The weather is going to disintegrate tomorrow and snow and a fierce gale are forecast, plus windchill of -12 Celsius.  Not fun.

I don’t want to bring the Icelandics inside as they hate it (whites of eyes and endless panic), so I put rugs on them all to keep off the worst of the weather.

And then I drove swiftly to Lerwick to get another round bale of hay because it is always useful.

Home, and everyone was happily eating, wearing what looks like their school uniform!  At least they are easy to spot in their field.

Wish us all luck!  The next few days may not be much fun.

While I was feeding the Ancients in their field, I looked at Haakon, my aged friend of nearly 30 years, and felt incredibly thankful he is still with me.

You get one horse in life and he is mine.  Yes, there are others around but there is only really The One.

Some might say that Haakon and I are like an old married couple. We know each other incredible well. I know what’s he’s thinking and he would probably say the same about me.  We are also not very dissimilar in character.

And possibly even the same hair-colour at times!

Haakon is my constant, my rock, my One who also looks up when I shout for him, knows his many names – Piggy, Pignut, Porky …… and even knows left and right too.  Clever horse.  I have ridden him ill, not 100%, after three lots of spinal surgery, ankle surgery and even as a total passenger with my hands in my pockets and each time he’s known and looked after me like I was made of glass.

So, I’m thankful Haakon’s still with me because even though he is retired, I still need to know he’s here.

Today was a day in Lerwick showing our visitor the sights.

We left for town straight after breakfast, stopping for any pretty photo opportunities.

Lerwick was, as usual, empty.

But it was nice to show our visitor the shops (a few were open) and the favourite tourist spots.

Including DI Jimmy Perez’s house from the TV series, Shetland.

Haggis and chips for lunch plus a quick trawl around a suprisingly busy Tesco (so that’s where everyone was) for various ingredients – this is the beauty of a visitor who says “would you like me to cook supper?”

YES, PLEASE!!!!

We were home in time to do the afternoon chores while the light was disappearing.

No visit is complete without a trip to the beach.  Our favourite is Sandness beach.

I lugged my big camera with me so I could take nice shots of the dogs, etc.

Pepper met a pack of collies and was a very good girl, if slightly overwhelmed.  There’s a wee dug in there, somewhere.  Eventually everyone split up and went their separate ways.

Ted even got his feet wet – a far cry from his Berkshire home with my Mum.  I think he was telling me this!

Pepper was like a small otter running over the seaweed.

It was a good walk.

The dogs enjoyed themselves and were thoroughly exercised.

And, as promised, this is my new improved muck-heap.  Plenty more room now.

A lovely quiet day finishing food up (soup and more soup) and not thinking about much. I am now the proud owner of a new improved larger muck heap too – there will be photos tomorrow of this memorable edifice.

Just how I like my Boxing Day.  Perfect.

And we watched an Indiana Jones’ film all afternoon, eating Christmas biccies and drinking tea.

🎁 🎄 🎁 Happy Boxing Day 🎁 🎄 🎁