I was washing out a field water bucket and, as it takes ages to refill with clean water, I thought I would try and take a nice photo of each of the Icelandic horses.

So here is Kolka, looking very matronly.

Haakon, obviously he is in charge.

And then Iacs, or Bibble, as he is fondly known.  He was not helpful. Of course he wasn’t.

But, at last I achieved something resembling a sensible horse.

Not much has happened here – I have spent my day staying out of the house as we’ve had a new hot water tank fitted.  We realised the time had come when the old one was dripping rusty water through the kitchen ceiling. Not great.

So, me and the dogs, have lived in my shed all day – I was transcribing a journal in the morning and making sheep in the afternoon..

And the ducklings are now eating adult food, which is good.  They are growing up while I watch.

(I just got a quick whiff of the Egg of Doom – it is still around – a gift that keeps on giving despite my best efforts!)

Currently, I am feeling very sick sitting here surrounded by a scented oil diffuser on full blast, covered in perfume trying to get over Ted’s latest behaviour.

He found a bad egg somewhere in the garden, rolled in it, ate it, came inside and has spread it all around the house.

I have no words.  I want to die. I want to burn the house down, and/or move to another country.  The smell.  It will live with me possibly forever.  I can taste it, smell it, and remember it.

OH and I gave Ted a shower and we have disinfected the house but every so often I get another whiff and I just want to leave home all over again.  We weren’t cross with him.  OH muttered “for once it wasn’t Pepper” as if that made anything better.  But he’s right.  Pepper is more famed for all her awful things.

For once, going outside to poo-pick for an hour was a blessed and welcome relief.

I dreaded going back into the house.  The smell is near where I sit. I know it.  I keep getting whiffs but am very nervous to find out where it’s coming from.  Someone kill me now and put me out of my misery before I choke to death on air freshener or Ted’s bad egg.

I gave Family Duck a new “paddling pool” – ok, it’s a washing-up bowl but I thought it might be a good introduction to water for the little ones.  I put strategically placed rocks both inside and around so that no one would get stuck and then drown/die.

They were suspicious.

And then investigated a bit, but no one got in, despite my best Health & Safety efforts.

Later in the afternoon, I put out food for everyone and found Family Duck had left their home to join in too.  This is a first and a good sign.

There was lots of socialising and also duck politics which was fascinating to watch. The boys sensibly stayed well away, but another female wanted to investigate the ducklings further.

So Mother Duck waded in and they had a row.

The inquisitive duck was seen off by very ferocious Mother D.

Meanwhile the babies just plonked themselves down and watched everything going on around them with puzzled bemusement.

They are very tame now and come running up if food is mentioned.

Pepper is possibly considered family too.

I wouldn’t be surprised if she is on the babysitting roster!

There was no sign of Monster. He was busy enjoying the sun in the garden.  Probably wise.  Mother duck means business.

I spent my day in town as I had a dentist’s appointment mid-morning and other stuff to do as well. I felt sort of sad leaving everyone behind, namely Pepper, but, apart from the dentist, I was looking forward to a day away from home and the animals.

It was far too hot for Pepper to wait in the car anyway.

As I arrived early – stuff to do – I visited Jamieson’s Knitwear on the Street and re-stocked my desktop field, as it was looking a bit empty.

And I left the field looking pretty full.

I also noticed we had made the front window display too, which was nice to see.

Then a quick nip up and down the Street into various shops.  More stuff bought.

The dentist was over fairly quickly – nothing to see there.  Tesco’s and the Co-Op and then home.

Apparently, I was missed.

As you know, my main hobby is to complain about the weather.

But today the sun came out and it has been hot by my standards, though probably not anyone else’s – I think it said 22℃ in the car on my way to Turriefield to pack veg this afternoon.  We boiled in the shed.

So, because the weather has warmed up today, everyone has been draped around the place.

I spent my morning washing out water troughs and buckets filling them with clean water.

Obviously this was a family affair and I tried to line everyone up for a lovely family portrait and failed dismally.

But I did manage to capture these three.  They were relaxing and making the most of the calm, the mysterious lack of flies/midges that usually accompany this kind of day and nodding off. Why they chose Iacs as their guard-horse is totally beyond my comprehension.  A rookie mistake, I told them.

The ducklings are now living, with their Mum full-time in the big shed with two other ducks (one is possibly their father).  All is calm there too, which is good.  I gave this group a new bath to play in.  They were very suspicious of it but I reckon it won’t take long before they are clambering in.  Muscovy ducks are not obsessed swimmers – they just like to clean themself in fresh water.

And on a bad note, a certain small “person” was caught leaving home (possibly looking for me while I was away) and was found half way down our track.  We had words about this and Pepper says she is sorry she anyone found out!