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Whilst on the point of verbiage and its use two very prominent and special Shetlanders passed away earlier this month. John J. Graham MA, OBE born and bred in Shetland, who was Headmaster at Anderson High School and served on the Shetland Islands Council produced The Shetland Dictionary. A copy of which we were given for Christmas by my wife s aunt sits here on my desk and I dip into it often. Quite a feat and a labour of love and passion to produce something that so many people take for granted yet this dictionary reflects the history of the isles and the evolvement of the language and if you are a word hog and enjoy languages then this is really quite an interesting book. I can only recommend it and you can get it at The Shetland Times Bookshop in Lerwick. The other person was not so much someone passing away but sadly a final resolving of a conundrum which had been going on for a year or so. Sandy McCauley in Unst was someone who was involved with charity work and also the Hydrogen PURE project in Unst and one day he just disappeared. The police investigated and pursued every path and nothing. Then just before Christmas a fishing boat found a leg bone in its nets and it was sent down South for testing, DNA and all that, and it was confirmed as belonging to the missing man. Finally his family will be able to put him to rest and mourn his passing properly and I am sure that everyone here will think of what he gave to the community especially for Unst and salute his contribution to our islands. Of course the Shetland Bus also is another unique piece of history in that during World War II a lot of extremely brave men and women used to travel between Shetland and Norway to fight the dreaded Hun. The means of travel was by fCHNKWKS bøÿÿÿÿTEXTTEXT’NFDPPFDPPRFDPCFDPCTSTSHSTSHVSTSHSTSHV2SYIDSYIDPVSGP SGP dVINK INK hVBTEPPLC lVBTECPLC „VFONTFONTœV<TOKNPLC ØVTSTRSPLC ,W:PRNTWNPRfWðFRAMFRAMV_ˆTITLTITLÞ_DOP DOP ü_"aster at Anderson High School and seShetland Diary March 2008  Ooh I m looking forward to the next edition of your diary said Elma when she bought her mini bus to a halt outside Hayhoull Chalet this morning and the side slide door opened disgorging the primary school children from Maywick and Ireland who are collected and connect with the main school bus which comes from Sandwick to go to Dunrossness. The Shetland Bus system is a complex one but also a service which runs with remarkable efficiency all over the isles. Because a lot of hamlets are stretched out in the rural districts there needs to be some efficient service which collects the children and delivers them to school on time. Even the Secondary students who live on places like Fair Isle get flown to the mainland and then spend the week at school and go home for the weekend to see their folks. I see myself merely as a small cog in this distribution machine. I take it upon myself to see the two younger of the 3C s on to the bus (in all weathers) safely and have a chat with the bus driver and of course Elma. Not being one to throw flattery to the wind but Elma is a Shetland institution to my mind. She is, what would politely be referred to, down South, as a pensioner yet at her age she is driving a school bus and maintaining her business as a tour guide/story teller. She introduced me to Shetland Blacks as well which I have now established as part of my annual gardening plan. Blacks are potatoes in case anyone was wondering that we had an indigenous species of natives up here that no one knew about! Well these potatoes probably are anyway though even they must have been introduced to the islands at some point just as the language has evolved through the use of over the centuries. (yes I know I prattled on about gardening and potatoes ishing boat and if you consider how big a fishing boat may have been in those times and how intemperate the sea conditions could be then again you will appreciate the heroism of those people who were involved. If you are ever visiting Shetland then the best place to go is Scalloway (which is where the Shetland Bus operation ended up after moving from Lunna) and visit the museum which is a fascinating place. You can also visit the slipway which was opened by the Norwegian King during the war, down on the waterfront. Visit the castle as well. It is fascinating. I have mentioned all this in past editions of the Diary but thought whilst I m in flow I would incorporate it. Incidentally as we are being bookish there is an excellent book called  Shetland Bus by David Howard, and again you can purchase this in the aforementioned bookshop. Speaking of Norwegian, I am brushing up on it at the moment and Swedish as well via a brilliant website which lets you practice your Scandinavian online. Swedish and Norwegian is best practised I surmise with a mouth of warm tea so that you can achieve the proper pronunciation. Of course you have to swallow at some time and still remember how you pronounced the word! The reason for all this I hear my readers shriek?!!! Well we are off to Norway and Sweden this summer to visit friends and family. We are going to the Swedish Archipelago which is about an hour from Stockholm to spend some time fishing, boating, hunting for mushrooms and blueberries in the forest and just chilling out!! On an island called Ljusterö which is one of the main islands of the archipelago. I can t wait, to be honest ,as everyone from my family has been there bar my sister and me. I am hoping that we can visit Skansen which is a park with old houses and a zoo and