I went to see Hetja and Little Himself (still no name) this morning after walking the dogs on the beach.  The dogs understood and stayed out of the field while I went in, only to find Hetja on her own.

Yes, I panicked.

And then I stopped when I saw a pair of little spikey lugs appear.

Little Himself stood up and instantly looked gorgeous.

He had his lunch while Hetja patiently waited for the carrots she knew I would bring.

Every time I see Little Himself, I am blown away with just how perfect he is.  He is wow!

You can see that he is growing his first teefs!  Poor Hetja – I bet she can feel them.

And he is eating grass too – mostly sampling, I think.

After the carrots, Hetja walked off and her son dutifully followed.

Hetja settled down to the important job of eating while Little Himself wanted to look at me….

And think ……

So I sat on the ground and waited to see what would happen.

Joy of joys, Little Himself decided he wanted to talk to me.  I slowly rested on my haunches, put down the camera, stretched out my hand, looked at the ground, rounded my shoulders and I felt this soft, soft velvety nose touch my hand.

There is no nose in this world softer.  It was better than silk, velvet, the finest material.  Just soft and warm and a little tickly.  I looked up and my heart melted even more.

I was officially introduced.

And then he went back to Hetja and I came home feeling very honoured.

Now, what is Icelandic for small soft nose?

As you know, or even may not, every year I sell yearling foal fur to fund my Shetland Foal Milk Service (supplying orphan foals with foal milk) or the day-to-day running of The Minions.

Recently, I was given this wonderful little chap by a regular Shetland visitor who took the wool from last year, spun it and created my dream pony!

Isn’t he wonderful?  He is perfection.

The main body is made of Silver, his hooves are Waffle and his mane is mostly Storm.  I love him.  I think he should be called Staffvler!

This is the rest of Silver’s foal fur beautifully spun and ready to be used.

The black and white ball is a mixture of Storm and Waffle.  Very clever..

So that was the three original Minions for once being useful!

And now I have a pocket-sized one!

He has the same hair-do and darling expression too!

Next it is Tiddles’ turn to donate as he is the only foal we have from last year.

His coat is very thick and we have done some brushing/combing but on Friday, when he is being gelded (please do not mention this to him), his belly fur will be shaved off too.

So far I have three buckets of the stuff so if you are interested, give me a shout. I will be packaging it up soon into bags.

Stuart Huggan, our equi-dentist, came over today to see the Icelandic horses.

First up was Taktur, our stallion, but as I was holding him, there was no one to man the camera. He was a good boy, though, and took it all in his stride.

We did bring him some moral support, but they were too busy to take an interest.  Probably just as well.

Next up was Kappi.  He has never, to our knowledge, seen a dentist and he was beautifully behaved.

As Stuart doesn’t come up to Shetland very often, I asked if he had time to see a few more…..

I love Haakon’s face. He knows he is next in the dentist’s queue and I am ashamed to say that, out of all of the horses, he made the most fuss by rearing a few times – at least 4″ off the ground.

BeAnne took to her bed in disgust.

Iacs didn’t mind Stuart in the slightest.  Anything that might help the passage of food go down faster or easier is considered a necessity in his book.  No pain, no gain!

Klængur was another wary one but, as I was there and he trusts me 100%, he had perfect manners.

Stuart was kind enough to say that my horses were easy and very well behaved.  All I could think was thank God, I hadn’t got the Minions out!  I will save them for another time.

Afterwards, I took arty-farty photos of Haakon with the garden lupins (don’t worry, he can’t reach or eat them – they are much further away than they look).

BeAnne had a windswept moment so I captured that too.

This was take just standing in the garden! How the Shetland wind always blows!

Since Taktur and Kappi’s return from the IHSGB British Championships in Edinburgh, they have been kept in another field away from the herd  with no contact between them.

Taktur minded very much and spent most of day gazing over his fence at the others obviously wishing he was there.  I also noticed that Haakon, yesterday, just stared back at him across the hill.

But we had to be sure that no contagious diseases had been brought back from south.

Today, the quarantine was over and we put them all together again.

I called Klaengur, Haakon, Iacs, and The Minions over (small dots on the horizon).

We let Taktur and Kappi into their field and Taktur couldn’t believe his luck.

He didn’t need to be asked twice and off he went to see his friends.

Kappi quickly followed too.

And everyone came rushing over to greet them.

They are a very close group as well as being great friends.  There are two entire boys in this herd and no one cares.

Even the little Minions are considered equal to everyone else.

The Minions had missed their idol.

Especially Waffle.  He had no one to look up to (or bite).

(and I think Taktur secretly missed his Mini-me, though I doubt he would admit it having now “seen the world”, ok Scotland!)

Interestingly enough, Kappi wanted to talk and groom Haakon.  Now this is strange because usually they are not the best of friends.  Kappi is always vying for Haakon’s position in the herd as leader but they were pleased to see each other so maybe Haakon has secretly been missing his orange nemesis.

Anyway, all my boys are back together and that is best for everyone.

OH was working on the Land Rover after its long trip south.

(or should that be Lamb Drover – see what DAISY did there, geddit?)

Yes, that would be DAISY.  She was on top form today.

She also said it had 4 wool drive!

All the seats were removed for this immense project.

When OH went into the house to get some essential piece of kit….

…. he was followed by two devoted “oily rags”.

Please blame Daisy for all these jokes.  Not me.  She is entirely responsible.  I know nothing.

So, the sun was shining briefly and then the mist descended.  Everyone was around the outside of the house (though Kappi and Taktur are still in quarantine for a few more days) as I think we have not nearly had enough Minion time this summer.  They duly made themselves known and came up for hugs, nose-kisses and scratching.

This is a typical Sunday afternoon for us

– in as much as we all sit in the buttercups and watch OH, plus anyone who wants to offer their help.

Do you think Haakon is saying “you’re doing that wrong”?