This morning, a certain orange horse was found in the hen shed having broken into the hen food and eaten just under 2kg of whole wheat!

So I instantly cancelled all I had to do today and phoned the on-call vet.  We decided to give Klængur a large dose of liquid paraffin (which I happened to have, and luckily he liked it, happily swallowing down) and to restrict water for a while.

I also decided that the best way to get the guts going with Klængur would be to exercise him.  So he has been coming into the school to walk for 15-20 minutes every hour all day.

To be fair on Klængur, he quickly got to know the routine and plodded round with me having to put in the exact same number of steps to keep him going.

I will sleep well tonight.  Well, I won’t because I will have to check him every 2-4 hours (depending on my worry level) to see that he is not colicking.

There are strong bowel sounds, lots of farts and poos and Klængur is happily eating as if nothing has happened and I am obviously making a huge fuss about nothing.

But it is early days and we are certainly not out of the woods yet.

It is lucky we are nearing the longest day so when I check at night, it won’t be dark.  I am scared of the dark and will have take my luminescent cat with me when I go out.

So that’s me for the next few days – obsessively looking at poo while walking miles around the indoor school.

Wish us well and all I can do is hope that Klængur will quickly get rid of this grain with no harmful side effects or worse.  If there is one “good” thing about this is that he was so greedy, he wouldn’t let either Iacs or Haakon near the food and he got the lot.  I can’t even begin to think what it would’ve done to them.  I feel sick at the thought now.

I invited Lambie into my shed yesterday evening while I was stabbing away at a Sheeple.

There was a bit of too-ing and fro-ing (plus some sitting down to listen to music).

Of course, he ended up outside (I worry that he will pee).

But obviously Lambie is my darling boy.

Behind him were definite usurpers. He knew that.

The look on Lambie’s face says it all.

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NONE SHALL ENTER MUZZAH’S SHED BUT LAMBIE!

He’s a funny boy, but Lambie is my funny boy. Only a Muzzah could love him.

It’s not easy being me.  I am just trying to go through life taking photos of flowers (and other beasties) in the best way I can….

And then I have help.

Unhelpful help.

Very unhelpful help.

The orchids are everywhere in their full glory.  Blink and you will miss it.

And so is Iacs.  In his full glory.

Others sensibly keep away preferring the marsh marigolds. Orange and yellow – the perfect combination. Well done Klaengur.

Still, I will keep trying.  Despite the odds.

Me: Fer’ crying out loud, Pepper!
Pepper: What? What? What are looking at?

I shall call this piece a Study of a Dog’s Nose!

And does anyone know what this flower is?  I don’t think I have seen it before.

We don’t tend to name our ducks. Yes, we have black duck, Mr Ducky, Mrs Ducky,….. etc, but, as I say, we don’t name our ducks.  But I did name our baby duck – Penthesilea because she was an Amazon over the winter, working tirelessly to make everything mud.

Penty (her nickname) is a sweetie.  She spends much of her time on her own in search of a hooman to feed her and to avoid “relations” with her father.

We all adore her.

I spent the last bit of my afternoon mooching about taking photos of the sheep.

Harrel-the-Barrel.

Yes, Harrel!

Edna and Pepper

Lambie being…. well, Lambie.

That’s more like it.

‘Bert has forgiven me finally.

Oh. My. Word.  That Smile. Be still my beating cold and lifeless heart.

And then there is Penthesilea who had been silently following me looking for food.

Yup, there she is.

Sheep, duck, dog….

A few more photos (awww, sweet).

And I made my way back to the feed shed….. guess who fronted the queue?

Food out for my little ducky Amazon.

And ‘Bert is cool. So you know.

It has been persisting with rain all day but the grass needs it and the ducks are happy.

As m of the ducks are sitting on eggs, I am trying to get ready for the potential imminent arrival of a pile of ducklings.  Sheds are being cleared and being made duckling safe.

Today I attacked my “big shed” and cleared away some of the stuff that has accumulated since the arrival of my mother’s things.

I also started on the stable and sorted out piles of things to keep, things to go to the tip and things to sort out with a view to the tip or going to the charity shop…

This is my work-in-progress.  And then I will sweep up all the hay and feel much happier.  I chip away at things, get easily distracted and then go and start another project never really finishing anything properly.  It is a horrible habit I have but I am determined to keep going on this.  We need space or at least better use of space.

I haven’t seen many of the animals today. This morning I let Iacs, Haakon and Klaengur out into the biggest field. I let the sheep out of the field this afternoon as Lambie likes to go to bed of an evening and hates sleeping out.

‘Bert refuses to talk to me now due to his rugby tackle.  He has taken up with Madge, who is always feral.  My back is much better – the painkillers and a good night’s sleep helped. My Painpod has been on all day as well.

That is the face of ‘Bert’s resentment.  Madge is an enabler.