It has been pouring with rain all day and this morning, donning my full wet-weather gear, I went out with buckets for the old ladies and carrots for the others.

I think I would’ve been eaten alive if I had forgotten the carrots again!  This is my little Aide-mémoire – aka Newt!

While the ladies were happily eating, various Shetland ponies sidled up hopefully.

Fivla was not letting anyone have her bucket. Gosh, no!

Vitamin had her own little Fan Club too.

They started by keeping a respectful distance – a good idea, boys ….

And then Newt thought he might be in with a chance.

(At this stage I was about to run for cover.)

And Vitamin’s told Newt to back off but possibly with ruder words!

So he did and went on to try his luck with Fivla.

I couldn’t decide if Newt was either very brave or very stupid!

Once Fivla had told him in no uncertain terms along with some bad language what she thought of him, Newt went off to take his revenge out on poor Silver who had done absolutely nothing.

Darling Tiddles.

And not-so-darling Newt!

These two made me smile!  The both know better than to try to take Vitamin’s bucket.  Now, they are not stupid.

This is an update of how we are doing without Her Maj.

Well, our lives are pretty empty.  There is a big yawning gap. Myself, I see her everywhere or at least I expect to see her.  A level of sound (and smell) is not there (the tippy tappy of claws on the kitchen floor, the bash of the door when she wanted to be let in, the barking at all intruders), the snoring.  We all miss her more than words.

Monster is very odd now. He is lonely and sits mainly on her blanket. There is one in Daisy’s room too which he loves.

Monster is not very communicative with us at the moment.

He just wants his quiet time – though it might be because he is eating at least a rabbit a day.

(He does love BeAnne’s special blankie, though).

A lot.

He is also spreading outward more.

As is his fur.

And so I occupy my days with making sheep, trying to go for a walk, riding, doing stuff and taking photos. I have little enthusiasm at the moment for my photography.  Everything is an effort and there is no fun because I don’t have my constant companion shuffling about with me.  She was always with me.

I took this on one of my late evening walks, just as the sun was thinking about going down, around 9.30 pm.

I don’t really have any plans – such a large part of my life has gone.  I am existing at the moment rather than living.

I packed the car up – going firstly to check the Minions, then onto town to get some messages and also have the car looked at. This weekend I somehow managed to flatten its battery and, as I am going south in July, I want everything to be fully functional.

Anywho, two buckets of food in, dental flushy thing in, sunscreen in, Fivvie’s cottonwool pads for her eyes in, headcollar that actually fits in……

But no carrots!

Storm was mortified.

Albie was disappointed (nothing worse)

And Newt gave me a filthy look.

How could I do this?

How could I forget carrots?

I crawled back under my rock and drove to Lerwick.

… knowing full well that everyone would possibly starve to death in the next 24 hours in their two huge fields full of grass……

….. but no carrots!  How do I live with myself?

I have been putting off this job and I know it needs doing soon, so this afternoon I did it.

Sorted out the wool, threw away the nasty bits and put it into better bags (cotton pillowcases) for storage.

I laid a clean-ish duvet cover on the floor in the stable and unpacked ‘Ster’s magnificent katmoget pure Shetland fleece.

Wow!  It is huge.

A seriously gorgeous fleece with so many shades and colours.

Then it was Edna – this is her first good fleece with us.

So much better than last year, when it all just fell out from starvation, neglect and misery.

Edna is a pure Shetland.  There is some nice crimp too.

Next up was ‘Bert.

His is a gorgeous pale moorit pure Shetland fleece.

And then it was Edna’s turn.

She is a cross breed (Cheviot x Shetland) and has the most amazing dense fleece ever!  It is huge too and I had to split it into two bags.

And last, and probably very least, was Lambie’s effort.

A pure Shetland flekkit fleece (black and white).

“Carpet quality” is the disparaging (and I think rude) comment given to it by those that know their fleeces.

Lambie always has lovely curls, though. Like Caligula or Disraeli!

Anywho, if you or anyone you know would like any of these fleeces, please contact me via email – frances@fstaylor.co.uk – and we can discuss.  A donation to the “Minion Fund” is always appreciated and I am happy to post to anywhere in the world if you pay the postage.

First come, first served.

This afternoon our equine dentist, Stuart Huggan, visited.

We had four lined up ready for him to see.

First up was Efstur.  Dreki stood and watched.

We wanted Dreki to see that this was easy and non-panicky.

And then it was his turn.  Dreki has recently been bitted so we wanted to have his mouth checked out.  It is part of his health and training.  Stuart found wolf-teeth!

So, he took off the sharp bits and filed down the edges of the erroneous wolf teeth.

The plan is to remove them on Stuart’s next visit in October. Dreki was very good about all of this.

The boys were returned to their field and then it was time for the ladies.  First up was Fivla.  This winter there was evidence of quidding (spits balls of semi-chewed food stuff) when she ate hay which worried me.  Stuart found no sharp bits but she has a diastema (gap in her teeth) so that could cause this. There was nothing he could do and, as she is keeping the weight on now (she has a bijoux daily bucket), then we will just potter along.

Lilja watched …..

Vitamin, who has recently been losing weight, was seen.  Stuart, keen as a whippet, was in there and removed a loose tooth.  He said that should help.  Vitamin never even noticed!

And so Lilja kept watching and then it was her turn.

Never before with anything in her mouth and she was as good as gold.

The sharp bits were unsharpened and Stuart said she had no wolf teeth – phew!

Sóley watched, vaguely interested.  She has wolf teeth (FFS, what is the matter with my horses?) and they too will be removed in October.

And so, all done, Floss and I took the old ladies home.

(Newt)

And everyone rushed off, very pleased to see them again. Albie had been waiting by himself for his “mum” (aka Fivla) all afternoon.  Awwww!