Belladrum and Ruilick

Friday and Saturday saw the Tartan Heart Music Festival (www.tartanheartfestival.co.uk) being staged at Belladrum, a couple of miles from us here. Friday proved to be very wet but the 16,000+ welly booted music fans didn't seem to mind especially since the day's acts were closed by Tom Jones!  Saturday provided a lovely day and evening and the festival was brought to a close by Razorlight then a firework display around 11.00pm.  It was a moonlit night and we could see the boys in the paddocks below us charging about and pronking as the fireworks lit the sky.  Sunday morning was lovely and sunny but all that pronking and jigging comes at a cost and the boys had a long lie to recover!  Gaucho and Fyta above have a snooze.

Breakfast was a leisurely outdoor affair in the sun which a kind human had organised.  Wee Eck (left), Gully and Gaucho enjoy their hay from their buckets.

Faro and the rest of the boys are just around the corner.   We continue to keep a close eye on Faro, he's now eating his daily supplement plus plenty of grass and hay so we hope that he will put on some weight, although he is still leaving 'dumplings'  instead of beans on the ground!  The lovely weather only lasted until 11.00am yesterday then the rain just got heavier and heavier as the remnants of Hurricane Bertha hit the Highlands.

By the time yesterday afternoon came around it became a very wet visit to see the new cria at Graham and Kirsty's Ruilick Alpacas above nearby Beauly.  Here are Flynn, Archie and Astrid all posing whilst the mums get stuck into their feed, behind.

And these are last year's cria - Merlin on the left with Chocolate.  They are both lovely boys with Merlin being the more inquisitive of the pair.

Here we are enjoying a wet but lovely 'alpaca afternoon'.  Men (from left) Robbie, Paul (Woodleigh Lodge Alpacas) and Graham and (front) my niece Judy up on hols from Cornwall, me, Wendy (Woodleigh Lodge) children Dillon and Bethany with mum Kirsty.  Merlin and Chocolate looking on.  Thanks for the welcome tea and cakes folks!

And finally...............in the veg garden, the broad beans are looking good.  Behind them are several rows of peas so a big shelling session will be underway soon to fill up the freezers.