other attractions and also the Vasa Museum which has a 17th Century warship that sank on its maiden voyage in 1700 something and was raised back up in the 1960s. Both these attractions are in Stockholm which is truly a beautiful city. I love Sweden as I visited there in 1983 at Christmas when I was travelling around Europe. I recall that it was extremely cold but I remember seeing the Northern lights (while waiting for a tram at midnight) and hunting in snow that was ten feet high. We went for lunch on Christmas Day and the babies were put outside on the veranda in their pram, covered with a big fur skin, to sleep! Crisp fresh air so they slept healthily. The Swedes are lovely people too and very hospitable. I have the feeling that I have suddenly digressed. March approaches with its inclement weather. We have some rather disgusting weather forecast for this weekend i.e very strong winds with a very cold wind chill factor. Not much fun I have to say. The chickens don t like it either mind. They are pretty tough little characters though. The hens are more resourceful than the cockerels. The time has approached for said dispatch of two of the cockerels this evening actually so they are off to a humane end and yes they will be used. Well to be honest they are quite nicely fattened up and apparently make very good stew! My neighbour wants the feathers of the orange for make fishing flies with so it is not like they are going to be totally useless. They eat most of the food and jump on the hens all the time so I think the hens will be far happier with just one male in the coop. Big Bob the black and gold cockerel is the one we are keeping and he is quite well natured compared to the other two. I want to get some more hens anyway so we have a few more layers and if one of the hens does get broody then I will let her hatch the eggs out. The 3C s will be thrilled with that though of course we won t mention the chicken stew! Mind you I made a lovely fragrant Kashmiri curry last week with Quendale rabbit and they ate that quite happily!! So I have mentioned the weather and plans for hols. I am gearing up to start getting plants ready for the garden. Plenty of spuds, thanks Mrs Johnston, and incidentally Elma you plant Shetland Black in March for a crop of earlies in June! I have lots of wood scrounged from skips and are going to make some raised beds. Someone also very kindly put a complete chest of drawers in the skip so I took the drawers, they are quite big and deep ones so I will grow some potatoes in them. The beauty about spuds is that you can grow them in almost anything! Onions too are quite happy being grown in pots. I just need to dig over the garden once more. I am hoping to borrow my neighbour Mark s rotivator which is a big beast and does a far better job than my little one does. I got some seaweed off St Ninian s beach and have dug that in to the soil and of course we have loads of chicken manure so all that goes in as well! The Shetland County Drama Festival starts next week and Splinters Youth Theatre is putting on 4 plays, one of which I helped choreograph some movement for. I am hoping that I can manage to get to see them perform that one at least. I watched a rehearsal of it when I went to do a final brush up of it in Brae and honestly the ending bought tears to my een! I have also been working with the Islesburgh nursery group and we are going to put something together for them to perform to their parents later in the year but it is going to be a collaboration between me, an artist and a writer/narrator who plays Shetland fiddle and it is going to be about Peerie Mootie an her Muckle Buits but more of that later! In the meantime we are forecast very severe gales and snow for tomorrow and more of the same for most of the week which ain t much fun! But hey it s typical March weather. Mind you Western Scotland is expecting higher winds than we are forecast so hopefully it won t be too bad. Well it is 1st March, and an early phone call from my dear Aunt bought the very sad news that my uncle had passed away in the small hours. He had not been very well but even still it was very sad to hear. My uncle was a man of the church and he cared so much for other people but people rallied around and helped them during his illness. Life runs in a cycle with the inevitable end and it happens to all of us but being family makes you think about your own mortality. To take minds off dwelling on events we spend the day cooking, made chicken (read Cockerel!!) soup and jam tarts. Actually 12yr old C made some fantastic crust pastry !! Well, on that note I will see you all next month& .. dug that in to the soil and of course we have loads of chicken manure so all that goes in as well! The Shetland County Drama Festival starts next week and Splinters Youth Theatre i464 6 HJ.0˜$š$¦1¨1.<0<`CbCKK P"PŒPŽPP’PøøððððððððððððððððððððÈÈ(2‚"'(Š  Û)Û @·S · 6:*<*z,~,6K:KŽP’PêÚ¬Ú˜Ú˜ÚŽ "  "PSS" . "PS" $Š 08 "PS"  "ˆ¶" ."ÿ Ü{ƒÿÿÿÿÜ{ƒ "ð” "tt’PR’PT(Ü{ƒTimes New Roman ÿÿG'"""úÿÿÿ " dM„SPCÿG' " " "¤øÃèðÐÐTTTTØðEPSON Stylus DX4800 Seriesœ<›€ê odÐÐ EPSON Stylus DX4800 SeriesDLLName32=E_FUICADE.DLL ÿÿ´€P@ TS_URLTSupportURL PSOLVER4š ÐÐ@HÐÐèðTTTTèðTTTTdÿ2 ,winspoolEPSON Stylus DX4800 SeriesUSB001Fÿÿÿ"\²"€‘"ÑV"$c"ð` "ð``""A."@ÿÿÿ"\²"ðù"ÑV"$c"ð` "ð``"."March 2008.wps""Øp"Øpp (" )"all hours. He had not been very well but even still it was very sad to hear. My uncle was a man of the church and he cared so much for other people but people rallied around and helped them during his illness. 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