I love black and white photos.  I have been practising with my newly resurrected (time is of the essence here, because it is dying) camera.

Daisy and I “did feet” this morning and came home to see this wonderful sight…..

(zoomed in from the original – sorry it’s blurry) – Maggie sitting next to Edna – this is “A Major Breakthrough” in all things Maggie.  My heart sang.

Meanwhile, in other worlds, I found Iacs and Klængur had shacked up together.  Previously it had been Haakon who had taken up residence.  I took him his breakfast this morning.  I am glad these two are sharing. It is lovely to see.

(why am I thinking Simon and Garfunkel album cover?)

Sadly, it’s only a small shed (designed and built originally for my three goats many years ago) and not big enough for three Icelandic horses.  This was the original home of the Minions (Waffle, Storm and Silver) when they came to live with us.

Although Haakon was outside, he didn’t care.

And we had a lovely chat.

Maggie was around and wanting my attention – and/or biscuits, third breakfast, anything.

Actually, she’s always around.

It is lovely.

And bingo!  There it is. The Winning Smile.  Maggie is definitely one of us and I had a quick furtle and the lamb(s) won’t be long now.

I don’t think Lambie is going to be impressed.

There is only one not-so-little Lambie in my life.  He told me!

Today, when we woke up, it looked like Narnia outside – surprisingly deep snow everywhere.  So we fed everyone at home, had breakfast, chopped carrots, filled haynets and buckets and drove over to Leradale.

And the snow had all gone.

The buckets were distributed. I was on Lilja and Sóley duty.

Floss was with Vitamin and Fivla.  Minions lurked hopefully.

And the field looked like this.

So we shared out the carrots (only fair) and took the hay home again (very unfair but no one actually needs it and at nearly £7 a bale, I am not wasting it – this is gold-dust hay complete with encrusted diamonds).

Meanwhile, back at home, Maggie has been getting to know the rest of the family.  She feels threatened by BeAnne (seriously?), so we have to be very careful with her.  They are supervised and today Maggie was told which side her bread was buttered.

She adores Taktur – what’s not to love?

And then she met Monster – I had resurrected my ancient, but beloved, little camera to see if it had benefited from its holiday and decided to work again.

Monster took to his bed in disgust.

So lots of snow, and then no snow.  I was going to take photos of the snow, but it had gone by the time I was ready to take pics!

Well, little Maggie is slowly (and I mean slowly) getting used to the others.  We are in for the long haul.

I would be lying if I said she was the brightest star in our firmament but if we chip, chip away I think we will win.  Madge and Edna have given up chasing her away (like far too much effort).

Maggie also loves food and sees it as her God given right to be fed at least six times a day.  I may have Mug written somewhere about my person that I can’t actually see!

As the snow comes and goes, Maggie is beginning to relax and be “one of us, one of us”.

She is also meeting the rest of the family.

Meanwhile, in other news, Lambie is a Weirdo!

As is Monster.

And ‘Ster.

Dreki found that feet are really, really strange and appear out of nowhere – who knew?!

And this is My World. Enjoy.

One minute it is snowing and we are living in blizzard conditions and the next minute it all vanishes.

But while the snow was here, intrepid-me went out with my big camera and took a few snaps….  Enjoy.

Dreki (who would not stop following me around).

Kappi with a world map on his side.

Here at Thordale, we always try to colour coordinate.  So important, we think?  Neigh, essential (see what I did there!)

Taktur.

Front end.

Middle end.

And back end.

As you can see, while the Icelandic horses didn’t give a damn, it was not much fun for me.

Dreki again.

And again….

And again.  He particularly suits the snow.

And, so you know, it was bloody cold out there. When I take photos, I can’t wear gloves so please appreciate the pain and suffering I went through for you!  There may have been a hot chocolate involvement afterwards.

The weather is giving us a slight break (we have been watching every forecast all week) and the snow melted overnight.  Today I drove Daisy, with Taktur and Kappi in the van, down the road to have riding lessons outside with Hamish Cameron, who has come up from South for a few days to teach.

First up was Taktur.

The theory being that if Taktur was tired, he would be less of a pain-in-the-arse waiting afterwards.

So Kappi did the waiting.  He was a good boy, though he got bored, and ended up standing with me while I took photos.

Meanwhile, Daisy and Taktur were getting on very well with Hamish.

And this was Hamish’s first time of meeting Taktur too. He had heard about him but never seen our stallion in action.

My only comment was “he has a nice trot” and then left Taktur to show Hamish what he could do.

An added bonus of some good “hair” shots too.

(just so incredibly handsome)

Then it was Kappi’s turn.

We tied Taktur behind the van with a haynet because the next lesson’s participants were also arriving.

And, yes, of course, it was a mare.  17hh of a lady. And I will say Taktur behaved beautifully. He thought about being an arse, but I reminded him about his track record with ladies, and he decided to pretend she wasn’t there. Wise move, my boy.  Wise move.

I couldn’t stand ringside with my camera for very long as I was tasked with keeping Taktur out of trouble.

But what I did see looked very good and I know Daisy enjoyed herself, learned loads and now has aching legs!

So that was all good.  I am exhausted. I have forgotten what it is like to actually go somewhere!