OUR SMALL HERD

Our original four boys came from Ardo Alpacas in Aberdeenshire. We are not alpaca breeders and have our boys purely as pets. Our experience is that you don't need to be a breeder and that a 'batchelor herd' can give much pleasure to the owner. We have 5 acres including our big garden and grazing for the boys, 15 miles north of Inverness, Scotland. I spin, knit, felt and crochet with the fleece from the boys.

Clicking!!

Just a reminder that clicking on (most) of the photos will show them greatly enlarged.

Sunday, 8 April 2012

That was the week that was!

This was the scene which greeted us at our back door at 7.30am on Tuesday last week.  We'd only just brought out the garden table and chairs the previous week due to the lovely weather!  It's not unusual to have 'lambing snow' at this time of year, but it was the dramatic change from the previous week's record breaking high temperatures which was the shock.    The met office gave out an 'amber warning'  for this dumping - I wonder what a 'red warning' would bring?
The boys look a bit confused by it all - one day they're all sunbathing with bellies facing the sun, a couple of days later they are trudging around looking for feed.  Wee Eck  is in front here. 
Over the past 4 winters we've noticed that the boys get bored when snow is on the ground because they can't get at the grass.  We usually clear a few pathways which allows them to nibble and they become very adept at following the paths and not walking on the deeper snow.
Distant neighbour Ron who has previously written an excellent article on the boys for the local newspaper rang to arrange a visit for his family who were visiting for Easter.  This was on Thursday and the snow is still lying although areas have been cleared for the boys to nibble.  Fergus, as always, suspects there may be food around when visitors are here!
Naomi and Evan enjoyed seeing the boys.  Faro (left), Gaucho and Gully are behind.
Wee Eck just loves a bit of individual attention, with Fergus, Fyta and Rufus behind.
And finally........the down-side of this amount of 'heavy' snow, as opposed to the 'fluffy' type at this time of year is that it damages such a lot of the plants and flowers - flattened daffodils are all around.  Many bushes and shrubs, especially buddleia, around the garden have snapped.  This camellia was flattened and had to be severely pruned two years ago and now, just as the blossom appeared the snow has turned brown the edges of the flowers once more.  A large birch tree was brought down by snow weight as were many big branches so Robbie has been like a man demented with his chain saw!  The up-side is that we will have plenty of hardwood for the log burner when it dries out.  The snow has all melted now so hopefully this is the last 'snowy' picture until next winter!

2 comments:

  1. Good old British weather! better than tornados though.

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  2. Yes, it is a shame to see all the Daffodils flattened before they had time to be appreciated.

    Those boys do like their visitors!

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