I saw my first Shetland bumblebee this morning in the resting Minion field we have to walk through to get to the chaps.

You can tell it is a Shetland bumblebee (Bombus muscorum agricolae) because it “is very distinctive, having a thorax that is completely orange, and a yellowish abdomen”.  That would be him then – a little fuzzy-wuzzy chap! ❤️

The seggies are all coming out.  A seggie is a yellow flag iris – they grow wild here and are always beautiful, if brief.  You can see how tall they grow next to Newt (all 28″ worth or something, we haven’t measured him in a while).

Newt has at last morphed from yak to racehorse. His Summer look.  I almost don’t recognise him until he lifts his face to chat.

The field they all live in is big (actually two fields with a stream running down the whole side). Perfect.

The bellies (and the smiles) are bigger!

Albie far away.

Albie close up with sunscreen on his precious nosey (and possibly Flossie who put it there – she has a coat of many colours, predominantly white though).

We talk to everyone and check they are ok.

I love this – and sort of know what Vitamin was saying to Storm who is not her favourite Shetland pony.  I had just rasped Storm’s hooves and surprisingly he behaved beautifully.  Vitamin is probably being told all about it and hiding her disbelief.

Always good to see the Shetland’s.   They make me smile (mostly).