Cunning Plan No 435696(j)(iv) – to integrate Vitamin with the entire Minion Tribe.

To achieve this, I firstly left Vitamin with Fivla babysitting Lilja while the Minions all met up and made friends with Newt and Albie.  Last winter Vitamin had bullied these two little boys unmercilessly so they had to be removed and live at Thordale instead of being Minions which was not what I had planned.

Newt and Albie are very much Minions now.

Now it was Vitamin entering their territory and, apart from immediately thumping Storm (who definitely would’ve had it coming), she had to be nice.

Or the Minions would all gang up against her.

My theory worked!

Vitamin wanted to be accepted.

She wanted her little kingdom back even if it included Albie and Newt because now they were fully fledged Minions.

Albie sweetly came running over while I was taking photographs to have a hug.  He was not stressed seeing Vitamin but he does like reassurance from us.

To be fair, the Minions were pleased to see Vitamin back with them.

After all they had spent the winter with her.

Albeit minus Albie and Newt.

Anyway, I think this time they are all going to be fine.  So a big phew!

Meanwhile, Lilja boxed like a pro and I took her and Fivla over to another field nearby but not near enough for her to see or smell her mother.

So it is all change for the forthcoming summer months.

So, yesterday was Dreki’s first birthday.

My little colt foal has come a long way in one year and grown a bit too.  He now leads beautifully, can be tied up, has all his feet picked up, albeit briefly, loads into the van and is a total treasure.  He also possibly knows his name!

This morning we brought all the little boys into the school for a brief refresher course of their training skills.

If anyone can tie themselves up, Hjalti can.  He remained calm, however, like all good Icelandic horses, while Flossie untangled him.  He did this twice because he could.

Everyone was led, had their feet picked up and then were given a bucket of grub, either as necessity (Efstur) or a token gesture (Hjalti and Dreki).   After Dreki’s gelding there has been a bit of a hiatus from training  but no one had forgotten anything, which was encouraging.

Daisy had been cleaning and tidying so we introduced them to Mr Scary-Haynets.  It was probably more frightening because it was clean!

There was also the now-mandatory presence of Monster.  He comes everywhere, fully participating in everything we do.

I suppose the horses won’t be scared of cats even when Monster came crashing/jumping out from behind the kick-boards.  Monster is more of a training hindrance than a help.  He may have to be banished or renamed The Elephant of Surprise!

So, happy birthday to my dear little boy, Dreki Dragon.

Happy Birthday to Lilja – she was one year old on 20th May.

Today, I found Lilja by herself – the other two mares, Fivla and Vitamin, were the other side of the fence.  Her choice, I think.

Lilja is learning fast.  She is easily caught, walks peacefully while listening and learning my body language.

These past few days we have been working on a very special skill – loading.

With the help of a bucket of mare and foal hardfeed, Lilja will now load calmly into the horsevan.  This is Day 2.  Yesterday, Fivla showed Lilja how to do it and now is just around watching on.

Fivla does not need hardfeed, possibly ever, but she serves a purpose.  Fivla is the one Lilja has attached herself to so acts as a guiding influence.  Fivla also never panics – bombs could go off and Fivla would never mention it – so she is the perfect step-mother to learn from.

We left Vitamin behind.  She can get hysterical and that is not something we want to show Lilja.

As you can see, Lilja now loads fine.

She calmly walks in and out of the van on a loose rope.

As there won’t always been hardfeed around (we usually only buy it in the winter), I tried Lilja out with a carrot as the reward.

It was considered perfectly acceptable.

So all is good.

I am no longer worrying that Lilja will be the only horse in the world never to load.

(It was beginning to feel a bit like that, if I am perfectly honest!)

While we were in the area, I also showed Lilja the flappy big doors at the back.  My theory is the more things she sees and is calm about, then the better her world will be.  She behaved beautifully.

So onwards and upwards.

After breakfast, Puzzah was being a bit of a butting berk so I asked Lambie if he wanted to join us for our morning cup of tea.  He didn’t need asking twice.  I love spending time with my little boy.  We have a very special relationship.

Inspired by my great company and Classic FM on the iPad, these two nodded off.  Incidentally, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (No. 6 in F major, Op. 68) was playing which seemed rather fitting.  No, seriously, it was.  I love it when music fits the mood.

As I write, my darling BeAnne is on her third bath in as many days.   Bunny digging.  So much bloody earth all over my bathroom, that’s all I will say.

I am depressed muchly but on a plus side the bathroom has never looked so clean – thank you Daisy!

Meanwhile, Monster is doing fine.

He is definitely one of the family with no intention of leaving, which is lovely.

Also, Lambie has employment so I was taking photos for his biography.

He is a brand Lamb-assador (see what I did there, geddit?)

I spent the morning looking for his good side.

Of course, Lambie got his best Garbo out!

A bijoux Winning Smile (WS).

Lambie’s interested interview face.

Looking straight into the camera with a hint of WS (Winning Smile).

Lambie is secretly still a Mummy’s Boy.  It was one of those perfect mornings spent with friends.

The girls and I took our van full of rubbish to the local recycling centre and then we drove on into town for a bit of shopping and some lunch.

As usual I took my camera and, for a change, I went all black and white.

There were two enormous cruise ships visiting – Le Boreal (foreground) and MSC Orchestra (behind).  Le Boreal had come from Kirkwall (Orkney) and was on its way to Portree (Skye).  MSC Orchestra had come from Bergen and was going to Akureyri (Iceland).  I wanted to catch a lift.

The street was humming.  It has really struggled recently.

It was wonderful to see so many people about.

Now there are many new shops and restaurants opening up.  Diversification away from the Temple of Tesco may be the way forward.  Its presence has affected many Shetland businesses.

I hope the visitors enjoyed their day in Shetland, leaving with happy memories of a very special place.

Here are two shop windows from Jamiesons of Shetland (a wool mill down the road from me in Sandness and this is their shop in Lerwick).  They caught my eye.

Brilliant – very clever and imaginative – hence the colour pictures to show the wonderful wool colours they create.

It is always good to have a day out.