T-shirt information (as requested)

Kids – £9.95 blue, pink, lilac
Sizes – 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-11, 12-14

Adult – £14.95 pale blue, muted green
Sizes – S, M, L, XL, XXL

There is also a tea-towel with the same picture of the girls on that costs £5.50 – it is fab. I have one or two.

Contact Email: lerwick.information@visitscotland.com

Email them, and they will be happy to help you. No problem!

So now you know.

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So, today, Fiona picked me and my zimmer frame up to take me to Sandness so I could see people and ponies.

BeAnne came too and was entertained.

Andy and Charlie have been moved in with Hammy and PingPong.  I wanted to see how they were getting on because the last time Andy lived near, not even with, PingPong, he tried to kill him. Seriously, Andy made it his mission to barge the fence down, seek out Indy and kill him.  The day before his debut at The Royal Highland Show, which he attended with a black eye and numerous cuts.  It was not PingPong’s fault at all.

Charlie also lived with Ping a few years back very briefly too but he hated him too and was removed.  So it was lovely to see them all together actually liking each other.  They will stay here for the rest of winter, which will make Jo’s life much easier if they need food when it snows.

The girls were all far away in their hill apportionment field.  Everyone looked settled, fat and ready for the Shetland winter.  We will split them up when they need to be moved and wean the little ones, though there is no rush as neither mare has run with a stallion.

It was lovely to see everyone, especially my boy.  I miss him.

Actually, I miss them all and, although all I could do was look from the car, it still meant so much to me.  Thank you , Fiona.

Charlie is still a clown.  He has not lost it.  Candy mountain, Charlie!

Floss goes to university at the beginning of October and I wanted to go into town to get some things for her.  OH did the driving with Floss in the back and my borrowed wheelchair. It was a bit of a squish but we managed.

Yup, I took my camera.

Gosh, it was good to get out and to see something different.

First stop was Commercial Street in Lerwick, or Da Street as it is known.  Sadly a wheelchair can only have access to about 15% of the shops as the majority of them have a step.  We struggled into Harry’s Department Store for the some cooking essentials.  I love Harry’s – I always have since the kids were little.  It has everything and more.  We trundled about with helpful staff and bought what we hoped would be useful.

Lerwick was looking particularly empty.

The last of the flower baskets were making an effort but it was cold and I discovered things about being confined to a wheelchair….

1.  Bring a hat.

2.  Bring a rug – your knees do get cold

3.  Commercial Street is full of hills – I always thought it was flat but no, veritable Himalayan foothills awaited my kind pushing person.

4.  You are totally invisible unless you shout or make eye contact.  Harry Potter didn’t need an invisibility cloak, he needed a wheelchair!

Whilst I was parked outside every shop like left luggage, I saw this cat wander the upper part of the Street.  I met a nice couple with two Shih Tzu dogs on a lead who were terrified of it.  Cat-warnings were given upon sighting.  This cat obviously owns The Street.

Christmas is coming – bah, humbug.  I am so not in the mood for that and, if I am not out of my wheelchair by then, I don’t see how I can get into any shop to buy any present.  So much for shopping locally.

This glass skull bottle caught my attention – wonderful.  I bet the contents are fairly wonderful too……. (** sigh **).

The ponies’ image is now a t-shirt.  So proud. I think!

A “fish supper” for lunch watching the seals outside Tesco’s.  I love chips.  I know I shouldn’t but sometimes you just cannot beat eating Shetland battered fish and chips out of paper watching seals for the perfect Shetland eating experience.

On the way home, I saw some Shetland ponies in the distance.

Tomorrow, I am going to try and get out again, if I can coax my driver into taking me.  Poor thing is probably still suffering from the foothills of Lerwick with my wheelchair that had a funny squishing sound as it went along.

 k

The back story – Last autumn we had a visit from a Norwegian film crew.  They were making a television programme called Vesterhavsøyene for NRK TV starring Dag Lindebjerg (apparently the equivalent to our David Attenborough, I was told).

Anyway, this film was about ex-pat Norwegians in Shetland and included a feature about my neighbours, Bjørn Roar Larsen and Tore Skarpnord, who had moved over from Norway with their Shetland ponies and were currently living at Finnigarth, our croft next door.

Dag Lindebjerg wanted to go for a ride with Bjørn on an Icelandic horse so they borrowed Haakon, my horse.

So this is Haakon.  He is my first Icelandic horse and I have had him for 17 years now since he was 3 years old.  I backed and trained him without a clue and he taught me to ride and take responsibility for all my actions whether on his back or not.

