Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the jury, please be upstanding for the judge!

The Victim is Waffle.

And the Accused is Newt.

And we are judge and jury (so you know).

Every night I call the Minions to their wee paddock where there is soaked hay waiting in the hayboxes and a turmeric treat for anyone arriving promptly.

They all canter in happy to accept the routine of 12 hours on and 12 hours off the grazing.

All except Newt, who manages to position himself on the narrow track between the wee paddock and Waffle. And there he stands, not letting Waffle pass.  Not ever, if he has his way.  But he doesn’t. I won’t let him.

So, every night, I have to go down and tell Newt what a horrid bully he is, and somehow manage to get Waffle past him so he can go to bed like a good boy.

Of course, Newt doesn’t care and he doesn’t get a turmeric treat either.  Not for that behaviour.

No one else is mean like this.

And so this is the face of a criminal who doesnt care, won’t learn and has to rule the world. Uncool Newt, uncool, I tell him very evening.  Just as well he is small.

Of course the others are oblivious and I feel very sorry for Waffle, who is playing the victim beautifully.  *** sigh ***

A few years back, I bought a little camera……

…. and I’ve really tried to like it. I honestly did.

But I don’t.

Having said that, looking at these photos, I am not so sure.

Recently I have been taking this camera everywhere with me.

Some photos are better than others, I will admit.

And some are very meh!

I just don’t know.  One of the reasons is that I need to sit down and read plus understand the whole manual (snore Zzzzzz….. I have a very limited attention span – think goldfish).

And another reason, I am sure, is that this camera is very exact with its settings and I am used to my iPhone to think for me, or my big Darth Vader Canon camera which has a brain all of its own. I am a lazy photographer, I know that.

No poop. This is lovely.

My iPhone does this!

And this…… (which is slightly worrying)

….. or this.  So now I need to think.  I may be a while.  It will be me reading the ruddy manual.

On the rare days the wind doesn’t blow in Shetland, the midges have to come out.

The horses and ponies are used to it – they groom each other and swish their tails, sometimes walking endlessly to get away from them.

Today I didn’t seem as affected as them, so I went out with my big camera and took a few snaps of the old ladies.

I tried not to take too many body shots for obvious reasons.  Though, I am thrilled Vitamin is back to a good weight (it only took over two years), Fivla suddenly ballooned overnight and turned into a wee heifer.

The Icelandic horses had all come down too from their field. I think they wanted to get out of the long grass, where the midges especially thrive.

They were resting and itching.

And has anyone seen Haakon’s forelock?  Happily Iacs’ silly-frilly is still there.

The sheep were very fed up of the midges too.

Poor Madge. The boys had decamped to the hill in search of a little breeze. I won’t let the girls leave the premises just in case.

Note-to-self – I must go out more with my big camera.

Mrs Duckies #1 and #2 are now outside during the day.

Mr Ducky, the father of all the ducklings, is spending his days alternating between both families.  He seems calm about all his children and I keep a close eye.

I was worried that the Mrs Duckies, who are probably sisters, would hate each other now they have bebbies.

So seeing them sort-of together was heart-warming.

Anyway, I am hopeful they will sort themselves out because they have to. I’m not doing individual houses. Nope.

I think we have two boys and one girl.

And another girl.

Plus the other three with their Mum – it is early days for them and another whose eggs are tapping…… and Penthisilea.

I’m always going on about my morning chores (ie feeding, watering, etc) but every evening I have chores too.  I do these after making a sheeple after supper.  I like to go to bed knowing every has everything they need and they are safe and well. I worry otherwise.

The 12 hours on and 12 hours off the grass routine is working well.  I put the little boys to bed in their wee paddock along with two haynets (soaked) and last night I had brought home a special treat, a present from Turriefield, where I work on a Thursday afternoon – a huge bag of bolted celery!

Crunch, crunch, crunch!

I kissed them all goodnight and shut the gate on them knowing they were very happy. By this morning not one celery stalk or leaf was left!

The bigger old folk must have heard the happy celery crunching and came down to investigate.  The evening light was particularly special.

I told them they probably hadn’t the teeth for celery stalks and I don’t want to upset the fragile eco-system that is Iacs and Haakon’s digestion.

Anyway, they always get a lovely breakfast in my colour-coded buckets so suck it up princesses!

The little face of a thief – Pepper steals the carrots Kolka drops!

In the evening I like the sheep to come home too. They spend the day a field of their choice.  During the summer months I don’t know where they like to sleep. I suspect Lambie definitely takes himself to bed.  He is a creature of habit and has always gone to bed at 10pm.

The ducks and ducklings are all put to bed in the individual bedrooms/nurseries. Mrs Ducky #2 and her lone duckling are now out and about too. And, yes, I say good-night to each and every one! (I may need to get out more).