My little croft house sits below Stourbrough (pronounced Stoor-ber-ra) hill.   Sometimes spelled Stoorborough.

According to the internet, this hill that I see everyday is 173m above sea level and is 32nd highest hill in Shetland – we don’t have mountains.

I climbed Stourborough Hill once many years back riding Haakon.  It was quite the trek but the views at the top were amazing and well worth the effort.  Jaw-droppingly amazing.  But it was a huge effort for Haakon even then and I doubt I will ever do it again.  I had to get off and walk while Haakon picked his way through. At times he was climbing up the peat hags (cliffs) on his knees, and hauling himself over.   It was a very different landscape at the top and difficult to navigate.

Below the hill, in my field, we have a two possible Bronze Age ruins, though I am not sure really.  They are like house-shaped clearings.  No one has investigated them. I wish someone knowledgable would.

And on the other side of the fence, into the hill, is a rectangular shape – I have no idea at all what that is but it is very clear and different to the rest of the area.

However, the most interesting fact about Stourbrough HIll, is that “A striking feature of the production of axes and objects known as Shetland knives from riebeckite felsite, an igneous rock occurring in the form of intrusive dykes in granite country rock at the quarry complex at North Roe, on the Northmavine peninsula of Mainland Shetland (Ballin 2011a, b; Davis, 2012), is the occurrence of hoards of both axes and knives.

The most spectacular of the latter is the Stourbrough knife hoard (Fig. 3), composed of 19 knives, each placed upright and bookended by sandstone blocks. The hoard was found in eroding peat near the summit of a hill in West Mainland.” – The Role of Stone in Island Societies in Neolithic Atlantic Europe: Creating Places and Cultural Landscapes – Gabriel Cooney

Felsite knives in the Stourbrough hoard, West Mainland, Shetland. (Photo: Shetland Amenity Trust/D. Piquer)

I think (and hope) the knives on display at the Shetland Museum. If they are, I will go and pay them a visit one rainy day. A little part of me wished I had found them……. Haakon?  We’re going out. Come on old man!

This is possiby one of the best birthday presents ever – given to OH by daughter #1, Daisy, last week.

I spend my day, just positioning the sign around the house in strategic places.

Well you would, wouldn’t you?

Monster thinks I am mad and why does this sign keeps following him around the house? He has the best scary looks, though and I am there to photograph it.

I may have to get out more!

Well played, Daisy. Well played.

According to Eddie the Shipboard Computer (ie, my watch), it is going to be 2 degrees with a gale and rain tomorrow, and that is miserable for everyone.

So I moved the horses by opening the gate and shouting at them to come into another field.

They all acquiesced and trundled in.

And Haakon had a go at Iacs which was not necessary.

I have no idea why and I told Haakon that it wasn’t very nice to bite your cousin for no reason.

Iacs, being Iacs, let it go.  He is a glass half full kinda guy and I love him for that.

The horses quickly settled into their new field.

And I guess that means my obsession with the chemistry experiment ice crystals will have to go then.

I did a quick trip into town this afternoon with Ted for his quarterly hair cut.  While he was in being done, I went to Lerwick to Christmas shop.

Oxford Street it ain’t but I couldn’t help thinking the phrase “use it or lose it” was very apt.  With twenty days to Christmas, this is a tragic state of affairs for everyone on the Street.

It is very pretty, though, and Ted looks great – photos to follow.

This is probably the last of the gorgeous mornings for a while.  We will soon be back to the usual dreich wind and rain that is far more likely for this time of year.

Today’s sunrise was excellent.  This time I had forgotten my scoop so had to use my bare hands to plonk the ponies’ food into their bowls and then get rid of any floating icebergs in the water.  I won’t forget again. It was painful and the language fruity.

And then I had to go and get some petrol from our local shop 20 minutes drive away but it was worth the effort.

On my way home, I parked up and took a few photos of our village just because it was so magical.  This is the sea that is frozen.  Amazing and flat calm. Not a breath of wind anywhere.

And more frost flowers.  All perfect.  Now back to the normal weather of constant wind and rain. These past few days have been our reward from the 4 day storm of last week.

The light was beautiful when I went out with the dogs this morning.

I took with me a pile of chopped carrots that I had forgottent to put in the breakast buckets for the Icelandic senior citizens.

Luckily, they choked them down to be polite, you understand or possibly for science.

Bibble was on sparkling form and I may use one of these photos to send to Ardene House Vets, Aberdeen to say thank you for his cancer care this year.

There were times when I honestly didn’t think we would get this far with him.  I never stop worrying.

But, here we are with Bibble and his silly-frilly in full working order.  Phew!

However, I will not be using this photo – Bibble giving Kolka “the evils”.

When I said “smile for the camera, please”, though, they both did.

Then an Abba moment. It’s Björn and Agnetha all over again!

I left them to it.

Meanwhile Haakon wandered over too.

He is looking very good too and I am pleased with him.

He is the oldest of the group (herd) and will be 30 years old next year.  I have had him for 27 years.

And he’s still just the same!

A wise but aloof chap who hates being hugged, though I do sneak the odd one in when I can grab my moment.

On with the dogwalk and I left the horses all to the serious business of stuffing their faces.