Sunday June 22

Today was a very busy day. On Saturday and Sunday Jan opens up the charity store located on the first level of their house. It's called "da bod" (pronounced duh bode)which means the store or the trading post. It actually was a Hansiatic trading post in 1636....I'm not kidding. And now It's where used items are sold & the profits go to the wildlife sanctuary. All items are donated by people who hear of the need - local people and others. One family arrived today from London, and brought a bunch of items (clothing, kitchen items, jewelery, anything!) for the shop. Sara and I worked in the store in the afternoon & got to meet quite a few locals who came to shop. None of the items are priced (because the sanctuary is non-profit, they can't charge money for anything...everything is a "donation"). So Sara and I had to tell people verbally what the suggested price was, which was difficult not knowing what used items go for here...and not being great at dealing with their currency of pounds and pence. Most people, though, when you tell them what the suggested price is, give a bit more.

Jan was busy showing the seal to people. She will only allow a few people at a time to see the seal. Pete was busy all day harvesting peat from the island peat bog...which is free land to anyone who wants it. They keep a peat fire going in their stove in the kitchen at all times. I hope to learn more about this later & I'll report back to you. Here's a picture of the outside entrance to the bod:



Today they brought the peerie seal (peerie is the Shetland word for "small") - they brought him outside to hose him off (his bath). He was in the back yard with grass and with lots of little daisies. He ambled around a bit. You are about to see a rare sight...a 5 day old baby seal pup surrounded by daisies!









Jan and Pete's house is so amazing. I will tell you about the history of it later...when I get all the facts straight. I love the "eternal teapot" (my term). It's a very large teapot that is kept hot all day and ready for many cups of tea. It's heated over a 100 year old Rayburn stove. The source of heat is dried peat. They stoke it in the upper left door of the stove.



Here's a bin where they store the peat:


Here's an overview of the kitchen. They dry their laundry over the heat of the peat stove. Sometimes they hang it to dry outside. They have no dryer.


It's quite an art to keep the peat fire going. Specific pieces of peat are carefully selected at various times to provide just the right amount of heat.

We ate dinner and had a wonderful conversation during dinner and afterwards. They are so nice and interesting & very concerned about the environment and ecological issues...especially global warming. Living here in raw nature has shown them how one thing out of balance can have a very strong impact. In their rescue work they have seen the effects of this and the disregard of the balance of nature & the ripple down effect to so many creatures they deal with. The population of puffins is drastically down, along with arctic terns due to many things, including the shift of the gulf stream here.

Sara and I walked the beach again this eve until about 11:30. It was misting rain & overcast, but still plenty of light out....no flashlights needed. The quiet here is amazing - absolutely no car noise...no background noise, no people noise...just the occasional sound of a bird singing and the lapping of water on the beach.

Location:Hillswick