I have a headache (the leftovers of a migraine that I woke up with) so I am not going to bore on today.

I am also not in the best of moods as I have been fighting with iCloud and trying to back up all Aunt Kate’s diaries/notes/photos as my ‘puter has funny strange lines across it.  All the work is already backed up on an external hard disk so, if it dies, I don’t actually lose (please God) anything.

Anywho, here are some photos of the Minions from yesterday, instead.  The weather is vile – and will be for a few more days – so I am trying to make the most of the nice photos I took.

Enjoy!

Newt annoying the ever-suffering Albie, who is possibly a Saint.

Dear Tiddles looking like he is “smiling” – he was yawning.

Dr. Henry Jekyll

Mr. Edward Hyde

“Do NOT sniff there, Newt – no good will come of it!”  He must’ve been in a funny (peculiar, not ha-ha) mood.

Our beautiful Vitamin.

She is doing so well this winter.

Little Albert-Potato (that’s what I call him – I have no idea why).

The ever-expanding Waffle. He is as wide as he is tall.

Lovely Leradale.  One of my favourite places.

My two good little boys – Silver and Tiddles.

Albie with his “mother” – Fivla

Swallowed-a-button Silver.  Aloof but special.  We are coming up to the original Minions’ Anniversary of Misery – the last Wednesday of the month.

And, well, Newt.  Everyone needs a Newt.  It should possibly be The Law.

Sóley-the-Foalie, since her eye incident, has been a bit aloof from us.

She likes the idea but mostly bottles out when she comes for a chat.

But luckily now we have a secret weapon, or rather 8 secret weapons…… the Minions!

They, of course, love chatting to anyone – never fussy!  Absolutely anyone will do (or victims as they like to call them) in their opinion is good value.  Lilja is also a very sociable young lady.

Interestingly, Flossie and I decided it was Lilja and Sóley who wanted to talk more to the Minions than the other way round.  Makes a change.

Anyway, add a person into the Shetland Icelandic Meet n’ Greet and then the dynamics become even more interesting.  Look at Sóley wanting to talk but……. just not sure.

And suddenly she gets braver!

“Hello Hooman!”

And swifly becomes “one of us”.

Sóley is rewarded for her bravery efforts.

And, because absolutely no Minion isn’t a people-person,…..

She is back to her brave little foalie self again!

So that didn’t take long.

We were, of course, followed back up the hill in a very determined way.

Lilja looks so much like her dad. Those eyes. That expression.

All together now….

Sisters, sisters,
There were never such devoted sisters.
Never had to have a chaperone, no sir.
Lilja: I’m here to keep my eye on her.

All kinds of weather, we stick together,
the same in the rain or sun.
Two different faces, but in tight places
we think and we act as one. Uh-huh!

Meanwhile Hetja was busy far away stuffing her face!

Well, the wind has blown while rain/sleet/snow has been hurled at us in varying degrees of ferocity and we are now coming out the other side of this particular winter storm.

All the horses came in this morning for double rations of hay and a hard feed of mostly fibre.  Then, as they said they were bored, we chucked them all out again.  Who am I to argue?

I love this photo – everyone is standing facing one particular direction except for Efstur. He always has to be different!

I went and checked on everyone outwith Thordale – they were all fine and wondering why I was late with their grub.  Lilja was almost hopping up and down! I took some photos of the sea but they are not half as spectacular as I thought they were at the time. You had to be there.

The sheep did a runner into the hill at the first opportunity but assured me as they vanished, that they would be home for breakfast.  Their choice.  They know the set-up.  I am feeling a bit like a cross between meals-on-wheels and a cafeteria.  But that is how it always is this time of year.

So that’s us. We’ve come out of this storm, temperatures will rise again as the wind changes direction – a northerly this time of year is always particularly cruel.

Aunt Kate’s Diaries are going great guns.  She is in Brussels. It is 1897 and they have just seen Sarah Bernhardt! How cool is that?

Red sky in the morning, shepherd damn well hopping up and down saying bad things are to come and how right that shepherd is.  This is this morning’s sunrise.  It couldn’t be more obvious, short of writing “Storm Warning” in neon letters six foot high.

So it has been a bit of a fraught worrisome day because of the weather ahead and for those that have to get back to their day job after the Christmas festivities.  In the end we opted for the 12 hour ferry from Lerwick to Aberdeen (guaranteed to go tonight rather than the 1 hour plane flight that is not guaranteed to fly tomorrow) – and then add to the mix various airline connections.  My theory is that once on the mainland, there are more options.

All the horses and ponies have been checked and those that live here are in fields that can easily reach the stable tomorrow.  After that, we shall reassess and probably keep everyone in and just throw endless hay at them for 24 hours.

Meanwhile, to lighten the moment, I put a hat on the cat (Monster’s wonderful Christmas present).  His expression says it all.

BeAnne has gone into a decline as we had a brief power-cut this evening.  She hates them and the cat-flap(s) have to be blocked as she likes to leave home, hide and sit and howl to herself about her misery.

I may have hit the gin!

Here are a few photos from yesterday’s Minion release that didn’t quite make the grade for yesterday’s blog, so I tarted them up in black and white in the hope they would look more arty-farty and a bit better, which I think, in retrospect, they do!

Anywho enjoy.

Newt standing still and looking ever-so handsome as well as a bit perky!

And then there is the “Wild Newt”.

And the “Motorbiking” Newt.

Everyone is galloping off together to explore their domain.  Vitamin is the one with the wonderful mane.

“Rockstar” Storm doing his stuff for anyone watching.

Is there anyone more gorgeous?  I think not.

Silver photobombing Storm.  That won’t go down well.

Storm has some lovely moves.

Silver doesn’t but still looks very handsome.

Waffle can’t be bothered with all this posing and posturing and so does what he does best….. stuff his fat little face.  That leg-in-each-corner look is not going to maintain itself. It needs constant work and attention.

And lastly darling Vitamin who looks like a show pony, even aged 25+.  She is superb.