Category Archives: MyShetland

Give me Strength!

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Apologies for radio silence yesterday.  There was an unexpected hospital-type emergency which is still ongoing.

Anyway, my morning started as it meant to …… ie, badly.

  • I could only find 5 sheep – Maggie was missing.  Dahlia and Gussie had vanished too.
  • ‘Bert and Barrell were at war and wouldn’t go into the sheep shed for breakfast as they were too busy beating the crap out of each other.
  • Pepper vanished.

So I ignored all of that and continued as normal hoping I wouldn’t find any other awful messes along my way.

  • I decided I would find Maggie et al on the dog walk later.
  • I gave Bert and Barrell their breakfast anyway and noticed someone ate it as the bowls were empty later. I also gave both of them free-rein with the TurmerAid box in the hope they would be too drugged/relaxed up to fight! I hate it when there are arguments in the flock.
  • Pepper turned up, just I was about to find the car keys and go round all the neighbours apologising.

My day continued in this disastrous theme when I broke the washing machine and Monster’s timer bowl (for his very early morning snack).  At that stage I just decided I would not react to anything the world was going to throw at me.

Later, on the dog walk, I found Maggie who was in the wrong field (just why?) I brought her home and she very gratefully rejoined the others. Dahlia and Gussie were at the furthest point of the field possibly gazing at a newly arrived hill-ram. I gave them the breakfast I had brought so I knew they were moving and eating fine.  Oh, yes and then it started to rain and I got home totally soaked through to the skin.

And then I discovered my Advent Calendar, which I thought I had been so clever about was showing all the pictures despite me trying to only show the one for the right date like a paper advent calendar.  Hopefully I’ve put a stop to that and I hope no one’s peaked.

Give me strength!

Advent Calendar 2025

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Here is my 2025 Advent Calendar (we haven’t had one for ages so I think it is time).

Click on the appropriate date number and up pops one of my photos. It may take slightly longer to show because it is a larger picture (1280 x 1024 pixels) but it is given with my love free to you for your own personal use.

Thank you for all your support this year.  You have no idea just how much it has meant.  xx

I will try and add this as a page on the top bar but will probably make a mess of that.  If I fail I will just keep doing a link to the appropriate advent window (if I remember, hopefully – no promises!)

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Quickie Blog

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A quickie blog today. I have given myself the day off and am going to go and see Wicked: For Good this afternoon on the big screen at Mareel, the cinema in Lerwick. I am very excited as I loved the first film in this series.

Anyway, everyone is fine and well and enjoying their space and freedom.  My horse and pony care is going by the theme of “less is more”.

The ponies get their freedom and daily breakfast and that is it.  They have shelter from the contours of the land and the drystone walls and 35 acres to find food in.  They seem happy enough and don’t miss track life or their containers.

The old horses and ponies are over the scattald (open hill) in a 5 acre ungrazed field with old buildings (sadly no roofs) to use as shelter.  They are doing well and don’t seem bothered by the bad weather.  No one has a rug on.

I went around everyone to feel for ribs and can honestly say this part of anatomy does not exist.

So, that’s me. I’m off to be a normal person who goes out and has a life accompanied with my weight in Haribo to munch quietly through all afternoon.

 

More Rørosmartnan 2017

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I have a bit of a headache (probably from fighting with the weather this morning – I am just thawing and drying out now).

Anyway, I didn’t take any photos today as we were de-worming/fluking sheep and none of them helpful.

So, in the spirit of going through more of my photos from our trip to Norway in 2017, I found the bit where we travelled by horse-drawn sleigh from the encampment to the local village.

Upon arrival, we found all the horses were resting up after their hard work during the opening procession.  They had blankets on to keep them warm and were given food too.

      

We chatted, made friends, wandered about the camp and then it was time to go.

The horses were hitched up and our drivers made us very comfortable under huge sheepskin rugs and we sat in the back of the sleigh.

It was like travelling through Narnia or being the Snow Queen.  This was the home of every fairy tale.

We were accompanied by lots of singing, jingle bells and laughing.

  

I could not have loved this time more.  So beautiful and perfect.

After a while of sedate travel, we reached our destination.

The light was beginning to go by now and the horses had worked very hard.  It was time for their rest for the nigh. It was a memorable journey.

A Rough Day

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Today was rough (74mph wind recorded today in Fair Isle).  I started my morning with the sheep as they were close by but I couldn’t find Dahlia and Gussie because they like to spend their nights outside in another field.  They hadn’t turned up for breakfast so I just fed the ones who were around.

After nearly being blown over on a couple of occasions while feeding the horses, I went back and put up two haynets for the sheep so, if they decided not to go outside (and no one would blame them), they would have food to eat.

I couldn’t see the Shetland ponies either and it was certainly no weather to go looking in.  Later on in the morning, I spied them huddling by a dry-stone wall and Dahlia and Gussie were close by too.

They came in and I gave them a late breakfast.

This was much to the rage of the hobbitses-sheep who would quite like another one since I had mentioned breakfast again.

I was glad I had found D&G as I worry more in this weather.

I think Maggie was pleased to see her hill friends too.  She spends a lot of time with them. Maybe it’s a black sheep thing.

Dahlia gave me a lovely smile.

And so did Gussie-Dustbin (his new name).

When I went back outside the ponies had come closer and were now asking for their breakfast, which I luckily had with me, so they ate it and bounced off again.  The weather is calming down now. I have run out of outdoor clothes. They are all soaked through.