The track is a success – well, half the track if I’m being honest.  It is first part – L-shaped – and the Minions love it.

They are allowed on the track for 12 hours a day and can be seen using it for their Minion Grand National race.

Watching them gallop around makes me smile.

Different parts of the track serve different purposes and I am learning  what I want from my track and what will be permanent. For example, there is water main all along here so I can’t dig that part up!

I found the ponies all asleep the other day with Vitamin on tiger duty.

Vitamin and Fivla are living in the middle bit where all the grass is.  I think they are secretly glad not to be in with the others as they are not into galloping madly everywhere.

This is the bedtime area that the Minions are shut into at night – a small paddock with four hay boxes and little else.

Around 9 p.m. they voluntarily put themselves to bed when I go out with their two soaked haynets and obviously Pepper.

So that’s our routine at the moment.  I will open up the second bit of the track one day but not soon.  What they have seems to be enough and everyone seems happy and well, for the time being though I have learned not to count my chickens because every time I say they are fine, laminitis rears its ugly head.

“La vengeance est un plat qui se mange froide” from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s epistolary novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses, 1782 or “revenge is a dish best served cold” according to our household.

Yup, you guessed it, Pepper’s revenge after yesterday’s totally unprovoked attack by Monster, was to clamber into his beloved and-only-his bed that evening.

This is Pepper’s she-knows-and-I-know face.  Butter wouldn’t melt but she’s feeling very hard done by and wanted revenge.

And so Pepper settled down for the evening so that Monster had to take up position, on OH’s knee.  He did manage a very smug I-don-t-care face at everyone.

You can almost hear the snoring.

And then later, now with a taste for other folk’s beds, I found Pepper happily snoozing in Ted’s sacred, and only his, bed.  The one next to my bed.  Again, she had made herself very comfortable.

And was going nowhere.  Now, I have never seen Pepper sleep in Ted’s bed.  That’s not her place (she sleeps on the people bed while Ted always chooses not to).

So there is politics going on here and I am not sure who is playing one-upmanship with whom but it is definitely going on.  Ted, of course, is oblivious and has no idea what is going on.

I blame Monster. He started it.

It was a lovely day in the late afternoon yesterday.  I had a mad thought – I wanted to brush the ponies and give the dogs a run around too.

So, obviously, Monster wanted to come as well.

Well, he follows us everywhere .

After immense pony mane and tail brushing by Flossie and I, we sat on a rock and admired our hard work and I thought Floss deserved a small rest after all I have made her do this week.

Everyone was around enjoying the scenery too.

Obviously, we had a musical accompaniment.  No need for any radio.

Pepper and Ted were having a lovely mad game of running around and trying to kill each other and I could see Monster watching them closely (look at those fat little paws).

A cat on a mission.

It was a boisterous game, with lots of rough and tumble, and both dogs were having great fun.

And so Monster walked up to where they were playing and beat them both up!  Eh?

So that was the end of the game. The Fun Police had stopped them in their tracks.

The dogs were more than a bit suprised at what had happened so we went back inside.  Floss and I both thought it was a bit mean of Monster to do this but I expect he had his reasons.

It is Floss’ last full day – she is off tomorrow evening back south – so I totally exploited her goodwill and we built three more duck-runs ready for the duckling arrival.

We lugged and heaved and positioned where we (ok, I) wanted them).  A friend gave us this superb run, which is the answer to all our prayers.

Meanwhile Duckie-Mother #1 is doing fun with her brood.

Two boys and one girl, I think and she still hates me, but slightly less.

Duckie #2 with her only duckling lives separately in her shed.  She only slightly hates me.  Bebé is divine and may be a girl.  She likes to sit in her food and the mess is phenomenal in their shed.

This is my anti-scavenger door.  It works a treat.

And so we are waiting on these three….. still.

I think this one will be next.

Then this one (Penty’s mother).

And lastly Penthesilea, who is now professionally “on the job” and tells me all about it when she emerges for food.

I have no idea how many eggs they are sitting on, if any, but I think it is best to be prepared while I have Floss helping.  I don’t want to do the lugging on my own (OH is working).   So now we are ready for more ducklings. Bring them on!

I spent the afternoon building this little sheeple.

So afterwards, I took the dogs out for a run.  We went to Clothie – the five acre croft that is a little walk across the scattald (open hill).

The field has not been grazed since spring, I think, so the grass and flowers have gone mad growing.

It is stunning and we enjoyed walking/running around.

There are flowers everywhere.

Red Clover

Marsh Thistle

Selfheal

Bog Asphodel

Common Cotton-Grass wet from the rain

Marsh Lousewort

And these are “Dockens” or Docks

If I have any plant identifications wrong (which I probably have), please let me know soonest so I can correct any errors.

hentilagets n. – tufts of wool lost from sheep’s backs and gathered from pasture. (Shetland dialect)