I never for one minute thought we would still have BeAnne with us.

She is my Christmas miracle and there are no words for just how wonderful it is for us to still have her around.  There have been many very scary moments and yet here we are.

Smelly, old, pottering and definitely doitin’ but still Her Maj. There is definitely enthusiasm for life – mostly if you mention bunnies or ham but we take whatever is offered.

And there are times when BeAnne does her level best to be under feet (turn around and fall over) – horses and people. Sometimes I think she is on a suicide mission.

Another speciality is to ask to go outside, ask to come in, go out, come in, go out, come in…… repeat until you could scream!

We have adapted our lives, our day, our house and our way of living totally around BeAnne.

We can only do our very best.

The determination of this little Patterdale terrier knows no limits.

So Merry Christmas to you all. Today I have the only present I could ever want.

With lots of love from everyone at Thordale xxx

This morning we had snow!  These were the clouds yesterday.

It was looking ominous as the sun was setting.

And this morning, when we were feeding all the horses, we could see a small bit of snow lying on the hills.

The horses, who were eating outside, had a very light dusting too – or a mingy sprinkling of icing sugar!

So, who knows, we may have snow for Christmas!   Now, that would be exciting.

Back to wrapping the turkey and cooking the presents…..!

I heard a miserable bleating this morning and went outside to find Madge wandering around on her own.  She hadn’t noticed the others finding new pasture so she came home to shout about it.

So I found the rest of our flock in another field.  They had obviously left Madge behind and she was very happy to be reunited with them all.

Once Lambie was home (they had been in another field)…..

…. he went took himself quickly off to bed.

Bed is really a grotty shed that refuses to fall down so I had it shored up to withstand the Shetland weather.

The sheep all love this grotty shed, despite me having a lovely new house built for them.

Obviously they ignore that.

In the shed are two haynets, renewed daily.

Always popular.

And always finished by morning.

When I took this photo, it was good to see that the Girlzens are allowed inside too.

I hate it when there is a lost sheep.  I have to make sure they are all reunited as soon as possible.

It is that time of year when I am not sure whether I should be putting a rug on Haakon.

Reasons to:

• he is a nice weight and should keep that on
• he is 26 years old and can get stiff in the cold
• the weather is not nice now – endless rain and a cold wind chill factor

Reasons not to ruf:

• Haakon stops moving about the field if he has a rug on
• he is a good weight and has plenty of padding to keep him warm. He is not losing weight.
• he tolerates a rug but is never very happy in one
• he is an Icelandic horse – he is designed for this weather
• if he wears a rug, he won’t grow a proper winter coat.

I have asked Haakon what he wants and mostly, this year, as he is so much better health-wise than last year, I am not rugging him.  He is not a fan of rugs.

When it is the odd really awful day/night then I give in and put a rug on the old man up but only in a no-fill rain sheet – enough to keep him dry but not enough to stop his internal boiler from working efficiently.

I regularly look at the weather forecast (yes, I am obssessed), I try to think “scientifically” about the pros and cons and then I ask Daisy for her opinion as she is actually understands the biology and gives me a science-based reason.

The others in Haakon’s field don’t get rugged.

Just the oldest man on the block, occasionally.  Twice this winter, to date.

He’s a bit of a weirdo.

He has a thing about bubblewrap.

So, I thought that’s just him. How wrong I was.

Tinsel – another thing he is weird about.

Moving swiftly on….. then there are boxes.  He loves boxes but only certain ones.  He is fussy.

Special boxes with toys are nice.

But toys on their own are the best fun.

Today, he followed us everywhere, shouting as he went so we knew he was following us everywhere as well as going places he probably shouldn’t.

I will admit that I had my heart in my mouth when he was wandering around the rafters of the stable.  As Flossie said, he is not the most agile and one bad step….. so I waited underneath him in case he needed catching.

Cat in a sink anyone?  Move along. Nothing to see here.

Everywhere we go, we are never alone.

Monster is one strange cat but he is our strange cat so we love him (except when he is being mean to BeAnne!)