The Outpost

I'd love to live in Shetland full time.

If I were to live here, I would want somewhere that I could just sit and soak up the constantly changing mood of the place - an outpost, away from humanity, almost a part of the landscape, like this house.

Shetland is a place of total indifference to its human population.

The scenery is made up of simple components - earth, sky, wind, rock and sea. Those elements sit together uneasily in the harsh environment of the Arctic Circle, but the most fickle, the most precocious, the most unforgiving and unyielding of them is the cruel cruel sea.

It is forever changing its mood - one moment quiet and benign, the next angry and spiteful and oppressive. But it's always there. When I leave Shetland I always feel a sense of loss as I become land-locked.

In my heart I yearn to be back - and close to the sea again.