We, at Thordale, pride ourselves on our ability to choose weird and wonderful names for all our animals.  Erring on the side of wild and whacky, sometimes with a vague theme (Roman and Greek Gods, The Muppets or constellations, for example), we usually pick some fairly way-out names.  If not, they evolve into something else anyway, like IndyPingPong surprisingly is not his real name.  I know, I know, you had no idea Himself is really called Millhouse Independant with that spelling – not our fault.

So imagine my surprise when out and about in Lerwick today I saw a beautiful fishing boat called Arcturus.

It was a lovely vessel from Inverness that may have been using Lerwick harbour for shelter from the endless storms we are having at the moment.

The filthy weather hasn’t stopped these past few days.

Everyone is just dodging the showers, accompanying wind and rain. It comes thundering in like a train.

Anyway, reminded of Thordale Arcturus, once home from my shopping jaunt, I dug around to find some photos of him.  Probably one of our longest legged foals.  Jo delivered him as he was a struggle for his dear old Mum, Threapwood Velia, and he pinged about everywhere afterwards.  He was very keen on buzzing his friends.

When he did stand still, you could see just how magnificent he was as a foal.

He is sold now and happily ensconced in his new home.  Hopefully he has stopped pinging about!

***** sigh **** – I wish we could keep all our foals.  They are so sweet when they are small and fluffy.

Anyway, I’ve never met another Arcturus and now I have