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15 July 2009 @ 01:54 pm
Unst diary 2  
June 21st

Walked to Norwick.
This is the second most northerly beach in the British Isles (the most northerly is Skaw, but that isn't as pretty). Norwick is in a very small agricultural settlement in a coastal valley and is absurdly peaceful. I defy anyone not to feel laid-back there. It's also the name of a hymn tune, composed by a minister who was living there at the time. Apparently most of those who sing it think it's a misprint for Norwich. Ah well.

There was a tame lamb there, in a field by the roadside, who baaed loudly to tell us he wanted chatting to and feeding some clover. You meet a lot of these in spring and summer.

As you see, we got around to uploading some photos. They're in the gallery Shetland 2009. The wayside flowers I mentioned in the last instalment are among them.

And it was the longest day. Unst is far north enough that at that time of year, the sun doesn't set; it passes across the north still visible. This feels really weird to me, because of the shorthand they tell you at school; the sun is never in the north, night is dark, etc etc. I was trying to figure out the direction I was headed in and getting it wrong, because I was automatically thinking that's the sun so it must be the west.... not at midnight it wasn't!




Not

This is what doesn't happen:
near midnight, and the Sun
resplendent, having passed
unsetting through the west,
proceeds across the north,
unmaking, in his path,
dark and direction, all
we thought we learned at school.
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( 4 comments — Post a new comment )
...older, nastier men...[info]alinewrites on July 15th, 2009 05:50 pm (UTC)
Very beautiful pictures, very evocative. They made me want to go there - especially these days when it is so hot in Corsica.
Nico: summer (beach)[info]vilakins on July 16th, 2009 12:40 am (UTC)
How beautiful!
Sheenagh Pugh[info]sheenaghpugh on July 16th, 2009 12:18 pm (UTC)
Apologies for the slightly northern-centric post - it occurred to me afterwards that it must be the other way about for you folks; it's the south where you never expect to see the sun!
Nico: planet[info]vilakins on July 16th, 2009 08:37 pm (UTC)
True, but you were only talking about what they teach you there, not assuming it was true everywhere which is what a lot of people do.

To me, "south" mean cold and windy, and houses should be north-facing for sun and warmth. However as most fiction is set in the north, I can switch round easily enough.
 
 

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