First, a spot of house-keeping.

• Thank you to my friend, Nick, who filled in my blogging gap with his lovely guinea pigs, calendar etc.  Much appreciated, as ever.
• Also, if you are feeling kind or mildly appreciative, please can you vote for me for the highly prestigious Haynet Blogger of the Year Award – http://www.hay-net.co.uk/haynet-news/6051/nominees-announced-for-haynet-blogger-of-the-year-2013—please-vote

I am thrilled to be nominated.  So thank you.

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Arctic conditions here – the weather forecast said so and, based on what has happened these last 36 hours, I would concur.

4am (2 nights ago), I was woken to thunder and lightning.  As BeAnne shot into our bed, I shot out to go round the house pulling out every plug I could find.  Sadly the router got it and after 24 hours of no inter-super-highway (as my neighbours call it), I cobbled together an ancient router, started up an old computer with a 30 second working window, quickly entered the password before it broke again, and ta-da here we are, back on the net!  It was like a scene from the Crystal Maze.  I am feeling rather proud of my techie abilities.

We have had constant gales and it is Arctic out there.

As the wind blew, it was pointless putting out silage for the horses, as it would have been blown away immediately so OH opened the gate and the lads went into the more sheltered field and were fine.  They have been playing, eating and even lying down in the most horrendous conditions.

Today the wind has died down.  We took the dogs out for a quick walk and then we put out two bales of silage for the horses.

Although the snow is not very deep, it is brutally cold. 

Digestion apparently generates more heat than any other body function.   Ours are very good at eating.

The burn never ices over so they have a constant supply of fresh water too.

BeAnne luffs the snow and had a delicious silly half hour.

Hello everyone – Nick here, again, as Frances has been hit by an internet outage so is unable to post here. She has asked me to cover for her while they wait for it to return, and as you can imagine she feels like she has lost a limb as we all rely on the internet far too much these days (myself included)!

Anyway, with no new photos of horses or ponies to show you, I’d just like to quickly mention my calendar for 2014 – it’s called ‘Ísland úr lofti / Iceland from above’ and consists of 12 aerial photos of Iceland that I took on my last few visits to that amazing country. You can see the photos featured at this page on Facebook – if you want a copy for £15 just get in touch; here, on Facebook or Twitter.

Now that’s out of the way, things have been pretty mental in our house lately. My other half has decided to turn our house into a menagerie by stealth, so we currently have three guinea pigs, Archie:

Lumi and Cosmo:

Two hamsters (a Robo and a Russian Dwarf), two chickens (seen here a few months ago, before they started laying):

And our latest addition, the incorrigble Danny:

Danny arrived about a month ago from a breeder in Sheffield and is half Border Collie, half Bichon Frisé. Still a puppy, not fully house-trained, he can be trying at times, but when he’s chilling in his bed or on the stairs he’s a little angel. How looks can deceive!

(Archie is the only one who’d sit still enough for a proper photo – the rest have all been caught on iPhone camera)

I tried to walk the dogs – twice. We managed Jack’s potter to the end of the track and back – that is all he can do without making a huge fuss.  You walk him on the way out on a lead and then turn him round, unclip and watch him trot home.  He likes his routine and woe betide anyone who strays from that.

But I (plus Loki and probably BeAnne) need the exercise.  It helps me sleep better having had some fresh air during the day and it is all part of my physio and fitness régime.  I like to walk 2 miles a day if I can either in the hill or down the road.

We set out with the best intentions.  There was a strong wind (Force 7) blowing straight down the track and it made it almost impossible to walk in.  On our 2nd attempt, Loki and BeAnne were being blown backwards and I couldn’t make much progress either.  It was very cold too.

The horses didn’t care at all.  They were oblivious to the weather and remain rugless, stableless and perfectly alright.

I watched Haakon and Taktur playing in the distance.  That is a good sign.

There is an Yellow Alert in place from the Met Office tonight.  Yuk.  Heavy snow and more gales.

If the horses look like they are suffering tomorrow, I will move them into another field.  Play it by ear.  Nothing is written in stone.

I am sort of excited about the snow coming as everything will twinkle and look beautiful.  It covers up all the mud and shit!

Winter is definitely coming!  

It will be interesting to see what Loki thinks of snow.  He was very unimpressed with our last smattering.  Her Maj luffs it and goes like a demon everywhere.

Today has been a busy old day for me – 2 medical appointments and, as it was such a calm day, I couldn’t be arsed to spend the time in between Christmas shopping, so I drove about taking a few photos.

These are the Commonwealth War Graves looking out to Bressay – http://en.tracesofwar.com/article/4029/Commonwealth-War-Graves-Lerwick.htm

The entrance to Bressay Sound, the “Sooth Mooth” or South Mouth.  Us incomers are called “Sooth-Moothers” by Shetlanders as we come to Shetland on the boat, via this stretch of sea, the South Mouth of the harbour.  It is considered a derogatory term.

Bressay Lighthouse – “It was one of four lighthouses built in Shetland between 1854 and 1858 which were designed by brothers David Stevenson and Thomas Stevenson. David Stevenson initially maintained that building a lighthouse in Shetland waters was impossible, too dangerous and too expensive, and that any ship’s captain who took this route was mad.”

It is a holiday home now, available to rent – amazing apparently – http://www.shetlandlighthouse.com/bressay-lighthouse

In between appointments, I drove around Lerwick looking at the amazing sky change constantly.

It was one of those days when you go over the crown of a hill and say “I wish I had my camera”.  This happens quite often to me but today, I had brought it and took full advantage.

It was a “day between weathers” and so, so calm.  The lochs were like glass.  Tomorrow is a gale and rain, then snow.  Should be fun.

So a successful day in as much as I went to the Pain Clinic and was told that as everything was going so well, I didn’t need more spinal injections (phew!) but I can go back if necessary and won’t be dropped off the waiting list.  So that is a good back-up plan to have if needed.  Hopefully I am just moving forwards now and getting better.  Not going backwards.

I participated in a “Top of My Christmas List is….” thing on Facebook today.  It didn’t take much thought or consideration really.  I just want my girls home safely.  Then the festivities can begin.  Not before.

Going through my photos (part of the cull to regain some computer space), I came across these and inwardly smiled to myself.  They were taken a few days before I went to hospital for my ankle.

This is the last time I rode my horse, Haakon (ignore my feet, please). I haven’t ridden since.

Daisy’s last request before she went back to St Andrews was to snog the bebbies – Lyra, Carina and Zoot.  These were taken at the end of August, I think.  Interestingly, they all have the same hair style.  Must be a student thing.

Then I took Daisy back to St Andrews and I haven’t seen her since.  We all miss her, especially Lyra and Bimble.

Point-of-Interest – Hugh Grant is banned from the restaurant (bottom right) and apparently the university.

Another POI, this is also the longest I haven’t seen Flossie for.  8 1/2 weeks.

She comes home earlier than Daisy – next week and I wonder whether we will get her back on a horse again?  My dream, this holidays, is to go on a ride with both my daughters, though I will probably be the one crying at the back!

Everyone is putting up pictures of Christmas decorations on Facebook and ours won’t go up until both my bebbies are home, which is not until the 20th at the earliest.  I am counting the days.  When they are safely home, I will be able to relax.  Not until then.