Afternoon in Lerwick . . .

One rainy, gray afternoon, we walked
along the narrow, cobbled streets of Lerwick,
to find a knitting shop 
tucked around a corner,
The Spider's Web, 
the sign did not invite us in.

Instead we stopped for ginger beer,
and as the sun collapsed
into the sea, we took the ferry
back to the Mainland,
knowing without saying
we would never return.

I still remember this ginger beer for it hints at my second book, Years of Stone, set in Australia, then just a glimmering of an idea that began on this trip to Scotland. We had spent hours at the museum in Lerwick. More about that tomorrow!

A crofter's cottage . . .

A crofter's cottage made of stone,
its roof of grasses tied down with rope,
a heap of peat stacked neatly nearby,
A boat upended becomes the roof of a storage shed;
a few sheep in the field overlooking a gray sea,
empty fields marked by stones.

We step inside this small two-room cottage
to find darkness leavened by tiny windows bringing light
to whitewashed walls of stone.
In the fireplace, peat smokes and burns,
banked for a slow fire, soot marks above the fireplace
where a fiddle hangs next to the gun, its powder horn nearby.

I see hard work here:  
this family had a grinder for making flour,
a pestle for pounding grains into food
no stove, food cooked at the hearth 
in heavy iron kettles,
bread rising atop the wooden lids,
the bed a wooden box to the side of the central room,
with doors to close those inside, a patched quilt, 
squares uneven to keep them warm,
no precise pattern, found fabrics not needed elsewhere,
the chair for Grandsir 
almost a coffin 
with box like sides 
to keep the draft away,
the churn nearby, 
a basket of knitting, 
another of raw wool 
to spin into thread.








Hands were never still in this house,
even the men sat of an evening making rope, 
their hands twisting and knotting, 
traps for fish, halters for horses,
baskets for carrying, 
repairing the tools used every day,
for in these old ways,
they could survive the cold times,
the hungry times.

We took these pictures at the Crofters' Museum near Lerwick, northern Scotland. I know from reading about the Clearances that these crofters were displaced by sheep during the Industrial Revolution. Everywhere you still can see empty fields marked by stone fences and the remnants of abandoned stone cottages, a sad history of struggle, survival, and loss, part of the story I wrote about in my book, Standing Stones.

Scottish stones

Traveling down the coast of western Scotland,

to Lerwick, we passed

rolling hills near the sea,

a working croft, smoke rising from its chimney,

scattered stones from walls that 

once divided fields

but that no longer

separate land from land,

and moss-covered stones 

on a bluff in an old churchyard,

testament to those long gone.

Yet the blue sky above remains

as does the land.

I will remember 

the history of these stones.

We travelled south of Lerwick to spend the day at the Croft House Museum, open only April to the end of September. Read a little about this fascinating slice of life from mid 19th Century HERE. 

Back in the days of the Industrial Revolution and before the potato famine, clearances happened all over Scotland and England as landowners evicted fishermen and crofters from traditionally-held lands to make room for sheep. The demand for wool collapsed, leaving empty fields and abandoned crofters' cottages.

In the Shetlands.

We're now in a youth hostel in Stromness, back in Orkney, right by the waterfront. We're sitting in the common kitchen with a group of kids and a tour guide, trying to catch up with the international flavor here at nearly 10:00 pm. This is my first time ever in a hostel, no locks on the doors anywhere, a common kitchen with shared food (and shared bathrooms). Someone is now telling a story about a Bulgarian FLK (funny looking kid) who hated Jack Kerouac (ha!).

Actually the internet here is pretty good. We've been immersed in history and culture these last few days, with a 7 hour ferry ride back to Orkney thrown in. We went up to Shetland, spent two days there, with yesterday morning at the Crofthouse Museum, a reconstructed "black house" (from the smokey peat fires) from the 19th Century. On the way back from the Crofthouse Museum, we saw this amazing vista at an old Free Church. Who can imagine how beautiful it is here when the sun is out, these rolling hills so green and yet so close to the sea.

Back in Lerwick, we spent the rest of the day at the Lerwick museum, to see everything from a letter from 1399, complete with archaic script and small coin-shaped seals, to this old fishing station, still a key meeting point for sailors and fishermen.

Tomorrow we will tackle our biggest challenge -- driving a car on the wrong side of the road.