I have finally put my foot down.  You may, or may not know, that I live with a very talented interior (and exterior) decorator – my Other Half or OH.   His work is legendary and some of the best homes (and the odd dodgy one) feature his unique decorating skills.

But living with a professional decorator, means that we are always last on the list.  Cobbler’s Children and all that.  I made a huge fuss and now we are at the top of the list. I want my house painted from “mould-cream” to “no-mould-cream”.  Is that too much to ask?

Floss and I are prepared to help and, apparently, it is all in the preparation.  Is it so wrong to paint over the dust/dirt.  Can’t we call it texture.  Apparently not.  Who knew?

So we have been cleaning, washing and vacuuming the walls, like you do.

Everything has been piled into boxes and dumped into any empty(ish) space.

I think this is called work-in-progress or mess, in my world.

The prep has been done and tomorrow is painting.  I don’t know if we are painting using brushes or rollers or terrier.

For time off today, Floss and I walked the dogs – we took them on a ride and then we had to do our statutory foal taming.

Such a chore.

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These two darling boys are beginning to find their own identities and independence, as well as a very strong bond.

A week on from their arrival at Thordale and I am so proud of the orphan foal, Brisk.  He is now part of a strange, but working, little family.

However, Camus is obsessed with ‘Ster. Now that is a bit odd.

With everyone being everywhere, I have very few ponies at home at present. I personally try to check on them everyday (I have friends who check on them all the time so please don’t worry that they are being ignored because they aren’t).

The Cough has finally been vanquished having gone selectively through the small herd.

Lyra caught it and I actually managed to catch and give her intra-muscular antibiotic injections on a daily basis, which was amazing.  Obviously, now I can’t get near her or ever will again, but she had her full course of treatment and that is all that matters.

Storm was very ill with this horrid infection.  As you may remember, he and Tiddles came home for their nursing care.

Storm did not take kindly to his jags but manned up by the end.  He had a five day course as well as cough medicine, which worked very well on him.

And then Hjalti caught The Cough and off we started with his course of different antibiotics because he is a youngster.  These went down like a lead balloon but through fair means (and foul), we managed.

Now, when we visit this field, we are all acutely listening out for any rogue coughing and then we pounce on the pony and start their antibiotic course.

It seems to have done the rounds of the littlest ones, but not Waffle and Silver, and not Delia.

Anywho, my little herd is all back to normal.  Phew.  For them, the best outcome is that we now have to always visit with food to say sorry if we ever want to be spoken to again!

“Simmer Dim” is the shortest night or the longest day, depending on your perspective.

We were invited by Houlls & Hounds on Burra (another island) to join them on their Simmer Dim ride.

As we were four, I transported over Klaengur and Haakon the day before and then Kappi and Iacs on the day.

We set off – at about 21:30, all wearing hi-viz and/or lights.

We were aiming to get to Bannamin Beach – about 2 1/2 miles away.

Bannamin is a tombolo and connects Burra Isle with, I think, the Isle of Banna Min (though I may be wrong – please tell me).

We started by walking in a a very controlled way up and down the beach, so the horses could become accustomed to their surroundings – for us, our horses had not been here before.

Then there was a tölt down and a canter back up.

Now, that I can do, I think.

Then we walked back down and cantered back up at a speed that was most acceptable to horse and rider, apparently!

It was brilliant.  The best fun I have had in years.  So nice to ride with folk who were happy and in control (because they had all been trained by Bjørn).  This was a relaxed ride with like-minded folk.

No one squealed, no one was out of control and all the horse and riders got on beautifully.

Even me, with my “bitchy resting-if terrified” face.  God alone knows why I look like this.  I can only think that I was realising that it was one of my last rides as my back was very unhappy in a give-me-painkillers-now way.

Darling Haakon.  I haven’t ridden him for months – I lost my  mojo .  But he is always the same and I am always very grateful.  My best friend forever.

We went home, having been endlessly photographed by various folk, including The Shetland Times.

It was a wonderful evening.  Nice people, beautifully behaved horses and much fun for us all. I would definitely do this again, if my spine let me.

I think I am getting too old for this (I never thought I would write that!)

Yesterday was our Simmer Dim (midsummer) night’s ride.  It was magical bit I am exhausted now.  I have seem to have lost the art of being able to go to bed at 02:30 without suffering for the whole of the next day.

I am writing this arse about face (back to front).  We went for a ride with the ladies from Houlls and Hounds in Burra yesterday evening (I will write about it tomorrow as the photos are just coming through, I am too exhausted and need to go to my bed).

Today, we returned to Burra to collect two of our horses that we had left behind.  I only have room in the van for two horses and there were four of us last night.  We also helped Bjorn with a voluntary stallion assessment for Merkisayre Surety.  Boy, that Shetland pony stallion can more – I mean really move.

While the assessment was going along, I spent some time taking a few photos of the surrounding scenery.

So, here they are:-

Even in Burra, there is telephone box vandalism. Sad.

I found a beautiful old boat that had been lugged onto the shore. never to sail again – now, more ornament than function with a giant hole in the hull. The wonderful texture of the weathered old wood contributed to the fact that this boat was spending the rest of its days in a field.

Splendid and so very Shetland.

There were beautiful sea pinks growing everywhere on the shore.  I am very fond of these flowers.  Always strong in the sometimes fierce summer weather.

And so to bed.  Tomorrow, I will put up the simmer dim riding photos.  The best fun I have had for a very long while.

I had a bad night – dreaming and worrying in my dreams about Tweet-Tweetums-Tweet (aka Tweet2)

I was right to be worried, waking at 06:00, I hurried downstairs to find him nearly dead – cold and with a lolling head, barely breathing.

So I spent the next few hours getting him back on his feet and was beginning to feel hopeful that we might be maybe slightly, even perhaps, moving forward.

We put a black and white toy in his box to sort of look like a relative.  It was mostly ignored or used it as an escape route if possible.

I put some tweety sounds on a loop so birdsong was all around him, like in the wild.  Tweet2 was enthusiastically tweeting in reply.  He was becoming more and more active, running around his box on his little legs.  It was wonderful to see.

Things were going in and coming out, the right colour and consistency – Floss and I worked hard all morning keeping him warm, full of food and happy.

And then suddenly, totally unexpectedly, Tweet2 quickly downhill and died.  So Rest in Peace Tweet-Tweetums-Tweet.  We tried our hardest.  I spent every minute looking up various care procedures for wild birds and realise the odds were very low.

So, to try and cheer ourselves up, Floss and I went over to see the chaps in Sandness.

Always good therapy.

We did our best.  I hope we didn’t do anything wrong.  I am always happy to learn.

Tweet2 is buried under the comfrey in the garden.