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 5 August 2012

A hard day's night (or two!)

The annual 'Tartan Heart' music festival held about a mile away at Belladrum finished before midnight last night in an eruption of fireworks.  Since Thursday the festival site has been a mass of tents and vehicles as 15,000 music fans came to enjoy themselves.  Friday and Saturday were glorious days with blazing sunshine so sun cream was  much in demand instead of the usual 'midge cream!'  The boys have enjoyed (sorry -'endured') constant music and an ariel display by a couple of smoke trailing planes yesterday afternoon, then the late night fireworks.  Today saw a return to normal summer weather - drizzle - and the thousands of fans making their way home,  giving the boys an opportunity to chill out and catch up with some shut-eye.
Whilst the herd 'chills',  Faro is still alert running towards Robbie (photographer) with his tail up and ears back to check out the camera.  He does not enjoy the camera being pointed towards him at close quarters.  Rufus looks on from the background.
The mixture of rap, soul, R & B, rock and traditional music didn't phase Wee Eck too much - he's deaf!
Gully is just about to give a big yawn - he was disappointed not to have heard his favourite group - 'Bananallama!'
And Fyta continued to yawn and yawn - he'd obviously been up 'movin and groovin' for two nights!
And it shows!
And finally.........at long last the two days of warm sunshine started to get the onion bulbs to swell in the veg garden.  There is plenty of growth in many of the vegetables but onions and peas in particular need the sunshine to make them swell.  The parsnips are behind the onions in this picture . Soft fruit such as strawberries and rasps were slow to come on this year but I've already made some blackcurrant jam, and it's delicious!

3 comments:

  1. Those boys are looking good despite their disturbed slumber!

    Lucky you...my blackcurrant jam didn't set this year...bizzare! The redcurrant jelly set no problem but I now need to think of a use for the runny black stuff!

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  2. LOL, I bet they wondered what the heck that racket was!! But I bet they'll miss it a day or so. The flying airplanes gave them something new to view!! Weird Birds they thought!! I liked the 5th photo down. and look at those onions!! In such neat rows!! ...debbie

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  3. Looks like our alpacas were not the only ones enjoying a bit of a party then!

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