Maylin

Shetland joins global campaign of boycotts against genocidal regime Shetland joins global campaign of boycotts against genocidal regime - Shetland backs Green call to boycott Israel

Shetland Islands Council has backed a motion from Scottish Greens councillor @alexjarmitage.bsky.social to boycott Israel.

The islands join the Scottish Parliament and Edinburgh City Council, which voted for Green motions on boycotts last month.

greens.scot/news/shetlan...

4 photo collage of a row of boats with Scalloway in the distance and photos of grassy moorland with Shetland sheep and ponies

Five photos showing headland near Scalloway with sea, islands, Shetland sheep and ponies

Calm and sun before the storm. Took a bus to Scalloway and a lovely walk towards the headland and lighthouse. Nothing but sea, sky, ponies and sheep and bracing fresh air. Just what I needed. Hunkering down inside now with tea, biscuits and knitting while waiting for the storm to pass.

Have had the best time - hoping everyone gets safely home without too much disruption due to Storm Amy.

A collage of photos showing lots of balls of colourful wool, some fair isle garments, a shop windiw with a skirt made out of plastic cones, topped with a sweater and cowl, and some of this year's SWW hat in different colourways.

Shetland Wool Week - impossible to sum up in a post. Workshops, exhibits, talks, meet-ups with friends, music, yarn shopping, lots of laughs and inspiration. SO much fab knitwear to gawk at. Shetlanders so friendly and gracious with their time and knowledge - there's really nothing like it. #yarnsky

This would qualify for #SpinsterSeptember too as both main characters are unmarried and Sylvia Slythe is definitely a sinister spinster

A copy of Death and the Seaside by Alison Moore sits on a windowsill with transparent curtains behind it. The cover has the title and author in a circus like font on white paper stuck to glass windows looking on to a rainy day.

Novels by Alison Moore are perfect to take on vacation because you're guarenteed to have a better time than her characters. There are sad scenes of cringe worthy of a Mike Leigh film and an underlying menace akin to a subtler Celia Fremlin. I find them weirdly entertaining. @saltpublishing.com

She's soooo good isn't she? I am so glad Penguin is releasing new editions of her work every year. Loved this one too although I wanted to throw Geoffrey over the cliff by the end.

A woman in fair isle vest and hat windproof jacket on the ferry back from Bressay, with the island in the background.

Two photos - one of the cover of the Shetland Wool Week annual for 2025 with a woman wearing a lace scarf. The other photo shows a knitted cowl with flowers on it.

Shetland Day 3:
Another great day - did the Park Run on Bressay ( the most northern park run in the UK) which was so much fun and conviently ends at a cafe. Lunch with friends, then picked up my SWW annual and am musing on projects while working on my Sunburst Cowl by Julia Billings.

The ending of the Fiennes/Binoche one is absolutely bonkers. And yes, as much as I love Binoche, it was not great casting though Fiennes is quite good as Heathcliff. But all sorts of things wrong with that adaptation.

Views of Lerwick, a sheep and the Isle of Noss and Ander Hill, all taken from a walk up the Ward of Bressay.

Views of Ander Hill and its WW1 ruined tower, also close up photos of Noss and the north east of Bressay from the top.

Shetland Day 2:
18k walk on Bressay, first climbing its highest point, the Ward of Bressay. From there you can see Noss and I was intrigued by a structure on Ander Hill ( turned out to be a ruined WW1 tower), so headed there next - sunny, warm day but the wind was so strong it nearly blew me over.

Fantastic project - congratulations.

Three photos - one showing a rocky promotory overlooking water, another of a coffee cup at Fjara at a table by the window looking out on Bressay, and the third is of two skeins of mustard coloured yarn.

Shetland Day 1:
A walk around The Knab, a bit of wool shopping ( excited to see J & S 5ply Gansey yarn in person), and dinner with friends at my favourite restaurant.

Three photos taken from the ferry at early morning, sailing into Lerwick. Two show the outline of Bressay against a sunrise and the bottom shows a cluster of low rise buildings in Lerwick.

