It rained today so I went outside, after riding my two Icelandic horses (one on the hill and one in the school), to take some moody photos of the water droplets on the plants in the garden.

I haven’t got much to say really except I enjoyed experimenting and my feet are wet from traipsing around in the long grass.

Everyone is fed up and soggy.  The smell of wet dog pervades the house and we want the sunshine back please.

Sorry, I am not very chatty today.  I must go and change into some dry clothes.  I am beginning to feel a bit cold now.

On the good side, at least the midges didn’t appear.  That is something.  I loathe the midges.

It is raining today.  Not particularly cold but enough to be miserable if you are standing around.  I let The Minions into the school as they tried to roll in their shed which was a disaster waiting to happen.  Waffle has already been cast (stuck) once when I first got him all those months ago.

As I could see they wanted desperately to roll no matter what, I put them in the school where I knew they would be safe….

…. if filthy afterwards.

I let them play for a while to warm up.

Once they were bored of that, they had a little wander around investigating.

It was then I discovered a new talent – the picking up of fings!

Anyfing….

(so talented, my little Minions).

Having got thoroughly bored of putting everything back, I shooed them outside to eat and play.

I thought they were milling happily around the house, when my OH returned from Lerwick to say he didn’t know I was putting the Minions in with the Big Boys.

Jeesus wept.  I shot outside in a fright.  I had not planned this meeting yet and my Minions could be being beaten to death or worse, beating the Icelandics to death.

Luckily, for once, was very happy to discover my OH was completely wrong.  Everyone had a fence separating them and no no one was beating anyone up.  Even so, I built an emergency fence round their boudoir so that there are now two fences between Taktur and my Minions.  Taktur tends to walk up and down trying to tempt them out of the school playground like a drug dealer selling mis-labelled Tic Tacs!

The Minions would be very easily led by Taktur.  They think he is gorgeous.

This morning our postie delivered a VIP – a very important package to a very important person.

In the package was a lovely pile of tennis balls sent by one of BeAnne’s myriad of fans.  This meant we could swap out the grot.

BeAnne of course realised they were all for her.  After all, the package label said so.

BeAnne was very pleased with her present.

Those bally balls are going everywhere with her.

And she even managed to write a “thank you” letter.

“Dear S****,

Thank you vey vey much for my new tennisballyballs that what you sent to me. Please thank you.

I love them and have put them all in my bed as I am not the sharing type. They were sent to me after all and Loki can have the horrid broken one that I ruined a few days back. He does not care as he is a pikey dog so should be used to nasty old things. Mummy says I have to share but I don’t listen to her unless she is holding food that I like and that is not very often, I can tell you (please, please adopt me).

As the ballyballs get older and I have taken them on dog walks and to the beach, I might let Loki look at one but just look and definitely not touch or he will make me, what Mummy calls, a nasty selfish bitch and it will be all his fault.

Lots of love, but only if you have food for me. BeAnne Duvet Soufflé Princess Chantelle Shaznay du Mezzanine kiss kiss”

(so well brought up – tears to eyes)

(PS.  I may have had gin – hic!)

I have a wonderful new addition to my garden – a raised bed to grow herbs.

Laureen, who is a “WWOOFer” (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) from Northern France (visiting Shetland for a month and working at Transition Turriefield) offered to build me my raised bed and so she did, last weekend!  I love it.

It has been beautifully planted out with a selection  of herbs and I can sit, gin and tonic in one hand, on the seated-edge arrangement, gently weeding without killing my back.  Before my back and I parted company, I was a keen vegetable gardener and I love cooking with fresh herbs.

Meanwhile, I am still pottering about taking photographs of our Shetland garden.

(and playing with Instagram – sorry to those who prefer me not to).

This is what our garden mostly looks like, with the sea in the background.

The reason we no longer have a vegetable garden is that a few years’ back, my OH diligently planted out the usual seeds to see absolutely nothing appear except one deformed tattie (potato) and with that he gave up.  I don’t blame him.  It was very depressing, expensive and huge waste of effort.  So now we just have flowers and now my new-to-me raised bed with herbs in it.  I shall particularly enjoy the gin and tonic, which I feel is mandatory to this gardening thing.

And a horse, if you are still interested.  Taktur today.  He was beyond brilliant and everyone was thrilled with him.

For a five year old stallion, he can only get even better.

I have always secretly wondered about the cult of Instagram and what difference it would make to my photos.  I assumed it would only work on my iPhone and am pathetic at taking good photos with that particular camera.  My hands suffer from wobble.  For those that are not in the know, Instagram is a series of pre-set filters to make modern photos look all oldie-woldie.

With a bit of an internet search, I discovered a way round the iPhone dilemma and here are some of my results.

Enjoy.   I quite liked this experiment.  Anyway, if it is good enough for Anna Wintour’s  (Vogue Editor) son’s wedding, then it is good enough for me to think about.  I am not going to resort to this every day.

(My 2nd favourite picture)

and my favourite.