Tag Archives: Shetland

Glorious Day

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Today turned into a glorious day despite Lambie’s best efforts.  He started his day with a mini melt-down about breakfast.  Because he hates sharing or hassle, he ate in one of his many private dining areas.  The others all ate together as usual in their shed.

Once Lambie had finished his two breakfasts, I opened the gate for him and he stood there debating the complexities of life, the universe and everything.

And then Lambie asked for a third breakfast and of course I gave him more as he needs to put on weight since he came out of winter looking rather bleak and thin (and I also have the word MUG tattooed on my forehead and would give him the world).

It was my turn to walk the dogs so I took them over to Clothie (my separeate 5 acre croft) to run around in.  The flowers are glorious now.  Carpets of marsh marigolds.

My first forget-me-not sighting this year.   Impossible to photograph (I don’t know why) but so perfect and that blue….

The orchids are starting up now.

Such breath-taking colour.

 

So, I sat down and, like Lambie, considered the complexities of life, the universe and everything.  My conclusion?  Life was not too shoddy here in Shetland.

Pepper agreed.

Not too shabby at all really and I hope Lambie had a good day too.  Last seen, he was running with his eyes tight shut past the horses who were eating around the house trying to find the fence to bolt under.  He’s not a fan of the horses and ponies as he was chased when he was a lamb by the Shetland ponies.  He’s never gotten over that one and holds a good grudge.

Dull Start but Brightened

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Some of us didn’t even want to get up this morning, let alone go outside…..

…. as it was a dull and rainy start. But I put on my wet-weather gear and went out with the breakfast buckets.

Afterwards I let the wet and soggy horses and ponies out of their field to eat the grass around the house. Bibble just followed me round looking hopeful.

I decided to make my statutory hand-felted sheep this morning and was met by Fivla who I could tell had designs on my little shed where I work.

She reckoned it was just the right size for a small Shetland pony trying to shelter from the rain (and I probably wouldn’t have minded if she had come in as she is very well-behaved and has been in the house before – tell no one!)

Bibble lurked by, of course.

Once finished making sheep, I returned to the house only to find that Monster might have moved downstairs but he certainly hadn’t woken up.

And, being Shetland, the weather changes very quickly and the afternoon turned much brighter. I drove to West Burrafirth with a friend and her dog (on lead) and we went for a walk.

The views were stupendous.  I hadn’t been here before.  Definitely somewhere to remember.

So that was my day, and how was yours?

Flute Practice

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On very rare days, I practice my flute. I will admit that I don’t practice very often, and obviously I know I should, but, you know, stuff gets in the way and then I forget.

But today, I thought I would have a shot, having played my part of the duet (2nd Flute) barely adequately yesterday.  Sunday morning is always a good time to play the flute.

The old folk were already out and eating around the place.

I think the green grass is making a difference. I can see that Haakon and Iacs look less bleak now.

So I went over to my wee shed, got my flute out and played a few pieces accompanied by Youtube.  I don’t ever practice with scales etc (because it is very boring), but usually just play pieces I like through and then start on another.  The musical accompaniments on Youtube along with the music are a great way to practice.

And I was interested to see the horses appear, one at a time to either listen or fall asleep.

And so I played for well over an hour.  This was my last piece and forgive me for sounding flat and with a few (many) duff notes.  I was tired by now.

Amazingly, Iacs had stood and listened to me for the whole time, which I found lovely.

When Iacs woke up, I was already putting my flute away.  He seemed appreciative of my playing.

Haakon just made polite noises.

And with that the auditorium was empty, apart from a few ducks.

Everyone went back to eating somewhere else.  It was rather odd playing for sleeping horses, but in a nice way.

 

 

Asleep in the Grass

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I was in my shed this morning, when I looked outside only to find everyone happily resting.

The spot they had chosen utilised the shelter of the dry stone walls and the surrounding sheds.  There has been a coarse South East wind blowing all day.

It’s been enough wind to be annoying, if you have a beautiful mane like Haakon.

Anyway, Iacs was in charge of fending off the potential tigers (good luck with that).

And the others were flat out snoozing.

I wonder what Kolka was dreaming of.

This was the view from the upstairs bathroom window.  They all stayed there for quite a while, asleep out of the wind.

After lunch, when I went outside to go to my shed, I made a slight detour to see if Fivla and Vitamin had turned up and wanted to come out around the house too.  They hadn’t been around earlier.

They had come down and wanted out.

I opened the gate so they could come through and enjoy the lush green grass with the others.

Saturday afternoon is flute-duet- afternoon so Mandy and I played our flutes and quickly realised that our only audience was Vitamin who sensibly and understandably didn’t stay long.

Interesting Experiment

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There is always someone around offering to “help”.  Today I was vacuuming my shed out and I suddenly thought “I wonder if I could vacuum off the horses’ winter coats. It would be so useful” and something I’ve never tried before.

And a little known fact, Iacs and Kolka do not want to be vacuumed.  They both rushed off saying the noise was too much.  Haakon, on the other hoof, stood stock still, had a look back at me and my machine, told me I was mad, but he never moved away and quite enjoyed it, I think.

Sadly the vacuum wasn’t much use – it didn’t work as well as I wanted it to, though, which was a shame. I could saved loads of time from all that brushing.

Never mind, I tried.  So back to brushing it is or maybe they could do it themselves.

On my way back into the house, I vacuumed Monster too but we all know he likes that.  So an interesting “experiment” today.  Knowledge is power and knowing I can vacuum Haakon if required is useful.

(Pepper lives in a constant state of war with the vacuum so we don’t go there.)