Calm, smooth sailing into Lerwick this morning. Whew! So excited to be in beautiful Shetland again.

Interesting to read your thoughts on her. I just picked up her crime novel The Odd Flamingo.

Yes, it was definitely original. Just a bit too much going on - Hugh's conference, Kate's islands, everyone coming down with typhoid - I felt the character development suffered. But unlike anything else I've read recently so kudos for that.

Still glad I read it though, and there were passages that really made me laugh.

A copy of A Green Equinox by Elizabeth Mavor lies on a green velvet cushion. The cover shows a painting of nymphs and cupids.

An odd, little romp which careened from one surreal plot twist and complicated relationship, to another. Protests, pain, philosophy & the plague - all in this unusual love story. Reminscient of Muriel Spark, Iris Murdoch & Penelope Fitzgerald, but fell a little flat by comparison. #SpinsterSeptember

A paperback copy of Kathleen Winter's novel Undersonh is held next to a red dahlia. The cover has a bright red painted flower superimposed over a painting of green meadows.

My next read for #SpinsterSeptember, this novel about Dorothy Wordsworth is told partly through the eyes of a servant at Rydal Mount, and partly through the imagined words of her destroyed red diary. Beautiful nature writing and some interesting speculation on her later illness. An enjoyable read.

A copy of Storm Pegs: A Life Made in Shetland by Jen Hadfield lies on a fair isle vest knitted in greens and natural colours. The cover of the book is white with bronze writing and an illustration of wVes breaking on sand.

Enjoyed this memoir of moving and building a life in Shetland. No knitting content ( I'll have my fill when I head there next week), but lovely descriptions of nature, and peppered with Shetland phrases mostly about the weather - i.e Steekit stumba (a thick mist), Trollamist ( a thick, dark mist).

Thanks for alerting me to this book. Am a fan of McCarthy and I have Malina on my shelves but not read it yet

A split photo showing the cover if Green For Danger by Chritianna Brand with the illustration of an operating theatre with masked doctors and nurses; the movie poster showing Alistair Sim as Inspector Cockerill and a still from the movie showing Trevor Howard as Dr. Barnes and Sally Gray as Nurse Linley.

I'll watch any movie with Trevor Howard so delighted when @talkingpicturestv.bsky.social screened Green For Danger. Recorded it so I could read the book first. Both marvellous - tension in the book was so palpable ( and better than the movie) but casting Alistar Sim as Cockerill was brilliant.

Kudos to @dauntbooks.bsky.social which republished this unknown-to-me author. I always trust their editorial taste to bring me a good read.

A copy of Tomorrow by Elisabeth Russell Taylor shows a cover of with a photo looking down on white cliffs, a bay of dark water and a person swimming.

First book for #SpinsterSeptember a rather sad tale of a woman's annual holiday spent in a hotel on a Danish island, in what was her former home before the war. Some wonderful portraits of the other guests (another spinster among them). A novel about memory and history told and retold.

Heading to Canada in October and I live in Liverpool. Dm me if you would like me to bring you back a copy

I have The Green Equinox on my tbr pile too

My favourites were definitely Elena Knows, Free Day and These Festive Nights.

Five books - Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeuro, Free Day by Inés Cagnati, Love at Six Thousand Degrees by Maki Kashmada, Spontaneous Acts by Yoko Tawada and These Festive Nights by Marie-Claire Blais, are spined between Fair by Jen Calleja and Jeanne by Arielle Burgdorf.

Really enjoyed #Witmonth this August. Last book read for @deadinkbooks.bsky.social book club was Jeanne by Arielle Burgdorf, a translator writing about a translator. Lots of interesting observations about language, gender and identity, though plot fell short. A good companion to Fair.

Great idea for a series

Thank you for reminding me that I have Green Equinox and Odd Woman and the City on my shelves. I have pulled them out along with another Canlit novel called Undersong by Kathleen Winter which is about Dorothy Wordsworth. That's a nice trio to start. #SpinsterSeptember

Definitely a book to be read in long stretches at a time to really absorb the skill and richness of the writing. The epigraph from Woolf's The Waves is so apt.