Visits during a wet week

Inside looking out on another wet day, Fyta left and Faro.  It's been a rather wet week with plenty of opportunity for flies and other beasties to be landing on the newly sheared boys, who then take to the field shelter for relief.

In the shelter are Faro, Fyta and Fergus with Fidget still outside in the rain.  Fidget scratched himself this week on the right shoulder and the flies soon congregated on the blood so we penned the boys and sprayed the scratch with an anti-fly strike liquid. Now that their thick coats have been sheared off it's easy for scratches to be collected by the boys.

Earlier in the week we paid a short visit to Woodleigh Lodge alpacas near Inverness to see Wendy and her new cria, 'Buster' - that's him at the front left with his mum 'Babe.'  Behind him is 'Dottie' who was born a year ago to Babe and 'Snow' the stud in the background.  Granny 'Pru' is just out of the picture.

Mum and her son and daughter all looking very well and trying to avoid the drizzle and rain. Last year Dottie was born just before shearing and this year Buster put in an appearance before the shearer arrived too.

Yesterday we paid a visit to Carole and John at Auld Mill alpacas near Elgin, Moray (www.auldmillalpacas.co.uk) who were having an 'alpaca experience' open day at their farm.  There were lots of fleece related activities for guests to experience as well as things to see.  These are some of the lovely mums and cria of the Auld Mill herd.

Fleece skirting on the table was just one of the many activities to be enjoyed in the barn.   Also in attendance were spinners from the Highland branch of the Guild of Weavers, Spinners and Dyers who added to an interesting programme for visitors.  Thanks for your hospitality Carole and John, a very interesting 'paca-day.

Dodging the showers we started lifting the first of our early tatties today and they look good enough to eat!  These are Arran Pilot variety.

And finally...............couldn't resist this shot of a honey bee on a Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia) flower.  We are seeing a lot more bees this summer which is great even though the weather has not been too kind to them.