Someone is still in the dog-house – by choice – her’s.  Poor little Patterdale terrier. Nobody luffs her.

Meanwhile, Bibble, or Bobbles (aka Iacs) as he now appears on my phone with auto-correct…..

We have made a plan.

Iacs is booked to go south on the freight boat (passenger ferry fully booked which is the only way I could have accompanied him), to be collected at the other end and driven to the Equine Veterinary Surgery in Aberdeen.  There he will have laser therapy surgery and chemotherapy (one day dose).  And then he will come home. It will hopefully take less than a week.  Apparently there is every chance Iacs will be cured (yes, I cried when the vet said this).

So Iacs is going to have to put his brave pants on at the end of the month for his Big Trip by himself.

I can hear some folk wondering why we would bother with a 27 year old horse but Iacs is family, full of life and we will give him every chance.  We owe him that much.  The cost is irrelevant.  We’ll manage.  This is Iacs we’re talking about, after all.

I thought about sending Haakon with iacs as company but, to be honest, I don’t think Haakon would cope and I don’t want Kolka left on her own.

She certainly wouldn’t manage.

The minions are totally unsuitable travel companions too.  So brave pants it is.  Daisy and I think this is the best plan we can have for Iacs.

This is the face of someone who got told off for wanting to introduce herself to the ducklings.  And when I say “introduce”, it wasn’t in a nice way.  Think gastronomic and I found her in the new duckling run. We have no idea how she got in there.  Friends, not food!

So now we are all watching Pepper, and Monster who are thinking thoughts.

Here is Monster this morning, watching, always watching…..

And there is another Mother Duck (Penty’s mother) nesting in that small henhouse. I told Pepper to get off the roof.  Rude.

Luckily, I can see Mother Duckie (#1+3) from my desk window.  Here they are swimming in the newly acquired cat-litter tray. It is perfect and they adore it, hopping in and out.

And this is Ted who is behaving beautifully about the ducklings.

Pepper and Monster could take a leaf out of Ted’s book on duckling protocol.

But yet…..

Mother Duckie (#2+1) has an adorable duckling who says “me, me, me” all the time especially when I put food or water down. Gorgeous.

But meanwhile Pepper, who is now hopefully supervised 24/7, has her eye on everything.

I like to think that Mother Duckie (#1+3) would put up one helluva fight, though.  I hope we never have to find out.

Floss and I finished our pony/duck/chicken/horse/dog chores and, as a reward, I drove Floss to town and we went on a shopping spree buying lovely things for Flossie (though I gave myself a new frying pan and two cat litter trays to use as duckling swimming-pools).

There was a cruise-ship in, so the town was fairly busy with folk wandering around aimlessly looking slightly bemused like they always do.

Lunch was sitting in the car on the pier eating the best fish and chips in the world, with a seagull standing on my nice clean bonnet.  I was not-so silently thinking “Don’t you dare!” – she didn’t. Phew!

The boats are coming from far and wide now.  Soon it will be time for the Tall Ships race too.  Lerwick is hosting this year.

We obviously bought lots of lovely things, including food, and then home back to our reality which, actually, I think I prefer.

Flossie kindly did some poo-picking while I sorted out the new swimming pools and had a cup of tea.  Ah, home. It’s the best.

As I said, Flossie is home and Lambie (I lie not) ran up to her this morning.  He was very happy to see her.

Meh, I thought to myself and possibly said it out loud too.

So I spent my morning doing my yearly car muck out when I remove all the winter’s hay and gave it a bit of a scrub inside and out.

So instead of little bits of hay everywhere, I now have white cat hair everywhere.

Black-Ducky and her little one are still alive and appear safe and well, despite BD’s best efforts to crush her baby at any given opportunity.  Baby is very sweet and special.

And back to the Queen of Sheep, this afternoon Floss and I sat in the field and ‘Ster trotted up to talk to Floss.

He is very persistant.  Some might say pushy.

I, on the other hand, am totally ignored.  Never mind.  It’s worth it to have Flossie home.

Flossie came home last night and is staying for just over a week, which is lovely, so today I put her to work.  She is on holiday, having been working very hard.

We cleaned and moved water barrels, with help obviously.

We brushed Haakon (Iacs and Kolka were brushed a few days ago whilst waiting for the vet), and then there were only Vitamin and Fivla left on my list.

Fivla was pleased to see her beloved owner.

And Pepper was around too, chatting.

And then, having sorted out all the horses and ponies, we made a small duck-run for Mummy-Duck and her three remaining ducklings.

They were very pleased to be let outside and it was quite the struggle making it tight and secure from ducklings trying to leave and small dogs trying to get in.  They will be shut in tightly at night, though.

I can watch the family from my desk window, which is perfect and I can do regular head-counts too.  Poor Floss is exhausted now, having poo-picked the Minion field all afternoon.