Category Archives: MyShetland

The Many Faces of Want

3 Replies

Everyone always wants something.  Everywhere I go.  Want, want, want.

Monster ⬇️ – he wanted my last night’s pre-supper snack (mini cheesey biccies) accompanying my zero alcohol lager while I waited for supper to finish cooking.

Plan B. The Attack – basically endless amounts of indignant shouting alternating between promising to be my friend.

Apparently my BFF ⬇️.  This is “cupboard love” at it’s very worst.

Pepper just did sulking resentfully.  Those eyes make it impossible not to feel guilty.

And then there is Lambie’s helpful, yet silly, face.  I had scattered Animal Crackers on the ground and the sheep had just about finished them.

“You have more biscuits, you say?”

Bert’s has a gorgeous begging face.  Again, it is hard to resist.  I would give (feed) him the world if he wanted.

Lambie’s tactic is to get out his best Winning Smile, Longing Look and wave a front foot at me.  The front foot waving means Lambie really, really, wants whatever I have of calorific nature and then I dig into my pocketses and give him a secret biccie, if I have one.  I didn’t.  There is probably a special place in Hell waiting for me now. I have to live with myself.

The Vegetables

4 Replies

A short blog because I am exhausted.

Again, my Saturday was my Friday and I went to Turriefield to weigh, pack and label vegetables for distribution.

I find it a bit discombobulating when I swap days and so I spent the rest of my time thinking it doesn’t feel like a Saturday but am I wrong?  Still, there were enough of us volunteers and everything was packed and ready to go out by lunchtime and I left clutching this week’s vegetables plus some odd carrots for the ponies.

After a nice lunch with friends at the local church café I went home and made my usual daily sheep for selling later.  The stock is building back up, albeit very slowly.

And suddenly I feel exhausted.  I don’t feel I have done much but I could easily not cook supper, have a bath and go to bed.

But I don’t have that luxury.

I still have to transcribe two weeks of the Diaries (1956 now) every evening before I can give up completely.  Meanwhile, I dreaming of my bed and being asleep.  Maybe it’s just a blood sugar dip and I need a medicinal Tunnocks tea cake!

Sheep, Sheep and More Sheep

2 Replies

After their breakfast, I put all the sheep out into their field for the day.  It was a nice bright start and so Bert went straight to “his” shed.

Yes, that’s right, it’s Bert’s shed now.  Move over Fivla and Vitamin (they’ve left the field anyway), Bert’s in da house!

Lambie thought he might like a go in the shed too.

But Bert was having none of it.  His shed, dontcha know (there’s probably a Law somewhere).

Ster was miles away.

He wasn’t interested in sheep-shed politics.

Maggie and Barrel were not shed folk either.

Ditto Gussie and Dahlia.  It’s funny how the boys still stay with their mothers (or is it the other way around?)

Madge was on her way out to the hill to join all the bloody hill sheep that can now get in thanks to Kolka’s attempts at show-jumping last week.

Anyway, back to Bert and Lambie.

I don’t actually think Lambie minded very much.

He gave me one of his Winning Smiles and I decided not to get involved.

I spent the rest of my day making sheep. One in the morning and one in the afternoon because a) my stock is low now, b) Wool Week is looming and c) I have a tiny social life and will have to miss a few afternoons stabbing due to other commitments.

I went back outside at teatime and found Bert back in his shed (I do hope he made the most of the day and actually left for a few hours).

And this time Lambie had snuck in too (and apparently Ster, I found out later).  To be fair it was raining and the sheep told me they were only in there only because they would melt otherwise. Who knew?

My Perfect Day

3 Replies

At last, my perfect day when absolutely nothing happened that was out of the ordinary or stressful.  My kind of heaven. I have had enough drama recently to last me a lifetime.  It’s all been a bit too much and I am praying it’s over now.

I spent my morning delivering some sheep to friends who were going into town today.  The sheep were needed urgently to restock my sheep field at Jamieson’s Knitwear.  Someone had come in yesterday and bought all my stock and I hate an empty field.

On my way home, I popped in to some friends for a cuppa.  So that was very nice and civilised and we put the world to rights.  Pepper came with me (though, there was a small disgraceful wee on their carpet – I was shocked and we had to leave rather quickly).

My afternoon was spent in my shed making more stock for the shop while possibly eating Tunnocks Tea Cakes.  I finished one sheep and made another listening to an audiobook.

As I write my sheep have refused to come home and I left them sitting contentedly in their field.  They can sort themselves out.  The gate is wedged open and I’ve lost interest.  The ponies have their hay, the horses have lots of grass and I dished out apple slices to all when I gave Kolka her daily painkillers.

And lastly, I took this photo at breakfast a few days back when I told Monster he could not have the milk from my porridge.  So, for revenge, he plonked himself firmly on my iPad saying then I couldn’t use it!  Rotter.

So that’s a lovely boring day in my world where the most exciting thing to happen was Pepper doing a tiny pee on a friend’s carpet (oh, the shame. I am so sorry, Kerry!)

The Kolka Theory

6 Replies

My friend, Monika from Sandness Equine Services, came up with this theory and I think this is very credible.

Basically, Kolka was calmly grazing at the far end of the field with the rest of the herd (Haakon, Iacs, Fivla and Vitamin).  It was nearly breakfast time and they all know to come home for their buckets and had started making their way.  All except for Kolka who looked up, saw everyone had vanished (to be out of eyesight does not take long as there is a small hill) and then panicked, jumping badly straight over the fence into the hill where she got caught up and into trouble.  Icelandic horses are not known for their show-jumping abilities.

Once released, Kolka recovered and she then cut her head slightly while living around the house.  There are old fencing wire rolls, etc lying around.  They went into a field.

The next panic was because Kolka was talking to Vitamin and Fivla over the fence at an early breakfast time when she looked up and noticed her beloved Haakon had vanished again.  He and Iacs were eating their breakfast around the corner.  This time she went into a blind panic not helped by remembering what had happened a few days’ earlier.

The terrible cut was probably from itching her head, which had been healing nicely but getting to that itchy stage, and she opened up the old wound making it much worse.

Monika and I discussed all this after she had given Kolka her second Jin Shin Jyutsu therapy session, which Kolka loves.

I can’t thank Monika enough for standing in the pouring rain working her healing “magic”.

BLOOD ALERT!

Look away now if you are squeamish because Kolka’s wound is not pretty but it is clean and dry and not bothering her one bit.  The vet and I are pleased with how the healing is progressing.