A few photos from today – sunrise to sunset.

08:18

08:38 (so apparently it took me 20 minutes to feed the sheep, get the buckets ready and drive over the road to the Minions’ field.

It was blimmin’ cold.  Ice on the water bucket and everything.  My nose, toes and fingers were froze.

11:08 – Later on in the morning, I took the dogs to Leradale.  Even the loch had ice.

Such a still day.  Not a breath of wind.  It’s usually never like this so we are all making the most of it.

Even though the sun was out, and I was beginning to divest myself of hat and gloves as I warmed up from walking, there was still frost on the ground in patches where the sun hadn’t reached it yet.

After lunch, I went into my shed to make another sheeple and then out at 15:21 to see the sun has already gone and the duckies all wanted to be fed.

(my constant companon)

16:06 and a waxing crescent moon in the south was appearing.

Tomorrow there is a quick “moderate” gale, with rain but the temperature is going up (double) so swings and roundabouts I suppose.

We’ve had some suprisingly calm days recently.  Most unusual for the time of year.

Perfect photography weather – that’s a heron on the shoreline by the fence.  It’s blimmin’ cold, though.

A quick chat with ‘Bert, who was by himself and I have no idea why, and I took the dogs for a walk at Leradale.

There is an old derelict house at the croft.

A quick look around to see everything was still standing, sort of, and we walked down the hill to the fields.  Pepper was in a keen hunting mood.  She found something but I have no idea what.

I located the Bronze Age trough quern stone – well, the remains of one.

And then we walked around the whole field – about 50 acres.  The dogs had their hi-viz jackets on which are a god-send as they are both exactly the same colour as the field.

You can just make out Pepper which shows just how effective the jackets are.

They both had a very good run round and were very energetic which made me think someone will sleep well tonight.

We looked at all the old Bronze Age sites of habitation and, as always, I wondered who had lived here.

Going to Leradale is always special. I can find my peace there and walk the dogs. Win, win!

And there’s the Broadband meeting tonight, so I might need the calm.

Me: Right, chaps, I want all of you to stand together and smile for a photo, please.

Me: Yes, Iacs, that’s a lovely smile.

Me:  Haakon, do you smile?

Haakon:  Not really.

Me: Ok, well, here’s a good opportunity. The morning light is gorgeous and, if you all stood in a line and looked magnificent, that would be good. We can forget the smiling.

Me: And there we go, that’s perfect.

Me:  Don’t move, one more.  Nope, too late. Thanks, Kolka.

Me: Yes, Iacs, I can see you’re still practising.

After the dog walk, I went to sit down in the field with my sheep.

Lambie was looking particularly endearing so I was hopeful he would come up and chat.

To start with, Pepper sat with him.

And ‘Ster came up to tell me how much he loved me.

He is always very huggy and can get quite pushy about it too.

Lambie eventually wandered up, as he was feeling left out of the hugging, and then ignored me completely.  Typical.

But my bestest friend today was lovely Edna.

She is just the sweetest old lady.  We rescued her and Madge (possibly her daughter) in January 2020.

I was looking at her old photos on the day of her rescue and it makes me tear up even now and furious at the same time.

Edna and Madge were thrown out into the open hill (common grazing) with their tags ripped out and left to live or die.

That was nearly four years ago. I can’t believe it. I feel like they have always been with me.

I feel honoured to have Edna as my friend.  Madge is still trying.

Folk under-estimate sheep badly. Sheep are affectionate, caring and very, very loyal.

None of this applies to Lambie, though – he is ungrateful, smelly and manipulative but he does have his Winning Smile to fall back on.

OH and I still had a few more leaflets to deliver on our round so yesterday morning we set out  with me driving and OH hopping in and out of the car with bits of paper to talk to any folk he could find, or trying to find the house letter-box, which is not an easy task here as most houses don’t have a letter-box!

While he did all this, I turned the car around ready to drive to the next house and waited enjoying the spectacular Shetland scenery.

It really was a lovely morning and we finished the rest of the houses quite quickly.  So job done.  Now for the meeting on Thursday and we will see what the Scottish Government representative has to say for himself.