Outside the house there is a picnic table that was given to us a few years back.  It has it’s uses.

Today, after going for my usual 2 mile walk with BeAnne, I took my coffee, laptop and camera and sat outside to enjoy the view.

My friends stood around and then went off to eat the long grass that is growing around the house.

This is the view that I can see while I sit at my table – with my laptop in the corner.  Not bad, eh?  The sea is in the distance.

The green Shetland grass is growing now we have had rain.

I find it very peaceful watching Haakon snoozing, the chickens about as well as the sheep munching close by, occasionally coming up for a hug.

One by one various member of the family joined me.

I may not go places, travel, see the world but, to be perfectly honest, I don’t want to.  Sitting with my animal family is good enough.  No, actually it is perfect.

It is lovely to see the green grass growing.  It has been slow to start as it was a strange spring/summer but we have not been as drought-hit as those south on mainland Britain.

During the day our Icelandic boys are divided into the fatties and non-fatties.

In the fatty field are Iacs, Kappi, Haakon (and Klængur who was somewhere away eating).

These boys are only in this field for a few hours, mostly for convenience and to stop them having a bloated grass belly – these are the horses being ridden or need something.

Mostly they sort of “volunteer” ie Flossie goes in and leads them through while they are thinking about wandering in.

They don’t really mind and don’t try to evade her morning routine.  The upside is that they have some time off from the youngsters.

Meanwhile, down in the non-fatty field, Taktur tries to hang out with the cool kids.

Hjalti is still having none of this and so Taktur stays around the edge of his circle of friends.  There is the occasional shout as they bicker but it has mostly stopped and life is calm.  We can’t let Taktur join the non-fatties as a) he does not need to lose weight and b) he would gaze at his mares. They live in my field across the scattald.

If the bickering turns into all-out war then we will think again and possibly move Hjalti.  Perhaps he can go back to living with his mother, Hetja, and learn how to respect his elders and not try to beat the crap out of them.

 

As promised, a few days ago, here are my photos of some of the magnificent fruit and vegetable creations from the Children’s Section of our local show.

The classes were divided into three categories – up to 5 years old, 6-10 years old and 11-16 years old.

There were many entries in each age group.

I could not tell you which sculpture belonged in which category as they are all equally brilliant.

The whole show is the result of hard work from both the organisers and the participants, but this is the class that always makes me smile as I go round looking at all these artistic creations.

So much time and effort has gone into making these pieces.

They are inspired and imaginative.

They have character.

And a sense of fun as well as flair.

But, best of all, everyone gets a rosette which is exactly how it should be.

And this is my winner. An inspiration to us all.

Roll on next year’s show.

At the Walls Agricultural Show there are various tents scattered about the showground including the show-shed and the kirk all displaying various class entries.

After seeing the cows, sheep and ponies and of course my second-prize winning fleece, I had a shufti round the Show Shed to see what was going on in there.

I love these.

So clever.

My absolute favourite!  I now have inspiration for some sheep themed baking.

After the baking and home produce, round the corner was the fabulous knitwear that Shetland is famous for.

There were pearls knitted into each row.

Beautiful Fair Isle pattern berets and toories.

A splendid gansey.

I loves these colours.

Everything and anything was knitted or crocheted.

Shetland has a wealth of talented knitters.

Then there was the artwork.

Decorative work.

I loved it all.  I may not understand it all, but it is inspired and wonderful.  There has been some hard work.

And so I left the Show Shed and my camera ran out battery so now I was relying on my camera phone.  There were Vikings around and a small son of a Viking riding a quad bike.

The smell of flowers blew me away when I went into the kirk.  I was hopeless at taking indoor photos with my phone – they are sadly not worth looking at.

Outside again and there were the two Viking squads setting off with the Show Princess and her Attendants at the front to march round the show ground singing the traditional Up Helly Aa Song.  It was a fine sight.

On our way out of the show ground we saw the very special classic car exhibition lined up for folk to walk around.

The fruit and veg animals await…..!

Happy birthday to me today so I asked my OH to drive me over to see the Minions.

Everyone except for Lilja and Little Newt were around.  Those two were in the next door field that we had opened up for them last week.

Lilja sauntered over.

While Newt took a little bit longer.

Newt hurries for no one. Not even if it’s your birthday!

So I sat on the bank and was loved and appreciated by my little guys.

This is the best way to spend a birthday.  My kind of party.