Me: Right, chaps, I want all of you to stand together and smile for a photo, please.

Me: Yes, Iacs, that’s a lovely smile.

Me:  Haakon, do you smile?

Haakon:  Not really.

Me: Ok, well, here’s a good opportunity. The morning light is gorgeous and, if you all stood in a line and looked magnificent, that would be good. We can forget the smiling.

Me: And there we go, that’s perfect.

Me:  Don’t move, one more.  Nope, too late. Thanks, Kolka.

Me: Yes, Iacs, I can see you’re still practising.

After the dog walk, I went to sit down in the field with my sheep.

Lambie was looking particularly endearing so I was hopeful he would come up and chat.

To start with, Pepper sat with him.

And ‘Ster came up to tell me how much he loved me.

He is always very huggy and can get quite pushy about it too.

Lambie eventually wandered up, as he was feeling left out of the hugging, and then ignored me completely.  Typical.

But my bestest friend today was lovely Edna.

She is just the sweetest old lady.  We rescued her and Madge (possibly her daughter) in January 2020.

I was looking at her old photos on the day of her rescue and it makes me tear up even now and furious at the same time.

Edna and Madge were thrown out into the open hill (common grazing) with their tags ripped out and left to live or die.

That was nearly four years ago. I can’t believe it. I feel like they have always been with me.

I feel honoured to have Edna as my friend.  Madge is still trying.

Folk under-estimate sheep badly. Sheep are affectionate, caring and very, very loyal.

None of this applies to Lambie, though – he is ungrateful, smelly and manipulative but he does have his Winning Smile to fall back on.

OH and I still had a few more leaflets to deliver on our round so yesterday morning we set out  with me driving and OH hopping in and out of the car with bits of paper to talk to any folk he could find, or trying to find the house letter-box, which is not an easy task here as most houses don’t have a letter-box!

While he did all this, I turned the car around ready to drive to the next house and waited enjoying the spectacular Shetland scenery.

It really was a lovely morning and we finished the rest of the houses quite quickly.  So job done.  Now for the meeting on Thursday and we will see what the Scottish Government representative has to say for himself.

Morning duties start first light. We are at the stage when we make the most of every hour.

And, although I am not responsible for feeding the Old Fogeys (Haakon, Bibble and Kolka – I delegated this to OH), I go and see them once I have finished feeding my lot.  I like to check everyone can walk, talk and eat with no problems.

I had in my pocketses three Pasture Cookies – always guaranteed to be a success but first, I had to play “spot the horse”.

Some were easier than others to find.

The cookies went down well.

It was a fair distribution.

And everyone is looking very well.  They’re all beginning to slim down a bit, which is the intention and no bad thing. This is what winter is for and let’s be honest, everyone has some to lose.

There will be no calorific food until I can feel ribs but there is still plenty of grass around so I think that might be a while, if ever.

Anyway, the Old Farts are all fine.

This morning (and possibly every morning) the Minions all came rushing over for their breakfast.

Vitamin at the lead and Fivla at the back – she has been slow her entire life.

Heads down and eat!

Silver finished first – he always does – and therefore exerted his rights to “clean the bowl” (well, that’s what we say when anyone is making a cake in this family).

Vitamin and Fivla have their own versions of breakfast and Pepper, who has to come too, supervises everyone, clearing up as she goes along.

I love how Vitamin doesn’t mind in the slightest.  Trust is a two-way thing.

The Minons swap around once they’ve mostly finished and it is pretty much without argument.

Though, sometimes Newt (all 26″) has a rather bouncy bottom.

Albie, who is always bullied off his bowl first, comes to me for a chat and a complain.  I give him a hug and tell him that he’s probably had enough anyway.

Pepper adds her sympathies.

Everyone gets a visit from Pepper except for Silver, if he is in one of his stamping-dog moods.

And then on the neighbouring croft, someone was backing their trailer into the yard, and everyone had to rush off to watch and give their opinion.  I picked up the empty buckets, tipped the bowls and Pepper and I went home.