Friday 30 December 2011

Tall Ships - Day 1

In mid July, Fair isle was a host port for the Tall Ships 2011. We had two days of fun packed activities as well as celebrating local traditions with all of the crews of the historic ships.

Eight Ships anchored in North Haven which were:

Sorlandet - Barter Ship
Wylde Swan
Esprit
Wyvren
Rupel
Ocean Spirit of Moray
Zenobe Gramme
Miles to Go

They have started to arrive in North Haven

Just one of the historical ships

The Wylde Swan
Decided to anchor outside my bedroom window for the night

There was alot of preperation leading up to the event in making the island very welcoming and presentable for the ships. From weeding to beach cleaning, from food preperation to decorating.
The islanders made an valiant effort in making the island so magical!

One of the 1st things you see when sailing in tho North Haven

Artistic Impression of a tall ship
Islanders laid on alot of activities for the crews and island guests, from Chair making to Puffin walks, Visiting the museum to knitware and spinning workshops, Archeological walks to Meteorlogical talks, etc, etc.........the list goes on!!

Traditional Fair Isle straw backed Chair making
Guests got to see how these unique chairs are made,
The straw is grown on ths island and the wood was orignally colletced as driftwood
 as it got washed on to the beaches around the island.


During the evening, everybody enjoyed the faboulous live entertainment in the Marquee at the havens, To say it was bitterly cold, the dancing around made everybody very warm.

The venue for the evening's entertainment

The Fair Isle Choir and guests starts of the night with sea shanties

Followed by Fair isles very own band
FRIDAREY

in which they were capivating the audience

The Fantastic Fraser Fairfield and Fair Isles very own Talented Inge Thomson

Martin Green - one of Scotlands Great Musicans

The Night went out with a bang with
Neil Thomsons very own
Rock Band

After a most amazing time, we had to do it all over again the next day!


Musican Websites:

Fridarey -           http://www.fairisle.org.uk/fridarey/index.htm
Lise Sinclair -     http://www.myspace.com/lisesinclair

A Grand Opening

At the beginning of July, Fair Isle Bird Obsvertory started of with its official grand opening of the brand new £4 million building. Alot of work was put into it to make the weekend run smoothly by alot of people. As I was on the catering side, I had to do alot of the baking for over 130 guests which included some VIPs. Past Wardens, Administrators, Directors, Researchers, National Trust for Scotland, BTO, RSPB, the islanders and the well Known ornithologist Roy Dennis MBE.

Photograph copyright - Carrie Marrel Gunn
Just a small selection of the baking which included:
Key Lime Pie and Haven Slice - Both my signature Bakes
Fair isle peat, Scones, tea loafs, Sticky Ginger Bread etc.
The Old observatory but was not the first building to be built.
(Photograph taken in 2006)

The Brand new observatory building
(Photograph taken in 2010)
Being apart of Fair Isle Bird Observatory and the island its self has been a life changing experience, When im there, I learn new skills, My confidence grows and I make new friends. Next year will be my 10th time and I will be celebrating a big birthday of mine in the Autumn.  You can see from my previous posts that its a truely Magnificent Island and its well worth of visit. If it was not for George Waterson who dreamt up of an Observatory over 60 years ago, I wonder where I will be today?

For more
 information about the opening please click on the links below:




Its been a while......

Sorry for the lack of posts from the last several months, It became quite busy up on Fair Isle. Im back home for the winter now so this can be a project to do over the next few months. There will be alot of catching up to do from the Tall ships to the Birding, from my last few weeks on Fair Isle to being back home in Doncaster.

I hope everybody has had a Good Crimbo and you are looking forward to the New Year........I will certainly be as I will be heading back to the island for my 10th time!

Happy Belated Christmas!