Every day the Icelandic ladies – Hetja, Lilja and Sóley-the-Foalie – get food. Different diets for different needs.

And every day Lilja eats hers and then thinks she will move quickly onto Sóley’s for more.

Poor Sóley-the-Foalie – she gets agitated and cross and then all training we want to do afterwards goes out of the window as she is all het up and not listening. I can understand that.

So, while Floss goes down to the other field to check on the Minions,  I am left in charge of the Icelandic ladies and I have implemented a new feeding structure.

I stand between the two girls and when Lilja has finished her food (she eats very quickly), I throw one or two barley rings into her bowl, which she finds and wolfs down.  Thus leaving her little sister, Sóley, alone to get on with eating her fair share of food unhassled. I arrive with my right hand coat pocket with two handfuls of barley rings!

My system seems to be working very successfully – so far.  Lilja now understands that if she stays by her bowl magical barley rings will appear from heaven (or my pocket).  Hassle her sister, and she will feel my wrath (and it is Mighty with a capital M!)

Because of this, Sóley is much more approachable and listening to anything Flossie wants to talk to her about and that is all good. I am now guarding Hetja so she can finish her grub away from circling vultures.

I can completely understand that if your big sister is hassling for your food, all future conversation is not going to work.

Floss usually checks and hugs the Minions while I deal with the ladies next door – Hetja, Lilja and Sóley-the-Foalie.  She then walks back up the hill and reports back anything I need to know.

Today, I accompanied her because I have missed my nose-kisses and I wanted to see if anyone had lost an ounce of weight.

I checked and prodded looking for ribs and can happily report that everyone is absoluely 100%, there-is-no-doubt-about-it, doing very well this winter.

There are no ribs.  We don’t know what ribs are, do we Tiddles?

If anyone has lost a smidge of weight, it would be Fivla and, as she was on the fat-side coming out of summer, I am not sorry.  Floss gives her a special daily dose of TurmerAid as she is an old lady and this Shetland winter weather is harsh.  She loves it.  Her own private food.

Today Floss gave it to her in Lambie’s bowl to make it easier and less waste.

Newt got to clean the bowl.

It was good to hug and chat to the Minions.

Albie was doing his best to command all the attention.  He is like a kid in the school photograph – the same one that appears at both ends of the photo!

I think we could safely describe Tiddles as stout!

And Silver was a leg in each corner.

So despite their convincing protestations, this little lot are doing more than fine in their winter field.

Dear little ponies. ❤️ They never fail to make me smile.

The weather is vile – ok, it has stopped blowing but it is cold and wet.  The horses are being very stoical and I love them for that.  Actually apart from the mud, they don’t seem to care.

I took these photos 5 days ago, when Shetland looked its best.  The sun was going down and I was going to the shop.

I could take nothing for today – outside is dismal.

This is my local village – Walls – it is about 4 miles from me.

Known locallly as Waas – which means in Old Norse “sheltered bay” – voes. Apparently the Ordnance Survey (map people) added the extra ll’s as they thought it was a corruption of “walls”.

There is a lovely new marina and a pier (built in the 18th century) and apparently (and I did not know this), Walls was a centre for fish curing.  The boat from Foula docks here.  We have a shop with petrol/diesel pumps, a bakery, 2 churches (Methodist and Church of Scotland) and a Nursery and Primary School.

Addendum: and our own community indoor heated swimming pool!

Anywho, I have also been in my shed most afternoons making my sheeple.  One every day to add to the pile that will hopefully end up at the Jamiesons Knitwear in Lerwick.  There is the usual range of curly or non-curly in a variety of colours.

I am trying hard not to hibernate this winter and have given myself daily tasks that must be accomplished – to put one thing on Ebay a day and to clean and tidy up a drawer somewhere in the house/shed every day!

This afternoon, I drove over to the other side of the island to deliver some horse rugs that needed attending to. I want them to have leg straps put on as I am fed up of losing them in a gale – they blow over the horse’s head and then sit in a heap in the mud, always the mud, looking invisible or like a slightly different rock.

So, after dropping off the rugs in someone’s garage (I hope to God it is the right one or a random stranger now has 6 of my very best rugs), I decided to go home via a long scenic route.

I seldom visit this side of the island so I had some time to myself and looked at the spectacular east side of Shetland.

Some interesting facts: In Shetland you are never more than 3 miles from the sea.

Shetland is nearer to Bergen (Norway) than it is to Aberdeen.

It is further north than Moscow or Southern Greenland (I did not know this!) It is on the same 60ºN latitude as Helsinki, Finland and Anchorage, Alaska (I did know this!)

“Shetland was Norse until 8 September 1468, when the islands were mortgaged to Scotland for 8,000 florins as part of the marriage agreement between the future James III and Princess Margrethe of Denmark. In 1472 the Scots annexed both Shetland and Orkney.” – Undiscovered Scotland

There are over 100 islands in the archipelago that makes up the Shetland Islands.  Only 15 are inhabited.

Shetland’s population is around 23,200 (last counted 2014).

The North Sea is on the east coast and the Atlantic Ocean on the west coast of Shetland.

And there is no such place as The Shetlands!

So you know – Shetland, yes, Shetland Isles, ok if you must, but never The Shetlands.

We all have our routines and our places in the house.

In the morning, after feeding everyone their hay, Floss and I go back inside for breakfast.  Floss sits in the sitting-room (while I am in the kitchen) with her slice of toast and sits in “her spot”.  Today, someone else was there and he wasn’t moving.

That would be Monster, aka White Panfa!

So Floss ended up in Daisy’s spot – this now marks the end of civilisation as we know it.

With more work to do, we are back out at 11.00 to do the rounds with the hard feed – or meals-on-wheels as we think of ourselves.  We came home in time for lunch around 13.00 and guess who was still in Floss’ spot.  However, he had turned round. Good effort.

When he hears us in the kitchen, Monster joins us to sit in His Spot!

Everywhere is a potential spot if you are a large white cat.

BeAnne doesn’t have a spot. Where I am is her spot.

Monster has many spots – see what I did there….geddit?!

He is speshul.