Red Sky at Night !!!!

Tonight, I looked out of the window, just before bed time and I could not believe the beautiful sunset that greeted my eyes !!.....so needless to say I did not hesitate, I got the camera out.....and without the automatic function !!!!...managed to take these lovely photos of the alpaca boys against the sunset....it was a magical moment.

The 'Stick Maker'......Hobbit on the Hill ...

I feel the need to share these photos with you...I know not Alpaca related at all.

My father who is retired, has taken himself of to his garden shed...spends hours up there, my mam has even called out for the local search party on occasions, although he does surface when the hunger strikes...can't work on an empty stomach !! for all who knows Mr Ward....!!

So he spends hours,.... days,... turn into weeks and he has become addicted....can't tare himself away from the good old garden shed...I know you are all wondering at this point what on earth does he do up there for hours,days weeks...so what do you think of these....

I have placed an order for any Alpaca one, but he said I've got no chance..

I am very proud of his creations...I know he is to..we are quite 'crafty' up here I'll have you know, although my parents do live in co Durham.

Here comes........Everette Green......

Ok, you didn't have to wait that long to meet Everette Green....he's a happy chap, singing and dancing to the good old Christmas Songs. A little encouragement, like a clap of the hands will do and off he goes...all singing and dancing the best little Christmas Tree...of all.

He has been visiting us now for 11 years and he never complains, a little battery request and he's happy. Then after a few weeks back to sleep in his box till next year !

I know some question the sanity of the writer at times, but well why not, us adults have to play sometimes...keeps you sane in this big wide world....so don't be shy, have a try....go on put a smile on your face !...Hope Everette has managed to put even a little smirk on you....that'll do.

Hang on to your Hat !!!!!.........

As I speak we are being battered by the mighty wind.....it must be 80 miles/hour or even more out there....thankfully, I hope the alpacas are all tucked up in bed, so they should not blow away !!...I wonder if they will have any fleece left in the morning !

I must admit, I do wonder if we will have any roofs on in the morning, no doubt the baubles will have blown off the Christmas Tree......it happens every year, I put the decorations on the tree in the garden and we are blighted by gales from hell !!

I have noticed that Santa has been early in Patou land.....must have a special early delivery slot !!....and there is some mighty fine pictures that have appeared on their blog, so much for the old excuse.....I don't know how to work it, and then you find the automatic/fool proof......button that turns you into an instant photographer. So there are no excuses about the picture quality for future photo shoots. I myself have a little digital camera, I feel that technology is leaving me behind at a rapid rate of knotts. So I will coninue to struggle to get my head around the technological advances. The good old spinning wheel is just about my pace. Although we have got the electric light up as far north as bonnie Scotland !

As there appears to be a photo opportunity here, hope you like these....not on automatic function either !, for some of us with a lot cheaper camera, ( jealousy gets you no-where) apparently !!

Have I mentioned Everett Green......its that time of year so, I will show you him shortly, I need to take some pictures. He comes out of his box this time every year, for the past 11 years. He is always greeted with excitement. Sings and dances better than Santa.

I have heard a rumour that there are places for Brown Alpacas, with red noses to pull this years sleigh, so if you have any get in touch with Santa, he needs a reserve sleigh pulling team.....for the far north of Scotland !!

Did you know that alpacas are preferred by Santa because, they can Hum....'Santa Claus is coming to Town' far better that any reindeer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Ha...Ha..

Enough of this dribble.....Merry Christmas to you All....and a Happy New Alpaca Year !....Bring on 2009, can't be any worse than 2008.....can it !!..time will tell.

HALLELUJAH !!!!!!!!.........Ha.....Ha.....

Alexandera has won the X Factor !!!!!!!!!!!!!.......I know, you're asking yourself have I got nothing else to do on a Saturday night !!!....obviously not.....

Never mind, sitting in front of the telly, roaring fire, what else would a middle aged, country girl at heart be doing, apart from something constructive like, spinning my mounds of alpaca fleece up into something nice, or even dreaming of more alpacas........thinking of what weird and wonderful names I can come up with, for the pending new arrivals, all being well hopefully next year !!

