You may remember when we rescued these two thin and starving Shetland ewes off the hill (with the permission of the Grazings Clerk) who had their ear tags removed and no identity, at the end of January? – the blog post

And you remember how thin and desperate it all was?

And while Edna was friendly, Madge always kept her distance and was very wary of everyone and everything.

(seeing these photos, makes me feel sick)

Of all the sheep, Madge was, and remains, the most scatty.

Well (drum roll, please), today she let me stroke the top of her head for as long as I wanted to and took a turmeric capsule (which are tiny) from my hand to eat.

You have no idea what a big deal this is for Madge and a huge breakthrough for me.  Mentally, she is not particularly a changed sheep. Ok, perhaps in size maybe (she is mahoosive) but she suddenly calmed down.  She knows that even if she is bullied off treats, I will go and find her to give her fair share.  I look her firmly in the eye and we reach an agreement that no matter what (or who – that would be ‘Ster who can be an arse), I will get that treat to her.  She trusts me.

I am feeling very emotional *** sniff *** and when I remember in just what a sad and awful state she and Edna were in when they came to us 10 months ago. Then there is more sniffing. How our lives have changed for the better.

Edna – October 2020

Firstly, huge apologies for the quality of the photos but honestly the weather is revolting and I am not taking a good camera out in this.  It’s just not worth it.  The light was rubbish too.

Anywho, every day, out I go (or at least someone does) to check the Minions.  I would love to say they run up to me like little Black Beauties, but a vague amble or a slightly animated scuttle is all I get.

I had counted out my carrots before I went over and there was one each.  Newt would not be told and followed me around with his ears flat back demanding more.  It was not a peaceful event. I was fending off teeth and he is knee-height.

Luckily, Tiddles made it all worth it. He is always charming and gave me my daily nose-kissey.

There is grass in them there hills and this lot are just not used to having to look for it.  Tough.

I told them this and was met with baleful stares of resentment.

Having run out of carrots, I beat a hasty retreat before I was taken hostage.

We have rain for possibly the rest of our lives now.  It has been forecast.  So dreary.

Having donned full waterproofs, BeAnne and I walked up the hill so we could both snuff up some fresh air and she could feel the wind in her whiskers.

Afterwards we took to my shed and, while Her Maj had a rest, I listened to Hercule Poirot solving an immense crime and made a sheeple to add to my small collection.

A grey Shetland body, stubby legs with a white wool fleece and rather long lugs!

He joined his friends.

While BeAnne continued to sleep, I watered my plants and encouraged those that were making an effort, to keep on growing – my ginger and my turmeric roots are trying. I am pleased with them.

And I am less pleased with these. Pathetic.

I have many Aloe Vera, who like my shed and grows like Topsy.

Anyway, you can tell it’s raining because I am reduced to taking photos of Monster!

Expect more because I don’t think it is going to stop raining for the foreseeable.

Anyone know this castle/ruin?  I found the watercolour in Aunt Kate’s papers.  I would love to know where it is.

I continue transcribing Aunt Kate’s diaries – I am on 1915 now and we are in the middle of the First World War. I also have some of her sketch books and family photo albums so am scanning them and inserting them into the relevant diary.  It is fascinating.  I am hopeful that Kate will mention sketching a castle ruin by a river somewhere.

For fun, I rode Haakon this afternoon in the school.  It was nice to be just him and me again.  Like old times.  We had some great conversations.

When I put him back in his field, he popped back to tell me that he wanted more carrots.

He had seen me go and find some for this ginger ninja (I love Klængur’s most hopeful face!)

While they were munching, BeAnne and I wandered about the garden looking for the last flowers.

We have a few Rosa rugosa ‘Alba’ flowers clinging on.

Monbretia (crocosmia x crocosmiiflora) is everywhere too.  According to “Gardener’s World” apparently it is a “troublesome hybrid”.  I am just grateful for the flowers.

Our garden is full of autumn colour.  This is my favourite time of year.  I always say that.

This week for BeAnne has been down and and then a bit up.  Last weekend, she started hefty diuretics which resulted in wet bed, wet floor, wet everything but good news, the fluid on her lungs went. She must’ve pee’ed it out.

Her Maj was very unhappy and unwell and I started her on CBD oil because we had run out of options. It did help her mentally, but also gave her diarrhoea.  On Tuesday I phoned the vet with an update and admitted to the CBD oil.  She wanted bloods so we could have a better idea of what was going on.  We did that and the results were terrible – kidneys bad and liver function off the chart.

But the vet had a case conference with the head of practice and they decided we had been here before and come back from it so there was a chance.  They changed BeAnne’s meds.

And things have been much better.  Now she has a combined heart/diuretic, alternate days of steroids, the cbd oil – the lactulose is reduced (or stopped) and stopped the antibiotics. Things are on a more even keel now and yesterday was a good day – she spent it barking at all intruders (imaginary or real) and stealing cat food.

I left Her Maj outside pottering around the croft while I went to check on the Minions.

Note the abandoned pond!  Bar-steward ducky-wuckies.

After lunch, we went for a nice little walk into the hill.

BeAnne was running about properly.

She enjoyed sniffing for pesky bunny rabitses.

So we have a bit of normal life back and that is a huge bonus.

A friend asked me how BeAnne was getting on and I burst into tears and couldn’t talk about it. I can’t without feeling sick and crying.  I hadn’t realised how much pressure this is putting on us but I just can’t get my head around the alternative.  As long as BeAnne is enjoying life, we still keep on going because it is all I can cling to (and now I’m crying all over again).