All the ponies were far away this morning on the other side of the track.

When I shouted, though, they all came running up, for their breakfast.

All except for Fivla who is always last.  The mud on the track has returned and is deep.  She struggles to get through it – a combination of short legs and a rug don’t help her.

But she got there in the end and ate her breakfast away from the rabble, which I think she appreciated.

Meanwhile, the rabble were having a row, ie Newt was bouncing with attitude.  He can’t help himself.  He just gets narky around food.

I steer clear. I know how he works.  Small means nothing to Newt. He just requires a bit more effort to keep everyone away.

There are 8 bowls out for 6 ponies so they can argue, steal and/or rudely push each other out of the way, but they will always find another bucket to eat from.

Storm and Albie irritate everyone else the most – they always have to share with someone so I keep offering them another of my spare buckets to avoid an argument.

Success!  Everyone eating from their own bowl.

And then Tiddles arrived and it all started again.

We are due more and more rain which is depressing as it was just beginning to dry up and that was a blessed relief.

So we’re back to mud again.  Grrr. Here is Shetland, the mud is known as “gutter” and it is this that we all agree – we’ve had enough of it.

There had been a request from my flute duet partner, Mandy, that we record a few flute pieces together for her father, who wanted to hear us play.

Now, we first thought we could just do it on our phones but then, as there is a recording studio in the house, plus a pretty expert sound engineer/record producer, it seemed silly not to put it all to use.

And then there are the fans to think of….. Monster under the piano.

Ted, who whinged incessantly.  He was quickly banished.

And Pepper, who annoyed intermittently.

Once we started, Monster left his bed to give us his judgement.

You can probably hear me shout “Noooooo!” as he jumped onto the keyboard.

We tried to play our duet but, to be honest, we had to keep stopping and re-starting mostly because of Monster who was more than a little unhelpful.

When he started playing with the leads with his paddy-paws, he was physically removed by OH.

But he came back. A lot.

Who me?  Annoying?

And then, of course Pepper had to join in.  Mandy and I were helplessly giggling for quite a lot of the recording session.

I told Pepper to go to bed, so she promptly clambered into Monster’s under-the-piano bed.

While Monster put in a complaint to the Management about his bed being occupied.

In the end, OH threw Monster outside but he reappeared fairly swiftly.

We managed to record one piece quite successfully, though there are bits I would like to re-record. We got halfway through the second when my brain froze and I forgot how to play the flute completely.  With that, we gave up until next weekend.  Who knows, I might even practice!

I had a day out in town today.  A scheduled eye check-up first and then I wandered about just enjoying time away from my usual home routine.

I did a spot of shopping….

And I even bought myself some new shoes.  I am very pleased with them and the first thing I noticed was just how comfortable and supportive of my feet they were.  So, like a very proud child,  I wore them all day, putting my old boots (which suddenly looked grubby and old) in the box!

New shooooooooooes!

I checked on the shop sheep in their field and was told they didn’t need anymore, for the time being.  Let’s hope they do soon as I have four full bags ready to go.

Folk were about, which was nice. Let’s hope they are all in a hand-felted Shetland sheep buying mood (possibly, to help fund the new shoes – which were still being very comfortable).

And then I discovered the reason for the folk on the street.  A gorgeous tall-ship had come into dock.

Christian Radich is a Norwegian fully-rigged ship built in 1937.  Apparently you can learn to sail on her (and if you know me, you know my thoughts on sailing *** shudders ***. I learned the hard way 🤢🤮 with my father sailing around Cape Wrath being shouted at).

Anywho, Christian Radich was gorgeous and I wandered around taking photos and thanking the Gods I never have to sail again.  It doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a beautiful boat, I just don’t want to go onboard, ever.

I got all my messages done, found some bargains, had a good chat with nice folk and went home refreshed and ready for my usual challenges.  It’s good to have a change of scene. I needed that and I still love my new shoooooooes!

I’m feeling a bit low after the sad Baby Bunny news.  I wanted it to live so much but this was not to be.

I know it was just one little baby bunny and the whole world is littered with them, but even so. I do mind.  It’s a loss.

So I went to have some sheep therapy this afternoon.

These two were hanging around.  Lambie and ‘Bert, the original BFF’s.

You guys, those faces!

And fo course ‘Ster.  The others were mooching around outwith the field hoping I would feed them treats at the front door.

Sorry for the short blog.  Just not feeling it really.

A lovely morning so rugs off and everyone said they wanted to go back to living on the track again.

This is Silver – he is revolting.

I am not going to brush anyone yet.  Winter coats are beginning to fall out but it is not all that warm yet.

The rest of my morning was spent adding more green plastic poles to my electric fence or Anti-Waffle devices, as I like to call them.

As my reward for lugging bags of poles around the track, I sat on a rock and had a little chat with Albie.

And Newt-the-Incredibly-Cute!

Late afternoon, and I went down with my two rugs as heavy rain is forecast later tonight. Everyone was on the otherside of their track.

Rugs back on again.

A quick chat, this time with Storm, etc.

Tiddles….

And Silver.

I looked at my Apple watch, and apparently today I have climbed 14 flights of stairs and walked over 8,500 steps just lugging rugs, electric fencing or buckets (and folk think I don’t do anything all day – pah!)

And in sad news, Baby Bun died this morning. It was not to be.  RIP Baby Bun.  We tried.

I have told Pepper to bring no more home, please.