Me:  Monster, your Daddy’s home!
Monster: Daddy, what Daddy. I have no Daddy. He left me!  He didn’t even say good-bye!

It’s true. OH snuck out after breakfast earlier this week to work off-island hoping the cat would not notice but he did.

(By now Monster is yowling refusing to even glance at his purple-socked absentee parent)

Daisy (now watching slightly amazed at Monster’s behaviour): Go on, he’s over there.
Monster (to himself): I must appear aloof and not even interested.  Oh, ok, I need to investigate this.

OH:  Hello, Monster.
Monster:  Hmmm, who are you?  Do I know you? I probably don’t.

Not even three seconds later……

The biggest and loudest purrs ever.

Monster: Dammit, I can’t be cross with you for long!

The rest of us are now “chopped liver”.  We were there when Monster had no one and now…… nothing.

Anywho, it is nice to have OH home, if only for a few days.  The weather is deteriorating but once it settles down again, he will be off.  No one tell the cat.

This is my first year of growing flowers.  I bought (or was kindly given) many ceramic Belfast sinks, filled them up with compost and off I went determined to have some colour this summer in our garden.

Things I have learned – height.  Some plants are taller than others, over-shadow and I have definite successes and failures.

But, overall, I love the colour.

My artichhokes are huge, totally dwarfing everything else. I ended saving the flowering pinks by picking them.  They smell beautiful and remind me of my grandmother.

The tatties, of which I possibly have a cash-crop, are going along nicely.  The strawberry plants have produced a handful of the most delicious strawberries. It took me a while to learn about the function of placing straw around each plant so some rotted before I could save them.  Learning, I am always learning.

Another cash-crop is the ragwort which continues to plague us.  We have nearly cleared this field.  I say that every day and then spend another hour and fill another bag.  We all chip away at this never-ending problem.

Monster is still pining for his “Dad”.

His appetite has not been affected, however. Phew.

Over to Turriefield, this afternoon to pack veg – our Thursday volunteer job.  Now they can grow veg!  Puts my handful of strawberries to shame.

Daisy and I weigh, bag and label.

And then there is the banter!

We always ‘ave a larf!  In my humble opinion that sign behind should read “free to a good home”! (I was dared not to put up this photo so obviously I had to)

Daisy and I were trimming Iacs’ feet and everyone else came up to watch, and probably tell us we were doing it wrong!

These two are such nosey parkers.

Haakon was keeping his own counsel. He’s not stupid.

Well, actually he is. Nothing good will come of this sniff.  I tried to tell him.

These two are very close.  I guess it is a sister thing.

“Ears back everyone, Mother’s taking a photo” – I honestly don’t know why I bother.

Good old Haakon – ever the weirdo.

The little ducky-wuckies are still with us – for me, this is a record. I feel sorry that they can’t go outside but the bigger birds would pick them off one at a time and that would be a disaster after all our hard work.

OH is working off island for two weeks.  Monster is bereft.

He looks for OH everywhere and is inconsolable – except at breakfast, lunch, tea, before-bed, and snack-time, etc…!

When we go to count Minion legs and kiss noseys, we have other jobs to do too.

Fivla has her eyes cleaned daily as they are prone to “goobyness”.  It is a combination of the length of her beautiful forelock and the constant wind.  Drops make no difference and it is not an infection, just Fivla.

Perfection attained.

Then Vitamin has to have her mouth drench – she collects carrot bits in her ancient toothipegs and gums so they need to be washed out.

This method actually does work very well and, as no grassy bits come out, that is a good sign and means what she eats in the field stays down. I see no signs of quidding.

Newt likes to play in the water. The string attached to the extremely useful old TurmerAid bucket is for gathering water Jungle Book style from the nearby stream. I have perfected this method.

 

Then it is time for the pink noseys!

First up is Tiddles.

He knows the drill.

Done!

And then it is Albie’s turn – he has a tiny dot of pink on his nosey.

And he would hate to be left out.

Next up, if we can catch him is Storm. He has his moments and sometimes prances about. I don’t let him get away with this.

Then hands are wiped on anyone close.  Today it was Vitamin who acquiesced.

Once the barrier cream or sunblock (depending on the weather forecast) is applied, we hop over the fence PDQ (pretty damn quickly)!

Both creams are very white and easily worn for the rest of the day on everyone and everything.

The last to of the kisses – they are expected, no demanded!

And off we go, to ragwort for a bagful.

And that is what we do each morning.

Daisy has quietly been working hard with Lilja’s training.

Lilja is now happy to leave Sóley and go into the school.  Sóley raced up and down the fence once, got bored, and returned to the Old Men.

I haven’t seen much (ok, anything) of Lilja’s training but it is very obvious that she and Daisy are getting on very well.  To date, she has been bitted and lunged.

I like seeing them together. They “chat” a lot.

Today consisted of leading nicely in both directions and then Daisy stood on a bucket.

She patted her back.

Moved the bucket to the other side.

And did the same thing.  Lilja feigned interest.

Then Daisy decided to saddle Lilja up.

And off they went for a walk again.

This is my first time seeing Lilja wearing a saddle.  She looks completely non-plussed by it and she’s worn it a few times already.

More conversations.

I led Lilja too and then Daisy picked out her hooves.  All good.

Photos to update Lilja’s page on our website – thordale.co.uk

And then Lilja went back to her field.  I wanted to take more photos of her cantering down the hill to her friends but she refused to leave her best friend, Daisy.

So the others came up.

The Old Men even shifted enthusiastically!

So that’s Lilja’s progress. I am pleased with her.  She is doing very well.  I can see a huge change – Daisy has worked hard and done well.  Lilja is a nice horse and very like her dear old dad, Taktur.