I received a message on my phone this morning – “Sorry for being a pest so early on a Sunday morning. But they are a large number of White sided dolphins just at Bixter“. So Daisy and I hopped into the car and drove off to have a look.

After spotting a van with some dolphin-spotting looking folk, they told us where the best place was to park and off we went again a bit further down the road.

And we found them!

It was not easy – but we got our “eye in” looking for waves that appeared different from other waves with the occasional black triangle on top and then following the line.

And then there were lots of dolphins and they circled the voe and we all watched.

I know very little (ok, nothing) about dolphins but, by asking questions to other watchers, I found out they were a large group (about 40) of Atlantic white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhynchus acutus).

Folk had parked up and down the voe and everyone was enjoying the show.  We even saw friends and relatives too.  Quite the social-distancing event really.

When the pod finally swam past us, to a man, everyone just said “Wow” over and over again.  It was breathtaking. Apologies for the total overload of photos of dots on the horizon but I was utterly mesmerized.  There’s something very special about seeing dolphins in their natural habitat.  They are truly beautiful.

We had rather a fraught morning – BeAnne is very off-colour so we made the instant decision to take her to the vet.  We came home knowing Her Maj had lost some weight (we are trying so hard), and laden down with more medicine that might help her.

It is very tough on us all and add the threat of a thunder and lightening storm that never thankfully actually materialised, we have been taking it easy this afternoon all feeling rather frazzled.

To keep my mind occupied, I trawled around the house and my shed looking for all the bits that make up a tripod, my camera, the flash and that essential piece that attaches the camera to said tripod.  FFS.  It took me nearly an hour to locate that particular bit.

I wanted to photograph the flowers, what I have grewed, on my windowsill.

So here goes……  Just remember I grew these.  This is a huge achievement. A gardener, I am not and possibly not a photographer either.

Straws are for grasping, right?

This is the view from my back door, if you hop through the garden first.

Iacs (short for I Am Completely Stupid, aka Mr Bibble) was happily snoozing while the others, that would be Haakon and Klængur, completely ignored him. So much for best friendswatching out for the tigers.

Bibble had a lovely roll (note his blissful face).

Meanwhile, these two could not have been less on-the-ball if they tried.  Aren’t they looking well?  My boys (I am going all gooey-eyed now).

And he’s up.  The frilly is silly and all is right with the world.

Meanwhile, OH is offshore (working) and we have one cat in a box waiting, forever waiting for his Master’s return.  Let’s hope Shifu is back before Monster expires.

And I made a filum to try to explain why I live in Shetland.  I am uploading an HD version and once (if ever) Vimeo says it is complete, I will put the link here to replace this rather unremarkable version.

I saw my first Shetland bumblebee this morning in the resting Minion field we have to walk through to get to the chaps.

You can tell it is a Shetland bumblebee (Bombus muscorum agricolae) because it “is very distinctive, having a thorax that is completely orange, and a yellowish abdomen”.  That would be him then – a little fuzzy-wuzzy chap! ❤️

The seggies are all coming out.  A seggie is a yellow flag iris – they grow wild here and are always beautiful, if brief.  You can see how tall they grow next to Newt (all 28″ worth or something, we haven’t measured him in a while).

Newt has at last morphed from yak to racehorse. His Summer look.  I almost don’t recognise him until he lifts his face to chat.

The field they all live in is big (actually two fields with a stream running down the whole side). Perfect.

The bellies (and the smiles) are bigger!

Albie far away.

Albie close up with sunscreen on his precious nosey (and possibly Flossie who put it there – she has a coat of many colours, predominantly white though).

We talk to everyone and check they are ok.

I love this – and sort of know what Vitamin was saying to Storm who is not her favourite Shetland pony.  I had just rasped Storm’s hooves and surprisingly he behaved beautifully.  Vitamin is probably being told all about it and hiding her disbelief.

Always good to see the Shetland’s.   They make me smile (mostly).

If you are wondering how Her Maj is getting on, well yesterday I would’ve said she is fine.  We are in a routine. It’s not perfect but it works and she’s still here.

BeAnne sort of eats dog food (with muchos cajoling) or cat food (she steals it) and takes herself off to hunt for baby bunny rabbitses when she feels like it (I pretend I don’t know).  Sometimes she even has a wee swim.

She likes water.  Very much.

But we have bad days and today was one of them.  The lunch-time pills were consistently spat out despite the ham parcels they were lovingly wrapped in. This resulted in me going to the not-very-local-shop (20 minute drive away) to get many pounds (money)’s worth of people treats (ham – smoked and honey roasted, hot dogs, meatballs, triangle-shaped cheese) to wrap/disguise her pills in. Instructions on the pill packet it says they must be eaten whole (no crushing or splitting) so we need a vehicle to disguise them in and one Monster wants too as envy greatly inspires.

I have a pill-popper syringe thingy which resulted in her biting me!

Gah!  I am finding this difficult.

And, I think, so is BeAnne.  The pills are a necessity to life but, at the moment,  there are more good days than bad.  I tell myself this because today was a bad one.

But she did eat her supper and the cat’s leftovers and has cheered up immensely.  I have gin so I have cheered up too.