Sometimes Wu is asleep….

Occasionally he is awake…..

Sleep is very important to Wu.

If not asleep, he can be in a playful mood (read dangerous)

Mostly he is planning his world domination.

Which takes a great deal of thought.

He has made A List.

Loki knows this.

And Loki knows he is a considered a mindless jerk who’ll be the first up against the wall when the revolution comes.

8

Yes, it is still WW3 in this house.

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The weather is utterly repellant.  Even the dogs refused to go for a walk (twice) so I have spent the day achieving nothing apart from my version of cleaning the house without my glasses on so I can’t actually see the dirt whilst spraying polish in the rooms before OH comes back from town.

The boys went out for a little while and I found they had all gone to bed early.  I gave them some big carrots to play with.

Every evening, after supper, I go and see the boys in their new abode.  Daisy usually joins me and we sit on an old caravan cushion on the floor in the dark.  The Minions then decide whether they want to talk to us or not.

I usually take a lantern and we each wear a head torch as there is no light in the shed.

BeAnne, of course, comes too and the ponies don’t mind her presence.  She sits on the cushion with us, of course.

The Minions love this time.  They loom out of the darkness one or two at a time to be hugged, scratched, tickled and kissed.

While the wind and rain hammer down outside, we just sit and listen to the boys munching their hay.  It is very soporific.

I enjoy doing this with the ponies.  It is when we get to understand each other better and I think they like the fact that the door is not shut and they are forgotten for hours.

I never force anyone to come over to us.  Sometimes a Minion will just wander over for a cursory hello and then wander back to his Sisyphean task of eating.

I am sure folk think I spoil my boys.  In my mind, they deserve spoiling, especially this time of year and being with them is never a chore, but a lovely way to spend some of the long winter evenings.

And yes, I do kiss each one good night!

(apologies for crap photos – done on phone in pitch dark so a rather random point and shoot method)

It was an unexpected day.

Daisy and I popped to the shop to post some letters and met a friend, Bessie, walking her dog, Mootie, to get her messages.  Afterwards, we were going to drive around mainland Shetland to find some big waves to photograph.

I remembered an excellent place on the east side where I had once seen an impressive wall of water but never managed to take photos.

We were just standing in the shop porch chatting with Bessie and Mootie when the heavens opened.   Well obviously we could not let Bessie walk back home in that and so we gave them a lift to their house.  While there, I took some photos of some sparrows standing on the harled outside vertical wall of the house.  Very clever.

I mentioned to Bessie that we would be driving round looking for waves and so she, now minus dog, joined us.

Here are some photos from our travels.  I was looking for waves or different scenery.  We failed rather dismally on the wave front (wind was not in the right direction) but it was nice to go somewhere completely different. We drove around like trippers admiring the scenery.

There was a bit of snow about and I drove carefully.  Every so often, I would screech the car to a halt, leap out and take a photo trying to dodge the rain.  Daisy was armed with a lens cloth so she could clean the camera afterwards. I have her well-trained.

Now here is very rare sight.  Proper full-grown trees in Shetland.

Mostly, it looks like this.

And this was our reward for a hard day’s work of driving, chatting and me leaping out to take photos.

It was yum.

Like many royal families and heads of state, The Minions have decided they too would like summer and winter palaces.

This is their winter palace.  One big stable with a double door the other end.  It is 5.5m x 8.5m square = very big.  The floor is rubber matting with sawdust.  On the right side I put a huge bank of hay for the boys to help themselves.

(This shed was originally intended for the Icelandic horses but they are ungrateful.  They went in, took one look, declared they hated staying in and have not been in since – so much for all horses wanting to be in during nasty weather).

Anyway, rather than leave it empty, The Minions love it.  They are far more relaxed now and have space.  The difference in them since they have been spending the coarse nights here is huge.

The downside is that they cannot come and go as they like into their field during the night and, once they are in, they are in for the night.

In the mornings, I let them out into their big field to get some fresh air.

During the daytime, the Minions have access to their Summer palace which they happily rush into when they want to.

Storm and Tiddles have rugs on outside.

Both have learned to stand nicely while we do all the clips up and Tiddles has even had his rug straps made bigger.  I think he has grown.

Waffle and Silver are fine all day without rugs.  They have lost no weight this winter but do appreciate coming in at night.

They are particularly keen on the extra food Tiddles and Storm have to eat.

Tiddles is not very keen on sharing so I tend to feed him separately if I can grab him in time.

(by the way, this is his cross face)

These incredible photos were taken of the sea today by Shetland Resolve.

I wanted you to see what we are going through at the moment.

It is hell, utter hell.

Anyway, I refuse to dwell on the weather for the moment.  It is scary beyond words and seems to have overtaken our lives.

These next photos are of “My Best Boys”   I took them yesterday and they make me smile.

First there is Storm in his favourite bestest rug.  This is his “swallowed a button” face.

And this is his “feel free to kiss my nosey” face.  He has wonderful whiskers.

Then there is Waffle.  He is known as The Waff and he is a darling boy.

This is his “I might be thinking wicked thoughts” face.

Silver is enchanting.  Of the three, he has come the furthest.  So suspicious of us all when he first arrived.  He wants to love folk but he has never forgotten what happened to him this time last year and there is always the sneaking suspicion that it might happen again.  When I listen to the wind howling and the rain thrashing I think of them out in that just standing in that muddy field waiting to die of starvation.

But once he knows he is alright, his kisses are the best.

And lastly, Tiddles.  He is learning very very quickly what works.

Fully integrated into the ways of Minion, there is no stopping this little boy.  Stubborn, solid and very determined.

Fr

So, have a smile on us and forget today.  It has gone.

“Tomorrow is another day”.