Winter reappeared again.  

I am not sure what we have in store as the forecast changes hourly from doom and gloom to slightly less misery.

I am trying to maintain my daily routine though it is getting more difficult. Getting up in the morning now takes about 4 hours as I have to recover and regroup from the whole process.  I am lucky that by the time the painkillers have kicked in and I am upright, Taktur has brought his friends down to the house.  

Despite the snow, there is food out there in the field

but I am still feeding Taktur (though Indy does not know this).  As long as Indy thinks Taktur is going out to work, he does not push and shove his way to the front. So I open the gate and Taktur and Haakon wander through, leaving the others behind.  All very civilised and easy.  Perfect.  I couldn’t bear a battle.

Carrots are dished out to the others and that is all they expect, so no one is hanging around waiting for more hay or hard feed.

Happy little smiling faces greet me and I duly shovel in a carrot.

Darling, darling Bozz-Bozz has the same expressions as his Dad and reduced me to giggles while he worked the field with his immense charm and soft little nosey.

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I hope this is just a smattering of snow and it will all go.  

Today, this blog is short and sweet.

BeAnne resembled a small Rottweiler puppy when we bought her (arrival on Day 1)

and she had silly ears too that always remind me of The Flying Nun.

BeAnne has always liked horses, even as a pup.

Today, BeAnne acquired a new skill – wobbling on board whilst in trot!

Tomorrow HOYS!

Today started badly but I took a shed-load of analgesia and hauled myself out to walk the dogs.  I like walking as I find it helps. 

It was a beautiful clear still Shetland day and I took Jack (elderly grumbling Patterdale terrier), Celt (16yo ancient but doitin (definition) lurcher) and BeAnne (perfection, of course) out for a walk.

We were pottering along, if slowly because of me, and I was admiring the amazing blue sky

…and the incredible scenery

when I noticed we had a follower – Wussums!

Now, I will fully admit that I have not been Wussums’ biggest fan.  To date he has stolen cold roast beef and a haggis.  He refuses to sit on a lap, loathes BeAnne and has bitten me twice.  He does sleep on our bed, comes when he is called (outside) and has a soft lisping purr when you pick him up but he just isn’t Fatsworth.  Fatsworth has left a giant hole in our hearts and Wussums is not really filling it.  But today, he made me smile with his dogged determination to be part of this dog walk.

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And so we all plodded over hill, bog and heather, a happy little family and it was perfect.  One of those days to remember forever.

I sat on a rock for a while watching everyone.  BeAnne and Wuss had their usual stand-off and no one was the winner.  It involves Wuss imitating a pufferfish while BeAnne pretends she has never chased him and doesn’t care.

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After that, we went home again, all the way down the hill.

I think Wussums could find a place in my heart.  I liked him coming for a walk with us.

(There were no sheep involved in the making of this blog – they were too busy looking on thinking we were all mad!)

My eldest daughter, Daisy, worked very hard on the photoshoot for VisitScotland.  She held important photographicky gizmos (yes, I want one), dressed and undressed Fivla and Vitamin and even moved them into various desired locations using the power of her mind (look, no headcollars).

The photographer, Rob McDougall, asked if she would mind being in a separate film he was making. I thought Daisy would say no as she tends to hide from my camera or immediately grab a dog to put in front of her.  But, surprisingly, she agreed and manned up to the task, ie stand in front of the camera, freezing, holding a pile of cards, which she had to drop one by one (like Bob Dylan).

 

This is her smiling-but-numb-with-cold face.  She was great and never complained once.

Luckily we had Robin from Visit Scotland around to pick up and put the boards back into the right order and, as usual, Fivla and Vitamin completely ignored what was going on around them.

I honestly think bombs could be falling and F&V would not bother to lift their heads.

So well done Daisy.  You were great and I am so proud of my beautiful eldest daughter.

This was the one perk of the job.  She got to mingle with the stars.

Enjoy the film.

I would love to say I feel wonderful, everything is fine and tomorrow I will be undertaking some Herculean task but I am not. 

My back is going, going, gone.  There are no words to describe how nasty the sciatic pain is down my left leg.  Exhausting.

I can just walk (albeit slowly), I find sitting difficult and am slowly giving in to the painkillers, which I hate. I can’t drive and I hurt sitting in the car as a passenger.  I will do this for emergencies, though.

One good thing – I can still ride Haakon and he, bless him, looks after me and seems to understand that I am his fragile passenger.  I do feel the clock is ticking on the riding front, though.

I am waiting for an emergency MRI scan in Aberdeen and leap on every telephone call in the hope it will be them with a date for me to travel down south.

Sorry for the whinge. I really do try not (I was told once that all I do is whinge) to but today got the better of me.

Things that cheer me up are nice emails, trying to sell my daughters into slavery, snogging my ponios and designing adverts for the Shetland Pony Stud-Book Society Magazine!