First thing this morning, Monster surprised us all with his presence.  While we were busy feeding hens, ducks, ponies, horses and sheep, he was busy yowling about the mud and getting his legs dirty.

Yup, a dirty Monster. A rare sight.

There is someone or something living under the feed shed….. Monster and Pepper hunt as a pair.  A pair of what’s, I am not sure, though.

Note how Monster is perched on a rock minimising his nearness to mud.

He entertained himself by biffing Pepper with his paw from his hideout in the shed or, as Monster likes to call it, the world’s biggest cat litter tray!

Back outside, chores done and we are all on our way indoors for our breakfast.  It’s our turn.

For a brief moment, Monster thought about attacking an ignorant Ted.  This was just before he did that sideways hoppity thing that makes us all laugh.

Ted didnt have a clue what was going on in Monster’s head. Probably just as well.

So Monster pretended to stalk Ted instead.

A few photos of Waffle for you.

Mostly a sweetie.

Enigmatic.

Sometimes think he’s a stallion, so can be a bit of a berk.

Easy to work with but has his moments.

Always handsome.

Huggable.

Lovable, when it suits or he wants something.

Still, he is our Waffle and is ten years old this year (I was shocked when I typed that!)

The roof from our old lambing shed left us yesterday.  Daisy said she heard some noise. The rest of us were oblivious.  Anyway, it landed in the garden and OH quickly tidied it away for possibly burning later.

It wasn’t a great roof, to be honest, and we all said we were amazed it had lasted this long.  One of those things.  There are bound to be casulties in a Force 11 (not quite a hurricane).

Today was a different story.  Beautiful calm. Barely any wind but frozen under foot.

I am leaving all the little boys out 24/7 now.  They have soaked hay in their box and there is barely any grass in their field (seriously nothing – and possibly more on the moon). My aim now is to get some weight off (the winter weather should help), while managing the laminitis without getting colic.

The Old Men are next door with loads of old grass.  They are very content and sort of friends with their small neighbours.

Storm and Albie still get a daily bucket of nothing with painkillers.

I will see how everyone gets on with this new regime.  I hope it works. I don’t like having ponies indoors all the time. Fresh air is good for everyone.

It’s rough outside today.

As an avid weather watcher, I knew the latest storm was on its way so Daisy and I went out early, before it fully revved up to feed the old ladies, Fivla and Vitamin.

We took a good pile of carrots for Newt and Silver too.

I fed Vitamin in the old roofless byre.  The minute she spied us, she galloped speedily up for her food.

Nose in bucket and the food was gone.

After Newt had kicked the shit out of Silver and possibly us (nearly), wheeling round like a gun turret on a tank, he had the temerity to ask for more carrots!  He really is very evil this time of year. Such a disappointment when everyone else has beautiful manners – I may regret that statement.

Evening chores all done, we are now all tucked up with lovely things to eat and drink praying that the electricity doesn’t go off.

We’ve all had a lovely day.

All of us, including Monster, Pepper and Ted.

Monster particularly loved his catnip fish tacos.

Pepper wanted to have everything.

And Ted took all the squeakers out of every toy he could as fast as possible.

And we’ve all eaten cake!

Merry Christmas to you, with love from all of us at Thordale xx