I decided today was the day the three Shetland ponies who were not showing any signs of laminitis could move out of their stall in the big shed and go outside.

I led them out one by one, opened up one of the containers and gave them their morning soaked haynet.

I won’t lie – they are very unimpressed with this new set-up.

For the time being, they are only having the small paddock bit which is a mixture of hard-standing (yes, even where Silver is standing) as well as a small short-grassy area which will quickly turn to mud.  But it is outside, I tell them, so they can have fresh air and stop shouting for their friends.

Said friends are not happy either.  They want to go out too but, until I see absolutely no signs of laminitis, that’s not happening.

Albie and Tiddles are going well and I doubt it will be long before they join their friends. I have stopped their painkillers.

However, I am very worried about Storm.  He is not well and I have put him back on the drugs as he is very stiff and very miserable.

I hope he turns a corner soon.  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.  I hate him being so unhappy.  It makes me miserable too….. and worried, as ever.

Today was the annual visit to the Christmas Craft Fair in Lerwick. I left OH in charge of the animals and put out double haynet rations for the boys, leaving out 4 buckets for the old ladies to be eaten over the morning.   It was a lovely morning off from my usual routine spent with Mandy, my flute-duet friend who came too.  We shopped!

I am sorry there are so many photos but it was set in two huge halls with overspill too.

Everyone and anyone seemed to have been working hard all year to produce a high standard of every kind of art and craft.

I even managed gin for elevenses!

It would’ve been far too easy for me to ignore my Christmas list and to just buy presents for myself!

My heart melted!

At this stage I was wondering whether it was possible to hang pictures on the ceiling as there is no more space on any wall in my house.

Puzzah!  (Lambie’s father forever immortalised in a card – I was lucky enough to have been given the original artwork).

As the morning progressed, the Christmas Fair became very busy and I was tiring fast.

Fish and chips for lunch, a quick nip around Tesco and then home to play flute duets.  Shopping is exhausting work.

I always seem to start with a weather update which justifies what I do and how I feel for the whole day.

So here goes….it was cold, but the wind was finally calming down and the rain has stopped.

I made my usual visit to check all was well with the Ancients.  OH had fed them their breakfast bucket earlier reporting all was fine.  But I like to see for myself.

They looked…..er…. solid!

In fact no actual ribs can be felt but, after days like yesterday, they need all the padding they can get as no one is a huge fan of rugs, including me.

Walking back down the hill to the shed, I was met with begging little faces.  The ponies are definitely feeling much better and there was even some arguing about who was the cutest.

I was not fooled by Waffle’s little face of total love and adoration.  “Trust me, I won’t break fences”, he was saying!

Nope, I am immune.

Even from Capybara pleadings, though the ears pinned back is a bit of sign of the insincerity and blatant lies.

So we have a few calm days now, which is a blessing.  Everything takes twice as long in the driving wind and pissing rain.  I am thinking that Waffle, Silver and Newt could move out into the container paddock soon, which will quickly turn to mud.  It is a plan but I am not 100% sure it is the right thing to do.  My jury is still out on that one.

A day of shite today – ok, it is warm, but the battering wind (F9) and persisting rain makes work so much harder, especially outside.  It can stop now, thank you very much.   We’re all bored of it.

So, in between endless mucking out and feeding and more mucking out, I made another sheep and then brought them all inside to photograph on the piano.

Ignore the sizes – that is more perspective than anything else. They are all pretty much the same size.

Let me know if you are interested in any.  They are easy enough to post anywhere in the world and obviously the prices don’t include postage, which is charged at cost.  If you want better photos of a particular sheep or sheep group, let me know and I will try and take them photos in daylight.  They are all made of 100% Shetland wool and nothing else ….. except for my possible tears as I continue to sob my way through Grey’s Anatomy (Series 18 now).

Please don’t use the Comments section here to order – just email me on frances@fstaylor.co.uk

It is first come, first served so when it’s gone, it’s gone, though I can probably make another not dissimilar.

My morning was spent watching my little car (Mum’s originally) pass it’s MOT.  Huzzah!  Great relief.  I do worry every time. It’s worse than a piano exam.

But I had a whole hour to myself and I was offered a wonderful cup of tea, free wifi and peace.

You have no idea what total bliss that was.  I almost didn’t go home.  I could’ve easily spent the day there watching random strangers cars go through their MOT drinking cups of tea.

But I did go home and straight out with carrots to check the Ancients.

This photo made me hum Colonel Hathi’s song from The Jungle Book.

Wee dug came too, of course, if I could see her.

Later I was in my shed making the sheep in the middle.  The perfect Christmas present – just sayin’.  I have lots.

Afterwards, it was into the shed to muck out, dish out buckets and get the next lot of haynets ready.  One look at the old ladies in their pen made me decide to move them as it was getting grubby and smelly – they seem to be peeing for the Olympics.

So we closed off the adjoining pen to Waffle, Silver and Newt.  Yes, they get less room, but they get neighbours.

It will give the smelly pen a rest and I can cover it with fresh sand which will help.

Anyway no one seemed to mind losing a bit of their space if it meant they got to see their friends.  Fivla looked a bit unimpressed, though.