Shetland ponies, round bellied and compact, have wild manes and gentle souls. They are beautifully adapted to the rugged, spare landscapes of Scotland’s edge-of-the-world islands.
Islay, queen of the Hebrides, produces princely whiskies – Laphroaig, Ardbeg and Bruichladich among them. They, too, reflect the environment with a peaty, smoky aroma and salty, algal notes from the sea.
In winter, Fair Isle connects with the outside world with a once-weekly arrival of the Good Shepherd IV. Cliff-girt to the west and inhospitably rocky to the north, the seventy islanders settle in for a long, dark season.
With flying fingers, the men take to weaving while the women spin soft wool from their flocks. Using lichens and roots as dyes, they knit the patterned sweaters for which they are famous and wait for the return of summer and an island life of crofting and fishing.
On this barren rock and peaty bog, with a wind-whipped sea their backs, character is shaped.
Photo: Sven Lindblad
Location: Shetland Islands, Scotland
Tenderness lives where the touch is lightest and the heart lingers.
Souls speaking to each other in the quiet.
It is a sharing, not a possessing, between two beings.
Photographer: Asuncion Pineyrua
Ballylinch Stud , Ireland
http://lisalindblad.com/american-stories/lexington/
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