This morning, on my way home after taking OH to catch the bus to town, I met a small ginger dog wandering along the road.  OMG, it’s Pepper!

Feeling somewhat surprised as I knew that before I’d left I had put the dog-gate across the back door and secured the front with Pepper inside (all proven anti-Pepper-escaping measures), I decided that I had no choice and would have to take Pepper with me when Ted went to Scalloway for his quarterly hair-cut.

Pepper could not be trusted.

Of course she was thrilled at this.  Ted less so as he had to travel 3rd class.

We dropped off Ted at the dog-groomer and headed off to Lerwick to fill up the sheep field at the shop.

There was a boat in – AIDAsol – 232m long carrying 2,192 passengers, most of whom were either cycling around Shetland or trudging up and down Commercial Street.

I feel Pepper and I met them all.

Pepper was surprisingly good, having achieved her main objective of coming too.  We shared fish and chips together in the car at lunchtime.

And then to Scalloway to fill in some time before we collected the hopefully now-beautiful Ted.

And, yes, Ted is very beautiful and fragrant too.  The dog-groomer (who was new to us) said he behaved very well.  At least one dog did then.

Once I’ve finished making sheep for the afternoon, the ducks/hens have their afternoon meal – hopefully the last one before bed.

After all that stabbing, I give myself the luxury of sitting down on the container step to watch everyone eat.  I could watch them forever. It is so peaceful. The flock have a social strata set-up that is fairly rigid and I make sure everyone who wants to eat, gets to eat.  I do not tolerate bullying and will put out lots of food buckets so everyone can eat without worry.

The hens are pretty good at sharing with the ducks.  I tend to feed them from used TurmerAid buckets, which are perfect, so that little is wasted – until someone tips it up or the wind catches it. They now all recognise the bright orange buckets as something to look inside for food and water.

The two new ducklings are almost adult in size but still live with their mother.

Mother remains a tough old dragon-duck but she’s done a good job of bringing them up.  They still hate being hugged.

The “ducklings” are currently at the stage of running around with their wings out hoping for lift-off.  It is very funny especially as nothing happens and they look surprised at their lack of not being airborne.

I also leave out a bit of food for my resident fan-club of sparrows to clear up.

And then I take Pepper in for her tea, which is she is currently very enthusiastic about.

After a rather good Sunday lunch (we had friends over so I made curry out of anything that stopped moving), we walked over to Clothie with our dogs to give them a run – them, not us!

I also gave my big camera an outing remembering as I walked that it weighs a ruddy ton.

Anyway, I took some nice photos of Pepper.  She is now fully recovered and 100% bouncing around.  The misery of yesterday has been quickly forgotten .

Ted is a due his four monthly haircut on Tuesday. He is looking very hairy at the moment and he will be glad when he is back to his shaven svelte self.

Monster did not accompany us on this walk, preferring his bed.

And I don’t think I will ever eat another thing again. I am full.  The sort of full that means nobody is going to get supper because I can’t ever think about cooking again.

A certain “person” has spent the day not feeling very well.

Pepper didn’t eat her breakfast, didn’t want to go on her dog-walk  and has spent the afternoon alternating between dry retching or sleeping while her little tumbly rumbled noisily.

Feeling sorry for her, I wrapped Pepper up in BeAnne’s bébé-blanket while Mandy and I played flute duets.

Anyway, it seemed to do the trick – Pepper ate a little tea of boiled chicken and rice and says despite the odds, she thinks she might live.  Phew!

One too many mummiefied bunny rabbits, methinks.  I have thrown so many corpses onto the top of the container for the crows to take away, but Pepper still finds the ones they drop and munches away until I take them away again.

You would think she would quickly work out that eating shite would leave her feeling like death warmed up and perhaps she should stop. But no, off she goes to find another ancient remains.

In other worlds, Dahlia and Gussie were around with the other sheep this morning so Lambie was being weird.

I put the mineral lick bucket nearer the door so they could have a shot at it too.

Or argue over it. Whichever.

Afterwards, I put them all out for the day in the big field with the ancient horses and Shetland ponies.

Gussie came back to say he wanted more lick, please, thank you.

This is the face of someone who went a-visiting yesterday afternoon while I was away packing vegetables…..

And she’s not sorry she did it but sorry she was caught and brought home, though!

I am very ashamed of her.  I have been apologising to my neighbours.

Anyway, tomorrow is another day…… (a phrase often used around here so that we can all move on from whoever’s latest ghastly behaviour).

And little Miss Pepper promises she will behave (and I don’t believe her – we’ve been here before).

The wind continues to blow with intermittent horizontal rain showers and I managed to position the breakfast buckets so they didn’t blow around.

Iacs has this sussed – basically never take your head out until you’ve finished.

This is the time of year the little boys are asking for more hay. They already get one haynet at night – the theory being they won’t test the fencing because they will feel fuller and less desperately hungry.

But, as it has rained on and off all day, and the ponies have spent their time running up and down the hill to get to shelter (the container) as fast as possible.  Good exercise, I tell them.

While I cleaned the track up in a gale, I prayed to all the Gods that the ponies don’t break the fence. This is the time of year – the Autumn flush – when the grass has the highest sugar content and is most lethal.

Please no more laminitis is all I say to everyone.