It’s been a funny old day. I’m not really sure why.

To start with, Haakon now has me well trained.  He said he could never walk up another hill for his breakfast so if I could just bring him his bucket and so I do.

Don’t ask.  I am a mug, I know, but shouting for him takes too much time and it is a battle of wills. I will admit, he has won.

Also, Monster is not his usual self.  He is not eating very much or very enthusiastically, which is not like him. So he is off to the vet on Wednesday with OH.  His job now.  I have delegated, though I will probably end up going just because.

And my morning was spent going through everything in our porch, chucking away gloves with holes, old hats no one wears and various rubbish that we have accrued throughout the year, stuffed in a drawer and not looked at since.

I also fired off a few emails about two photographs that have been in my family’s possession for a very long time – both of Michael Faraday (my 5 x great uncle – his brother, Robert is my 5 x great grandfather).

The one on the left is 5.8cm x 8.7cm – a photo stuck on a card mount.  It says it was from John Watkins Photo, Parliament.  On the reverse is John Watkins’ printed information and faint pencil writing “Professor Faraday”.

The second one on the right is 5.7cm x 9.1cm mounted on card.  Written on the reverse in pencil is “Copied from daguerreotype by J.H. Roller (? – indecipherable) And in pen in possibly my grandmother’s handwriting – “Michael Faraday”.

Anyway I want to find out more as they are part of my family history.

It will be interesting to see if anyone has historical information.

Mud?  You want mud?  We have mud!

Luckily it is not the difficult welly-sucking mud as we live on boulder rock so it is only really about 4″ deep at it’s worst and the ponies know that as they stomp through it everyday.   You can see a small S-shaped track which is where they have worked out is best to walk.

But, still, it’s mud so I climbed over the fence to avoid it as I was taking my Big Camera out to see the little ponies.

Eariler that day, I had opened up a piece of grazing to the side of the gate which surrounds a rocky outcrop.  Waffle insisted on standing on the top. King of his castle.

And the others were eating below him.

Please forgive me that everyone is filthy but there is very little I can do about it and no one cares.  When it rains, the ponies get cleaner and of course, there is all that mud to contend with on a daily basis for everyone, including me!

(I am still feeling pleased with camera – I think I will keep it and actually try and use it more).

Yesterday, on the way out to our Church café for lunch, I discovered that my car had a flat tyre.  Dammit.  So I asked OH if he could change it for me as, although I could possibly eventually achieve this with much reading of the manual plus lots of huffing and puffing, I really didn’t want to and OH loves this kind of thing.

But OH found that one of the nuts on the wheel was different to the rest – a more domed top – and, despite looking everywhere (and I mean everywhere all over the car searching to the extent I even found two storage lockers I never knew about with my Mother’s glasses, a spare pair of tights and a box with inflating the wheel things!) – we couldn’t find the socket end bit that would unscrew this different nut.  All the rest undid fine with the kit supplied.

We phoned a friend who has the identical car.  He offered to come over but in the meantime to try different socket sets on the nut.

So OH went off to his shed to find some more socket sets with different ends.

He was a while…..

And I laughed (inwardly) when I noticed this.

OH was being “stalked”….

Said in your best David Attenborough voice “see how the white panther cat waits silently behind the dry-stone wall, careful not to draw any attention to himself, while he stalks his prey”.

OH found the magic wheel nut remover, got the wheel off and changed the tyre, and “White Panther” stalked his prey back to the kitchen for tea!

Job done.

It was quiet and still so I took my Big Camera for a walk to see if I want to keep it.  I have been thinking a lot about selling it as I don’t use it very much.

I decided on photographing the Ancients as they live in slightly less mud than the Shetland ponies.

I haven’t taken this camera out to play for a while as it weighs a lot around my neck and is not very portable.

But I will admit I do like the photos it takes and had rather forgotten this fact.

I am now beginning to think that it would be a mistake to sell this camera and all the lenses (although I only really use one of the three).

I had begun to take my iPhone camera for granted and that is a mistake.

I used to really enjoy photography until I found it difficult to walk and carry the camera at the same time.  I need to re-think my ideas about what I actually want.

So, a rather late New Year’s Resolution – I am going to use this camera more.

And this photo is when I thought I had finished with the photography “session” and was walking away from the horses.  I turned around to say just touch Haakon’s nose with your’s, Iacs. And he did and then Haakon bit him!

Kolka was standing well away from these two – I can’t blame her.

This could be Sleipnir – an eight-legged horse, the swiftest in the world, belonging to the chief of the gods, Odin.

Or probably not.

And this is the most heinous crime in the world.  Words fail.

I went indoors.

I was held hostage this morning while I was deciding on my day.

It was my turn again to walk the dogs.  OH was in town so off we went. It was a nice morning with some interesting skies – that’s my wee house on the right.

I found Lambie and everyone else at the far end of the field.

Lambie was looking particularly gorgeous and photo-worthy.

The handsome profile……

….with a hint of mystery.

It was these two I was really looking for – Dahlia and Gussie – they hadn’t turned up again for breakfast.  I knew the reason – there is most probably a very sexy Shetland ram in the hill who is trying to lure Dahlia with his charms and she is spending her days pressed up against the perimeter fence.   If there are lambs, then there are lambs.

Gussie isn’t quite brave enough to leave his mother to come and find me for his breakfast and he does love his food.  One day he will turn up without her.

Luckily for all, Lambie has never knowingly missed a meal and is quite *** cough *** well-covered.

I was intrigued watching Lambie with Dahlia. He seems to have given up his creepy relationship with her, which is good for everyone.

No, my bad….. still creepy.

After lunch, I went and did something stupid but necessary. Skippy and I mucked out the sheep shed – we managed three large loads and I am glad we did as it needed doing.  Skippy was invaluable. That would’ve been probably the equivalent of 6 normal wheelbarrow loads.

But now I am paying the price with painkillers, a lie-down and a heat pad so far.  An acupressure mat session tonight and tomorrow will be the turn of the Painpod.