This is my world, here in Shetland.

And this is Flossie’s world in Chengdu, China where she is living and working for a while.

As you can see it is somewhat different to what she is used to.

And yes of course we told her to bring a panda-baby home.  The one in the middle upside down is my favourite.  Dammit, they are all my favourites.

Last week Flossie went to visit Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

She said it was amazing.

Jealous, moi?  Of course.

The red panda was not cooperating on that day.

Anyway, Flossie is learning to play Mahjong.  She promised to teach me when she comes home.

The internet is a marvellous thing.  Apparently, according to Google, Lerwick (our nearest town) and Chengdu are 4,889 miles away.

Flossie is having weird things to eat – pig’s brains served in a jam tart foil dish!

Or suckery legs!

Our lives seem very different at the moment.

Flossie is sending back some wonderful photos.  Pandas make a change from ponies.

I had a disastrous afternoon in Lerwick (don’t ask) so I bailed out and went for a walk instead.

Being a Sunday, there were few folk about and almost all the shops were shut but it was good to wander around while I tried to regain my composure and perspective on life, the universe and everything.

Here are my photos.

Forgive me, but I am not really in the mood to talk – still upset but hey-ho, the world spins onwards.

Anti-mimesis is a philosophical position that holds the direct opposite of Aristotelian mimesis. Its most notable proponent is Oscar Wilde, who opined in his 1889 essay The Decay of Lying that, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life”

….. as I often say to myself (not).

This is one of my favourite pictures that hangs in our house.

Not-so-little Monster has everyone organised into doing what he wants except for being fed every time he shouts.  We are now immune to his nagging.

Monster almost appears thinner.  I would even go so far as to say the incredible weight seems less.  If he is really starving he goes and finds himself a couple of rabbits, a small bird and some mice for dessert.

Monster still likes a cardboard box.

He finds them, well, restful.

Dear Monster – I feel he has been with us forever.

And Lambie has decided he has forgiven me and returned to his house for some of his speshul carrots, that he was given by Transition Turriefield to cheer him up.

When visitors come to see the Minions, they don’t usually come back.   We are a brief encounter on the off the beaten track unofficial things-to-do in Shetland circuit.

But today we were re-visited, which made it a special day (as well as being given two types of delicious cake and some beautiful plants).

The re-visitor knew the drill and what to expect.

The Minions gave it their all.

And I think it was appreciated, if not enjoyed, even.

Our visitor brought her daughter so that she too could enjoy the hands-on Minion experience.

I asked each visitor which Minion they wanted to take home, if it were possible.  Newt was chosen to “go south” as was Lilja.

These days Lilja makes a very good honorary Minion.  So that’s the biggest and the smallest packing their imaginery red spotty hankies.

I think these visitors will be back, somehow.  They hear the call of the Minions.

I have been noticing recently on my daily physio walks with the sheep that Lambie has been shaking his head a lot.  Upon examination, I found this worrying granula growth above his eartag.

I immediately panicked and spent a good day trying to get a halfway decent photo of the back of Lambie’s lug to send to the vets for their advice.

I sent the photo over to the vet and a reply duly came back with the words “to try blue spray initially but the tag may need to come out. No need for anitbiotics at this time.”

So Daisy and I spent a few mornings letting Lambie into the house to be rugby tackled into a headlock while one of us sprayed blue spray on his lug.  It was not an easy task.

Things did not seem to be getting better so, after my chat with the shearers yesterday, I made the decision to have a better look and possibly cut out the ear tag.

Lambie refused to be caught so we had to lure him into the house with Daisy sitting on the sofa noisily eating Lambie’s animal shaped biccies at him!

Another rugby tackle/headlock and I saw that the eartag had been pushed through the hole and it was looking nasty.  So we cut the tag out, cleaned the hole with blue spray and returned Lambie to his field.

I went over later to have a wee chat with him.

I was grudgingly tolerated but he was not a happy Lambie.

I think Lambie must’ve rubbed the tag out of position.

I noticed later on, when I let the Boyzens out of their field this evening, that Lambie is not shaking his head as much so hopefully it will all calm down now.

I doubt Lambie will ever come into the house again, which is a pity because I want to blue-spray his lug daily.