This morning’s dog walk at 07:30.  The municipal golf-course that surrounds the house was empty.

After breakfast we walked around Mum’s beautiful garden.  It is more Autumn here than Winter.

Teddy is always around, which is lovely. Having a dog nearby is very important.

We hit the shops and were obviously inundated by Christmas.

All is well.

All is well.

I flew south this morning via Aberdeen down to Heathrow, London.  I left home at 05:15 and landed in London at 10:45.  That’s fairly incredible.

A crescent moon and what is apparently the International Space Station followed us down to the airport. OH and I argued this point all the way to the airport as well as whether the moon was in an eclipse.  I wanted the star to be Venus. We also toyed with the idea of Mars too.  I am sure someone will tell us what the light is.

Land Ahoy over Scotland.

The sun rising many hours after I got up.

Arrival at Aberdeen airport.

Even at this early hour, it is all very beautiful.

I am just down south for the week.

We had an early vet appointment so Daisy and I had to rush around in the almost-dark looking for Waffle and Kappi.

We drove the boys to the vet for their annual booster injections for equine flu.

I sat in the van and admired the view while Daisy went inside to say we had arrived.

The boys waited patiently.  They are both experienced travellers.

Waffle was first.

He knows this.  Smallest first!

And of course he was a very good boy.

Next up was Kappi.

(I got Waffle out so he could eat the roadside grass to make room for the vet to get to Kappi).

You can rely on Waffle to behave.  He knows his job.

Then we loaded Waffle up again, drove them both home, took Kappi out, put Fivla in and drove them to the MInion field.

So that’s done for another year.  At present we have no plans to go south but boosters are better than starting the vaccination course again because we missed a year.

Shamelessly stolen from Wikipedia….

Once upon a time a farmer went to a market and purchased a fox, a goose, and a bag of beans. On his way home, the farmer came to the bank of a river and rented a boat. But crossing the river by boat, the farmer could carry only himself and a single one of his purchases: the fox, the goose, or the bag of beans.

If left unattended together, the fox would eat the goose, or the goose would eat the beans.

The farmer’s challenge was to carry himself and his purchases to the far bank of the river, leaving each purchase intact. How did he do it?

🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸

Well that was us today.  We needed to move Lilja, Brá and Hetja.  One horsevan for two horses and no one can be left on their own.

So, with the help of Daisy and Flossie, we caught Fivla and took her out of the field.

We caught Lilja and loaded her (she was such a good girl – huge hugs and nose kisseys for my princess) and then loaded Fivla leaving Brá and Hetja behind.

We drove Lilja and Fivla over to Leradale.

We left them there.

Then we drove back, caught and loaded Brá and Hetja.

And drove them over to Leradale, quickly removing Fivla before we put them in (as Hetja hates all things Shetland pony with a terrible rage).

We re-loaded Fivla and drove her back to Thordale leaving Lilja, Brá and Hetja now happily munching in their new winter field.

Once at Thordale, we unloaded Fivla.

We took Fivla over to live with Waffle, who is here awaiting his travel injections tomorrow.

We removed Haakon and Iacs, who had been keeping Waffle company these past few days.

We put Haakon and Iacs into the big field, opened the gate and shouted for the others to come through as well.

There was a lovely reunion.  They do all hate being split up.

And the sun was going down.  Many jobs well done.

So how do you move the goose, the beans and the bloody fox then?  Pretty much like that!

A trip to town in more filthy weather for a hair appointment, a few messages and lunch – chips looking at this perfect view.

While Floss was finishing up, I wandered around with my camera.

This is the one of the propeller blades salvaged from RMS Oceanic, a transatlantic ocean liner built for the White Star Line.

The Oceanic’s maiden voyage was in 1899 and she was considered the largest ship in the world until 1901.

In 1914 she ran aground and was wrecked off Foula (the island opposite us).

The Oceanic has a close association with RMS Titanic, one of her sister ships, very nearly colliding into her in Southampton.  Bits of the Oceanic were salvaged in 1973.  The story of her history, demise and salvage is fascinating and can be read in a great book called The Other Titanic by Simon Martin

I made friends with this dear little seabird taking shelter from the fierce wind and sporadic rain.  I have now given up trying to second-guess what breed for the blog.  It was a bird, that is enough for me.

As Floss and I were early for the hair appointment, we went for a little drive to see where we could photograph the best waves.

The Mental Health Unit carpark came up trumps.

I parked the car perilously close to the edge (a drop down to a small dogwalking path) and the sea.

It was a tad feisty out and exhilerating trying to take photos.

I strongly recommend researching RMS Oceanic on t’net.  It is a fascinating part of Shetland’s history.