Saturday 29 August 2015

A great morning out


I am fortunate enough to live a short drive away from a fellow blogger, Dawn, and yesterday I went to her lovely smallholding to have a natter and learn a new craft.  Of course, one of the attractions was to look around the smallholding, and meet the latest addition to her band of Alpacas.  The above photo shows, I think, Liberty, who is a sort of Alpaca teenager (I think!)


Here is the new cria Kara with her mum Daffodil, and I managed to time this beautifully so as to get another Alpaca having a wee in the background!


Alpacas do a great line in disgruntled looks and the bland back-of-the-head look is a good one too!  Gormless photographer . . .


A pensive-looking Dawn with - I think - Liberty, again.  I learned so much about keeping Alpacas, and know that the cardinal sin is to stretch out your hand towards them as their long necks are their weak point, and so they always back off in case you mean to harm them.


This is one of the boys - I'm not sure if it was Knick-Knack or Odd-Job . . .


but I do know that this is definitely Lambert. . .


Here are the Christmas turkeys, looking very healthy and safe inside their vermin-proof caging.


This little corner of Dawn's land houses the bees, and is also being planted up as a small orchard. This really is part of the path to self-sufficiency.  A little bit of everything and a great setting for it too.


What a lovely setting.


The main polytunnel with tomatoes, melons, grapes, aubergines, sweet potatoes and other plantings.


All the outdoors vegetables were doing well too, and I came home with a huge armful of celery.

Then we went inside to Dawn's fabulous craft cabins, but I shall post about that tomorrow . . .  Now I'm off to make Blueberry Syrup, which was a recipe which Dawn put on her blog this week.  It sounds delicious (and healthy).


16 comments:

  1. Dawn is a lovely lady, we enjoyed our visit as well. Great photo's.

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  2. Beautiful pictures of the Alpacas. I didn't know that they don't like to be petted on the neck. The turkeys looked like they enjoy having their picture taken. Thanks for sharing and have a blessed day.

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  3. I'm loving the sound of crafting cabins :)

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  4. I dont know about pensive more weather beaten and wrinkled, next time we will have to harness an Alpaca for you to walk :-)

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  5. What a fabulous place - I love alpacas, we have some near us and they are so inquisitive.

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  6. Pat - I'm quite intrigued by them and just LOVE their expressions!

    Dawn - I'd love that. I like the photo of you as you weren't posing. If someone wants a photo of me and says smile, I always look like I'm gurning!!

    Fi - I was in heaven, believe me!

    Hi Joan - I learned so much about Alpaca care, and their likes and dislikes. It was good to see free range turkeys, all happy in their world.

    Marlene - I have saved lots of Aquilegia seeds. If you still want some, email me your addy. I think we exchanged emails a while back.

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  7. Great post, hasn't,t Dawn and her husband done a great job. Great pictures , thanks for sharing, Maria xx

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  8. Hello Maria. Lovely to meet you. Yes, Dawn's place is SO well-organized, well-planned and well-stocked. A proper taste of the good life, and she and her husband work very hard. She's quite blown my mind with all her crafting skills too!

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  9. Dawn has a lovely bucolic place to live, and I like the "hair cuts" of the alpacas. The white one with his hair do is quite cute.

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  10. What a wonderful post today.
    I love the hair styles of the teenager Liberty.

    cheers, parsnip

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  11. Terra - quite a quiff isn't it?!

    parsnip - glad you enjoyed it. Dawn has such an ideal set up there. The land is in good heart and not over-grazed as she hasn't over-stocked it.

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  12. That looks like a lovely day out. I am very envious of the poly tunnel.

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  13. My OH and I found Alpacas to be rather aloof as well!

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  14. This looks idyllic but I'm sure it's very hard work as well. The alpacas are lovely though I gather that they can be rather temperamental!

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  15. What a great place to visit...looks perfect.

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  16. Fascinating, like the look of the alpacas, they have a soft yarn to knit as well. Everything looks idyllic at Dawn's place, she must work very hard!

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