Category Archives: MyShetland

Sleep Well, Edna

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Goodnight Edna. It was the right decision. I know that. The vet came and she agreed there were no miracle cures and it was time. Edna went to sleep in my arms and she will rest in pain-free peace.

I shan’t forget Edna. She was one amazing lady.

Floss and I first met Edna and Madge, her daughter, in January 2020 wandering on the hill road looking out of place and starving. Hill sheep survive fairly well in winter while Edna and Madge stuck out as very obviously not hill sheep. They were emaciated. I asked around and was quickly given permission to take them.

Apparently both sheep had been dumped with their ear tags cut out – I would like to put on record there is a special place in Hell waiting for the person who did that. It was obvious that Edna was a caddy (tame bottle-fed sheep) who had probably out-lived her useful purpose and was thrown out to die in the harsh environment of the hill in a Shetland winter. Someone knows who she and her daughter were.

Shetland sheep on my knees

Anyway, when Floss and I went with food to work out the logistics of moving the sheep off the hill and take them home, Edna immediately came up and put her front hooves on my shoulders, gazed into my eyes and willed me to take her and her daughter away. If sheep could communicate, she jolly well did that day. I could not refuse her. She needed me.

starving Shetland sheep eating

So they came home, put on weight and joined my little flock. They have stayed here ever since. For five years Edna has told me she has three breakfasts, yes please and thank you, with possibly a fourth. Her determination as well as a huge amount of wanting to live was what got her through.

My thoughts now are with Madge who I thought would never cope with this. But, at the moment, she has joined the rest of the sheep and seems fairly calm about the situation. I will keep a good eye on her.

Group of Shetland sheepLambie and Madge

I will miss Edna. She has taken a piece of my heart with her.

Shetland sheep

A photo from better days

Aprés Storm Amy

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As I type, we are just coming out of Storm Amy, which was quite a doozy, even by Shetland standards. Everyone survived fine and there was only one casualty – a small window in an old shed blew out resulting in shattered glass everywhere. It’s all been cleared up now.

Apparently the lowest UK barometric pressure ever recorded in October (947.9 hPa) was set in Baltasound, Shetland, during Storm Amy yesterday. Now that I can believe, as I had a stonking headache all day and went to bed feeling very grotty indeed.

I have made the decision that the old horses/ponies will stay in their sheltered field for the time being as there is more bad weather to come this week. Tis the season and we are used to this. The other Shetland ponies may get increased hay rations when it is bad but I am trying hard to hold off on this practice as they easily get used to more food and hang about asking all the time rather than going out and getting a job.

Icelandic Horses in the wind Shetland ponies eating Icelandic horse More Shetland ponies eating

Meanwhile, today I think is Edna’s last day. She has been getting lamer and lamer for a while now and nothing is helping her. Despite many examinations by vet and other sheep experts, there is no diagnosis and nothing helps her. She has finally reached the stage where she can’t walk, and therefore keep up with the flock. The light and her brightness are fading from her eyes and I know what that means. The vet has been called to put her to sleep tomorrow and I feel sad about this. Edna is my friend and a dear sweet soul. How Madge (her very attached daughter) will cope, I do not know either.   We will play it by ear with her. Tomorrow will be a miserable day for us all. One I knew would happen but not so soon. I will ask the vet if she has any magical cure/potion but I am not hopeful as we have tried I think just about everything already.

Think of us. It was not an easy decision to make.

 

 

Shetland Wool Week 2025 Makers’ Market

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The weather has been gross – a driving wind gusting F11 last night (F12 tonight – which is, I think around 73mph plus) with sporadic but violent horizontal rain.  Horrid for everyone.

Surprisingly, there were smiley faces all round this morning when I went out with the buckets.  My only aim was to make sure Bibble ate his anti-cancer pills.  Anything else was extra.  But I found a sheltered spot and put out the food and they all tucked in.  Haakon even enthusiastically piggy-paced up the hill, putting in a headshake and a little buck.

