I thought this blog should be about Ted, just in case you’re wondering if he’s vanished.

He’s fine, thank you for asking.

Ted’s days are spent trying to be “a proper dog”. He goes out in the morning with us to feed all the animals and is a good boy, staying within the boundaries doing his own thing.  Occasionally, he will shut himself in a shed and then say nothing when anyone goes to look for him, but that is pretty rare.

Pepper is of course his best friend, Nemesis and leader into all things terrible.  As she doesn’t suffer from any anxiety at all, she doesn’t tolerate it in Ted.  He would love to indulge all his anxieties and teenage angst but nope, Pepper will have none of that.

They play a lot – a couple of times a day, out on a walk, jumping on the sofa, around the garden.  There are many games – crocodiles, I-know-you-want-my-toy and chasing each other madly.  They are both very respectful of each other’s food and I can count on one hand just how many real fights they’ve had.  The odd spat maybe for bad manners or mistakes, but nothing great.

Ted’s also much better on a dog-walk.  All the running home suddenly has just about stopped now.  He’s off a lead all the time and stays close, listening for commands.  It is only when the weather is extreme, then he waits by the front door wishing he could go inside.

One thing, though, Ted has taught Pepper how to bark – that painful high-pitched terrier yap for imaginary foe at the front door.  Having said that, he was quite useful when the sheep all came into the front porch when the wind blew the door open.  He told us they had invaded. Thanks, Ted.

I shall probably rue the day I say this – but everyone is going along well.

Monster is fine, happy and helpful, in his own unique way.  Yesterday, we made kimchi together – totally a first-time experiment.  I am hopeful yet slightly nervous.

And Pepper says she is leaving the baby bunnies alone.

The Ancients are not looking bad for a winter without rugs and lots of food instead.

Neither too fat nor too thin.

I worry about them a lot.

My what-ifs are huge, always, especially when the weather is bad.  I lie awake at night thinking there will be corpses everywhere in the morning.

So far, touch wood, there haven’t been.

But this is what happens when you have 5 horses/ponies all around 28 (Iacs and Fivla), 29 (Kolka) and 30 (Haakon and Vitamin).  I hope they know I worry.

Lambie and his friends are all fine.  They’ve got me well-trained and I am totally in their routine.

So all is good but you never know.  It doesn’t take much for things to go horribly wrong despite my best efforts.

All the ponies were far away this morning on the other side of the track.

When I shouted, though, they all came running up, for their breakfast.

All except for Fivla who is always last.  The mud on the track has returned and is deep.  She struggles to get through it – a combination of short legs and a rug don’t help her.

But she got there in the end and ate her breakfast away from the rabble, which I think she appreciated.

Meanwhile, the rabble were having a row, ie Newt was bouncing with attitude.  He can’t help himself.  He just gets narky around food.

I steer clear. I know how he works.  Small means nothing to Newt. He just requires a bit more effort to keep everyone away.

There are 8 bowls out for 6 ponies so they can argue, steal and/or rudely push each other out of the way, but they will always find another bucket to eat from.

Storm and Albie irritate everyone else the most – they always have to share with someone so I keep offering them another of my spare buckets to avoid an argument.

Success!  Everyone eating from their own bowl.

And then Tiddles arrived and it all started again.

We are due more and more rain which is depressing as it was just beginning to dry up and that was a blessed relief.

So we’re back to mud again.  Grrr. Here is Shetland, the mud is known as “gutter” and it is this that we all agree – we’ve had enough of it.

There had been a request from my flute duet partner, Mandy, that we record a few flute pieces together for her father, who wanted to hear us play.

Now, we first thought we could just do it on our phones but then, as there is a recording studio in the house, plus a pretty expert sound engineer/record producer, it seemed silly not to put it all to use.

And then there are the fans to think of….. Monster under the piano.

Ted, who whinged incessantly.  He was quickly banished.

And Pepper, who annoyed intermittently.

Once we started, Monster left his bed to give us his judgement.

You can probably hear me shout “Noooooo!” as he jumped onto the keyboard.

We tried to play our duet but, to be honest, we had to keep stopping and re-starting mostly because of Monster who was more than a little unhelpful.

When he started playing with the leads with his paddy-paws, he was physically removed by OH.

But he came back. A lot.

Who me?  Annoying?

And then, of course Pepper had to join in.  Mandy and I were helplessly giggling for quite a lot of the recording session.

I told Pepper to go to bed, so she promptly clambered into Monster’s under-the-piano bed.

While Monster put in a complaint to the Management about his bed being occupied.

In the end, OH threw Monster outside but he reappeared fairly swiftly.

We managed to record one piece quite successfully, though there are bits I would like to re-record. We got halfway through the second when my brain froze and I forgot how to play the flute completely.  With that, we gave up until next weekend.  Who knows, I might even practice!

I had a day out in town today.  A scheduled eye check-up first and then I wandered about just enjoying time away from my usual home routine.

I did a spot of shopping….

And I even bought myself some new shoes.  I am very pleased with them and the first thing I noticed was just how comfortable and supportive of my feet they were.  So, like a very proud child,  I wore them all day, putting my old boots (which suddenly looked grubby and old) in the box!

New shooooooooooes!

I checked on the shop sheep in their field and was told they didn’t need anymore, for the time being.  Let’s hope they do soon as I have four full bags ready to go.

Folk were about, which was nice. Let’s hope they are all in a hand-felted Shetland sheep buying mood (possibly, to help fund the new shoes – which were still being very comfortable).

And then I discovered the reason for the folk on the street.  A gorgeous tall-ship had come into dock.

Christian Radich is a Norwegian fully-rigged ship built in 1937.  Apparently you can learn to sail on her (and if you know me, you know my thoughts on sailing *** shudders ***. I learned the hard way 🤢🤮 with my father sailing around Cape Wrath being shouted at).

Anywho, Christian Radich was gorgeous and I wandered around taking photos and thanking the Gods I never have to sail again.  It doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a beautiful boat, I just don’t want to go onboard, ever.

I got all my messages done, found some bargains, had a good chat with nice folk and went home refreshed and ready for my usual challenges.  It’s good to have a change of scene. I needed that and I still love my new shoooooooes!