeten the deal, they treated us to tea and Wilma’s delicious Bannock tea cakes while we knit!
I really enjoyed looking at all the samples in their shop — so many color possibilities and such inspiration! It was fun to see all of the samples from our group too. We joked a lot about how our Swedish ladies were over-achievers — you could definitely tell that they were VERY experienced knitters when it came to choosing colors.
The workshop lasted about 2 hours, after which, we departed for lunch. The plan had been to have our last big hike of the trip, but it was somehow determined that it might be a little ambitious for some of the ladies in our group, so we went to St. Ninian’s Isle instead. St. Ninian’s is a small island connected to mainland Shetland by the UK’s largest tombolo. It was absolutely beautiful!
As always, it was a wee bit windy, but otherwise perfect for a picnic lunch on the beach with sandwiches and fruit packed by Chef Pierre earlier that morning.
After we ate, we walked along the beach to get to the island, where we hiked for about 30 minutes.
Look! Hentilags! Can’t you just see the sheep rubbing up against the earth to scratch their backs?
I loved visiting this beautiful spot so soon after our color workshop. Terri’s words about color inspiration in nature sure rang true here — I could just imagine some pretty color work with the vivid blues and greens and earth tones.
After our hike on St. Ninian’s Isle, we drove south to Sumburgh Head Lighthouse in hopes of seeing puffins. If you’ve read about my Iceland trip, you know I love puffins and we have a little history of driving a long way in search of them, only to be disappointed. This visit was at the end of July, so I was really skeptical, thinking that the puffin season would be over for the year. Boy, was I wrong. MUCH to my delight, there were puffins everywhere!
Tired of puffins yet LOL? Not Me! I could have stayed there all week – I was beside myself with excitement!!!
Much too soon, our puffin visit was over and we headed back to Burrastow House for dinner. On the way out of the lighthouse area, we saw a large pile of peat stacked up by a house. Peat is used for fuel to heat homes on Shetland and I was sorry I didn’t get any pictures of the places where they cut peat from the earth — we saw several of them as we drove along the roads in Shetland.
Back at Burrastow House, we had our final Chef Pierre gourmet dinner. We were served a Salad with Smoked Fish, Pot a Feu, and a wonderful Almond Cake. One last look at the beautiful view from the upstairs window at Burrastow House, for tomorrow, we leave Shetland.