Oh...did someone mention it was Christmas in two weeks, I suppose wrapping presents, getting into the festive spirit and eating to much....well that can be done through-out the year, can't it.

Enough of this dribble, I run the risk of going on about nothing, I might have something more informative later

Well you asked for it !!!.......Herd Names !!

Well here goes, on the subject of herd names, I have been asked to account for myself regarding the name I picked for Zanzibah Alpacas.

So....where do I begin, It took me a long time to save for my Alpaca purchases and there was one good excuse to mention the dreaded 40th..birthday !!.... any one would have done at the time but it was that one....so,

As I was raiding the piggy bank, I had plenty time on my hands to think of a weird and wonderful name, me being a piece an, were quite creative and have a good imagination, have I mentioned my stories I have written....Gerry and Lucy know about them....I did bore them with the one about Sarah Bonnet!!!...shes is a legend in the chicken shed...oh !...see I have gone off the track already. I feel the need to mention that Im a little girl at heart, trapped in a larger adult body !!

After some weird and wonderful creative experience, I came up with the name of Zanzibah Alpacas, this came about solely because, after lots of thinking, I decided that I could actually draw the name and make an alpaca design out of it !!...strange though it may seem, I actually picked the name, because I like it and for that sole purpose.....so I designed my logo myself and drew the famous Zanzibah Logo, Just in case you have not seen it, here it is, I also came up with a mnemonic to go with the logo, Im sure you have seen this on my earlier blogs...Come on Mark you know what one of those is !! doing your day job..

So thats the story behind the Zanzibah name....now you know...as simple as that !

Exploring the Snow !!

Today was a lovely brisk wintery day, so I decided to have a walk around and take some more photos of the alpacas out enjoying the snow.

We have a good coverage of snow probably about 4/6". The winter sun was shining and the gang seemed to enjoy their time out playing and exploring their new environment.

Apparently we are forecast much more snow over the next few days, so we might even get blocked in !!!

Zanubis even managed to collect some more Docking Stalks !!, I have even managed to find out where he is finding them all from, the bottom of the field.

All the girls and the babies went down to the bottom of the field, found the docking stalks and proceeded to rub and lie down on top of them, so now I know. Thankfully, they fell off, over the course of the day, so no 'Spit fest' tonight.

Alpaca with Attitude !!!....

Well, the story begins on Sunday evening when I brought the girls and babies in for their bed time. I shall set the scene, I have a multi coloured black and white female called Minstrel, she has a lovely rose grey baby called Zanubis. So as usual all came into the shed for bed, I noticed that Zanubis was covered in Docking stalks all over him, he had obviously collected them up through out the day !!!!...so my big mistake was I thought I had nothing to do but take them off him.....however Minstrel had other ideas and the saga started. I must point out that although Minstrel will happily refuse Zanubis his milk, he feeds only when she decides !! and she does not mess about with anyone, or any alpaca. I made the big mistake of daring to touch her baby !! and the experience was memorable, needless to say I was drowned in a Spit Fest !!!!! which lasted what seemed to be an age, simple task turned into a quest of the night....I was covered from top to toe in green stinking alpaca spit !!!! not a nice experience, and I still had the docking stalks to shift. At one point I was that fed up of her, I thought I'd fight fire with fire and I must admit to having a bit of a lack of sense of humour failure, so I decided to drown her with the water out of my bucket, I thought if she can spit, then so can I....I have to admit that I did soak her with a few good handfuls of water out of the bucket !!!!......I was stinking and she was soaked, both of us at this point were sulking a bit, she stopped spitting and I think she got the message...she then went into the huff, dropped lip and started drooling. I was then allowed to sneak up on the baby and carefully pick off the stalks. Thats all I wanted to do in the first place.

I must say, that Minstrel I think has a dual personality, it was just this summer, we used to share a lovely alpaca moment, she used to come over to me and lie down, we then used to have regular cuddles, she would lie there all day enjoying the moment. However I suspect that this is due to her now being pregnant !!! shes got her attitude back, must be the hormones !!!!!