The container was as usual invaluable. The ponies were very thankful for it.  They got extra haynets and told to go out and make an effort, which they did.

So, this morning, as it was a Saturday, Mandy (my flute duet partner) and I decided to do something different and we headed off for town to the Shetland Wool Week 2025 Makers’ Market.

There were lots of “Lovely Things” and this year the theme is kits.  You can buy kits (instructions and wool) for everything that involves Shetland knitting. 

We wandered around and then rewarded ourselves with hot chocolate and cake at the Peerie Shop Café, which was delicious.  It was strange, Lerwick was almost in a fine weather bubble – absolutely no wind or rain until we drove back and climbed the hill out of Lerwick. Then the bad weather hit us full on.

Pink Fish Sheep Company

Back home for some flute duets in the afternoon.  I think we massacred Haydn today and then I went back outside to feed anyone who was lurking about.  The ponies were waiting for me so more haynets and I told them there would be no more until morning.

Icelandic horse eating

Never Again!

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Sorry for the 24hr absence.  I pressed a button when I was trying to update the blog. However, I have learned my lesson.  I will never do that again, I promise.

Go back 36 hours (yesterday morning) when I had a very helpful meeting with Rene Looper from Tuminds – a dedicated social media training business – about my blog. The meeting was very useful and, as I am self-taught, I wanted to know if I was covering all my bases and getting it right.  I have homework now.

Anyway, we chatted about the blog’s statistics and I said “hang on, I can tell you what the numbers are and where from” but I couldn’t – nothing appeared.  So after the meeting, I decided to upgrade as WordPress kept saying I should (I thought I might get my very useful statistics back too) and with that the blog vanished into “Critical Error” territory.  I felt sick.

Anyway, I am lucky as Nick Miners is the poor chap ultimately responsible for my blog’s health and he took over and sorted everything. It was touch and go at one point and I have promised never ever to touch anything ever.

And we have a storm coming.  A biggie – 2 days of scary stuff.  OH and I have shut sheds, cleared anything that might blow away, and put food/water in every hen/duck shed ready to keep them shut in for 48 hours, if necessary.  A small price to pay for staying alive.

Shed with door shut

I’ve also moved the old horses and ponies into a sheltered field that has long grass and high walls. I’ve not put on rugs (lots of rain) as it is going to be warm and everyone is very fat – life is a juggling act.

Icelandic horse in field Icelandic horse watching Shetland ponies

For the little Shetlands, I shut one of the containers (for safety) and have haynets ready.

closed container Two Shetland ponies in container

And then this morning, we’ve had an equine dentist visit – all the old horses and ponies had their teeth done (an expensive but essential requirement) and I feel better knowing they are going into winter as good as they can be.

Horse with Equine Dentist

So, wish us luck. Candles are ready for when the power goes and electricals all charged up. All we can hope is to find everyone safe and well afterwards.

 

 

 

A Wool Week Visitor

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I wrote out the whole blog and then the broadband went down and lost it all. **sigh **.

So here I go again…….

It was about how we had a visitor who was up in Shetland for Wool Week, and how I put her to work helping me finish building the electric fence track for winter for the Shetland ponies.

And then I said, as a reward for all her work, we went into the big field so she could reacquaint herself with the residents.

I also added that my visitor has sheep herself so obviously knew the ways of sheep very well.

She was, of course, a very good sheep magnet. Even Gussie got over his “stranger danger” routine which was encouraging.

And, ooh look, Lambie had a thought.

I feel I should place a light bulb up there somehow.  Anyway, it was brief.  He didn’t dwell on it.

After lunch and after more helping (building a wall of ice in the freezer so that if we have a power cut, it would hopefully protect the contents and take a much longer time to defrost), we went out to see the other ponies, while I quickly poo-picked the track.

So that was my day. I wrote about it all and then it was lost so now I am sort of writing it all out again but with less enthusiasm.  I am enjoying my visitors very much.  They are very useful.