I got a text last night from Morgan, my sheep shearer, promising to turn up tomorrow morning.

So I had to get everyone into a confined area.  Fat Madge has decided never to go into the shed again with all her friends, and I have been working on her special skill of being fed in the wee paddock behind the house.  That is the compromise.

Ditto Lambie who hates eating with anyone as they always steal his food, so he has learned to go into the Minion’s indoor space to have his breakfast but this time I shut the gate on him.

The other five were in their bedroom.

When I came out later, I found Morgan had already started.

He had made excellent progress.

But then came the problem sheep.  Madge was having none of it but a swift rugby tackle by Morgan soon stopped that nonsense.

And, sadly, Madge retained her title of the “fattest sheep I have sheared”!

And last up was Lambie, who was unimpressed.

I let them all out and there was the inevitable argument started by Harrel.

Lambie was beaten up horribly by both Bert and Harrel.  He was running away all the time and ended up standing behind me for help.

Even out in the big field, they didn’t stop.

I just prayed Lambie didn’t have a heart-attack as I watched him run away.

An hour later, when I took the dogs out, I found they had sorted out their differences and all was well again.

But I did think Bloody Barrel.  He was unnecessarily mean and a bully.

So that’s us for another year.  Phew. I am so glad the sheep been sheared and I am sure they are too.  It’s been a hot day by Shetland standards.

Most Sundays one or two of my lovely daughters makes contact.  To be honest, it is the highlight of my weekend.  That, and the flute duets.

This morning it was Flossie.  Isn’t technology a wonderful thing?  She had a quick chat with Pepper who quickly went to sleep.

Then Mewzli, aka Monster, arrived.  Flossie wasn’t sure whether he could see her, but when I assured her that he had a daily breakfast iPad fix watching mousies, she could see that he was very interested in all her news.

…. even settling down for a good chat.  I could’ve left at this stage.

I have been plagued all day by a headache that won’t go away so, after making a daily sheep, I took to my bed for a rest.  Stupidly, it was just before animal tea-time and I didn’t get any sleep or even just a rest…..

… from anyone.

And if you’re wondering about Ted, he spends his day surgically attached to OH.  They are one, and it is lovely that he has His Person.

Anyway, after the dog/cat tea debacle, I managed to get some shut-eye and my headache has gone, so thank you for asking x

I spent the morning trimming and brushing the dirt and “paper” skin off what felt like a million garlic bulbs for Turriefield and was given some celeriac to see if the ponies would like it.  Apparently there would be more, if they did.

I called the ponies up.

And threw the celeriac on the ground making sure everyone had some.

Verdict – yes, please. They loved it but I wish celeriac were more visible as I ended up picking up all the bits they didn’t see and feeding it by hand.  I hate waste.

Tiddles was very keen on celeriac especially when I gave him all the leftovers.

And even Fivla, who finds hard food difficult, managed.  This was good to know.

While the ponies were all up from the field, they made use of the water bucket which is odd, since they were standing next to a stream before they arrived.

Anyway, when Turriefield ask, I shall say – yes, Shetland ponies definitely like celeriac and they would be very happy to finish of the winter leftover crop.

I like to know what the ponies do and do not like.

A little known fact, Newt hates apples.

“Come too!” is all I ever hear from Pepper as she squirts out of two catflaps, jumps the garden gate and arrives beside me while I am walking to my car trying to leave for Lerwick.

I have choices – I can either put Pepper back in the house, which seems very cruel after the mahoosive effort she made to get here, or take her with me.

I opted for having some companionship along the way. It’s always nice.

We had three places to go and some shops don’t mind dogs. I do always ask beforehand though, as Pepper and lurk at the doorway.

At the Agricultural Feed Merchants, we met a very nice doodley-dog and they both instantly made friends.

Then to Commercial Street where Pepper didn’t drag me along as she is now wearing a Halti (anti-pull method) which looks horribly like a muzzle.   We delivered sheep to Jamieson’s Knitwear and a lovely random stranger offered to hold Pepper’s lead while I counted up the sheep and wrote a delivery note.

We stopped and talked to tourists off a cruise-ship and were shown photos of their dogs.  We concluded leaving our dogs behind during holidays was worse than leaving family!

And shops in Lerwick are pretty tolerant of dogs, which is wonderful. I do appreciate that very much.

Pepper’s behaviour was much improved since last time. She even sat in her crate with all the car windows wide open while I did a quick shop around Tesco’s. I kept checking there were no small orange dogs running around in the car park and, when I returned to the car, I gave her half my lunch (mini-Cheddars and a bowl of water).

She slept all the way home.

The Shetland ponies know the best way to my heart and the contents of my pocketses is to stick their hopeful noseys through the gate and smile.  We were waiting for the rest of the herd to arrive before I threw all my celery bits out for them.

Even Vitamoobag (on the right), though she did bite me when I didn’t open the gate.

I was not happy and ouch, it hurt which is proof Vitamin still has teeth that function well, thank you very much.

Waffle, of course, would never bite, which is not strictly true – he ate the zip on my coat and broke it on day 1 of its ownership.  It was never the same again.

And this sweetest little brown nose belongs to Newt who was standing on his tippy-hooves to reach.

But reach he did. Being small has its advantages.  He would’ve climbed through if he could.

Vitamin, now sulking because I had told her off about the bite, gave way to Waffle and Newt who quickly took over trying to seduce me into opening the gate early just for them.

How could I resist?

Once everyone had arrived, they had their celery.

Breakfast buckets next and after I was confronted by Tiddles’ best smile.

🎶Simply irresistable. 🎵