After lunch, I went outside to just get a few things ready for the evening – haynets in place, feed buckets made up, that sort of thing, feed the ducks….

And who did I find? Only everyone waiting to come inside.  In my opinion that was a bit previous, by about at least an hour and there was no need to come inside yet.

No chance, I said to them and went off to poo-pick their field/track instead.

Little did I know, I was being watched as I poo-picked their field and when I decided to open up a bit more of their field for them, seven little ponies appeared out of nowhere and decided unanimously that they didn’t actually want to go to bed yet.  There was food to be eaten instead.

So I left them eating tomorrow’s ration today.  Ho hum.

As it got dark, an hour later, I went back out and shouted.  Seven little ponies cantered home and I laughed as I watched Newt nip past the old ladies (Fivla and Vitamin actually trotting) and canter into the big shed, turning right into his stall and bucket.  Tiddles followed swiftly after.

I am very popular in the mornings.  This is possibly because I am She Who Carries All The Feed Buckets and distributes accordingly.

After Dahlia and Gussie have had their breakfast, they have now taken to following me around the croft.

Gussie has learned how to jump up, which is ok while he is small-ish, but less fun when he gets bigger. His hooves are sharp too.  Little opportunist.

While Gussie was trying to start a friendly conversation with Kolka and her bucket, Dahlia came over to talk to me.

So sweet.  Gussie is not afraid of the horses.  He hasn’t been up close and personal with the ponies, though.  I have purposely kept them apart as the Minions can be a little frisky sometimes.

Pepper was, as usual, determined to be the centre of attention and was perched on my knee. Dahlia decided she would try and make friends with this impossible furry thing.

(excuse my finger – it was such a sweet moment and I just about missed it)

Gussie and Pepper remain firm friends.

He is just as interested in Pepper as she is of him.

Funny pair.

It was nice to see Dahlia more relaxed about Pepper.  Dahlia can get a bit stampy and butty sometimes with her.

And as quickly as the sheep arrived, they suddenly both turned tail and left to put themselves back in their big field for the day.  The others joined them later but with less ease and a lot of bribery.  They could learn a lot from these two.

And I watched the sunrise over the muck-heap.

I try to get out on the Minions’ track at mid day to keep on top of the poo-picking (my newest chore).

These past few days, I have found it very difficult to spend time with the ponies as I miss Storm so much.  He should be with them.  I can’t count to seven.  EIght was so much easier.

I think the only one who misses Storm is Silver.  He shouts for him occasionally and then forgets and of he goes to join his friends, though I do doubt his choices sometimes.

I did try to explain to him what happened.

Newt was Storm’s greatest friend and foe.  They were related.  Cousins, I think.  You could tell because if one was up to something wicked, the other wouldn’t be far behind.

The track is made a bit bigger every few days.  This time I gave them the whole bottom area of the field which they are thrilled with.  Vitamin and Fivla job share the role of boss-mare and everyone else follows behind never questioning where they’re going when they canter off in the morning.

The rocks are cold but I found a small one and perched on it while Tiddles told me I was his best friend.  He likes to help to poo-pick, which is very distracting but lovely.

I am mostly nose-height which means I have to kiss the proferred nosey for each poo I find to pick up.  Well, someone’s got to do it!

Today is OH’s birthday and I gave him his present in a box.  No, it wasn’t Monster, it was a very nice bread board.

But the minute the box was empty and put on the floor, Monster was straight in making himself comfortable.

And that’s where he wanted to spend his morning (Monster, not OH).

I left Monster snoozing and popped down to the byre at the bottom of the garden to get something celebratory out of the freezer for supper when I got the feeling I was being watched.

So I nipped back up to the house and got three carrots to give to the “fairies” at the bottom of the garden.

Three fairies to be precise.

At least they don’t know how to open the gate…… yet.  Looking at it from the photo, I think I might take some rope to tie the gate up a bit better. Belt and braces.

Back in the house, Monster had gone to sleep.  The box is a the best bit about someone’s birthday.

Today I had a day off.  Once all the horses, ponies, ducks, chickens, Ted’s eyedrops (he has dry eye) was done, I climbed into clean clothes (that would be anything without mud or horse, pony, duck, chicken, dog or cat involvement) and shoes, kissed everyone goodbye and left home, never looking back.

(sorry, Pepper, you are not coming too)

Clean clothes and shoes do not go well with our home environment.  I ended up walking on the grass trying to avoid being covered in mud, which is everywhere.

Making it out fairly mud-free, I drove off to collect my friend, Monika, and off we went to Lerwick. To Mareel, to be more precise.  “Mareel is a multi-purpose entertainment venue located on the waterfront of Lerwick”.  The cinema, in other words.

Tickets pre-booked, a sandwich (lunchtime viewing), plus a Pepsi and my weight in Haribo and I was set for a lovely afternoon not thinking about ponies, cats, dogs, yada yada yada…..

We had a quick perusal of the Lovely Things in Mareel’s shop.

Can you tell what film we were going to see?

A bit of a clue here.

It was Wicked and I was mesmerised 100%.  A brilliant film, soundtrack, everything.  Would I watch it again? definitely.  As the titles came up at the end, I just said “wow” and I meant it.  Possibly because they don’t have mud in Oz, just a brief talking horse.

Then we wended our way home and I dropped of Monika and came home back to my life of mud and horses, ponies, ducks, chickens…..  I changed back into my filthy (with a funny horsey smell that follows me) clothes and went out to put the ponies to bed etc.

It was a lovely day off.  Every mud-free minute.