Some very kind friends sent me a variety of tea bags from America and amongst them was the most yummy tea I have ever tasted.

Chocolate mint oolong tea by Stash.  Yum.  I thoroughly recommend.  If After Eight’s were a tea, this would be it.

Having finished my tea selection, I decided to buy myself a box as a reward for my “lifestyle change” – 18 whole tea bags instead of alcohol, butter, refined sugar and reduced carbs.

Relatively easy you would think….

….. until I saw the postage.  Holy cow!  So I phoned them up to ask if they could perhaps reduce the charge and use Royal Mail who just charge a blanket rate no matter where in the UK.

I mean does a tea bag seriously need a courier and yes, I did ask this question.

Apparently it does.  Well, surprisingly this internet company lost the order and probably many more.

To get over my abject disappointment, I popped over to Bergli Stud to take some photos of their gorgeous Shetland ponies.  I did the posh stuff and then enjoyed watching the little curries bounce about!

Delicious and what movement!

I fell in love. Sorry, but I did.  He was soooooo handsome!

I love it when I capture them flying too.  This little lady moved beautifully.

So I am still ranting about the postal charge.

*** grumble, grumble ***

I split up the herd yesterday into fatties and non-fatties.

The fatties were left in a smaller field with less grass and they hated it. They missed their friends (and grass).

I caved in this afternoon and reunited them in the smaller field, which is not that short on grass anyway.

My dilemma is not dissimilar to the fox, wheat and the goose on the boat going back and forth across the river.

Ok, this is Iacs (19yo) = fattie, fairly fit and never going to get his youthful manly figure back.

Next up is Haakon (20 yo) = fattie.  Fit, if not more, as Iacs, his cousin.  It is his build.  He is the old-fashioned Icelandic farm horse type.  Built for function.

Then there is Klængur (11yo) = fattie – He arrived much thinner, had 2 years off and turned into a Suffolk Punch when I wasn’t looking.  His weight worries me.

This is Kappi (10yo) – Bjørn’s horse = fattie.  He needs to lose weight.  He is a very good doer.  He is worked daily and no weight is dropping off.

And then there are the not-so-fatties. This includes The Minions and Taktur.  The Minions are a good weight, they are happy, bouncy and going into winter just right.

Taktur, on the other hand, has daily hard food and is ridden daily to build muscle.  He is well covered but needs to get back into condition.  I don’t want to starve him as he needs his grub and is prone to slim down.

So what to do?  They all want to be together.  If The Minions are left with Taktur, they will probably eat his mane and tail and Taktur likes being with the big ones more than baby-sitting.  Kappi is the main baby-sitter and if he is in Fat Camp then he can’t be with them.

I told you this was a dilemma.  I hate splitting up the herd.  My answer so far is to keep them all together in slimming field.  Watch like a hawk anyone losing weight (yes please fatties) and feed Taktur and/or Minions if they look like they are losing condition.  Then, when filthy weather arrives, move them into grassy field so they can eat and burn fuel keeping warm!

On the world’s slowest dog walk (for Jack), I saw hundredsof mushrooms and/or toadstools.  As the walk can be done in pigeon steps and I would still be faster than Jack, I took some photos of the fungi for identification purposes later.

I would be very grateful if anyone could add their tuppence worth as to the fungi id so that I know what is murderous or not.

This year, I have seen very few field mushrooms – we usually have sacks of them and I make endless soup bases (aka Euthanasia soup!)

Some of this lot look worthy of a mushroom omelette made for Snow White by her Wicked Step-Mother!

Clavaria fragilis, commonly known as fairy fingers, white worm coral, or white spindles, is a species of fungus in the family Clavariaceae.  I have never seen it before but today it is everywhere and looks like someone dropped a bag of bean sprouts!

Blackening Wax-Cap (Hygrocybe conica) ?

Meanwhile, I have split the herd into those that don’t need to go on a diet…

And those that do –  Kappi and Klængur, who are not happy but I have to be cruel and may even add Haakon and Iacs into the mix as well.  But I want The Minions and Taktur to put on weight and be well fed all winter.  We will see.  Nothing is written in stone.

Hey ho, on with the fungus identification.  I will search t’net and The Collins Wild Guide of Mushrooms and Toadstools as well.

I was not required for babysitting duty this afternoon so I made the most of my time off to try out a new photographic experiment.

I had ridden Klængur and Taktur and lunged Kappi in the morning so was feeling like doing something completely different and un-horsey.

So I went out with my camera, an unhelpful tripod and tried my best to take photos of the water droplets on the cobwebs.  They are everywhere at the moment and not easy to photo.  I think I will keep practicing as I like the results but want more focus and clarity.  .

Anywho, this is the best of the bunch and they came out better than I thought they would.

Them spiders are very clever and like their cobwebs, this is work-in-progress too. I have more time tomorrow and, weather permitting, I will have another go if they are still around or new ones have been made.

I walked into the field this afternoon to see Taktur lying down trying to have a kip.

Silver had other ideas and determinedly began his Annoying Shetland Pony campaign.

Although Taktur was being very nice about it, I could see that Silver was totally exploiting the fact that he could reach and there was nothing Taktur could do about it apart from abandon his idea of sleep.

The other babysitters were on strike, off duty, asleep and refusing to even look at or help the situation.  Typical.  Call themselves friends. I think not.

So I sat on a rock, provided a toy and the three boys came over to play with me.

The toy behaved remarkably well and didn’t get narky like she usually does.  Bridges were built – Silver hates BeAnne so this was encouraging.

And Taktur gratefully slept.

He snored and dreamed.  Anyone who says horses don’t dream, is wrong.  In his sleep Taktur nickered to himself and smiled. I wonder if he was dreaming of Hetja – his one love.

After about 20 minutes to himself, he woke up, stretched and got up.

So, of course, the Minions started to yawn and feel tired.

At least Taktur got some uninterrupted sleep.