A Few Odd Ones

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Nothing much to say today as in absolutely nothing has happened except for the weird photos I found that I took throughout the day.

This was Monster first thing in the morning telling me all about his night out and how he worked hard protecting the homestead. Those borders don’t repel themselves, you know.

So he went to sleep.

The old Icelandic horses were all lined up.  A lesson in perspective.

And back inside with me trying to eat my breakfast while catching up on stuff or not. Monster had finished his morning nap.

There was no moving him now. He was settled for the rest of his morning.

Tiddles and Albie.

Silver with glorious windy hair.

Lambie’s rather gruesome Winning Smile.

Lambie told me he wanted to go inside the house now, thank you, please.  I followed him.

And I honestly think he would’ve gone straight in and made himself at home if it wasn’t for the dastardly (but prettily painted) door.

But there was absolutely no way, no how that Lambie was going to let Gussie inside.  If it is anyone’s house, it is Lambie’s (apparently).

Back to Dog Walks in the Flowers

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As Pepper has now had her two stitches out (and, apparently she was a very brave soldier), I thought she could start going for a walk again, but only short ones and strictly supervised.

So I decided Pepper and Ted should go to Clothie, my 5 acres of long grass and flowers which forms part of the old horses and ponies’ winter grazing.

At times, it was difficult to see the dogs.  They were easily lost in the long grass and flowers.

Nearly impossible at times.

Pepper was loving her new freedom.

The two dogs bounded over the grass together, trying to see over the top and where they were going all at the same time.

Meanwhile, having walked to the top of the hill, I sat on a windowsill of the old crofthouse not watching the world not go by.  There wasn’t a soul to be seen, just the long grass swaying in the wind to the sound of the curlews shouting.

I think the short walk was a success.  The daily bandaging less so, though. She hates that and fidgets horribly.

I still don’t trust her not to go a-visiting – strict supervision, remember!

Now, Ted I mostly trust. He has a good track record and stays around the house.

While Pepper is always looking for the chink in our armour.

Breakfast for All and Cat TV

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There is an order to my mornings.

The older horses and ponies are last on my catering list, after the sheep and the other Shetland ponies.  However, they don’t mind and I leave them with their own bucket in a strategic spot in the field going back to collect the empty buckets afterwards.

My breakfast is considerably later – between 9 – 10 a.m. and sometimes I share the table with Monster which I do not approve of but he refuses to listen.  He likes to annoy or help, depending on his mood.

Today it was annoy.

And Monster was very unhelpful. I was trying to order Pepper some special food for her sensitive tummy (day off from eating again yesterday *** sigh ***).  Monster was having none of it and I think changed my password and probably ordered a little something for himself too.

To get him off my iPad, I put Cat TV (Youtube) on for him and he settled down to watch it while I ordered Pepper her special stuff.

This afternoon was, again, unhelpful in its own way. I had an emergency dental appointment in town and Pepper needed to have her stitches out too.  OH kindly offered to take Pepper to the vet, as dental appointments are like hen’s teeth around here.

The stitches are now out and everything looks healthy.  The vet, apparently, said these things take a long time to heal.  So Pepper is sporting a new dressing and bandage and we will continue with dressings for a little while longer.

And I’m glad I got to see the dentist too. Talking of teeth….. Lambie is on good form (thank you for asking).

A Funny Old Day

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Winter seems to have returned today and we are all grumbling.  It was 12°C with a mean F7 westerly so about 8°C.  Brrrr.

I spent my morning productively taking the internet to bits.  Our whole network had ground to a halt so I repositioned the router upstairs (for better signal), reset all the extenders and re-attached them to the network.  So far, I have tripled the signal strength around the house, and am praying it stays like this.  Our internet signal is my bête noire and in Shetland, without fibre, 22 Mbps is jolly well racing along.

In need of a break from argumentative, yet invisible, technology, I took to my shed after lunch to admire my one sweet pea flower that I have successfully grown from last year’s seeds.

I made another sheep – the white one on the right – to add to my latest bag of stock.

And then it was the turn of the real sheep.  They had spent their day in a field with deep thick grass – everyone’s winter grazing for when it snows.

The grass has really taken off this year.

I could barely find Lambie.

Rattling a packet of ginger biccies, they all agreed to come inside which means all my outside animal chores are done for the day and I need not go outside again.

Even Lambie cooperated.

This is always the tense bit as I can’t double back to close the field gate and the ponies are just around the corner eating their haynets.  They could so easily run into the field.

Once through the main gate, I ran back to shut the field gate so the ponies couldn’t go in.

And then there was my follower. Today it was Barrel doing his best for an extra biscuit but the packet was finished so I had nothing to give him.  Sorry Barrel.

Poor Monster (Sort of)

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According to Monster, there is a special place in Hell waiting for me.

OH and I were invited out to have a curry in town yesterday evening.  So we fed everyone early, I carried Monster outside as he hadn’t been out all day, shutting down the cat-flap (to prevent Pepper a-wandering) and we left.

It started to rain and it rained until we came home 5 hours later.

We found Monster outside complaining his little furry heart out and we all had to feel guilty.

While we were driving home, OH reminded me that Monster was still outside. I had forgotten all about him being outside. We found him yowling by the front door soaked through and very cross.

Mostly he was cross with me.

So I scooped Monster up, gave him a big bowl of his favourite munchy-crunchies and towel-dried him thoroughly.  I hoped this would make him feel better and happier.

But not really. Monster also took out his rage out on Ted by insisting on sleeping in his beloved bed upstairs by the heater.

So then Monster had to be evicted and there was growling (Monster, never Ted) because Ted wanted to go to bed now and Monster’s bad mood started all over again.  I couldn’t win so I gave up and went to bed too with a large grumbling white cat on my feet refusing to move.