A few days back (when there was sunshine), I found these two sunbathing in the garden like an old married couple on holiday.

Typical bloke. Pepper’s face is a picture.

Later on, Monster was exploring a drain that runs under the track. This photo was at the beginning of the reversal process

And then this is Monster’s rather inelegant exit.  I’m not gonna lie, I was laughing as he squoze himself out of the drainpipe. Pop!

The ponies are also fascinated by Monster.

I wonder if they talk at night when I’m not around to supervise.

Today, however, was a different matter. It had been raining hard all day so I hadn’t walked the dogs at their usual time in the morning.  No one would’ve gone with me.  To make up for it and because the weather had cleared, I took everyone out after their tea…..

…. including Monster.

“The Struggle is Real”.

The ground was very wet from all the rain and Monster, understandably, was desperate not to touch any actual ground.

And so the majority of the walk was spent walking on the drystone dykes (walls) that are in the field.

The dogs made the most of their walk, hunting and exploring in the long grass.

And, yes, there was muchos whining.  There always is.  Floss remarked that possibly Monster was the most vocal of all the cats who have chosen to live with us.

And home we went, with Monster taking long strides so he could minimise the actual feet-on-the-wet-ground feeling.

Floss and I drove to town this morning as we felt we deserved some lovely things after our strenuous fence building yesterday. I always like a good excuse.

It was a lovely sunny day and we strolled down Commercial Street enjoying the sights.  The place was brimming with people.

And this caught my attention – Jamieson’s Knitwear’s shop side-window.

And, look, look, my sheeple feature.  I am thrilled, so happy.  I have a cheesey grin on my face just seeing them again as I type this.

In fact the whole window was inspired.

More wanderings.

And here is one of the reasons for the crowds.

A mahoosive cruise-ship.

Apparently it was the AidaSol – 253 metres in length and 32 metres in width, a modified Sphinx class (and I have absolutely no idea what that means but there you go).  It can carry 2,174 passengers and they were all possibly in Commercial Street today.

As Napoleon Bonaparte once said (and I did not know this) ….”If you want a thing done well, do it yourself”.

As everyone is busy shearing sheep or building windmills in Shetland, today Floss and I built part of the track-system for the Minions.  Although not ideal, it gives me an idea of what I want permanently.

It was hard work but I had my plans and showed them to Flossie first.

We shifted hurdles for the first bit which will give us some lee-way for moving sheep and ponies through gates without frying.

The Minions’ field was getting beyond disgusting.  They needed a change.

Once the first part of the track was built, we moved them all in…..

Newt followed eventually.

Then we added the old ladies, stepped back and looked at the situation.  Too much grass.

So we swapped Waffle for Vitamin and shut the little ones in the small paddock to eat down.

This will work. The Minions can eat the grass there as well as spending their nights in it – 12 hours on and 12 hours off.

The small paddock is not as great as it looks as it is mostly pineapple weed and docks with a small smattering of grass.

The old ladies were happy to be on the track doing what they do best….. eat!

And the Minions will have this new set-up for the rest of summer.

While Floss is home (6 more days), we can both move everything around so that this all works smoothly and with minimum lugging and effort.  Well, that’s my theory, anyway.

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.