Thurs July 3 - Happy Birthday Andy!

We got ready for the tour group that was coming for tea. It was down in the charity shop and was set up nicely. They had tea, almond cookies, and a blueberry crumble cake that I made last night. They enjoyed it and got to see Marley (the seal), but unfortunately they didn't make much of a donation. This is extra sad because they are going to have to halt the renovation of the seal sanctuary because of lack of funds. It's being retiled...(the tank that the seals are in before they are able to go into the outside pool). So at this point, Marley is in the small temporary tub...but he is doing well.

The school children came this afternoon and we continued on (and mostly finished) the bee hotel. They are such a cute group of kids! One little guy, Irvin, asked me "So when you were a bairn (child) what was your teacher like?"...so cute! Irvin hadn't been to any of the bee sessions so this was all new to him. He told Sara (in such an excited and polite tone) "I'm SO excited to be talking with Americans!" Tomorrow is the last day of their school before summer break. They get 6 weeks off.

We stacked the bee hotel so it is 7 or 8 levels high...a high rise! Jan needed someone to cut a recycled board and drill some holes for the roof. Guess who happened to be walking by about that time?? Scott (the character who is famous on google earth!). So he agreed to help and became part of the group for several hours. Scott's "assignment" was to cut the roof and attach it so he had to access the top pallet to put attachment boards on it. After the 6th pallet that was stacked on the hotel, it was getting pretty high. So Scott says to Jan: (imagine this spoken with a sing song quality...a bit of a lilt with some Shetland accent) "Jan, I canna reach the roof if ya keep bringin' me more pallets" and Jan (who was single handedly carrying another large pallet...and had another pallet in a wheelbarrow that Cassie, a student, was pushing ahead of her)...Jan stared at him for a minute and then said "Well then I'll get you a chair". Scott just shook his head and kept working.

The culmination of the bee hotel project was the music of the wagle dance. Sara had figured out how to get the music outside and they had a little speaker that projected the music. The kids loved it and began to dance. Jan really got into it. Scott was just perplexed as he didn't know about the waggle dance and all of a sudden everyone is shaking their butt around! Here are some photos from the day.

working on the hotel:


Here's Scott being a good sport about his walk being "interupted":


One of the cute little kids:


The start of the waggle dance. Notice Scott's perplexed expression:


Jan (in the purple jacket and beret) starting to get into it!:









Little Cara (you can barely see her...in the middle of the picture...the smallest one...with red hair)...she was declared the best waggle dancer and she was very proud of her title!





Overall it was a big success. Sara worked out with Wilma, the teacher, that we will stay connected with the class...Wilma called it "Transcontinental bee correspondence"!! We will be sending photos, videos and maybe a webchat from Nebraska so they can learn more about that too.

Sara went to Lerwick ....to listen to a discussion group and forum on Scottish independence. This is quite a hot topic now with a vote coming Sept 18. It's very interesting...about Scotland ceding from United Kingdom. If you want to learn more about this, google the topic.

I stayed with Paul and tried to make connections to call Andy on his birthday...Happy Birthday, Andy!

Location:Hillswick