After making my sheep, I usually walk up to the Ancients’ field to check they are ok and no one has colic or worse.

Today I took 3 large carrots. One each, fairly distributed or so I thought.sd

I am always very popular and they all came over.

I noticed Haakon was standing like a giraffe!

But a carrot is a carrot and everyone had their fair share.

“Smile, please”, I said.

And while Iacs was working on his best camera-face, I noticed Haakon was eying up Iacs’ bit of carrot that he had been saving….

Poor Iacs – he had no idea.

But it was too late. The carrot was gone.

By the time Iacs had realised that it had vanished (*** cough Haakon ***), there was nothing I could do.

Poor Iacs. All that was left was a tiny bit that was not quite as big as he remembered.

I left the field feeling bad for Iacs and more than a bit annoyed at Haakon.  But Haakon is not called “Pig” for nothing.

I haven’t sat outside with my ponies for what feels like ages.  It has just not been the weather.  Too cold, or too wet, too winter or too meh.

But, after putting up some more electric fence posts to strengthen the fence, I had an empty feed sack (originally had the posts in to carry down to the field) with me.  Perfect for sitting on.

So I found a spot, put my bag down and sat on it.  It didn’t take long…..

Albie was first up.

Tiddles stood next to me.

(the wind was still blowing – you can possibly tell)

Albie and Silver were close by.

Storm appeared too.

Of course, Pepper.

And lastly Newt.

Pepper featured a lot in everyone’s lives because she suffers from intense jealousy if I am showing affection to any other animal.  It is all about her.  Always.  I know that now.

Anyway, it was a lovely morning and even better for having a sit, chat, cuddle and nose kissey with my little ponios and then being clambered on by a very demanding small dog. I want more days like these, please.

Yesterday was so nice. Today is utterly vile with Storm Kathleen doing her worst.  The spring flowers were beginning to come out – I bet they regret that decision.

These photos are from yesterday on my dog walk.

The primrose bank by the burn.

And Celandine – my most favourite flower. I remember a school project when I was probably about 7 years old having to find out, write down and draw pictures.

My new album cover!

Or this. I can’t decide.

This morning, I was volunteering at Turriefield. We were potting up the seedlings planted a few weeks ago.

I felt rather proud of “my little plants”.  I did this, I told myself, apart from the one that didn’t come up. I didn’t do that one, obviously!

A duvet day.

My friend came round later and we played our usual flute duets.  The sheep came to listen (boys only). The girls were elsewhere.  The lads didn’t move for the whole 2 hours we played.  It was very nice to have an audience, even a woolly one. We’re not fussy and at least we have our latest album cover ready to go.

My neighbour sent me this beautiful photo yesterday so I popped by this morning to have a progress update and to see Baby Bunny for myself.

The fact that BB is still alive is totally because of my neighbour and her family.  They are all doing their absolute best for this little one.  No one could do more.

(apologies for my photos – they are rubbish).

Although Baby Bunny has lost a little of its original weight, it is alert, moving around much more, the fur is growing and its eyes are almost open – so all signs of progress.  But feeding can be a bit of a performance.  Intake is being upped now to get some weight on but if you feed too much, they can die. If you feed too little, they can die….. and the list goes on.

Hand-reared baby rabbits have a 10% chance of survival and that is not great odds really.

So more thoughts and prayers for Baby Bun please.

So incredibly tiny and such a little sweetie too.  Oh my heart.

A few years’ back – it was 2017 (October) to be precise, OH and a friend built a smokehouse from our unused, I promise, privy (outside loo) because we wanted to smoke some fish, etc.

The whole thing was a lot of effort to create smoke and, yes, it worked but we all said NEVER EVER AGAIN! Trying to keep a fire alight proved nearly impossible – it had to be checked every 30 minutes for 3 days!  The giant fish kept dropping from the ceiling and had to be rehung and we smelled of smoke all the time.  When the process had finished, I didn’t want to eat any of it because it was all a bit too involved – like when you make lasagne from scratch and just want a bowl of cereal for supper!

So, obviously, like the pain of child-birth, those bad memories have faded (until I dragged up the old blog to remind myself about our pain) and this morning I got my food ready to smoke.  The chicken had been brined over-night.

And it was all so easy.

You put special smokery wood-chips in a tray, light a nightlight candle and when the chips start to smolder, you blow it out, shut the door and come back later.

Obviously, the help turned up.

And offered to dispose of the empty packages.

This time the smoker was in a very convenient little shed attached to the house, so I popped in and out all morning to see if everything was still working.  It was.  Fine.

A couple of hours later, everything had been smoked beautifully with minimum effort from me, which is the best part.  I tried a bit of the cheese – incredible.  The sossages are for tonight and I am also roasting the chicken so we can have it cold tomorrow.

I am looking around for food to smoke……