Day 9: In which we celebrated

 Today we were off to Walls (pronounced Waas)!  It was time for the event that inspired this trip in the first place, Betsy Leask's (Denise's 5th cousin) 80th birthday.  When one receives a handwritten letter inviting one to a birthday, one goes.  Thus, our long-discussed someday plans to return to Shetland became more firm.  A hand-written letter can definitely galvanize us.

In order to get to Walls, Laura had to do something she dreads: drive on the opposite side of the road while avoiding all the Lando Norris wannabes who seem to live in Shetland.  Our planned departure time was 1pm, but we didn't quite make it.  Nor was the estimate on the GPS accurate, because Laura does not want to drive 60 miles an hour down one lane roads.  Her favourite thing to see on road is when they write "slow."  She's happy to oblige.

After Laura mastered the concept of one lane road passing places, we arrived in Walls a couple of minutes after 2, but then spent 17 minutes driving around trying to find Helena's home.  Helena had given us detailed instructions, but we followed the GPS.  The lesson, listen to Helena.

Helena's home in Walls is called Rocklea, looks out on the water, and has a view of the Walls marina.  It's rather stunning.

Once greeted by Helena, Nigel, and her grandchildren, we met another of Denise's 5th cousins, Marina.  Denise thinks Marina is not only very friendly, but also has the most amazing tattoo.  Fortunately, Marina is also interested in genealogy, so Denise was in her glory.

 Laura and I found Marina very entertaining.  We were lucky to have met her.

Betsy was very excited to see Denise and me and promptly produced the calendars we sent her in the past: one of the Lora Bay area where we live featuring our dog and family, and one of just our dog.  It's our way of keeping her up to date with us.  

 

Thus onto the important part of the day, celebrating Betsy.  She had her daughter, Helena, granddaughter, great-grandchildren, and nieces and nephew, and grand-nephews.  She even had a long-standing dear friend there, so it was quite the gathering.   Also, there were three Canadians.

There was also one epic cake complete with sparklers.

Betsy was serenaded by The Overlys, and enjoyed the music.  I'm sure this was hard for her, not the music, but being the absolute centre of attention.  She's such a gentle, practical soul.  Denise and I absolutely adore her.

The weather was everything.  The only thing it didn't do was snow.  We had sun, cloud, rain, wind, rinse and repeat. Still, the Shetland people are hardy and we stayed outside in Helena's lovely garden for the whole afternoon.  Of course, the sun and heat only came out when Laura fetched our jackets from the car.

As the festivities wound down, there were a number of group photos taken, one shared earlier in this post but here's another one.  It's of Betsy, Helena, and Betsy's sister's Catherine's children.

 

Betsy had to be convinced to step into her rightful place in the centre of it all.  One of those in the photos, who shall remained unnamed, made a crack about the paparazzi, as it was four men taking pictures with the ladies' phones.

It was sad to have the gathering break up, but hopefully we'll see some family next week again as the Tall Ships are coming into Lerwick.  Although, Denise would not leave without first tracking down Betsy's husband, Arthur, who is not the party animal the rest of us are.

Driving away, I felt we celebrated a true lady's birthday.

On the drive out of Walls, we learned something: Yell sheep may be stupid, but Walls sheep are judgmental, given the number lined up against the fence and along the roads watching us drive out of town.

For today's record, as her eyes were on the road, Laura only saw one Shetland pony.  Denise claims she saw another one but Laura insists it only counts if she sees it too.  Thus the count stands at one.