Esja was brought over this afternoon by her trainer, Bjørn Roar Larsen, to do some work.  He has the girls – and I have the boys.

Her training has been going very well.  Little and often is what happens – 5-10 minutes work maximum every few days, always finishing on a good quiet note.

Esja and Bjørn have a solid trusting relationship.

Before, Esja was a flibberty-gibbet in the field, dancing hysterically around her handbag with her Shetland filly friends.  Suddenly, now work has been mentioned, her Sensible Switch has been flipped and Esja has turned into a calm and listening Icelandic mare.

She loves her work. Her ears are always pricked forwards and she glows when she is praised for thinking forwards and doing the right thing.

So, this afternoon, Bjørn got on her back.

To start with, I led and Esja followed me.  After half a round of the school, she quickly realised what was required and walked and halted upon request.

Unphased, Esja even did a tölty thing when asked, happy to speed up and had no difficulty in carrying Bjørn or finding her balance.  Her brakes were exemplary too.

Esja is a darling horse and whoever buys her will have themselves a sweetheart of an Icelandic mare with wonderful breedlines who takes everything quite literally “in her stride”.

I love it when you see the penny drop.  Esja has been waiting to work and it suits her.  I am very proud of her.

Waffle and Hjalti are now joined at the hip.

Hetja has accepted that Waffle is part of her little herd and perhaps, almost, maybe a useful addition.

I am well aware that Waffle is a tad on the fat side but, if I am feeding Hetja and Hjalti, it would be unfair to leave him out.  I am also optimistic that all the roughhousing will slim him down a bit.

The other three Minions are missing their Waffle. He told them when to come and eat and now they are not sure what to do or when to do it.  I suppose he was their Minion Leader.

I was wondering whether to put Silver in this field too.  He is tough little nut and will keep away from Hetja and, if she is going to chase, she can only go after one at a time!

Waffle would then have Silver to talk to and Hjalti could have two to scrag.

Two little Shetland ponies leading Hjalti astray can get into twice as much trouble.

Well I did it.

After careful thought and consideration, I led Waffle over the hill to Hjalti and Hetja’s field.

Hjalti was hopping up and down with excitement.

Hetja was not.

She kindly let them meet over the dry stone wall.

It was love at first sight.

And then Mother muscled in, dragging her son and heir away from that nasty common little Shetland pony urchin thing.

She was having none of it.  This was not good enough for her son.

But poor Hetja had not factored in Waffle’s endless charm and personality (and gorgeous smile!)

Hjalti was desperate to go and play with him.

And I wanted them to meet too. So, I stood with Hetja blocking her way so Hjalti could go and get to know Waffle without his Mum attached (and raging).

I explained to Hetja that if you let them go, they will come back, but if you don’t, when they leave, they never return.

Hjalti was a very happy little boy.

At last he had a friend to scrag.

Someone to talk to at last.

After a while, it was more than Hetja could take and she muscled back in but Cupid’s arrow was already shot.

She fired off a few warning shots to frighten Waffle.

Hjalti was desperate for her to stop.  He loved his new friend.

and it was reciprocated.

He tried talking to his mum.

And she settled down a bit but then she insisted on pushing Waffle into walking in front of them for about ten minutes.  I don’t know why.

Waffle ended up the other side of the old dry stone wall and Hetja calmed down.

The boys renewed their friendship.

It was interesting, though, when Hjalti returned to nurse from Hetja, she gave up trying to attack Waffle.  I did tell her he would come back. Maybe it was that – she just needed to know he still needed her.

They have calmed down this afternoon so I left them to it.

So, let’s hope everything is fine tomorrow.

I always say to folk “if you need help, here I am”, or “if you need photos, here I am” but few rarely take me up on the offer.  I can only do what my back allows me to do and sitting, lifting or bending down are not really possible.

So I was thrilled to get a request from Transition Turriefield – “Transition Turriefield was established as a Community Interest Company in January 2011. Turriefield is the name of the croft where we’re based and the Transition part is about doing what we can on a local scale to tackle the global problems of climate change, rising food prices and diminishing supplies of cheap fuel.”

As well as their weekly vegetable box schemes, Turriefield are having a stall at The Shetland Food Fair on Friday 30 October – Sunday 1 November 2015 at The Clickimin.

They needed help trimming, washing, bagging and labelling.  This I could do.

I was also in charge of gadgets – happy, happy.  I loved the machines and I have always wanted my own shop.  Those scales were fun.  My last bag-sealing was probably the only perfect one while the rest were purely functional.

I went yesterday afternoon and BeAnne refused to come too. I left her at home and she was found wandering down the road looking for me.

So today, I took her with me as I knew there would be vile weather this afternoon which would upset her.

BeAnne was happy to go (she likes the folk at Turriefield) and quickly settled into helping.

So we worked on our veggie production line and I enjoyed every minute of it.

At last, hurrah, Lambie and Lambert have moved into the field.  The Minions have given up chasing them and everyone is getting along fine.

Obviously, Lambie and Lambert come in at night. They go happily into our small old vegetable garden at the back of the house and have a lovely shed with lots of hay to sleep in if the weather gets particularly bad.

(and yes, there is a radio in there too – remember Lambie loves classical music!)

So my little “Boys-enberries”, as they are now known, are doing very well, perhaps a little too well.  Half rations of hard food now as Lambert wobbles when he walks!  Despite trying to live as normal sheep, they are still very loving, devoted and cuddly.  Sheep really are the easiest of pets.  Every home should have one!

The horses remain in their big field, as the weather has disintegrated drastically these past few weeks but they are happy.

The Minions are on the other side of the fence in another field.  They dot in and out endlessly from one field to another, crawling under fences and giggling at me.  I have given up trying to contain them.  It is a thankless task and they always appear if there is food.

BeAnne keeps guard at all times.  She loves being outside to repel all borders or at least tell them endlessly she would repel them – methinks that would be Yorkshire Terrier side of her family.

Over the scattald or hill, at Clothie, is Hetja and Hjalti.  Hetja, I think, knows there is a handsome prince not very far away but, at the moment, he has not cottoned on so there is no endless gazing and not eating.

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So this is my set-up at Thordale. They keep me as busy as I want to be or I can leave them knowing they all have food and shelter if they want it.   It is a good set-up.