Tag Archives: Shetland

You’ve Seen Nothing!

I’ve had a quiet day mostly tripping up over the cat.  Everywhere I went, Monster had already taken up residence.

This is OH’s chair in his “recording studio” which Monster found very comfortable – he is sitting on a felted wool pad made from Edna’s wool.

Shocking!

(that face)

Thankfully, Monster didn’t come into my shed.  This is the next flock which will go to the Lerwick shop when needed.

And, as I type this, there is snoring coming from Ted’s bed on the floor next to me which Monster has decided is just right for him.

He has made it his.

Ted came upstairs with me and, like the good boy that he is, tried to get into his bed.  I heard hissing and observed a fast Ted-like retreat.

Monster is not sorry.

“You’ve seen nothing!”

Looking So Much Better

I went with my usual buckets at breakfast-time and found no one waiting by the gate so I had to shout, hoping I wasn’t in for a long walk looking for everyone.

The horses and ponies duly appeared – I think they had been sheltering in the valley part of their field.  The weather was closing in fast.

While I waited for the horses and ponies to eat up, I walked around thinking to myself that actually everyone looked spot on. Just right.  A good weight now.

Iacs looks lovely. I am very pleased with him.

 

Kolka again looks nice.

Vitamin is perfect.

Fivla might be a wee bit on the fat side, but she gets nothing in her bucket (a scant scoop of soaked beet plus her vitamins).

I think she knows this.

And Haakon at last is looking just right.

The summer grass is working it’s magic.  30 acres of this mixture of plants plus lots of exercise wandering around looking for it.

So they all chose to stand in the paddock and look miserable about the rain.  Fivla and Vitamin made a bee-line for the little shed and quickly took up occupancy.

They refused to let Kolka inside.  Nope, she had to stay outside in the rain.

A little later on, I took this photo when I was trying to take the dogs out for their walk.  I love Kolka’s face.  She is resigned to the knowledge that she will never get in the shed.  And how the rain poured.  The dogs refused to come with me and took themselves straight back to the house so I gave up and went back inside with them.

Fat Lambie

Bert is very handsome……

And obviously Ster is very handsome…..

And then there’s Lambie who has his Winning Smile.

I spent my winter worrying that Lambie felt very thin under all his wool – I could definitely feel ribs. I am sure of it.  He was very bony.

And now I’m not quite so sure that I did.  Lambie appears to be very fat or as my shearer politely remarked “I wouldn’t want to see him any fatter”.

Lambie is a leg-at-each-corner kind of fat.  One substantial sheep.

(and also a very strange colour after being sheared. The white bits aren’t very white – more apricot or a delicate shade of “pêches et crème”!)

When I told Lambie this, he wobbled off in a huff.

And joined his equally fat friends.

I think the message I am receiving is diets for all!  I won’t be popular.

Different Sheds

I felt sorry for Fivla this morning.

After her breakfast, I found her queueing outside the closed door of the little shed, along with Vitamin and Kolka.  I opened it up so they could go in and Vitamin nipped in whippet-like, swiftly followed by Fivla.  Good, I thought, they are inside and can get some shelter from today’s windy/rainy day.

And then Kolka barged in, possibly uninvited, and there was pig-like squealing which I knew came from Fivla as she doesn’t do social pressure.

To give her her due, Fivla stayed inside for a little while but, when I came back with my phone to take photos, I found her back outside again looking very disgruntled.  She just hates crowds.

Buckets collected, washed and tidied, I put all the sheep out into their field.  They lasted a couple of hours, until they saw a cyclist coming down our track and all, to a sheep, ran to the gate in pure terror, asking to be let out so they could cower in their shed.  I have no idea who that poor cyclist was as I watched him turn around and leave.  He was obviously not here to see us.

After letting the sheep out of the field, I found Newt alone in his residence.

The other ponies were long gone down the track looking for non-existent grass to eat.

Newt said he wasn’t moving and no one could make him.

So I told him he couldn’t stay there all day, and it was clearing up nicely now.

(I may have not been telling the truth – it’s been a pig of a day).

Fog, No Fog, Then Fog

We woke up to Shetland covered in thick fog.  I know no flights got in or out this morning.

But, still, the horses, ponies, sheep, etc managed to find me.

There is no escape.

I’m sorry, but I don’t have much to say mostly because absolutely nothing has happened all day.

And, at the risk of boring everyone including myself, here are a few photos of my nothing day…..

The baby bunny I saw from the door of my shed – Pepper was on a dogwalk with OH so this little sweetheart made the most of the absence.

It was very cute, like one of those Chinese toy adverts that nothing like the real thing that arrives in the post.

These three Muscovy Ducks have taken to sitting on the outside table.  They meet me at the front door and waddle behind in the hope I will lead them to food.  I think they are Mum (on far right), son (middle) and daughter (left). They were the ducklings from last year.

So that’s me really. Not very enthusiastic at the moment.  Fog does that to me – mentally. It just sits and I lose all inspiration and thought.  But the wind is coming back in force tomorrow so that should liven things up.

Ted is on good form, though.