He is our safest horse in many respects.  He just does what you ask, rarely questioning and always looking out for his rider.  He will stop dead if you take your feet out of the stirrups and also shift his weight underneath you to prevent you falling off.

He can jump (a bit, but not much more).

Be ridden in side-saddle – he thought this was great fun.

(with or without the statutory collie dog!)

Pull a cart – he hates blinkers so we never bothered with them.  He likes to have an explanation  as to what is going on around him and then get on with it.

He had good flying pace in his youth.

and was also much thinner!

He was the first horse to have BeAnne on his back

And, because he is safe, kind and reliable, we put Norway’s David Attenborough on his back too.

So, this is Haakon’s few minutes of fame.  He did so well.  Although, perhaps Dag Lindebjerg was saddle-sore after his ride, he did appreciate the fact that Haakon had looked after him every inch of the way.

You can find the whole film here – http://tv.nrk.no/serie/vesterhavsoeyene

and we feature at about 22 minutes in.  I sound like a posh harpie and am deeply ashamed and that diet beckons!  I hate being on telly and I hate hearing myself on telly too but I am desperately proud of Haakon and how he behaved.

Some are known to say Haakon is “just a farm horse” with an incredibly low BLUP of 80 (his Best Linear Unbiased Prediction, ie the mathematical theory of how well he should do because of his breeding).

Still, he is my farm horse and I love him.    The boy done good that day.

I am fed up with the horses.  So here are my “house elves”.

Loki, our rescue dog, has settled in now.  He has his moments with the others but there is an armed truce now, which is holding.

He has been stitched up once, put on 2 kg since we got him and he is learning about not thieving, not running away (he always goes to our neighbours) when we are cross with him and preferably not attacking the others.  A slow process but we are getting there.

He is allowed to run for miles and catch the wild wabbits, which he adores.  He brings them home with pride and a smile on his face.  This is his hard-done-by face, btw.

Jack is, well, Jack.  He is getting so old and crusty now.  When he goes on a walk, at a certain point he just turns round and takes himself back home saying he has had enough.  Nothing will prevent him so he is only walked near the house.

Food is very important to him and although nearly blind and deaf, he can hear and locate his bowl being filled from another room.  He spends most of his day asking to go outside and then the rest of his day asking to come back in.

I don’t think BeAnne has actually left me since my return.  Wherever I am, she is.  That is her motto.  She is very precious and her scars are mending now.  She is a constant in my life.

I don’t often see Wussums.  He lives up those stairs in the bedroom (I am sleeping in Daisy’s room at the moment on the other side of the house because it is close to the bathroom).  OH says he is doing fine and Wu and I had a nice chat while taking these photos including a nose kissey.

Apparently, and I don’t believe it, a certain small terrier comes downstairs from my bedroom in the morning, while OH is in the shower, creeps up these stairs, steals all the cat food and then comes back to my bed denying all knowledge.

I know nothing!

I received a phone call this morning from my neighbour to say a dark horse had been spotted wandering up my track.  This was not good news.  So I called down to my OH and Nick and asked them to find my horses.  OH said he had last seen them up in their field while he was feeding the hens this morning.  The boys did have access to the house area as we wanted it eaten down so they were coming and going from there.

OH and Nick set off in the car armed with one rope and one headcollar.  Like you do for four horses, including one stallion.  I then phoned back my neighbour and asked if he could help too.  He offered to bring more headcollars and feed in a bucket in case no one could be caught.

Apparently Iacs, Haakon and Klængur were standing quietly, admiring the view, in the first passing place on the single track public road while Taktur was walking up and down our little track not daring to leave home.  So OH caught Klængur and Nick led Haakon and they all followed back home with my neighbour in the car behind.

It was all rather simple and not very scary though at the time I had huge visions of Taktur running up and down the fence of our neighbour’s property trying to get to their mare but he never got that far.

The horses appeared embarrassed and I can imagine that it was Iacs who started this. He would’ve rubbed his silly frilly forelock on the gate, undoing the latch.  Then the wind would’ve pushed it open.  Iacs would’ve stood for at least 10 minutes trying to work out if his bulk would get through the narrow gateway and then the rest would’ve followed to see if they could too.

At least they were easy to catch and bring home.  I think their days of eating the grass around the house are now over for the time being.  My visitors go back today and it is too much like worry.

Anyway, as a reward for all his hard work with the horses, I have given Nick a disk of my views of Foula to take home with him.