Tag Archives: My Shetland

Good Neighbours

5 Replies

Apparently this photo was taken by my neighbour at 06:30.  I have no words (but it is sort of my fault because I forgot to clip the lead on last night).

Pepper jumped in the car and was brought home and no one, absolutely no one, is talking to her.  Wee turd.  I am so ashamed.

Feeling very kind and generous, I did however take Pepper for a walk in the morning (not that she needed or deserved one) before I drove the car into town to have something essential done (I forget what) at the garage tomorrow.

  

Earlier, OH had taken Ted in for his quarterly hair cut – which was very due and needed. He picked me up from the garage and drove Ted and I home.  We all think Ted looks great now and much better for his haircut.

Ted does still look very like Dobby.  Ignore the ginger thing on the left of the photo. She means nothing to us.

Apparently she is sorry, not sorry and has been embarrassed all day avoiding eye contact and any interaction.  It was only while I am writing this that she started playing and pretending nothing was wrong.

Not sorry at all.  Wee turd.

Sheep and Horses

10 Replies

A few random photos from my day.

Some of the sheep.

I title this “the only thing holding you back, Lambie, is yourself”.

The Magnificent Three.  Rule the world, this lot could – a horse, a duck and a dog (sounds like some weird logic puzzle).

There was a potential intruder situation at the front door.  I had to pay a fee – apparently an apple core is the going rate.

Then again when I went into my shed to make my daily hand-felted Shetland sheep.  I heard the door handle rattle (Haakon’s one skill). I knew it was him and opened the door.

And, yes, I gave in and Haakon got a shortbread finger or three.

Later on, I couldn’t find anyone when I went outside to poo-pick around the place, but eventually located the horses standing outside the field-gate waiting to go back in.  Usually, I have to wave my walking stick and herd them all there but today they were already around.

So I opened the gate and waited…..

And waited (I love Iacs’ expression, btw).

And lastly, as they wanted to come home early, I let the sheep in.

Note-to-self – arrange for them to be sheared.  I think they could do with it now.

And I title this “Nobody puts Lambie in a corner” because he can do it all by himself!

Happy News Day

2 Replies

I found this lot staring at me when I went back to pick up the empty buckets after their breakfast.  You can almost hear what they are saying – “let us out, let us out – open the gate”.

I did as I was told and they wandered off for the rest of the day to eat and hopefully put on weight.

Later I decided to check the electric fence which, since we re-strung the whole thing earlier in the year, seems to be going (touch-wood) very well.  I had my fence checker with me and there was the same electric pulse strength at the start to the very end of the track – huzzah!  The solar energiser is also now re-charging too which is very encouraging and means I haven’t had to lug a battery down the hill for ages.

While I was fence testing, the little boys followed me round playing Grandmother’s footsteps.  They refused to go past.

The ponies’ coats are coming out albeit very slowly still but it has got colder recently, so I am not brushing anyone very much.

I did a bit of Tiddles but he walked off and was unhelpful.

And then suddenly, the ponies all broke rank and cantered downhill past me.

And the best news of the day – Skippy is finally revived and fully functional.  A huge thank you to my neighbour who spent many hours taking Skippy to bits, fitting parts and getting it working. It’s been quite the long haul and I can’t tell you just how relieved I am Skippy is working again.  Mucking out the sheep shed this year without Skippy made me realised just how useful it is and how much I rely on it.  I am so relieved.

Bumble Bee Fail

4 Replies

i was at Turriefield this morning packing vegetables – salad, onions and spring onions.  Not too onerous so I after lunch, I walked down the hill to the bright yellow flowering kalette plant bed as I was told there was lots of bumble bees there.

I love bumble bees and I really wanted to see my first-for-the-year Shetland bumble bee (Bombus muscorum agricolae), which is a distinct sub-species of the Moss Carder bee.  They have orange bottoms.

Anyway, I didn’t see one and what bumble bees were there were all very busy flying very quickly on and around the flowers – no one wanted their photograph taken.

I tried very hard to take a good photo but honestly, when the heavens opened and it started to rain in great big drops, I gave up and went back up to the shelter of the shed.

So now I can’t even tell what species of bumble bee I saw – possibly the garden one or white-tailed one.

And apologies for the bad photos – but even though it was a brief shower, it was a determined one.

 

 

 

Turning Good(ish)

4 Replies

I was looking back trying to remember how old Pepper is.

According to Google (it does have it’s uses), Pepper arrived in Shetland in 2021 as a just-weaned puppy so, by my maths, she must be 5 years old now.  I know, where has the time gone?

Pepper was never brought here to replace in my heart the gaping hole left by BeAnne Duvet, but she has managed all on her own to wheedle her way in by herself.

I would love to say Pepper’s behaviour has improved, but I would be lying and many a neighbour has announced they’ve only just recently had a visit from her totally unbeknownst to us.  It is a constant battle.

But we have successfully managed to stop the early morning vanishinments as Pepper is now on a long dog lead at night tied to the foot of the bed. I tell her it’s because she is a criminal and she happily wags her tail and agrees!  By stopping her constant egress means we can leave the cat flap open for Monster’s nightly comings and goings happy in the knowledge that Pepper is still with us. She honestly doesn’t mind and has resigned herself to a life of being a prisoner if she has first dibs on the bed. It’s a fair trade.

Meanwhile Monster has developed a terrible habit (we are on Day 3 now so it is classed as a habit).  He lies on my pillow in the early morning and then prods me with his barely sheathed claws while purring exceptionally loudly.  Once banished from the bed, he then retaliates by making loud puking noises instead.

But at least we’ve won the Pepper battle – sort of.