Her Maj, aka BeAnne Duvet, has many names and descriptions.  Today she is Beetle.

I hate it but BeAnne is getting on a little in years now – 12 years old but in my eyes still my puppy. I watch her slowing up, though she did come on that lovely ride with me the other day, which I hugely appreciated but it has never been repeated despite my numerous requests.

BeAnne prefers to stay at home and do her own thing. I don’t force her to go with me if she doesn’t want to.  At heart, she is a home girl and anyway there are borders to repel.  She has a job.

If I walk around the croft BeAnne always comes along too.

And she even bounces about enthusiastically when we go into the hill.  I love to see her like this.  She is my puppy again.

BeAnne’s particular fondness is for the large puddles that have appeared because of the rain.

All I have to say is “do you want to go swimming?”…….

And in BeAnne dives.

She will run about in the water having the best time.  I have my suspicions that BeAnne sometimes takes herself off to find her own quiet little puddle when I am not looking because she comes home soggy.

May she live forever.  My little Beetle.

On a Sunday afternoon, I like to make a pile of all my props and filmstars, take them to the stable and make a small animation film.

Today was no exception and I had company.

My fan club…….

Monster was, in his mind, alone.  His one love is OH who he follows around all day devotedly shouting at him.  But OH had gone out, Daisy was away, and all Monster had was me and BeAnne.  We were a poor substitute.

BeAnne made herself a nest.

Or two – and, yes, she did think about investigating the wheelbarrow of horse poo but I told her this was a new low.

Monster was such a pita (pain in the arse) that I ended up picking him up (many times) from my set and depositing him in a nice place where he could go to sleep.

He complained at me bitterly. Nothing was good enough. I was not OH.

My set-up is by no means perfect. The stable is pretty much full of horse stuff and is dirty. In fact it drives me mad that I can only make my short little films but Sunday afternoons are for learning my skill and having fun.

I hope you enjoy the film.

After checking all the horses and ponies, OH and I went for a walk on Sandness beach.

We had it all to ourselves.  Not a soul to be seen.

Except, of course, there were the seals watching us and following our every move from the safety of the sea.

OH and I wandered from one end of the beach to the other collecting small pebbles for my mother’s bonsai tree collection.

I had been tasked with this job when I went south to stay with my mother.  She said the pebbles keep the roots down and in place so, on her behalf, we trudged about looking for suitable stones.

If there is one thing we have an abundance of here in Shetland it is pretty beach pebbles.

Of course, I had my camera with me but this time we did not have BeAnne who refused, when asked, to come on our walk.

Her loss.  The beach was, as usual, lovely.

So we enjoyed our dogless walk.

We picked up, discarded and collected a good selection of shingle.

There weren’t many birds about.  The odd sandpiper ran about.

It was a good walk, even without Her Maj.  Of course when we got home she was hysterical with happiness at our return as we had obviously heartlessly abandoned her.

It is blowing a gale in Shetland today. I have been outside briefly to collect some beautifully mended rugs (hallelujah – another tick on my winter preparation checklist).  On my way home, I checked on the Shetland ponies and put out fresh water for the pregnant Icelandic ladies.  No one wanted to talk, just huddle. At least it is warm out there but still it is horrid.  Flights and ferries have been cancelled or delayed because of this.  Certainly not a day for traipsing about with an expensive camera.

So, after doing the appalling task of “The Accounts” which have been looming on my desk for a while, I went through the last of my photos from the camera I took to my mother’s last week.

It quickly became apparent to me that my two worlds are very different.

We used to walk the dog first thing every morning on the surrounding municipal golf course before the golfers appeared and I always took my camera to miss taking photos of any interesting wildlife.

I managed to totally miss a fox and even, what I am almost convinced was, a wallaby!

On my last day, I lost my glasses and so took a photo of a park bench which Mum and I both thought was possibly a deer!  After closer inspection, I realised my mistake.

Anyway, whatever, the walk was always beautiful.

As you can gather, I was rather obssessed with the abundance of trees – their shapes and colours were mesmerising.  We don’t get trees like this where I live.

This is from my last morning’s walk.

And this is where I was the next day.  Home at the Minion field.

I like both my worlds.  They could not be more different if they tried.

Our trusted equine dentist, Stuart Huggan, came to Thordale today.

There was immense relief all round as we had to cancel our previous appointment in June due to having to get on the boat a day early to go down to the Icelandic Horse British Championships.

It was not something I wanted to do but our hand was forced by an appalling weather forecast and the threat of the boat not going.  Upon our return, I then nagged and prayed that Stuart would return.

And he did.  Big phew!

Since cancelling, Daisy and I have watched the horses’ behaviour for evidence of tooth problems and every headshake and evasive behaviour has been put down to our negligence!

We had Taktur, Kappi, Klaengur, Haakon and Iacs looked at first and then we wheeled in the two old ladies.

I have been very worried about Vitamin who is beginning to look “pouchy”.

Stuart worked his magic and did his stuff.  Everyone behaved which is always good.

Lambie insisted on watching.

It’s his thing. He loves to observe.

And charm. Lambie definitely did that.

So I am hugely relieved the dentist has been.  Every horse who needs it has had their teeth sorted and we will go into the winter with the best sets of gnashers possible.