Da Brass Fiddle

Another good day, really calm, sunny and warm.  It did cloud over more in the afternoon, with a light shower and plenty of sunny spells tonight.

With Boat Week on, I had to be on the museum desk again today.  It's been really busy again, and also a cruise liner in.  Boat Week was packed full of events again today and for all ages.  Tried to enjoy a barbeque for tea tonight, but the midges got the better of me and headed for a walk with Sammy.  There's yoal racing in Scalloway tonight.  Off to work in the pub later.

A rare brass fiddle came to the museum today for a visit.  It's thought to be made by Peerie Rasmie Reid at Skeld during the smack fishing boom in the late 1800s.  There was three brass fiddles made, with another still in Shetland.  There was brass metal workings in Skeld at the time, and was strong and durable for long fishing trips as far as Iceland.  The fiddle was found in a peat house in 2014 at Voeside, Reawick.  Woodworm had eaten the neck and scroll, but replaced by local craftsman Allan Moncrieff, who made a new neck from local sycamore from Westerfield, Tresta.  Robert Anderson photographed here with the fiddle, but it's his grandson that owns it now.  Taken outside the Shetland Museum, Lerwick.