They'd steal the coat off your back!

"This should make good nest lining"

"oi clear off!"

"Does my bum look big in this?"

Yesterday we took Bramley and Ambrosia to a country fair held for the Childrens Hospice South-West, at Cossington, a near-by village - a good day, with plenty of interest in Joys fibre-craft courses, and the rain held off until we got home in time to put a coat on Discovery - his sire was Ashill Fandango, a mid-brown with a consistantly fine fleece, and so with Pelachutas line having fawn and brown, we were expecting a fawn or brown, but were surprised how dark he is - we'll watch to see what comes out from below the skin in the coming weeks.

I had just gone into the house after taking endless pictures of Discovery, when Joy came shouting, "come and see this!" - it was the magpies on Moiras back, so I raced out with the camera.

Now, concentrate on the footie...

A gallery of Discovery

24 hours old

Mum shows me around the paddock.

Mum is never far away.

If I chew straw, do I look like a country bumpkin?

We've made a Discovery!

At 4.00 this afternoon, with very little warning all day, and 2 days before her 11month date, Pelachuta popped out a lovely brown boy - we'd say Chestnut in colour, but for now it's 'wet chestnut' as he was delivered in the only dry 30 minutes we've had all day - we allowed him time to stagger around and find his feet in the rain, so that he had a bit of freedom from the confines of a coat, before rubbing down his saddle and putting a coat on. He's had a few feeds and mum has been patient and watchful over him. 8.08kg

Apple Vale Discovery

Hopefully we'll get some dry days for some decent photos, though at this rate with the weather it may not be before he is weaned!!!

A girly day, now the boy's gone away.

Yesterday I took Camelot to spend a few months with a group of males learning manly stuff - you know, sleeping under the stars, lighting fires, catching fish - so our all-female herd will get a bit of peace.

Camelot explores while his hosts tuck in to their breakfast.

 A day for observing grazing...

Sharing.

It's a style statement.

"Mmmm...Smooth Hawksbeard"

Baby - alpaca

www.kerrybartlett.co.uk

Last weekend we completed the shearing, doing Bramley and Camelot. Camelots fleece had grown very quickly from birth and we had wished that we had her cria-shorn, so it was very long - shearing was very difficult, finding his body almost impossible, at the time I said it was like sorting through a multi-layered wedding dress in a snow-storm! But once it was off, my daughter Kerry, whisked it away and took this photo of our granddaughter Pixie lying in the fleece!

Elton John was excellent in Taunton last week, though the rain prompted us to make our own full-length ponchos from single matress bags before setting off, and they proved just the job! We then spent two nights at our son's in Manchester, and on the way home called in at IKEA and managed to come away with only ONE more item than we went for, rather than the usual trolley-full!!

Camelot and Bramley take part in an ankle-biting session.

Fair-weather friends? or foul-weather fowl? (the hen had been sitting beside Pelachuta (the light fawn) until I came back with the camera) Note the good attempts to hit the concrete 'latrine'

Pelachuta's pregnancy reached ten-and-a-half months today, and she celebrated by sitting around on her own in unusual places which prompted me to check the 'birthing bag'.

Ambrosias 'haircut' wins her a 'place'.

After discovering a flat tyre on the trailer at 9 o'clock the night before, we trooped off to the Royal Bath & West Show on thursday with Bramley entered in the Intermediate Female Brown class, and Ambrosia for company, sporting her newly shorn style - recent visitors to this blog will recall that I had taken off a little too much of her top-knot, leaving a slightly severe look. Now if I had a pound for every visitor that came up to our pen and said to Ambrosia, "aah, why are you looking so miserable?" I'd have rather a lot of pounds - well alright, since you asked, about twenty.

Bramley fidgeted a lot in the ring, but didn't disgrace herself and improved on her fourth-place at the Devon County Show, gaining a third, which confirmed our decision to arrange an exciting liasion in a few weeks time with a male of the species.We also have a quality mating arranged for Ambrosia, and so are hoping we'll be demonstrating some great characteristics for 2013 cria  from dams born here, in addition to what this summers births bring, having laid good genetic foundations in place.

The alpaca show had been invited by the main show organisers to parade daily around the countryside arena as a demonstration of British alpacas - many of the top rosette winners were gathered, and as a demonstration of a shorn alpaca, Ambrosia was invited to join the group, and so of course we jumped at the chance!

Right, having caught up with The Voice, and glad to see that Lianne won, we're off to See Elton John at Taunton Cricket Ground tonight.