We all went for a lovely ride and afterwards, as it was such a gorgeous afternoon, we sat on a hill in one of my fields and thought what a wonderful place Shetland is.

As always, the dogs and Lambie and Lambert came too.

We found a nice spot (not difficult) and sat down to admire the scenery, let the dogs/sheep potter while I took close-up photos of Devil’s-bit Scabious (Succisa pratensis), one of my favourite Shetland wild flowers.

This was our view.  How we suffered.

Fairly soon, Lambie decided he wanted to talk to us.

As did Lambert, who sat down behind Flossie – she said he was surprisingly comfortable.

Lambert has been quite aloof since his operation so it was lovely that he wanted to spend time with us.

When you think about it, however, who sits on a picnic rug with two sheep?

Do you think Lambie was perhaps jealous of Lambert moving in on the pet-sheep relationship?

So while Loki had fun investigating the five acre field…..

And Her Maj kept an eye on everything, in case it needed to die ….

…… Lambie and Lambert nodded off on the picnic blanket.

Lambert slept in very funny (funny peculiar, not funny ha-ha) positions.

I think you know you are loved when two sheep nod off beside you.   And you know you are an idiot when you shove up on your coat/blanket so that Lambie can have a dry place to rest as he doesn’t like wet grass very much!

And then the midges got us just that bit too much and we went home quickly.  I HATE MIDGES!

Today, I was mostly a tourist.

A wet and rainy tourist. But I haven’t been a tourist for a while so it was wonderful.

First stop was the girls – who were very, very soggy (and so were we every time we stopped the car,  got out to take photos).

Soggy.

But, I will be honest, it was a luxury to have the time to see Shetland as a passenger rather than driving from A to B.

We saw Shetland in the rain and it was still beautiful.

We met Lambie’s potential girlfriend – she (who maybe a he, not that he would mind to be honest) was gorgeous with a very alluring expression.

Autumn in Shetland is beginning to arrive and the accompanying flowers are making the effort in force before Winter makes its’ mark.

We went to places I don’t normally go.

And we stopped to take photos I don’t generally take!

So all was good and I am writing this thinking I showed my friends My Shetland – the places I find the most magical and special.

And then there was the Welcome Committee when I came home.

My boys!

Tis a magical place, Shetland.

So now Taktur and Storm wait every morning by the gate to go out into the Food Field for the morning.  It has quickly become their routine, although Storm was fast a-bye-byes next to Taktur as he had nodded off while waiting for me.

They both follow me to their new field, whereupon I went out and left them to it – I had my Tuesday morning flute lesson.

Upon my return, a few hours later, Taktur was standing all alone by the gate.  There was no one else in his field.

Two fields away, having gone under two fences and crossed one stream, was Storm.  Haakon was watching on with huge disapproval at a) Storm’s dereliction of duty and b) pure envy at the long grass he was stuffing.

So I opened the gate and shovelled Storm through before Haakon could make a bid for freedom.

And then I walked round, opened the gate to Taktur’s field where he stood “lonely as a cloud” and he followed me happily back to the original field to be with his friends.

I am quite cross with Storm.  You don’t desert your friends.

Anywho, Lambie is very well (as is Lambert).  He still loves his bottles and has no intention of giving up.  He has the same tummy clock that Jack had.  It is scarily accurate!

I have been experimenting with time-lapse photography using my GoPro.  It is work-in-progress and I have much to learn (it can also be very boring wading through hours of photography).  I tried to capture the Northern Lights a few nights back and just had hours of black!  As I said – work-in-progress!

I may need to have words with Haakon now (little sod!).

Because today was quite possibly one of the hottest days of the year in Shetland (20 degrees on my car thermometer) plus a nice Force 7 breeze for cooling, we (me, younger daughter and friend) went looking for impressive waves to photograph.

On our way to our pre-determined location, I stopped to take a photo of “a fine example of Neolithic field patterns” at Browland (according to my passenger who knows these things).

And then onto Westerwick for the immense waves.

Sadly there were none to be seen – just a flat calm which was disappointing because when we planned this trip on the phone this morning, we had taken into account the tide, wind direction and everything.

But, apparently there is no Atlantic swell, despite the 48 hours of Force 7-8 so, therefore, no waves.

Ack, who cares.  We had a lovely lunch out, went home and walked the dogs with the sheep, like you do and got an odd look from a car driver.  I then had to go and take some photos of Shetland ponies (always a chore) for a friend.

Today it was mares and foals.

I couldn’t stay long as I am going out tonight.

My social whirl is never ending today!

I have been asked by Taktur’s trainer to get more grass into him as he is lacking energy and “willingness”.

I looked around for a suitable companion and I have to say I struggled.

Klaengur looks like a Comtois horse after just 12 hours in The Fat Field.

The rest aren’t much better either.

In theory, I should put all the Minions in with Taktur but they have a very bad habit of crawling under all the internal fences to get to other fields, leaving Taktur on his own, which he would hate.

So I chose just one Minion – Storm, who could always do with a bit extra because he is speshul.

So after Taktur’s brekkie, I put them both into The Fat Field, where Taktur stood bemused for a while and Storm got down to the necessaries.

Taktur is impossible.  He is not food-orientated at all.  Not like some *** cough, Kappi, Iacs and Haakon, cough ***

Taktur would rather sit and sniff the flowers in the field.

It is just the way he is.  He’s always been Ferdinand the Bull.

So, I left them to it and I hope Storm does not creep under the fence as is his wont!

Oh yes, and I heard a very odd noise outside the backdoor, so I crept outside with my camera to be confronted by the Shetland version of the Hitchcock film, The Birds.

The noise was very loud and very ominous (as I now remembered the plot of this film).

I think that is what is known as a Murmuration of Starlings and luckily they all flew away.

Ugh, I hate that film.  Too scary for me.