I Worry at Night

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Every so often I suddenly have a panic (usually at about 3 a.m.) that the electric fence is not working and the Shetland ponies will break through into the long grass.

Last night I had that worry so today the dog walk consisted of walking the track with the fence tester to check it was zapping consistently all the way round. And it was going along beautifully. OH had strimmed all the plants off the bottom wire and there was the same strength of zap at both ends.

However, I do feel sorry for the ponies. They have minimal grazing while on the other side of the fence it looks fantastic.

The other side is for the old horses and ponies in the winter. It is perfect grazing for them but not for fat little Shetland ponies who don’t need to get any fatter.

This lot seem to doing very well on just about nothing and to be fair I found no evidence of Shetland pony fence testing.

The ponies could probably lose a bit more weight. As I walked the track, it was interesting to see which plants they refuse to eat – always the marsh marigolds, the occasional orchid, and later the Devil’s bit scabious. They don’t touch it.

The dogs enjoyed their walk and started digging the inter-island tunnels that are planned for Shetland.

“Councillors have backed initial plans to connect some of Shetland’s islands with undersea tunnels, which could be in place within eight years.” – BBC

Ted did the feasibility study.

While Pepper did the actual work.

I can see why bridges are not an option.

My little chief digger was tired after her exertions.

My Day Out

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This morning I did all the things I had to do, like feed animals, put the sheep in their field and walk the dogs.

And then I drove over to a friend’s and we had a lovely day out, away from everyone and everything.

First stop was Scalloway for a quick dog walk around my most favourite little public garden – I think this is Gibblestone House gardens.

I was very slightly obssessed with the trees there – scyamore maple.

A delicious lunch with the statutory extravagantly decorated hot chocolate for me, and onwards to the Burra (a pair of interconnected islands—East Burra and West Burra) to see emus and wallabies at The Outpost, like you do.

This is my first visit. The wallabies were a bit far away and not very interested in us. I, on the other hand, was fascinated as they hopped off.

Then there was a shed with a beautifully warm aviary and lots of enthusiastic chirping.

I made good friends with this chap who apparently according to Google is a green-cheeked parakeet. As there was no one around to ask, I spent my time just whistling, which was a great hit and the bird whistled back hopefully happily at my efforts. I used to live with an African grey and seem to remember she loved whistling.

And then the total stars of today – two emus with the best hair do’s.

I have never seen emus up close. They are very strange in a prehistoric way, especially found living in Shetland.

And then lastly on to the home of Burra Bears.

The bears are very special (made from old Fair Isle jerseys) and there is a long waiting list.

And then home and back to the real world. It was a lovely much-needed day out for me.

The Simmer Dim

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This is to show you just how light it is at night this time of year – I took this photo from my bedroom window at 11.30 p.m last night. It doesn’t get any darker at the moment but the birds do stop and it is magically silent for a few hours in this long Shetland twilight (“Simmer Dim”).

Anywho, today was lovely. The sun shone and all was good. It was a rather strenuous dog-walk, when Pepper successfully and expertly removed some hill sheep from our field (separating them from my flock, getting them through three gates onto the track) like a well-trained collie, listening to my instruction. I was telling her what I wanted, and miracle of miracle, Pepper understood and made it happen. So I decided we all needed to have a sit down in the garden to recover from such exertion. Ted was no help, of course. It was not his bag.

Feeling better and after lunch, we moved ourselves to my shed and I made a felted sheep.

Everyone was there recovering from Pepper’s efforts.

And then OH came home from work and everyone wanted to leave.

(I do love this photo very much).

Lost all my sheep

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It was a lovely morning for a dog-walk. I was looking for the sheep, but came across Haakon instead.

We had a quick chat and I went on with the walk, thinking the sheep were probably at the far end of the field.

Beautiful flowers were everywhere – I am particularly fond of the forget-me-nots.

While I was walking up into the hill part of the field, I saw movement by my feet.

I think this is a Heath humble-bee (Bombus jonellus vogti) – please correct me if I am wrong.

She was very cute (apparently it is the females that collect the pollen, etc and do all the work – of course they do!)

(and she had lovely fat little buff-coloured knickers!)

She seemed very content buzzing around the self-heal plants.

And then onwards and upwards looking for my sheep. I couldn’t see them anywhere. I was worried they had all escaped as there is a very rickety gate at the end of the field.

But, having thoroughly searched the 30 acre field, scratched my head and wondered where they all were, I suddenly remembered I had put them in a different field. Duh!

So, after making my afternoon felted sheep, I went and found my sheep where I had originally put them.

‘Bert kindly plonked himself down behind me and I told him he was the most comfortable chair-back I knew. He really was, nice and solid giving great support but then that’s ‘Bert all over.