Cracking weekend

This start to Spring has been lovely, but here the ground (which is stiff clay) is now cracked as we've had so little rain (just a few showers this week), and we need the grass to grow for the alpacas - at least when it does rain, it will go down the cracks rather than run off the surface down the hill. Not that I'm complaining, as it's been a good weekend for painting odds and ends. On both days I coralled the girls and got up close and personal, to get them more used to being handled - to finish, I put the halter on Pela, and let them out into the field with me holding on to the lead - she wasn't too happy with it, but at least she didn't career off with me hanging onto the lead -I let her follow the other two, and then released her, hopefully next time I try she'll remember that it wasn't an unpleasant experience, and be more willing.

I've set up the web-cam so that we can keep tabs on our Pest Control Officer (Peaches, the feral cat), as we don't see her now that she works on night duty, and we haven't worked out where she sleeps in the day time.

In the picture, the alpacas are at the end of our field, which is the brow of a small hill, enjoying the early morning sun with the Aylesbury ducks - beyond, across the moor, you can see the outline of the church at Middlezoy(?).