I don’t waffle on nearly enough about Waffle.  Out of them all, Waffle is my sensible little chap who I can rely on in any crisis.

He has always had a very grown-up (and beautiful) head on his shoulders.

When the first three arrived as depressed starved foals (Storm, Silver and Waffle) all those years ago (back in January 2014), it was Waffle who was easy to catch and work with so the other two followed his lead. He made life much easier and in turn taught the other two how to behave and trust me.

Now five years on, everyone is doing well.  The only permanent damage, apart from obvious lack of height, is that Waffle’s the type of chap who puts on weight by just looking at food (a bit like me then). As a weaned foal, his metabolism had been forced to get the most out of every calorie.  So he looks like a bit of a table now despite my best efforts.

Today Storm was being annoying.  He had that look about him.  You can see it.  Pure wicked.

So Waffle told him.

But Storm was not giving up.  It is not his nature.

And Storm probably thinks it is his job – Chief Annoyer to Waffle.

(Storm has very short legs – just sayin’)

And so to town for my absolute last (but it might not be) Christmas shop.  En route, I fed the ladies (OH kindly taking the Sandness route for me to check on Brá and Minions).

There are actually three buckets – one each but they always insist on bucket-hopping.

But as long there are no arguments and everyone shares nicely, I don’t mind.

The girls didn’t get much (don’t stick your tongue out at me, Hetja because you think you were hard done by) – just a token gesture to tell them I love them – and then I changed my wellies for my posh (just read clean, really) town shoes and went on my merry way to “buy local”.

Town was, well, not very busy though I did struggle to find a parking place.

I checked on my little flock. They were all doing fine and I noted I must make some more black curly ones.

The Christmas windows (for those that made the effort) were very good.

These knitted baubles have all been made and donated by knitters around the world – they will be auctioned online at the end of January and all proceeds of sale will go to the MRI scanner appeal. I would look at their @mrimaakers Facebook page if you want more information nearer the time of the auction.

Lerwick was, as ever, looking beautiful in the calm winter afternoon.  Light is very precious, if brief. There aren’t enough daylight hours for me in the day at the moment.

A nice time pottering around by myself but the Christmas songs were everywhere. I rocked around a Christmas tree after I had driven home for Christmas!  Agh!  Too much. It was a constant tinsel earworm.

This is my lunchtime view – not bad. Fish and chips from the Fort.

And, once done, home via the garage for some petrol.  I love this!  Very Shetland.

There was this bright thing shining up in the sky this morning.  Very strange but I made the most of it and went out to take photos of my old men (and Her Maj)  in their field.

Klængur has joined them as I think he missed “grown-up” conversation.  I led him over with a haynet around his neck as I forgot to bring a headcollar!

This morning also saw Haakon cantering towards me (and perhaps my bucket of food).  It is something I haven’t seen for a few years now. The last 5 years immediately vanished and Haakon was all enthusiastic and happy.  I could’ve cried with happiness.

In his bucket he has daily roughage/fibre with TurmerAid and Devil’s Claw, mixed in, which seem so have really helped his stiffness and general “old age” attitude.

I am so pleased. It is lovely to see. Long may it last.

Meanwhile, Iacs was thrilled to have a new person to share his hay with.

Iacs has always been very sociable and this enforced confinement with Haakon has its limits.

So now the three boys are together.

We will see how they all get on together.

And then later Klængur and we went for a lovely ride together.  My new riding companion laughs when Klængur spooks, which makes me laugh and that has done a whole lot of good as we bomb up the road.  I am less nervous and we are both much more relaxed.

So all is good.

I thought I would go black and white today. Something different.

There was a brief lull in the rain so I went out with my big camera to capture the magic. Shetland is always beautiful, I remind myself.

Monster was squozing himself from under my car. Knowing his feelings for me (or lack thereof), I suspect he has cut the brakes!

What me?  No! Never, of course not. I’m innocent, I am. Drive it and see. Go on!

These days, everyone is outside again and I am trying not go down the always-in-a-stable-and-feeding-hay route.  Fresh air is better for horses.

But, for me, it is a very easy trap to fall into and theoretically we are not really into a full-on proper Shetland winter yet (though it feels like it).

I am also trying hard to keep the Boyzenberries at home despite their constant attempts to escape.  I put them in a field every day and then they spend it looking at me malevolently and trying to catch my eye to ask if I will let them out because apparently sheep don’t live in fields. I gave in today and let them out early.

Lambie is in a very odd mood. He goes round just looking, well…..odd!

He appears to be cross-eyed. Like I said, odd.

(I quite like this black and white – better than filters)

Anyway, the rain is giving up now for a few days and hopefully we will all dry out, eventually.

Though, I am still not convinced that my car has not been tampered with!

Everyone has been moved to Clothie, 5 acres of field that hasn’t been touched since Haakon and Iacs left it over a month ago.  After the storm, I thought it would be a good place for the youngsters to be for a bit.  We lug hay over daily.

Efstur and Taktur are still being fed their smigeon of hard-feed.  With five horses in the field, I took some headcollars to fend off any circling vultures.

But I didn’t need them.

We put the two buckets out and Efstur and Taktur instantly knew they were for them.

As the others didn’t bother, Floss went and gave them each a carrot to say “thank you chaps”.  Dear boys.

Dreki came over for a little chat but he knew better than to ask his father for his food.

So once Floss had distributed evenly and fairly her carrots, she kept Dreki occupied pratisicing a very important Thordale training technique – the Nose Kissey.

As you can see, Dreki has mastered and loves this method of training (he is a very good kisser or perhaps that is too much information!)